DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52059#0023
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necessary knowledge. Defoe limits his efforts to the
exposure of existing mistakes, only rarely suggesting
plans for improvement; and his aim is to show that a
liberal education is necessary to a gentleman of good
birth, and that without it he could not be called a
“complete gentleman.” In this attempt he lays so
much stress on the acquisition of book-learning that he
seems to forget the moral elements which form the
character of a true gentleman. We should not, perhaps,
treat this omission as indicating a fundamental defect
of mind in Defoe himself; yet it is significant that on
page 274, where he describes a perfect gentleman, the
mention of “his mind fortified with virtue and solid
judgment against the fopperies and follyes of the age,”
not only comes last, and as a mere addition to “his
agreeable behaviour, his good humour, great stock of
common knowledge, his knowledge of several modern
languages, and his school learning,” but here and in
other places, when he makes a brief remark on “ the
noble and virtuous qualities of a gentle character,” he
utterly fails to express them distinctly or adequately.
He can only be in part excused for this deficiency by
the aim of his book, which, it is true, gave his thoughts
a somewhat different direction, as he desired to blame
the gentry rather for ignorance than for lack of gener-
ous character.
There is sometimes considerable monotony in his
discussions, from his dwelling too long on some one
point ; but frequently the argument is enlivened by
little stories, dialogues, and amusing anecdotes. In
these, Peter the Great (of whom he had formerly written
a Life) frequently appears, and he quotes sayings of
necessary knowledge. Defoe limits his efforts to the
exposure of existing mistakes, only rarely suggesting
plans for improvement; and his aim is to show that a
liberal education is necessary to a gentleman of good
birth, and that without it he could not be called a
“complete gentleman.” In this attempt he lays so
much stress on the acquisition of book-learning that he
seems to forget the moral elements which form the
character of a true gentleman. We should not, perhaps,
treat this omission as indicating a fundamental defect
of mind in Defoe himself; yet it is significant that on
page 274, where he describes a perfect gentleman, the
mention of “his mind fortified with virtue and solid
judgment against the fopperies and follyes of the age,”
not only comes last, and as a mere addition to “his
agreeable behaviour, his good humour, great stock of
common knowledge, his knowledge of several modern
languages, and his school learning,” but here and in
other places, when he makes a brief remark on “ the
noble and virtuous qualities of a gentle character,” he
utterly fails to express them distinctly or adequately.
He can only be in part excused for this deficiency by
the aim of his book, which, it is true, gave his thoughts
a somewhat different direction, as he desired to blame
the gentry rather for ignorance than for lack of gener-
ous character.
There is sometimes considerable monotony in his
discussions, from his dwelling too long on some one
point ; but frequently the argument is enlivened by
little stories, dialogues, and amusing anecdotes. In
these, Peter the Great (of whom he had formerly written
a Life) frequently appears, and he quotes sayings of