story of a soldier's adventures in the seventeenth century; _The
Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton_, a
graphic account of adventures in a journey across Africa; _Moll
Flanders_, a story of a well-known criminal; and _A Journal of the
Plague Year_, a vivid, imaginative presentation, in the most realistic
way, of the horrors of the London plague in 1665. These works are
almost completely overshadowed by _Robinson Crusoe_; but they also
show Defoe's narrative power and his ability to make fiction seem an
absolute reality. In writing _Gulliver's Travels_, Swift received
valuable hints from Defoe. Stevenson's _Treasure Island_ is the most
successful of the almost numberless stories of adventure suggested by
_Robinson Crusoe_.

JONATHAN SWIFT, 1667-1745

[Illustration: JONATHAN SWIFT. _From the painting by C. Jervas,
National Portrait Gallery_.]

Life.--Swift, one of the greatest prose writers of the eighteenth
century, was born of English parents in Dublin in 1667. It is
absolutely necessary to know something of his life in order to pass
proper judgment on his writings. A cursory examination of his life
will show that heredity and environment were responsible for many of
his peculiarities. Swift's father died a few months before the birth
of his son, and the boy saw but little of his mother.

Swift's school and college life were passed at Kilkenny School and
Trinity College, Dublin. For his education he was indebted to an
uncle, who made the boy feel the bitterness of his dependence. In
after times he said that his uncle treated him like a dog. Swift's
early experience seems to have made him misanthropic and hardened to
consequences, for he neglected certain studies, and it was only by
special concession that he was allowed to take his A.B. degree in
1686.

After leaving college, he spent almost ten years as the private
secretary of Sir William Temple, at Moor Park in Surrey, about forty
miles southwest of London. Temple had been asked to furnish some
employment for the young graduate because Lady Temple was related to
Swift's mother. Here Swift was probably treated as a dependent, and he
had to eat at the second table. Finally, this life became so
intolerable that he took holy orders and went to a little parish in
Ireland; but after a stay of eighteen months he returned to Moor Park,
where he remained until Temple's death in 1699. Swift then went to
another little country parish in Irela