Year: 1875

1t would, indeed, be easy to show that the


story, though in one sense marvelously like


truth, is singularly wanting as psychological


study. Friday is no real savage, bnt a good


E0glish servant without plush. He says


"muchee" and "speakee," but he becomes


at once a civilized being, and in his first con


versaton puzzles Crusoe terribly by that


awkward theological question, why God did


not kill the devil-ior Enthusiastically


enough, Crusoe's first lesson includes little


instruction upon the enemy of mankind. He


found, however, that it was mot so easy to


imprint right notions in Fridays mind about


the devil as it was about the being of God"


This is comparatively trifie: but Crusoe him


self is all but Impossible. Steele, indeed,


gives an account of Selkirk, from which be


infers that "this plain mans story is memo


rable example that he is happiest who confines


his wants to natural nece essi.ies;" but the facts


do not warrant this pet doctrine of an old-fash-


ioned school, Selkirk's state of mind may be


inferred from two or three facts. He had


almost forgotten to talk; he had learned to


catch goats by running on foot, and he had


acquired the exceedingly difficult art of maxi


ing fire by rubbing two sticks. In other words,


bis whole mind was absorbed in providing


few physical necessities, and he was rapidly


becoming a sayage-for a man who can't


speak and car make fire is very. near the


auSbTdlidus we may luIeT, PAOuduiO


from other cases, that man living fifteen


years by himself, like Crusce, would either go


mad or sink into the semi savage state. Do


Foe really describes man in prison, not in


solitary confinement. We should not be so


pedantic as to call for accuracy in such mat


ters: but the difference between the fiction


and what we believe would have been the


reality is significant De Foe, even in Rob


ins on Crusoe, gives very inadequate picture


of the mental tormenss to which his hero is


exposed. He is frightened by a parrot call
ing him by name, and by the strange, pictur-


esque incident of the footmsrk on the sand;


but, on the whole, he takes his imprison-
ment with perternatural stoldity. His stay
on the island produces the same state
of mind as might be due to a dull Sunday in
Scotland. For this reason-the want OF


power in describing emotion as compared with
the amazing power OF describing faets-"Kob-


inson Crusoe" book for boys rather than


men. and, as Lamb says, for the kitchen
rather than for higher circles. 1t falls short
of any high intellectual interest When we
leave the striking situation and get TO the
second part. with the Spaniards and Will At.
kins talking natural theology to his wife, ii
sinks to the level of the secondary stories
But for people who are not too proud to take
| a rather low order of amusement Robinson
Crusoe' will always be one OF the most charm
ing of books. We have the romantic and ad-
venturous incidents upon which the most un-
| fiinching realism can be set to work without
| danger of vulgarity. Here is precisely the
story suited to De Foes strength and weak
| ness. He is forced to be artistic IN spite OF
| himself. He cannot lose the thread or the
narrative and break it into disjointed frag-
ments, for the limits of the island confine him
| as well as his hero. He cannot tire rs with


details, for all the details Of such story are
| interesting; it is made up of petty incidents,
as much as the life of prisoner reduced to
tanning flies, or making saws out Of penknives.
The island does as we'll as the Bastile for max
ing trifles valuable to the sufferer and to us.
The facts tell the story themselves without
any demand for romantic power to press them
home to us; and the efforts to give an sir OF
authenticity to the story, which sometimes
makes us smile, and sometimes rather bores us
in other novels, are all to the purpose; for
there is real point in putting such story
in the mouth of the sufferer, and in giving Us
for the time an illusory belief in his reality.
1t is one of the exceptional cases in which the


poetioal aspect of a position is brought out best
by the most prosaic accuracy of detail; and we
imagine that Robinson Crusoe's island, with
all his small household torments, will always
be more impressive than the more gorgeously
colored island of Enoch Arden.-Hours IN a
Librdry.-LeStie Stephen.