abstraction; and with these keys we may partially unlock the mystery of that spell which has so long invested the volume before us. But a complete analysis of our interest in it cannot be thus afforded. Defoe is largely indebted to his subject. The idea of man in a state of perfect isolation, although often entertained, was never before so comprehensively carried out. Indeed the frequency of its occurrence to the thoughts of mankind argued the extent of its influence on their sympathies, while the fact of no attempt having been made to give an embodied form to the conception, went to prove the difficulty of the undertaking. But the true narrative of Selkirk in 1711, with the powerful impression it then made upon the public mind, sufficed to inspire Defoe with both the necessary courage for his work, and entire confidence in its success. How wonderful has been the result! Besides _Robinson Crusoe_, Defoe wrote no less than _two hundred and eight_ works. The chief of these are the _Speculum Crape-Gownorum_, a reply to Roger L'Estrange, and characterized principally by intemperate abuse--a _Treatise against the Turks_, written for the purpose of showing England "that if it was the interest of Protestantism not to increase the influence of a Catholic power, it was infinitely more so to oppose a Mohammedan one"--an _Essay on Projects_, displaying great ingenuity, and mentioned in terms of high approbation by our own Franklin--the _Poor Man's Plea_, a satire levelled against the extravagances of the upper ranks of British society--the _Trueborn Englishman_, composed with a view of defending the king from the abuse heaped upon him as a foreigner--the _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_, a work which created strong excitement, and for which the author suffered in the pillory--the _Reformation of Manners_, a satirical poem, containing passages of uncommon force, that is to say, uncommon for Defoe, who was no poet--_More Reformation_, a continuation of the above--_Giving Alms no Charity_, an excellent treatise--a _Preface to a translation of Drelincourt on Death_, in which is contained the "true narrative" of Mrs. Veal's apparition--the _History of the Union_, a publication of much celebrity in the days of its author, and even now justly considered as placing him among the "soundest historians of his time"--the _Family Instructor_, "one of the most valuable systems of practical morality in the language"--the _History of Moll Flanders_, including some striking but coarsely executed paintings of low life--the _Life of Colonel Jaque_, in which an account is given of the hero's residence in Virginia--the _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, a book belonging more properly to History than to Fictitious Biography, and which has been often mistaken for a true narrative of the civil wars in England and Germany--the _History of the Plague_, which Dr. Mead considered an authentic record--and _Religious Courtship_, which acquired an