But the time at length came, when De Foe was to deliver to the world the most popular of all his performances. In April, 1719, he published the well-known Life and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe[83]. The reception was immediate and universal; and Tayler, who purchased the manuscript after every bookseller had refused it, is said to have gained a thousand pounds. If it be inquired by what charm it is that these surprising Adventures should have instantly pleased, and always pleased, it will be found, that few books have ever so naturally mingled amusement with instruction. The attention is fixed, either by the simplicity of the narration, or by the variety of the incidents; the heart is amended by a vindication of the ways of God to man: and the understanding is informed by various examples, how much utility ought to be preferred to ornament: the young are instructed, while the old are amused. Robinson Crusoe had scarcely drawn his canoe ashore, when he was attacked by his old enemies, the savages. He was assailed first by The Life and strange Adventures of Mr. D---- De F--, of London, Hosier, who has lived above Fifty Years by himself in the Kingdoms of North and South Britain. In a dull dialogue between De Foe, Crusoe, and his man Friday, our author's life is lampooned, and his misfortunes ridiculed. But he who had been struck by apoplexy, and who was now discountenanced by power, was no fit object of an Englishman's satire. Our author declares, when he was himself a writer of satiric poetry, "that he never reproached any man for his private infirmities, for having his house burnt, his ships cast away, or his family ruined; nor had he ever lampooned any one, because he could not pay his debts, or differed in judgment from him." Pope has been justly censured for pursuing a vein of satire extremely dissimilar. And Pope placed De Foe with Tutchin, in The Dunciad, when our author's infirmities were greater and his comfort less. He was again assaulted in 1719, by An Epistle to D---- De F--, the reputed Author of Robinson Crusoe. "Mr. Foe," says the letter-writer, "I have perused your pleasant story of Robinson Crusoe; and if the faults of it had extended no further than the frequent solecisms and incorrectness of style, improbabilities, and sometimes impossibilities, I had not given you the trouble of this epistle." "Yet," said Johnson to Piozzi, "was there ever anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, except Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress[84]?" This epistolary critic, who renewed his angry attack when the second volume appeared, has all the dulness, without the acumen, of Dennis, and all his malignity, without his purpose of reformation. The Life of Crusoe has passed through innumerable editions, and has been translated into foreign languages, while the criticism sunk into oblivion.