[78] It was entered at Stationers'-hall, for J. Roberts, the 18th of February, 1715-16.
[79] 2nd Mem. p. 27, &c.
[80] The family of George I. had been instructed by the copy of this book, which is in the Museum. It would seem from the title-page and Mr. Wright's letter being printed on a different paper from the work itself, that both were added after the first publication. The Family Instructor and Mr. Wright's letter were entered at Stationers'-hall, for Emanuel Mathews, on the 31st of March, 1715.
[81] When Mr. Chalmers wrote, it had been reprinted at least seventeen times. It is a work which has had great circulation.
[82] Mr. Wilson considers that De Foe, in the year 1717, published the Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, in Four Periods: with an Appendix of some Transactions since the Union. [Life of De Foe, vol. iii. p. 418.] And also the Life of Dr. Daniel Williams, the eminent presbyterian divine, founder of the well-known dissenters' library, in Redcross-street. [Ib. p. 423.]
[83] The title was, The Life and strange surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, who lived eight-and-twenty Years all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the mouth of the great River Oroonoque, having been cast on shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last strangely delivered by Pirates. Written by Himself.
[84] "No fiction in any language," said Dr. Blair in his elegant Lectures on Rhetoric, "was ever better supported than the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. While it is carried on with that appearance of truth and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all readers, it suggests at the same time very useful instruction, by showing how much the native power of man may be exerted for surmounting the difficulties of any external situation." "Robinson Crusoe," said Marmontel, "is the first book I ever read with exquisite pleasure; and I believe every boy in Europe might say the same thing." In his Emile, Rousseau says, "Since we must have books, this is one, which, in my opinion, is a most excellent treatise on natural education. This is the first my Emilias shall read; his whole library shall long consist of this work only, which shall preserve an eminent rank to the very last. It shall be the text to which all our conversations on natural science are to serve only as a comment. It shall be a guide during our progress to maturity of judgment; and so long as our taste is not adulterated, the perusal of this book will afford us pleasure. And what surprising book is this? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny? Is it Buffon? No, it is Robinson Crusoe." In this judgment Dr. Beattie concurred.—Ed.
[85] The title was, The further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; being the second and last Part of his Life, and the strange surprising Accounts of his Travels round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. To which is added, a Map of the World, in which is delineated the Voyages of Robinson Crusoe. 1719.
[86] The whole story of Selkirk is told in Woodes Rogers' voyage, which he published in 1712, from p. 125 to 131, inclusive: whence it appears that Selkirk had preserved no pen, ink, or paper, and had lost his language; so that he had no journal or papers, which he could communicate, or by others could be stolen. There is an account of Selkirk in The Englishman, No. 26, written by Steele. The particular manner how Alexander Selkirk lived four years and four months, in the isle of Juan Fernandez, is related in captain Cooks's voyage into the South Sea, which was published in 1712. And Selkirk's tale was told in the Memoirs of Literature, vol. v. p. 118: so that the world was fully possessed of Selkirk's story, in 1712, seven years prior to the publication of Crusoe's Adventures. Nor were his adventures singular; for, Ringrose mentions in his account of captain Sharp's voyage, a person who had escaped singly from a ship that had been wrecked on Juan Fernandez, and who lived alone five years before he was relieved: and Dampier mentions a Mosquito indian, who having been accidentally left on this island, subsisted three years solitarily, till that voyager carried him off. From which of these De Foe borrowed his great incident, it is not easy to discover. In the preface to The Serious Reflections, he indeed says, "That there is a man alive and well known, the actions of whose life are the just subject of these volumes, and to whom the most part of the story directly alludes." This turns the scale in favour of Selkirk. Nor, was the name of Crusoe wholly fictitious; for, among De Foe's contemporaries, John Dunton speaks of Timothy Crusoe, who was called the Golden Preacher, and was so great a textuary, that he could pray two hours together in scripture language; but, he was not arrived at perfection, as appeared by his sloth in tying the conjugal knot; yet his repentance was sincere and public, and I fear not but he is now a glorified saint in heaven. [Life and Errors, p. 461.] The whole story of Selkirk, as told by Rogers, is reprinted in the present edition. Rob. Crusoe, vol. i. p. xxiii.
[87] Dr. Towers agrees with Mr. Chalmers. [Biog. Brit.] "The fact appears to have been that the charge against De Foe of having taken his work from Selkirk's manuscripts, or from communication of any kind made by Selkirk, is wholly groundless, and of which he himself never heard; for we do not find that the least hint of any such accusation against him was ever published during his lifetime." And Mr. D'Israeli [Curios. of Literat. vol. iii. p. 285.] considers the point settled in favour of De Foe, by captain Burney's Voyages and Discoveries.