Essay Upon Projects

Daniel Defoe

Kessinger Publishing, Jun 1, 2004 - Literary Collections - 124 pages

The building of Babel was a right project; for indeed the true definition of a project, according to modern acceptation, is, as is said before, a vast undertaking, too big to be managed, and therefore likely enough to come to nothing. And yet, as great as they are, it is certainly true of them all, even as the projectors propose: that, according to the old tale, if so many eggs are hatched, there will be so many chickens, and those chickens may lay so many eggs more, and those eggs produce so many chickens more, and so on.

About the author

Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe in London in 1660, adding the "De" after he reached the age of 40. He was a novelist, journalist, and political agent. Defoe's best-known novels include Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Defoe also wrote the 3-volume A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, an important source of English economic life. He wrote satirical poems and pamphlets and edited a newspaper. Defoe was imprisoned and pilloried for his controversial work, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, which suggested that all non-Conformist ministers be hanged. Defoe also was the first writer of modern English ghost stories, one of which is "A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal." He died in 1731.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Essay Upon Projects
• Author: Daniel Defoe
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, 2004
• ISBN: 1419118234, 9781419118234
• Length: 124 pages
• Subjects: Literary Collections / Essays