efore we
reckon its costs, or judge rightly our own abilities to go through with
its performance_.

In the height of this work my fourth year expired, from the time I was
cast on this island, At this time I did not forget my anniversary; but
kept it with rather greater devotion than before. For now my hopes being
frustrated, I looked upon this world as a thing had nothing to do with;
and very well might I say as Father Abraham said unto Dives, _Between
thee and me there is a gulph fixed._ And indeed I was separated from its
wickedness too, having neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, nor the pride of life; I had nothing to covet, being lord, king and
emperor over the whole country I had in possession, without dispute and
without control: I had loadings of corn, plenty of turtles, timber in
abundance, and grapes above measure. What was all the rest to me? the
money I had lay by me as despicable dross, which I would freely have
given for a gross of tobacco pipes, or a hard mill to grind my corn: in
a word the-nature and experience of these things dictated to me this
just reflection: _That the good things of this world are no farther
good to us, than they are for our use; and that whatever we may heap up
to give to others, we can but enjoy as much as we use, and no more._

These thoughts rendered my mind more easy than usual. Every time I sat
down to meat, I did it with thankfulness, admiring the providential hand
of God, who in this wilderness had spread a table to me. And now I
considered what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted, compared my
present condition with what I at first expected it should be; _how I
should have done, if I had got nothing out of the ship, that I must have
perished before I had caught fish or turtles; or lived, had I found
them, like a mere savage, by eating them raw, and pulling them in pieces
with my claws, like a beast_. I next compared my station to that which I
deserved: _how undutiful I had been to my parents; how destitute of the
fear of God; bow void of every thing that was good; and how ungrateful
for those abundant mercies I had received from Heaven, being fed as it
were, by a miracle, even as great as Elijah's being fed by ravens; and
cast on a place where there is no venomous creatures to poison or devour
me_; in short making God's tender mercies matter of great consolation, I
relinquished all sadness, and gave way to contentment.

As long as my ink continued, which w