Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
Chapter I - Start in Life
I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled
first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade,
lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations
were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was
called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England,
we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so
my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What
became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother
knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head
began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very
ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education
and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I
would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this
led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that
there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending
directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel
against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his
chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with
me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering
inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I
might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by
application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure.
He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz.
that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of
life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle
station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes
as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many
distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by
vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour,
want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring
distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living;
that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all
kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune;
that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable
diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the
middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smooth ly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the
hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor
harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body
of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of
ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through
the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter;
feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it
more sensibly.
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner,
not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which
nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided against;
that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for
me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just
been recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the
world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should
have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me
against measures which he knew would be to my hurt; in a word, that as he would
do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he directed,
so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any
encouragement to go away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother
for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires
prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he
would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I
did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should have leisure
hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none
to assist in my recovery.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário