The Mercure Scandale was avowedly intended to amuse the frivolous.

The lapse of time has made its artificial sprightliness dreary.

It was in the serious portion of the _Review_, the Review proper, that Defoe showed most of his genius.

The design of this was nothing less than to give a true picture, drawn with "an impartial and exact historical pen," of the domestic and foreign affairs of all the States of Europe.

It was essential, he thought, that at such a time of commotion Englishmen should be thoroughly informed of the strength and the political interests and proclivities of the various European Powers.