ROBINSON CRUSOE. 113

upon it hereafter, viz.: as a place I had lived in, but was come
out of it; and well might I say, as Father Abraham to Dives,
‘Between me and thee is a great gulf fixed.”

In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of
the world here ; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of
the eye, or the pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had
all that I was now capable of enjoying ; I was lord of the whole
manor ; or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor
over the whole country which I had possession of ; there were
no rivals ; I had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty
or command with me: I might have raised ship-loadings of
corn, but I had no use for it ; so I let as little grow as I thought
enough for my occasion. I had tortoise or turtle enough, but
now and then one was as much as I could put to any use; I
had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships; and I had
grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins,
to have loaded that fleet when it had been built.

But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I
had enough to eat and supply my wants, and what was all the
rest tome? IfI killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog
must eat it, or vermin ; if I sowed more corn than I could eat, '
it must be spoiled ; the trees that I cut down were lying to rot
on the ground; I could make no more use of them but for
fuel, and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food.

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to
me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world
are no farther good to us than they are for our use ; and that
whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy just as much
as we can use, and nomore. The most covetous, griping miser
in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness
if he had been in my case ; for I possessed infinitely more than I
kwew what to do with. I had noroom for desire, except it was
of things which I had not, and they were but trifles, though, in-
deed, of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel
of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds ster-
ling. Alas! there the sorry, useless stuff lay ; I had no man-
ner of business for it; and often thought with myself, that I
would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes ;
or for a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, I would have given
it all for a sixpenny worth of turnip and carrot seed out of
England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle
of ink. As it was, I had not the least advantage by it or bene-
fit from it ; but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with
the damp of the cave in the wet seasons ; and if I had had the