"They little thought what service they had done us, and how unwittingly, and by the greatest ignorance, they had made themselves pilots to us, while we, having not sounded the place, might have been lost before we were aware. It is true we might have sounded our new harbour, before we had ventured out; but I cannot say for certain, whether we should or not; for I, for my part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case was; however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have looked about us a little."
Turning to the other literary qualities that make Defoe's novels great, if little read, classics, how delightful are the little satiric touches that add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened in process of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soon for me to be perfected in the strolling trade," etc.(p. 3). Every other word here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and careless brutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals is conveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation is summed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said he was satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soon trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whose principle binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark: "Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent? At this he started a little and returned, At the gallows I have known one repent, and I hope thou wilt be the second." The character of William the Quaker pirate is a masterpiece of shrewd humour. He is the first Quaker brought into English fiction, and we know of no other Friend in latter–day fiction to equal him. Defoe in his inimitable manner has defined surely and deftly the peculiar characteristics of the sect in this portrait. On three separate occasions we find William saving unfortunate natives or defenceless prisoners from the cruel and wicked barbarity of the sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a most penetrating analysis of the dense stupidity which so often accompanies man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the second lieutenant, who was for "murdering the negroes to make them tell," when he could not make them even understand what he wanted, is worthy of Tolstoy. We have not space here to dwell upon the scores of passages of similar deep insight which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid commentary on the life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention to the passage on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the planters; to the description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain Singleton through terror at the fire–cloud (page 222); and to the extraordinarily picturesque conversation between William and the captive Dutchman (page 264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour in its perfection let him examine carefully those passages in the concluding twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown as awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dry reasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committing suicide and persuades him to keep his ill–gotten wealth, "with a resolution to do what right with it we are able; and who knows what opportunity Providence may put into our hands…. As it is without doubt, our present business is to go to some place of safety, where we may wait His will." How admirable is the passage about William's sister, the widow with four children who kept a little shop in the Minories, and that in which the penitent ex–pirates are shown us as hesitating in Venice for two years before they durst venture to England for fear of the gallows.
"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "Robinson Crusoe," when Defoe was fifty–nine. Twenty years before had seen "The True–Born Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and we are told that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in 1731 a stream of controversial books and pamphlets poured from his pen commenting upon and marking every important passing event." The fecundity of Defoe as a journalist alone surpasses that of any great journalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add that the style of "Captain Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe," is so perfect that there is not a single ineffective passage, or indeed a weak sentence, to be found in the book.
EDWARD GARNETT.
The following is a list of Defoe's works: "New Discovery of Old Intrigue" (verse), 1691. "Character of Dr. Samuel Annesley" (verse), 1697. "The Pacificator" (verse), 1700. "True–Born Englishman" (verse), 1701. "The Mock Mourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners" (verse), 1702. "New Test of Church of England's Loyalty," 1702. "Shortest Way with the Dissenters," 1702. "Ode to the Athenian Society," 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's General Translation," 1703. "More Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to the Pillory," 1703. "The Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the Late Storm," 1704. "The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon," 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True–Born Englishman,'" 1704. "Hymn to Victory," 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704. "The Dyet of Poland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal," 1706. "Sermon on the Filling–up of Dr. Burgess's Meeting–house," 1706. "Jure Divino" (verse), 1706. "Caledonia" (verse), 1706. "History of the Union of Great Britain," 1709. "Short Enquiry into a Late Duel," 1713. "A General History of Trade," 1713. "Wars of Charles III.," 1715. "The Family Instruction" (two eds.), 1715. "Hymn to the Mob," 1715. "Memoirs of the Church of Scotland," 1717. "Life and Death of Count Patkul," 1717. "Memoirs of Duke of Shrewsbury," 1718. "Memoirs of Daniel Williams," 1718. "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner," 1719. "The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1719. "The Dumb Philosopher: or, Great Britain's Wonder," 1719. "The King of Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Life of Baron de Goertz," 1719. "Life and Adventures of Duncan Campbell," 1720. "Mr. Campbell's Pacquet," 1720. "Memoirs of a Cavalier," 1720. "Life of Captain Singleton," 1720. "Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1720. "The Supernatural Philosopher; or, The Mysteries of Magick," 1720. Translation of Du Fresnoy's "Compleat Art of Painting" (verse), 1720. "Moll Flanders," 1722, "Journal of the Plague Year," 1722. "Due Preparations for the Plague," 1722. "Life of Cartouche," 1722. "History of Colonel Jacque," 1722. "Religious Courtship," 1722. "History of Peter the Great," 1723. "The Highland Rogue" (Rob Roy), 1723. "The Fortunate Mistress" (Roxana), 1724. "Narrative of Murders at Calais," 1724. "Life of John Sheppard," 1724. "Robberies, Escapes, etc., of John Sheppard," 1724. "The Great Law of Subordination; or, The Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants in England," 1724. "A Tour through Great Britain," 1724–6. "New Voyage Round the World," 1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild," 1725. "Account of John Gow," 1725. "Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "The Complete English Tradesman," 1725; vol. ii., 1727. "The Friendly Demon," 1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "Political History of the Devil," 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original of Letters," 1726. "History of Discoveries," 1726–7. "The Protestant Monastery," 1726. "A System of Magic," 1726. "Parochial Tyranny," 1727. "Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage," 1727. "Secrets of Invisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions," 1727, 1728. "A New Family Instructor," 1728. "Augusta Triumphans," 1728. "Plan of English Commerce," 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street Robberies), 1728. "Street Robberies Considered," 1728. "Humble Proposal to People of England for Increase of Trade, etc.," 1729. "Preface to R. Dodsley's Poem 'Servitude'" 1729. "Effectual Scheme for Preventing Street Robberies," 1731.