OF «ROBINSON CRUSOE. “®d

 

my shoulders, the kid follcwed me quite to my enclosure ; upon which
I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over
my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat, so 1
was forced to kill it, and eat it myself. These two supplied me witk
flesh 4 great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions (my
bread especially) as much as possibly I could.

Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary tc
provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did
for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I)
made, I shall give a full account of in its place; but I must first give
some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which,
it may well be supposed, were not a few.

I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for, as I was not cast
away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a violent
storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a great.
way, namely, some hundred of leagues out of the ordinary course of
the trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider it as a determin-
ation of Heaven, that, in this desolate place, and in this desolate man-
ner, I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down my
face when I made these reflections ; and sometimes I would expostulate
with myself, why Providence should thus completely ruin his creatures,
and render them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned,
so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful
for such a life.

But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts,
and to reprove me; and, particularly, one day walking, with my gun
in my hand, by the sea-side, I was very pensive upon the subject of
my present condition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me
the other way, thus :—‘“ Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is
true; but, pray, remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you
come eleven of you into the boat? Where are the ten? Why were
they not saved, and you lost? Why were you singled out? Isit'bettér
to be here or there ?’”” And then I pointed to the:sea. All evils-are ~~
to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse
attended them. “OR

Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my sub-
sistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened,
which was an hundred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the

.place where she first struck, and was driven so near the shore, that I had
time to get all these things out of her. What would have been
if I had been to have lived in the condition in which T at first
‘shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and pi