The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-08-15
DANIEL DEFOE.

! A late writer in the London Monthly
i Magazine, gives The following account OF
] Daniel Detoe. the celebrated author o:
Robinson Crusee, and other works equally
curious and original.
q The experience of Def0c, throughout
an unusually protracted life, has establish.
ed The fact (werc any additional proof need
ed ;nat he who presumes to make men
wiser or better than they are; who puts
himself forth rs reformer, whether in re-
ligion, politics, or morals, must make up his
mind to bear in turn the abuse of all par
ties; TO be the victim of ingratitude, pro-
poTtioned to the benefits he has conferl ed
OF society; to be kicked-spit upon--and
tramped under foot by the lowest of lbe
low, the basest of the base to he cursed
by those whom he has blessed-in Il word.
TO be mathematical and accommodated
of men. The way to succeed in life is to
wink at the vices of the age, to he chary
of its errors of thought and practice, to
agree with it, to flatter it, to walk side by
side with it. The world, like q man with
the govt, cannot endure rough usage; hence
those have always been in best repute as
morallsts and men of sense, who have treat
ed it with lenity and torbearance. To walk
pace, neither Fastening before, nor tagging
behlnd 1t, is, IN nine cases out OF ten, to en-
sure its favor; but to step Onward, like a
tugleman, fom the ranks of society, no
matter how Just he ones claims to such
distinction. is at once to roust, first, the
worlds attentlon-next its envy--and last
ly, its bitter, inextinguishable hatred"
Deioe was full century in advance of
his age, and he paid the penalty Of such
maturity in the bitter, unsparng abuse Of
his contemporaries. All parties combined
to nssall him. The wings detested him,
the jacobies avoided him, the high tories
feared him, and even the Dissenters, in
whose cause he had perilled his all, for
whom he had gone through the ordeal of
nne--pillory -imprlsonment--eve these
ior season stood aoof from him. He " IS
like Cain, branded on his forehead with
mark, that all men might avoid him. Time,
however, did him justice the malice of his
enemies slowly abatei: and as the quick
sands of party were perpetually shifting,
Defoe gained mole or less by each change
Still the prosecutions he had experienced
made visible inroahs on his health. In the
autumn Of life he found himself without a
green leaf on his boughs, his spirit blighted,
sapless, and ready at the first keen breeze
that might blow rudelY on it, to fall ruin
to earth"
"Shortly after the marriage of one Of his
daughters, in 1929, he was arrested for
some trivial debt, and confined in prison till
The year 1870, which period was passed in
sickness and acute mental anguish. As if
to fill up the measure of his suffering, his
very children rebeled against him, and on
some mean prctext his son found means to
deprive his aged and heart-broken father
of what little remained to him Of the worlds
wealth. This was 100 much for Defoe's
iortitude. The principle of life within him,
already severely tried, now quite gave way
he seldom spoke, was often seen in tears,
or on his knees in prayer; and after some
months of mental suffering, resigned him
self without a struggle to his fate, on the
24th of April, 1871, at the mature age of
TO-"