Concern in, the governing and directing Man, the best and last created Creature on Earth;" lastly, that "there is scarce any particular Providence attends our Lives, but we shall find, in giving due Weight to it, that it calls upon us, either (1) To look up, and acknowledge the Goodness of God in sparing us, the Bounty of God in providing for us, the Power of God in delivering and protecting us, not forgetting to look up, and acknowledge, and be humble under the Justice of God, in being angry with, and afflicting us. (2) Or to look out, and take the needful Caution and Warning given of evil approaching, and prepare either to meet or avoid it. (3) Or to look in, and reflect upon what we find Heaven animadverting upon, and afflicting us for, taking Notice of the Summons to repent and reform." The sixth, and last, chapter, "Of the Proportion between the Christian and Pagan World," is remarkable for the passage in which the writer says, "I, Robinson Crusoe, grown old in affliction, born down by Calumny and Reproach, but supported from within, boldly prescribe this Remedy against universal Clamours and Contempt of Mankind; Patience, a steady Life of Vertue and Sobriety, and a comforting Dependance on the Justice of Providence, will first or last restore the Patient to the Opinion of his Friends, and justify him in the Face of his Enemies, and, in the meantime, will support him comfortably, in despising those who want Manners and Charity, and leave them to be cursed from Heaven with their own Passions and Rage." Here it is evident that the writer is drawing, more than anywhere, upon the unhappy, but not ignoble, experiences of his own career.

Of his "Vision of the Angelick World," I have no room to speak, further than to quote the few opening sentences of the work, in which Defoe explains the object with which it had been written. "They," he says, “must be much taken up with the satisfaction of what they are already, that never spare their Thoughts upon the Subject of what they shall be. The Place, the Company, the Employment which we expect to know so much hereafter, must certainly be worth our while to enquire after here." Therefore he will "endeavour to reason upon them clearly, and, if possible, convey some such Ideas of the invisible World to the Thoughts of Men, as may not be confused and indigested, and so leave them darker than I found them." He does not perhaps leave us darker than he found us, but he leaves us equally dark; though the "Vision" is by no means destitute of interest to the curious in such speculations.

Not the least remarkable portion of the book, it may be added, is the map of Crusoe's island, which forms the frontispiece of the volume. It is so utterly out of proportion that it defies description; but it is very amusing, and should be reproduced, I think, in every future edition of the great work of fiction which it professes to illustrate.

CHESTERFIELD'S "LETTERS."

"THE name of Chesterfield," says Mr. Hayward, "has become a synonym for good breeding and politeness. It is associated in our minds with all that is graceful in manner and cold in heart, attractive in appearance and unamiable in reality. The image it calls up is that of a man rather below the middle height, in a court suit and blue riband, with regular features, wearing an habitual expression of gentlemanlike ease. His address is insinuating, his bow is perfect, his compliments rival those of Le Grand Monarque in delicacy: laughter is too demonstrative for him, but the smile of courtesy is ever on his lip; and by the time he has gone through the circle, the avowed object of his daily ambition is accomplished-all the women are already half in love with him, and every man is desirous to be his friend."

The description, so far as it goes, is not inapplicable. The pity is that it should occasionally err so seriously, and that it should entirely omit those particulars on which the fame of Chesterfield ought by right to rest. It is true that he was graceful in manner, but it is not true, so far as I can see, that

he was cold in heart. So far is this from the case, that, on one human being at least, he lavished an amount of affection such as is rarely witnessed in the intercourse of fathers and sons; and, so far as history tells us, he never acted ungenerously by man or woman. He may have been, and I believe he was, attractive in appearance, but that he was unamiable in reality is nowhere stated. There is no necessary connection between the politeness of which we know Chesterfield was a master, and the insincerity of which he is generally suspected. On the contrary, it is the essence of politeness that it should proceed from a desire to put one's fellow-creatures at their ease, and good breeding is supposed to show itself in no way more strikingly than in courteous consideration of other people's feelings. I am afraid that when people talk of a bow or of a smile that is worthy of a Chesterfield, they refer to the bow which is only one of ironical deference, and a smile which has more of sarcasm than good humour. But in neither case does the reference display an accurate knowledge of the distinguished statesman, the brilliant orator, the graceful essayist, and the elegant wit, whose name is so frequently and so ignorantly taken in vain.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, was born on the 22nd of September, 1694, and was, I need scarcely say, the descendant of an illustrious race. Yet he had none of that excessive veneration for "the claims of high descent" that is usually attributed to men of noble family. He is said to have placed among the portraits of his ancestors the figures of a man and a woman, labelled respectively Adam de Stanhope and

Eve de Stanhope, by which means he successfully preserved himself from any ridiculous genealogical pretensions. Perhaps he found his natural tendency to admiration and belief in his progenitors arrested by the unattractiveness of his father, who is described as a man of morose disposition and of violent passions. From him, young Stanhope could hope for little attention, and his education therefore devolved almost entirely upon the energies of his grandmother, Lady Halifax, who, on the contrary, is described as a woman of conduct, understanding, and sensibility, and whose house was the resort of the leading people of the time. He was himself, it seems, most anxious to acquire information, and no doubt he took advantage of every opportunity afforded him. "He was very young," says Dr. Maty," when Lord Galway—who, though not a very fortunate General, was a man of uncommon penetration and merit, and who often visited the Marchioness of Halifax-observing in him a strong inclination for a political life, but at the same time an ungovernable taste for pleasure, with some tincture of laziness, gave him the following advice: If you intend to be a man of business you must be an early riser. In the distinguished posts your parts, rank, and fortune will entitle you to fill, you will be liable to have visitors every day, and unless you will rise constantly at an early hour you will never have any leisure to yourself.""* He took the hint, and acted upon it through life; nor, though his education till his eighteenth year was strictly private, does he appear ever to have wanted the spur of emulation which it is

* "Life," prefixed to "Miscellaneous Works," ed. 1777.