circumstances, the temptation to invent and embellish was irresistible.
"Why," a paragraph-maker of the time is made to say, "if we will write
nothing but truth, we must bring you no news; we are bound to bring you
such as we can find." Yet it was not lies but truth that the public
wanted as much as they do now. Hence arose the necessity of fortifying
reports with circumstantial evidence of their authenticity. Nobody
rebuked unprincipled news-writers more strongly than Defoe, and no
news-writer was half as copious in his guarantees for the accuracy of
his information. When a report reached England that the island of St.
Vincent had been blown into the air, Defoe wrote a description of the
calamity, the most astonishing thing that had happened in the world
"since the Creation, or at least since the destruction of the earth by
water in the general Deluge," and prefaced his description by saying:--

"Our accounts of this come from so many several hands
and several places that it would be impossible to bring the
letters all separately into this journal; and when we had
done so or attempted to do so, would leave the story confused,
and the world not perfectly informed. We have therefore
thought it better to give the substance of this amazing
accident in one collection; making together as full and as
distinct an account of the whole as we believe it possible to
come at by any intelligence whatsoever, and at the close of
this account we shall give some probable guesses at the natural
cause of so terrible an operation."

Defoe carried the same system of vouching for the truth of his
narratives by referring them to likely sources, into pamphlets and books
which really served the purpose of newspapers, being written for the
gratification of passing interests. The History of the Wars of Charles