dezvous, a good Bowl of
Punch before me, and the Glass going round in a constant Circle of
Mirth and Good Humour, I have, in a Moment, beheld Sights which has
froze my very Blood, and put me into Agonies that disordered the whole
Company" (p. 131).

The last anecdote in the first section is a repetition at some length of
the story of Campbell's adventures in Holland, not as related in Defoe's
"Life and Adventures," but according to the version in Mrs Haywood's
"Dumb Projector." The beginning, which has to do with a grave old
gentleman who was bit by a viper, is told in almost the same words;
indeed some letters that passed between the characters are identically
the same, and the end, though much abbreviated, contains a number of
sentences taken word for word from the earlier telling of the story.
Finally, Mrs. Haywood was the first and hitherto the only writer of the
Campbell pamphlets who had printed letters supposedly addressed to the
prophet by his clients. The device was peculiarly hers. The "Original
Letters sent to Mr. Campbel by his Consulters" in the "Secret Memoirs"
are similar to those already composed by her for "A Spy upon the
Conjurer." There is no reason to think that she did not invent the later
epistles as well as the former.

If, then, a number of anecdotes in the "Secret Memoirs" are suggestive
of Mrs. Haywood's known writings, and if one of them remained in her
memory thirteen years later; if the pamphlet carefully alludes to Eliza
Haywood as one of the dumb seer's particular friends, and if it repeats
in slightly different form her peculiar account of the dumb projector's
journey into Holland; and if, finally, the book contains a series of
letters to Campbell from fictitious correspondents fashioned on the last
already used by her, we may conclude that in all likelihood the
authoress whose name had previously been associated with Duncan Campbell
literature was again concerned in writing or revising this latest work.
At least a cautious critic can say that there is no inherent
improbability in the theory that Defoe with journalistic instinct,
thinking that Campbell's death in 1730 might stimulate public interest
in the wizard, had drafted in the rough the manuscript of a new
biography, but was prevented by the troubles of his last days from
completing it; that after his death the manuscript fell into the hands
of Mrs. Haywood, or perhaps was given to her by the publishers Millan
and Chrichle