Great as is the variety of subjects in the selections which Mr.Lee has made upon internal evidence, they are all of them subjects in which Defoe showed a keen interest in his acknowledged works.

In providing amusement for his readers, he did not soar above his age in point of refinement; and in providing instruction, he did not fall below his age in point of morality and religion.

It is a notable circumstance that one of the marks by which contemporaries traced his hand was "the little art he is truly master of, of forging a story and imposing it on the world for truth." Of this he gave a conspicuous instance in _Mist's Journal_ in an account of the marvellous blowing up of the island of St.Vincent, which in circumstantial invention and force of description must be ranked among his master-pieces.

But Defoe did more than embellish stories of strange events for his newspapers.

He was a master of journalistic art in all its branches, and a fertile inventor and organizer of new devices.