o effect upon
me, or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination I had to go
abroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper. In
particular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the
colony I left there, ran in my head continually. I dreamed of it all
night, and my imagination ran upon it all day: it was uppermost in all my
thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it that I
talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothing could remove it out of my
mind: it even broke so violently into all my discourses that it made my
conversation tiresome, for I could talk of nothing else; all my discourse
ran into it, even to impertinence; and I saw it myself.

I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stir that
people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owing to the
strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their
minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost
walking; that people's poring affectionately upon the past conversation
of their deceased friends so realises it to them that they are capable of
fancying, upon some extraordinary circumstances, that they see them, talk
to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but
shadow and vapour in the thing, and they really know nothing of the
matter.

For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any such things as
real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they are dead; or
whether there is anything in the stories they tell us of that kind more
than the product of vapours, sick minds, and wandering fancies: but this
I know, that my imagination worked up to such a height, and brought me
into such excess of vapours, or what else I may call it, that I actually
supposed myself often upon the spot, at my old castle, behind the trees;
saw my old Spaniard, Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left
upon the island; nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them
steadily, though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and
this I did till I often frightened myself with the images my fancy
represented to me. One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of the
three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the first Spaniard, and
Friday's father, that it was surprising: they told me how they
barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, and that they set fire
to the provisions they had laid up,