The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe | Page 5

to me; and how I brought them to justice, tried
them, and ordered them all three to be hanged. What there was really in
this shall be seen in its place; for however I came to form such things in
my dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was,
I say, much of it true. I own that this dream had nothing in it literally
and specifically true; but the general part was so true--the base;
villainous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, and had
been so much worse than all I can describe, that the dream had too
much similitude of the fact; and as I would afterwards have punished
them severely, so, if I had hanged them all, I had been much in the right,
and even should have been justified both by the laws of God and man.
But to return to my story. In this kind of temper I lived some years; I
had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion
but what had something or other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw
my mind wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night that she
believed there was some secret, powerful impulse of Providence upon
me, which had determined me to go thither again; and that she found
nothing hindered me going but my being engaged to a wife and
children. She told me that it was true she could not think of parting
with me: but as she was assured that if she was dead it would be the
first thing I would do, so, as it seemed to her that the thing was
determined above, she would not be the only obstruction; for, if I
thought fit and resolved to go--[Here she found me very intent upon her
words, and that I looked very earnestly at her, so that it a little
disordered her, and she stopped. I asked her why she did not go on, and
say out what she was going to say? But I perceived that her heart was
too full, and some tears stood in her eyes.] "Speak out, my dear," said I;
"are you willing I should go?"--"No," says she, very affectionately, "I
am far from willing; but if you are resolved to go," says she, "rather
than I would be the only hindrance, I will go with you: for though I

think it a most preposterous thing for one of your years, and in your
condition, yet, if it must be," said she, again weeping, "I would not
leave you; for if it be of Heaven you must do it, there is no resisting it;
and if Heaven make it your duty to go, He will also make it mine to go
with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it."
This affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of the
vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing; I corrected my
wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately what
business I had after threescore years, and after such a life of tedious
sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner; I,
say, what business had I to rush into new hazards, and put myself upon
adventures fit only for youth and poverty to run into?
With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I had a wife,
one child born, and my wife then great with child of another; that I had
all the world could give me, and had no need to seek hazard for gain;
that I was declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what I
had gained than of seeking to increase it; that as to what my wife had
said of its being an impulse from Heaven, and that it should be my duty
to go, I had no notion of that; so, after many of these cogitations, I
struggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it,
as I believe people may always do in like cases if they will: in a word, I
conquered it, composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my
thoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifully with;
and particularly, as the most effectual method, I resolved to divert
myself with other things, and to engage in some business that might
effectually tie me up from any more excursions of this kind; for I found
that thing return upon me chiefly when I was idle, and had nothing to
do, nor anything of moment immediately before me. To this purpose, I
bought a little farm in the county of Bedford, and resolved to remove
myself thither. I