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