considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his
fine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude and fidelity are
inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that
prompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when
Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was
persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered,
by violence.

The talents and perseverance of De Foe began now to be properly
estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent
by Lord Godolphin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far
from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform.
His knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and
above all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility, in
promoting the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able
history, in 1709, with two dedications, one to the Queen, and another to
the Duke of Queensbury. Soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal
writings, rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once
more retired to Newington in hopes of spending the remainder of his days
in peace. His pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he
began to compose works of a different kind.--The year 1715 may therefore
be regarded as the period of De Foe's political life. Faction henceforth
found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminate
their suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods.

In 1715 De Foe published the "Family Instructor;" a work inculcating the
domestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and
displaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society.
"Religious Courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "Family
Instructor," is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and