464 ROBINSON CRUSOB.

gation I have upon me to you forit. But did you believe I was
sincere in what I have often said to you of my contempt of the
world? Did you believe I spoke my very soul to you, and that
I had really obtained that degree of felicity here that had placed
me above all that the world could give me? Did you believe I
was sincere when I told you I would not go back, if I was re-
called even to be all that I once was in the court, with the favor
of the Czar my master? Did you believe me, my friend, to be
an honest man ; or did you believe me to be a boasting hypo-
crite?” Here he stopped, as if he would hear what I would
say ; but, indeed, I soon after perceived that he stopped because
his spirits were in motion, his great heart was full of struggles,
and he could not go on. I was, I confess, astonished at the
thing as well as at the man, and I used some arguments with
him to urge him to set himself free ; that he ought to look upon
this as a door opened by Heaven for his deliverance, and a sum-
mons by Providence, who has the care and disposition of all
events, to do himself good, and to render himself useful in
the world.

He had by this time recovered himself. “How do you
know, sir,” says he, warmly, “ but that, instead of a summons
from Heaven, it may be a feint of another instrument, represent-
ing in alluring colorsto me the show of felicity as a deliverance,
which may in itself be my snare, and tend directly to my ruin?
Here I am free from the temptation of returning to my former
miserable greatness ; there I am not sure but that all the seeds
of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which I know remain in
nature, may revive, and take root, and, in a word, again over-
whelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now
master of his soul’s liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his
own senses, in the full enjoyment of all persona! liberty. Dear
sir, let me remain in this blessed confinement, banished trom
the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at
the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the future
happiness which I now have in my view, but shall then, I fear,
quickly lose sight of ;forI am but flesh; a man, a mere man};
have passions and affections as likely to possess and over-
throw me as any man: O, be not my friend and tempter both
together !”

If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood
silent, looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The
struggle in his soul was so great that, though the weather was
extremely cold, it put bim into a most violent sweat, and I
found he wanted to give vent to his mind ; so I saida word or