Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner

London

W. Taylor

1719

"Pray note, all this was the Fruit of a disturb'd Mind, an impatient Temper, made as it were desperate, by the long Continuance of my Troubles, and the Disappointments I had met in the Wreck I had been on Board of, and where I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly long'd for, viz. some Body to speak to, and to learn some Knowledge from of the Place where I was, and of the probable Means of my Deliverance."

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do with myself when I came thither; what would become of me, if I fell into the Hands of the Savages; or how I should escape from them, if they attempted me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the Coast, and not be attempted by some or other of them, without any Possibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall into their Hands, what I should do for Provision, or whither I should bend my Course; none of these Thoughts, I say, so much as came in my Way; but my Mind was wholly bent upon the Notion of my passing over in my Boat to the main Land: I look'd back upon my present Condition, as the most miserable that could possibly be, that I was not able to throw myself into any thing but Death, that could be call'd worse; that if I reach'd the Shore of the Main, I might perhaps meet with Relief, or I might coast along as I did on the Shore of Africk, till I came to some inhabited Country, and where I might find some Relief; and after all, perhaps I might fall in with some Christian Ship that might take me in; and if the worst came to the worst, I could but die, which would put an end to all these Miseries at once. Pray note, all this was the Fruit of a disturb'd Mind, an impatient Temper, made as it were desperate, by the long Continuance of my Troubles, and the Disappointments I had met in the Wreck I had been on Board of, and where I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly long'd for, viz. some Body to speak to, and to learn some Knowledge from of the Place where I was, and of the probable Means of my Deliverance: I say, I was agitated wholly by these Thoughts. All my Calm of Mind in my Resignation to Providence, and waiting the Issue of the Dispositions of Heaven, seem'd to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no Power to turn my Thoughts to any Thing, but to the Project of a Voyage to the Main, which came upon me with such Force, and such an Impetuosity of Desire, that it was not to be resisted.
(pp. 233-4)

Plant::Fruit

HDIS (Prose)

At least 33 entries in ESTC (1719, 1720, 1722, 1726, 1742, 1744, 1747, 1753, 1761, 1766, 1767, 1772, 1778, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).

See Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years All Alone in an Un-Inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account How He Was at Last As Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself (London: W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>

01/13/2004

06/07/2011