DE FOE IN THE PILLORY. 21

them characteristically ; first, by composing a pamphlet, “The Shortest
Way to Peace and Union,” in which the heroic man endeavoured to mediate
between Dissenters on the one hand, and High Churchmen on the other; and,
secondly, by writing his celebrated satire, ‘A Hymn to the Pillory,” in which
a just indignation has almost made him a poct.* Addressing the intended
instrument of his shame, he nobly says :—
“Hail! hieroglyphic State-machine,

Contrived to punish Fancy in ;

Men that are men, in thee can feel no pain,

And all thy insignificants disdain.

Contempt, that false new word for shame,

Is, without crime, an empty name;

A shadow to amuse mankind,

But ne’er to fright the wise or well-fixed mind—

Virtue despises human scorn!”

On the 29th of July 1708, the author of this daring hymn was exposed in
the pillory before the Royal Exchange in Cornhill; on the day following,
near the Conduit in Cheapside; and on the 81st, at Temple Bar.f What,
however, was meant for his shame and humiliation proved to be for his great
honour andrenown. The multitude felt that the pilloried hero was a man whe
had fought steadfastly and bravely their own battles, and instead of loading
him with insults, they greeted him with shouts of welcome. They wreathed
garlands of flowers about the “ State-machine,” and passed from hand to
hand the rough but manly and vigorous ode in which he had flung defiance
at his oppressors. “The people were expected to treat me very ill,” he
says, “but it was not so. On the contrary, they were with me, wished
those who had set me there were placed in my room; and expressed their
affections by loud shouts and acclamations when I was taken down.”

His persecutors, nevertheless, though foiled in this particular measure of
persecution, were more successful in others. De Foe retired from the pillory
to Newgate, and his long imprisonment was necessarily the ruin of his busi-
ness. He was obliged, at a loss of upwards of £3500, to abandon his large and
prosperous works at Tilbury, and for the support of a wife and six children,
to fall back upon his pen. With a courage which could not be shaken, and
a perseverance that could not be abated, he plied that pen indefatigably.
He issned a collection of his works, prefixing his portrait to the first volume:
it represents him with a resolute countenance, a massive chin, firm and
well-set mouth, and eyes full of intellect and energy. Meanwhile, a very
Ishmael in politics, he defended himself against the attacks of a cloud of
enemies. Like Harry of the Wynd, in Scott’s romance, he fought for his own
hand, and he fought gallantly. Under his heavy and incessant blows, the
stoutest assailant reeled. But he did not confine himself to political pam-

* “Indignatio facit versus.”-—Horace.

t Every one remembers Pope’s paltry allusion to this incident :—

“‘Earless on high stood unabashed De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.”