History of the Plague in London (Classic Reprint)

The father of Daniel Defoe was a butcher in the parish of St Giles s, Cripplegate, London. In this parish, probably, Daniel Defoe was born in 1661, the year after the restoration of Charles II. The boys parents wished him to become a dissenting minister, and so intrusted his education to a Mr. Morton who kept an academy for the training of nonconformist divines. How long Defoe staid at this school is not known. He seems to think himself that he staid there long enough to become a good scholar; for he declares that the pupils were made masters of the English tongue, and more of them excelled in that particular than of any school at that time. If this statement be true, we can only say that the other schools must have been very bad indeed. Defoe never acquired a really good style, and can in no true sense be called a master of the English tongue. Nature had gifted Defoe with untiring energy, a keen taste for public affairs, and a special aptitude for chicanery and intrigue. These were not qualities likely to advance him in the ministry, and he wisely refused to adopt that profession. With a young mans love for adventure and a dissenters hatred for Roman Catholicism, he took part in the Duke of Monmouth srebellion (1685) against James
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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