Please to remember, I opened the book by accident, at that bit, only the day before I rashly undertook the business now in hand; and, allow me to ask--if THAT isn't prophecy, what is?
I am not superstitious; I have read a heap of books in my time; I am a scholar in my own way.

Though turned seventy, I possess an active memory, and legs to correspond.

You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that such a book as ROBINSON CRUSOE never was written, and never will be written again.

I have tried that book for years--generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco--and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life.

When my spirits are bad--ROBINSON CRUSOE.