I had enough to
eat and supply my wants, and what was the rest to me? If I killed more
flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more
corn than I could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees that I cut down
were lying to rot on the ground; I could make no more use of them than
for fuel, and that I had no other occasion for but to dress my food.

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon just
reflection, that all the good things of this world, are of no farther
good to us than for our use; and that whatever we may heap up to give
others, we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more. The most
covetous griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of
covetousness, if he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely more
than I knew what to do with. I had no room for desire, except it was for
things which I had not, and they were comparatively but trifles, though
indeed of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money,
as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there
the nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay: I had no manner of business for
it; and I often thought within myself, that I would have given a handful
of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn;
nay, I would have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot
seed from England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of
ink. As it was, I had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it;
but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave
in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had
been the same case,--they had been of no manner of value to me because
of no use.

I had now brought my state of life to be much more comfortable in itself
than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body.
I frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of
God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness: I
learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon
the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I
wanted: and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot
express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented
people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given
them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them.
All our