Daniel Defoe - 1869 Author:Daniel Defoe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NEWLY-DISCOVERED WRITINGS or DANIEL DEFOE, EXTENDING FROM 1716 TO 1729. ABBREVIATIONS. 3f. P. denotes Mercurius Politicus. If. J. denotes Mist's ... more »Journal. W. E. P. denotes Whitehall Evening Post. D. P. denotes Daily Post. A. J. denotes Applebee's Journal. U. 8. denotes Universal Spectator. /'. -/. denotes Fog's Journal. A'gainst Self-Murder. Jt J May 12, 1722.—Sir, Our Modern Authors, made famous for the Pedantry of their Wit, having recommended, for Imitation, the Examples of the Romans for a particular Virtue, call'd Self-Murther, it would be a seasonable Animadversion upon their Conduct to put them in Mind how far their Exhortations of that Sort have lately prevail'd among us in England. If Cato is recorded as a Hero, and a true Defender of Liberty, because, when he could not beat Caesar at Utica, he, in a sullen Fit, would not try to beat him anywhere else, but instead of killing Caesar, killed himself; I say, if this made Cato look great, and we are to esteem him a Hero, how partial are we to the Fame of those worthy Heroes of our Age, who having gamed away their Fortunes in the late Bubbling Age, and been gull'd of their Money by the B fs and A e's, and L w's of the Age, have fled from the Faceof Poverty, by the shortest Way, to the Grave, and laid Violent Hands on themselves, to shun the Infamy of a mean Figure in the World ? Sir John Blount, and Aislabie, both of the South Sea : and John Law, the Projector, are intended,—Ed. VOL. III. B If I am not misinformed, there have been abundance of such Heroes in our time,—some say no less than 64 about London only; and, with due Reverence to the Memory of Master Cato of Utica, these Men deserve to be eterniz'd in History, as much as he, that is to say, we should preserve their...« less