Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe With His Vision of the Angelick World

SERIOUS REFLECTIONS DURING THE LIFE...

The place, the company, the employment which we expect to know so much of hereafter, must certainly be well worth our while to inquire after here.

I believe the main interruptions which have been given to these inquiries, and perhaps the reason why those that have entered into them have given them up, and those who have not entered into them have satisfied themselves in the utter neglect, have been the wild chimeric notions, enthusiastic dreams, and unsatisfying ideas, which most of the conceptions of men have led them into about these things.

As I endeavour to conceive justly of these things, I shall likewise endeavour to reason upon them clearly, and, if possible, convey some such ideas of the invisible world to the thoughts of men as may not be confused and indigested, and so leave them darker than I find them.

The locality of heaven or hell is no part of my search; there is doubtless a place reserved for the reception of our souls after death; as there is a state of being for material substances, so there must be a place; if we are to be, we must have a where; the Scripture supports reason in it — Judas is gone to his place; Dives in hell lifted up his eyes, and saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom: the locality of bliss and misery seems to be positively asserted in both case..

But there is not so clear a view of the company as of the place; it is not so easy to inquire into the world of spirits, as it is evident that there are such spirits and such a world. We

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find the locality of it is natural, but who the inhabitants are is a search of still a sublimer nature, liable to more exceptions, encumbered with more difficulties, and exposed to much more uncertainty.

I shall endeavour to clear up as much of it as can, and intimate most willingly how much I rejoice in the expectation that some other inquirers may go farther, till at last all that Providence has thought fit to discover of that part may be perfectly known.

The discoveries in the Scripture which lead to this are innumerable, but the positive declaration of it seems to be declined. When our Saviour walking on the sea frighted His disciples, and they cried out, what do we find terrified them? Truly they thought they had seen a spirit. One would have thought such men as they, who had the vision of God manifest in the flesh, should not have been so much surprised if they had seen a spirit, that is to say, seen an apparition, for to see a spirit seems to be an allusion, not an expression to be used literally, a spirit being not visible by the organ of human sight.

But what if it had been a spirit? If it had been a good spirit, what had they to fear? And if a bad spirit, what would crying out have assisted them? When people cry out in such cases, it is either for help, and then they cry to others; or for mercy, and then they cry to the subject of their terror to spare them. Either way it was either the foolishest or the wickedest thing that ever was done by such grave men as the apostles; for if it

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was a good spirit as before, they had no need to cry out; and if it was a bad one, who did they cry to? for ‘tis evident they did not pray to God, or cross and bless themselves, as was afterwards the fashion; but they cried out, that is to say, they either cried out for help, which was great nonsense to call to man for help against the devil; or they cried to the spirit they saw, that it might not hurt them, which was, in short, neither less nor more than praying to the devil.

This put me in mind of the poor savages in many of the countries of America and Africa, who, really instructed by their fear, that is to say, by mere nature, worship the devil that he may not hurt them.

Here I must digress a little, and make a transition from the story of the spirit to the strange absurdities of men’s notions at that time, and particularly of those upon whom the first impressions of Christ’s preachings were wrought; and if it be looked narrowly into, one cannot but wonder what strange ignorant people even the disciples themselves were at first; and indeed their ignorance continued a great while, even to after the death of Christ Himself — witness the foolish talk of the two disciples going to Emmaus. It is true they were wiser afterwards when they were better taught; but the Scripture is full of the discoveries of their ignorance, as in the notions of sitting at His right hand and His left in His kingdom, asked for by Zebedee’s children; no doubt but the good woman their mother thought one of her sons should be lord treasurer there, and the other lord chancellor, and she could not but think

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those places their due when she saw them in such favour with Him here. Just so in their notion of seeing a spirit here, which put them into such a fright, and indeed they might be said, according to our dull way of thinking, to be frighted out of their wits; for had their senses been in exercise, they would either have rejoiced in the appearance of a good angel, and stood still to hear his message as from Heaven, or prayed to God to deliver them out of the hands of the devil on their supposing it, as above, to be a vision from hell.

But I come to the subject. It is evident that the notion of spirits, and their intermeddling with the affairs of men, and even of their appearing to men, prevailed so universally in those ages of the world, that even God’s own people, who were instructed from Himself, believed it, nor is there anything in all the New Testament institution to contradict it, though many things to confirm it; such particularly as the law against what is called a familiar spirit, which was esteemed no better or worse than a conversing with the devil, that is to say, with some of the evil spirits of the world I speak of.

The witch of Endor, and the story of an apparition of an old man personating Samuel, which is so plainly asserted in Scripture, and which the learned opposers of these notions have spent so much weak pains to disturb our imaginations about, yet assure us that such apparitions are not inconsistent with Nature or with religion; nay, the Scripture allows this woman to paw waw, as the Indians in America call it, and conjure for the raising this spectre, and when it is come, allows it to speak a great prophetic truth, foretelling the king, in all its terrible

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particulars, what was to happen to him, and what did befall him the very next day.

Either this appearance must be a good spirit or a bad; if it was a good spirit it was an angel, as it is expressed in another place of the Apostle Peter, when he knocked at the good people’s door in Jerusalem (Acts xii. 15); and then it supports my opinion of the spirits unembodied conversing with and taking care of the spirits embodied; if it was an evil spirit, then they must grant God to be making a prophet of the devil, and making him personate Samuel to foretell things to come; permitting Satan to speak in the first person of God’s own prophet, and indeed to preach the justice of God’s dealing with Saul for rejecting His prophet Samuel; which, in short, is not a little odd, putting the Spirit of God into the mouth of the devil, and making Satan a preacher of righteousness.

When I was in my retirement I had abundance of strange notions of my seeing apparitions there, and especially when I happened to be abroad by moonshine, when every bush looked like a man, and every tree like a man on horseback; and I so prepossessed myself with it that I scarce durst look behind me for a good while, and after that durst not go abroad at all at night; nay, it grew upon me to such a degree at last, that I as firmly believed I saw several times real shapes and appearances, as I do now really believe and am assured that it was all hypochondriac delusion.

But, however, that the reader may see how far the power of imagination may go, and judge for me whether I showed any

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more folly and simplicity than other men might do, I’ll repeat some little passages, which for a while gave me very great disturbances, and every one shall judge for me whether they might not have been deluded in the like circumstances as well as I.

The first case was, when I crept into the dark cave in the valley, where the old goat lay just expiring, which, wherever it happened, is a true history, I assure you.

When first I was stopped by the noise of this poor dying creature, you are to observe that the voice was not only like the voice of a man, but even articulate, only that I could not form any words from it; and what did that amount to more or less than this, namely, that it spoke, but only it was in a language that I did not understand. If it was possible to describe the surprise of my spirits on that occasion, I would do it here, how all my blood run, or rather stood still, chilled in my veins, how a cold dew of sweat sat on my forehead, how my joints, like Belshazzar’s knees, shook one against another, and how, as I said, my hair would have lifted off my hat if I had had one on my head.

But this is not all. After the first noise of the creature, which was a faint, dying kind of imperfect bleating, not unusual, as I found afterward; I say, after this he fetched two or three deep sighs, as lively, and as like human, as it is possible to imagine, as I have also said.

These were so many confirmations of my surprise, besides the sight of his two glaring eyes, and carried it up to the ex-

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treme of fright and amazement; how I afterwards conquered this childish beginning, and mustered up courage enough to go into the place with a firebrand for light, and how I was presently satisfied with seeing the creature whose condition made all the little accidental noises appear rational, I have already said.

But I must acknowledge that this real surprise left some relics or remains behind it that did not wear quite off a great while, though I struggled hard with them; the vapours that were raised at first were never so laid but that on every trifling occasion they returned; and I saw, nay, I felt apparitions as plainly and distinctly as ever I felt or saw any real substance in my life.

The like was the case with me before that, when I first found the print of a man’s foot upon the sand, by the seaside, on the north part of the island.

And these, I say, having left my fancy a little peevish and wayward, I had frequently some returns of these vapours, on differing occasions, and sometimes even without occasion; nothing but mere hypochondriac whimsies, fluttering of the blood, and rising of vapours, which nobody could give any account of but myself.

For example, it was one night, after my having seen some odd appearances in the air, of no great significance, that coming home, and being in bed, but not asleep, I felt a pain in one

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of my feet, after which it came to a kind of numbness in my foot, which a little surprised me, and after that a kind of tingling in my blood, as if it had been some distemper running up my leg.

On a sudden I felt, as it were, something alive lie upon me, as if it had been a dog lying upon my bed, from my knee downwards, about half way up my leg, and immediately afterwards I felt it heavier, and felt it as plainly roll itself upon me upwards upon my thigh, for I lay on one side, I say, as if it had been a creature lying upon me with all his weight, and turning his body upon me.

It was so lively and sensible to me, and I remember it perfectly well, though it is now many years ago, that my blood chills and flutters about my heart at the very writing it. I immediately flung myself out of my bed and flew to my musket, which stood always ready at my hand, and naked as I was, laid about me upon the bed in the dark, and everywhere else that I could think of where anybody might stand or lie, but could find nothing. “Lord deliver me from an evil spirit,” said I, “what can this be?” And being tired with groping about, and having broke two or three of my earthen pots with making blows here and there to no purpose, I went to light my candle, for my Lamp which I used to burn in the night either had not been lighted, or was gone out.

When I lighted a candle, I could easily see there was no living creature in the place with me but the poor parrot, who was

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waked and frighted, and cried out, “Hold your tongue,” and “What’s the matter with you?” Which words he learned of me, from my frequent saying so to him, when he used to make his ordinary wild noise and screaming that I did not like.

The more I was satisfied that there was nothing in the room, at least to be seen, the more another concern came upon me. “Lord!” says I aloud, “this is the devil” “Hold your tongue,” says Poll. I was so mad at the bird, though the creature knew nothing of the matter, that if he had hung near me, I believe I should have killed him. I put my clothes on, and sat me down, for I could not find it my heart to go to bed again, and as I sat down, “I am terribly frighted,” said I. “What’s the matter with you!” says Poll. “You toad,” said I, “I’d knock your brains out if you were here.” “Hold your tongue,” says he again, and then fell to chattering “Robin Crusoe,” and “Poor Robin Crusoe,” as he used to do.

Had I been in any reach of a good temper, it had been enough to have composed me, but I was quite gone; I was fully possessed with a belief that it was the devil, and I prayed most heartily to God to be delivered from the power of the evil spirit.

After some time I composed myself a little, and went to bed again, and lying just in the posture as I was in before, I felt a little of the tingling in my blood which I felt before, and I resolved to lie still, let it be what it would; it came up as high as my knee, as before, but no higher; and now I began to see plainly that it was all a distemper, that it was something para-

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lytic, and that affected the nerves; but I had not either experience of such a thing, or knowledge of diseases enough to be fully satisfied of the nature of them, and whether anything natural, any numbness or dead palsy affecting one part of the thigh, could feel as that did, till some months after that I felt something of the very same again at my first lying down in my bed for three or four nights together, which at first gave me a little concern as a distemper, but at last gave me such satisfaction, that the first was nothing but the same thing in a higher degree; that the pleasure of knowing it was only a disease was far beyond the concern at the danger of it, though a dead palsy to one in my condition might reasonably have been one of the most frightful things in Nature, since, having nobody to help me, I must have inevitably perished for mere want of food, not being able to go from place to place to fetch it.

But to go back to the case in hand, and to the apprehension I had been in all the several months that passed between the first of this and the last, I went about with a melancholy, heavy heart, fully satisfied that thedevil had been in my room, and lay upon my bed. Sometimes I would try to argue myself a little out of it, asking myself whether it was reasonable to imagine the devil had nothing else to do than to come thither, and only lie down upon me, and go away about his business, and say not one word to me; what end it could answer; and whether I thought the devil was really busied about such trifles; or whether he had not employment enough of a higher nature, so that such a thing as that could be worth his while.

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