robinson crusoe 
 

The Life And Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe, etc
Part 1 

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I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho' 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 afterward 
at York, from whence he had married my Mother, Relations were named Robinson, a 

very good Family at Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Keutznaer; but 
by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call our 

Selves, and writer Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call'd me. 

I had two elder Brothers, one of which was Lieutenant Collonel to an English 
Regiment of Foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Coll. Lockhart, 

and was killed at the Battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards: What became of 
my second Brother I never knew any more than Father or Mother did know what was 

become of me. 

Being the third Son of the Family, and not bred to any Trade, my Head began to 
be fill'd very early with rambling Thoughts: My Father, who was very ancient, 

had given me competent Share of Learning, as far as House-Education, and a 
Country Free-School generally goes, and design'd for the Law; but I would be 

satisfied with nothing but go 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 Perswasions of my Mother and other Friends, that there seem'd to 
be something fatal in Propension of Nature tending directly to the Life of 

Misery which was to befal me. 

My Father, a wise and grave Man, gave me serious excellent Counsel against what 
he foresaw was my Design. He call'd me one Morning into his Chamber, where he 

confined by the Gout, and expostulated very warmly me upon this Subject: He 
ask'd me what Reasons more a meer wandring inclination I had for leaving my 

Father House and my native Country, where I might be well introduced, and had a 
Prospect of raising my Fortunes Application and Industry, with a Life of Ease 

and Pleasure He told me it was for Men of desperate Fortunes on one Hand, or of 
aspiring, Superior Fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon Adventures, to 

rise by Enterprize, 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 mechanick Part of Mankind, and not 

embarass'd 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 Consequences of being born to great 

things, and wish'd they had been placed in the Middle of the two Extremes, 
between Mean and the Great; that the wise Man gave his Testimony to this as the 

just Standard of true Felicity, when he pray to have neither Poverty or Riches. 

He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the Calamitles of Life were 
shared among the upper and lower Part of Mankind; but that the middle Station 

had the fewest Disasters, and was not expos'd to so many Vicisitudes as the 
higher or lower Part of Mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many 

Distempers and Uneasiness either of Body or Mind, as those were who, by vicious 
Living, Luxury and Extravagancies on one Hand, or by hard Labour, Want of 

Necessaries, and mean or insufficient Diet on the other Hand, bring Distempers