An Essay on Projects | Page 4

Of the
Highways Of Assurances Of Friendly Societies Of Seamen Of
Wagering Of Fools A Charity-Lottery Of Bankrupts Of Academies Of
a Court Merchant Of Seamen The Conclusion

INTRODUCTION.

Defoe's "Essay on Projects" was the first volume he published, and no
great writer ever published a first book more characteristic in
expression of his tone of thought. It is practical in the highest degree,
while running over with fresh speculation that seeks everywhere the
well-being of society by growth of material and moral power. There is
a wonderful fertility of mind, and almost whimsical precision of detail,
with good sense and good humour to form the groundwork of a happy
English style. Defoe in this book ran again and again into sound
suggestions that first came to be realised long after he was dead. Upon
one subject, indeed, the education of women, we have only just now
caught him up. Defoe wrote the book in 1692 or 1693, when his age
was a year or two over thirty, and he published it in 1697.
Defoe was the son of James Foe, of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, whose
family had owned grazing land in the country, and who himself throve
as a meat salesman in London. James Foe went to Cripplegate Church,
where the minister was Dr. Annesley. But in 1662, a year after the birth
of Daniel Foe, Dr. Annesley was one of the three thousand clergymen
who were driven out of their benefices by the Act of Uniformity. James
Foe was then one of the congregation that followed him into exile, and
looked up to him as spiritual guide when he was able to open a
meeting-house in Little St. Helen's. Thus Daniel Foe, not yet De Foe,
was trained under the influence of Dr. Annesley, and by his advice sent
to the Academy at Newington Green, where Charles Morton, a good
Oxford scholar, trained young men for the pulpits of the
Nonconformists. In later days, when driven to America by the
persecution of opinion, Morton became Vice- President of Harvard
College. Charles Morton sought to include in his teaching at
Newington Green a training in such knowledge of current history as
would show his boys the origin and meaning of the controversies of the
day in which, as men, they might hereafter take their part. He took
pains, also, to train them in the use of English. "We were not," Defoe
said afterwards, "destitute of language, but we were made masters of
English; and more of us excelled in that particular than of any school at
that time."
Daniel Foe did not pass on into the ministry for which he had been

trained. He said afterwards, in his "Review," "It was my disaster first to
be set apart for, and then to be set apart from, the honour of that sacred
employ." At the age of about nineteen he went into business as a hose
factor in Freeman's Court, Cornhill. He may have bought succession to
a business, or sought to make one in a way of life that required no
capital. He acted simply as broker between the manufacturer and the
retailer. He remained at the business in Freeman's Court for seven years,
subject to political distractions. In 1683, still in the reign of Charles the
Second, Daniel Foe, aged twenty-two, published a pamphlet called
"Presbytery Roughdrawn." Charles died on the 6th of February, 1685.
On the 14th of the next June the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme
with eighty-three followers, hoping that Englishmen enough would
flock about his standard to overthrow the Government of James the
Second, for whose exclusion, as a Roman Catholic, from the succession
to the throne there had been so long a struggle in his brother's reign.
Daniel Foe took leave of absence from his business in Freeman's Court,
joined Monmouth, and shared the defeat at Sedgmoor on the 6th of July.
Judge Jeffreys then made progress through the West, and Daniel Foe
escaped from his clutches. On the 15th of July Monmouth was
executed. Daniel Foe found it convenient at that time to pay personal
attention to some business affairs in Spain. His name suggests an
English reading of a Spanish name, Foa, and more than once in his life
there are indications of friends in Spain about whom we know nothing.
Daniel Foe went to Spain in the time of danger to his life, for taking
part in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, and when he came back
he wrote himself De Foe. He may have heard pedigree discussed
among his Spanish friends; he may have wished to avoid drawing
attention to a name entered under the letter F in a list of rebels. He may
have played on the distinction between himself and his father, still
living, that