This grieved me heartily ; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.

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.