Robinson Crusoe
PREFACE TO THE STORY
OF MY ADVENTURES
by Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
Some have said
that the story of Robinson Crusoe is feigned, that it is all fiction. They say
there never was such a man, and never such a place or such circumstances in a
man's life.
They say that
the entire story is an invention imposed on the world.
I, Robinson
Crusoe, being of perfectly sound mind and memory (and I thank God for this) do
hereby declare that such objections are false and scandalous.
I affirm that
the story, though allegorical, is also historical. It is the beautiful
representation of a life of unparalleled misfortune and of varied experiences
found nowhere else in the world. It has been adapted with the common good of
the reader in mind. It was designed from the very first for the most serious
purposes possible.
Further, I wish
to affirm that there is a man alive, and well known too, whose life is the
proper subject of these volumes and to whom all, or the most part of the story,
directly alludes. This may be depended upon as truth, and to this I set my
name.
The famous
story of Don Quixote, a work which thousands read with pleasure, was an
emblematic history of the Duke de median Sidonia, a remarkable person in Spain
at that time. To those who knew the original, the figures were alive and easily
uncovered, as is the case here also.
The Emblem and
the Original
Without taking
the reader into a closer explication of the matter, I proceed to let him know
that the happy deductions I have drawn from all the circumstances of my life
will abundantly make up for his not having the Emblem explained further by the
Original. When in all my observations and reflections in theses volume I
mention my solitude and allude to my lonely circumstances, every part of the
story is a real fact in my history, by whatever borrowed lights that history
may be represented.
So the way in
which I was driven up on the shore by the surging sea, the ship on fire, the
story of my man Friday, and many more incidents I relate and on which my
spiritual reflections have been made, are all historical and true to fact. The
fright and fancies which followed the discovery of the print of a man's foot,
and the surprise of the old goat, are also real stories.
It is most real
that I kept a parrot and it called me by my name. It is true that I had a
servant who later became a Christian, that his name was called Friday, and that
he was taken from me by force and died in the hands of those who took him. This
is all literally true and there are many alive who could testify to the comfort
and assistance he gave to me in my real solitudes and disasters.
Desolate and
Afflicting Circumstances
In a word, the
adventures of Robinson Crusoe are one whole scheme of a real life of
twenty-eight years spent in the most desolate and afflicting circumstances that
a man ever went through. I have lived for this long a time a life of continual
storms. I have fought with the worst kind of savages and have met with
unaccountable and surprising incidents. I have been fed by miracles greater
than that of ravens feeding Elijah, and have suffered all manner of oppression
and violence, including the contempt of men, the attacks of demons, corrections
from Heaven and oppositions on earth.
I have faced
innumerable ups and downs in my fortune. I have been picked up at sea, rose
again and fell again, and that oftener perhaps in one man's life than has ever
been known before. I have been shipwrecked often, though more on land than at
sea.
In a word,
there is not a circumstance in the imaginary story that does not have its exact
allusion to the real story and chimes part for part and step for step with the
inimitable life of Robinson Crusoe.
In the same
way, when in my reflections I speak of particular actions and circumstances
which happened in the solitude of my island-life, the reader will be so kind as
to take it as it is, that it is intended as a part of the real story, to which
the island-life is an exact allusion.
Moral and
Spiritual Enrichment
Besides all
this, there is here the proper and good purpose of all parables and allegorical
history, that it is for moral and spiritual enrichment.
Here,
invincible patience is recommended under the worst of misery, and undaunted
resolution under the most discouraging circumstances. I say, these are
recommended as the only way to work through these miseries. The fable is always
made for the moral, not the moral for the fable.
Had the common
writing of a man's personal history been undertaken and I had given you the
life of a man you know, along with his misfortunes and infirmities, all I could
have said would have yielded no diversion and probably would scarcely have
obtained a reading. The teacher, like the Greater One, would find no honor in
his own country. Thoughts that are designed to touch the mind must come from a
great way off. Even the miracles of the blessed Savior of the world were met
with scorn and contempt when it was seen that they were done by the Carpenter's
Son, one whose brothers and sisters were ordinary people like themselves.
But I am far
from being anxious about whether or not these thoughts of mine will be
effective. I am certain that even if the obstinacy of our age should shut its
ears against the meaningful reflections presented in these pages, there will
come a time when the minds of men will be more open.
There will come
a time when the guidelines of virtue and Christian living which I have
recommended will be more gratefully received than they are now. One generation
will be strengthened by the same teaching which another generation has
despised.Robinson Crusoe, 1720
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