a near View of Death would soon reconcile Men of good Priciples one to another, and that it is chiefly owing to our easy Scituation in Life, and our putting these Things far from us, that our Breaches are formented, ill Blood continued, Prejudices, Breach of Charity and of Christian Union so much kept and so far carry'd on among us, as it is: Another Plague Year would reconcile all these Differences, a close conversing with Death, or the Diseases that threaten Death, would scum off the Gall from our Tempers, remove the Animosities among us, and bring us to see with differing Eyes, than those which we look'd on Things with before

The Latin edition of the book was entitled Philosophus Autodidactus and it was an earlier novel that is also set on a deserted island. By September 1706 Harley ordered Defoe to Edinburgh as a secret agent to do everything possible to help secure acquiescence in the Treaty of Union. He told Harley that he was "privy to all their folly" but "Perfectly unsuspected as with corresponding with anybody in England".

: /ˌdænjəl dɨˈfoʊ/; ca. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Samuel Richardson is among the founders of the English novel.