The FARTHER ADVENTURES O F ROBINSON CRUSOE, &C. HAT homely Proverb ufed on fo many Occafions in England, viz. That what is bred in the Bone will not go out of the Flefb, was never more verify'd, than in the Story of my Life. Any one would think, that after thirty-five Years Affliction, and a Variety of unhappy Circumftances, which few Men, if any ever, went thro' before, and after near feven Years of Peace and Enjoyment in the Fulness of all Things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had experience of every State of middle Life, and to know which was most adapted to make a Man compleatly happy: Ifay, after all this, any one would have thought that the native Propenfity to ramb-" B ling, ling, which I gave an Account of in my firft Setting out into the World, to have been fo pre dominate in my Thoughts, fhould be worn out the volatile Part, be fully evacuated, or at leaft condens'd, and I might at 61 Years of Age have been a little enclin'd to flay at Home, and have done venturing Life and Fortune any more Nay farther, the common Motive of foreign Adventures was taken away in me; for I had no Fortune to make, I had nothing to feek: If I had gain'd ten thousand Pound, I had been no richer; for I had already fufficient for me, and for thofe I had to leave it to; and that I had was vifibly encreafing for having no great Family, I could' not spend the Income of what I had, unlefs I would fet up for an expensive Way of Living, fuch as a great Family, Servants, Equipage, Gayety, and the like, which were Things I had no Notion of, or Inclination to; fo that I had nothing indeed to do, but to fit ftill, and fully enjoy what I had got, and fee it encreafe daily upon my Hands. Yet all thefe Things had no Effect upon me, or at leaft, not enough to refift the ftrong Inclination I had to go Abroad again, which hung about me like a chronical Diftemper; particularly the Defire of feeing my new Plantation in the Ifland, and the Colony I left there, run in my Head continually. I dream'd of it all Night, and my Imagination run upon, it all Day; it was uppermoft in all my Thoughts, and my Fancy work'd fo fteadily and ftrongly upon it, that I talk'd of it out of Sleep; in fhort, nothing could remove it out of my Mind; it even broke fo violently into all my Difcourfes, that it made my Converfation tire fome; fome; for I could talk of nothing elfe, all my Difcourfe run into it, even to Impertinence, and I faw it my felf. I have often heard Perfons of good Judgment fay, That all the Stir People make in the World about Ghosts and Apparitions, is owing to the Strength of Imagination, and the powerful Operation of Fancy in their Minds; that there is no fuch Thing as a Spirit appearing, or a Ghost walking, and the like: That Peoples poring affectionately upon the paft Converfation of their deceas'd Friends, fo realizes it to them, that they are capa ble of fancying upon fome extraordinary Circumftances, that they fee them; talk to them, and are anfwered by them, when, in Truth, there is nothing but Shadow and Vapour in the Thing; and they really know nothing of the Matter, For my Part, I know not to this Hour, whe ther there are any fuch Things as real Apparitions, Spectres, or walking of People after they are dead, or whether there is any Thing in the Stories they tell us of that Kind, more than the Product of • Vapours, fick Minds, and wandring Fancies; But this I know, that my Imagination work'd up to fuch a Height, and brought me into fuch Extafies of Vapours, or what elfe I may call it, that I actually fuppos'd my felf, often times upon the Spot, at my old Caftle behind the Trees; faw my old Spaniard, Friday's Father, and the reprobate Sailors I left upon the Ifland; nay, I fancy'd I talk'd with them, and look'd at them fo fteadily, tho' I was broad awake, as at Perfons juft before me ; and this I did till I often frighted my felf with the Images my Fancy reprefented to me : One Time in my Sleep I had the Villany of the 3 Pyrate Sai B2 B 2 lors |