by Daniel Defoe
_R O B I N S O N C R U S O E'S_ VISION OF THE ANGELIC WORLD.
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CHAP. I. Of SOLITUDE.
However solitude is looked upon as a restraint to the pleasure of theworld, in company and conversation, yet it is a happy state of exemptionfrom a sea of trouble, an inundation of vanity and vexation, ofconfusion and disappointment. While we enjoy ourselves, neither the joynot sorrow of other men affect us: We are then at liberty with the voiceof our soul, to speak to God. By this we shun such frequent trivialdiscourse, as often becomes an obstruction to virtue: and how often dowe find that we had reason to with we had not been in company, or saidnothing when we were there? for either we offend God by the impiety ofour discourse, or lay ourselves open to the violence of designing peopleby our ungarded expressions; and frequently feel the coldness andtreachery of pretended friends, when once involved in trouble andaffliction: of such unfaithful intimates (I should say enemies) whorather by false inuendoes would accumulate miseries upon us, thanhonestly assist us when under the hard hand of adversity. But in a stateof solitude, when our tongues cannot be heard, except from the greatMajesty of Heaven, how happy are we, in the blessed enjoyment ofconversing with our Maker! It is then we make him our friend, which setsus above the envy and contempt of wicked men. When a man converses withhimself, he is sure that he does not converse with an enemy. Our retreatshould be to good company, and good books. I mean not by solitude, thata man should retire into a cell, a desert, or a monastry: which would bealtogether an useless and unprofitable restraint: for as men ate formedfor society, and have an absolute necessity and dependance upon oneanother; so there is a retirement of the soul, with which it conversesin heaven, even in the midst of men; and indeed no man is more fit tospeak freely, than he who can, without any violence himself, refrain histongue, or keep silence altogether. As to religion, it is by this thefoul gets acquainted with the hidden mysteries of the holy writings;here she finds those floods of tears, in which good men wash themselvesday and night, and only makes a visit to God, and his holy angels. Inthis conversation the truest peace and most solid joy are to be found;it is a continual feast of contentment on earth, and the means ofattaining everlasting happiness in heaven.
