38 BY MR. JOHN FORSTER.

FROM JOHN FORSTER.

“Robinson Crusoe” is a standard piece in every European language ; its
popularity has extended to every civilized nation. The traveller Burck-
hardt found it translated into Arabic, and heard it read aloud among the
wandering tribes in the cool hours of evening. It is devoured by every boy;
and, as long as a boy remains in the world, he will clamour for “ Robinson
Crusoe.” It sinks into the bosom while the bosom is most capable of plea-
surable impressions from the adventurous and the marvellous; and no
human work, we honestly believe, has afforded such great delight. Neither
the “ Iliad” nor the “ Odyssey,” in the much longer course of ages, has
incited so many to enterprise, or to reliance on their own powers and capa-
cities. It is the romance of solitude and self-sustainment ; and could only
so perfectly have been written by a man whose own life had for the most
part been passed in the independence of unaided thought, accustomed to creat
reverses, of inexhaustible resource in confronting calamities, leaning ever on
his Bible in sober and satisfied belief, and not afraid at any time to find
himself alone, in communion with nature and with God. Nor need we here
repeat, what has been said so well by many critics, that the secret of its
fascination is its reality. This, and the “ History of the Plague,” are the
masterpieces of De Foe. These are the works wherein his power is at the
highest, and which place him not less among the practical benefactors than
among the great writers of our race. “ Why, this man could have founded
a colony as well as governed it,” said a statesman of the succeeding century,
amazed at the knowledge of various kinds, and at the intimate acquaintance
with all useful arts displayed in “ Robinson Crusoe.”

Leaving the reader to compare and consider these criticisms, and to form
an opinion for himself, which will, I trust, be equally free from inordinate
praise and undue depreciation, I resume my narrative of De Foe’s labours.

The success of “ Robinson Crusoe” was immediate and unquestionable.
The second edition was published only seventeen days after the first; the
third edition, twenty-five days later ; and the fourth on the 8th of Aucust.

The mine which De Foe had thus opportunely discovered, he proceeded to
work with his accustomed vigour. On the 20th of August he published a
continuation of his immortal fiction, under the title of The Farther Adven-
tures of Robinson Crusoe ; being the Second and Last Part of his Life, and
of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels round Three Parts of
the Globe.”

In the preface to this sequel—which like most sequels is inferior in inter-
est and literary merit to the preceding part, though many passages are
admirably conceived and carried out—he pretends, as before, to be only the
editor of Crusoe’s story, and alludes with apparent impartiality to its well
deserved good fortune. As a spécimen of his quiet matter-of-fact style, it
deserves quotation :—