Reader,is it necessary to name the book which now stood open in my hand,and whose very prints,feeble expounders of its wondrous lines,had produced within me emotions strange and novel?Scarcely-for it was a book which has exerted over the minds of Englishmen an influence certainly greater than any other of modern times-which has been in most people's hands,and with the contents of which even those who cannot read are to a certain extent acquainted-a book from which the most luxuriant and fertile of our modern prose writers have drunk inspiration-a book,moreover,to which,from the hardy deeds which it narrates,and the spirit of strange and romantic enterprise which it tends to awaken,England owes many of her astonishing discoveries both by sea and land,and no inconsiderable part of her naval glory.
Hail to thee,spirit of De Foe!What does not my own poor self owe to thee?England has better bards than either Greece or Rome,yet I could spare them easier far than De Foe,'unabashed De Foe,'as the hunchbacked rhymer styled him.
The true chord had now been touched;a raging curiosity with respect to the contents of the volume,whose engravings had fascinated my eye,burned within me,and I never rested until I had fully satisfied it;weeks succeeded weeks,months followed months,and the wondrous volume was my only study and principal source of amusement.For hours together I would sit poring over a page till I had become acquainted with the import of every line.My progress,slow enough at first,became by degrees more rapid,till at last,under 'a shoulder of mutton sail,'I found myself cantering before a steady breeze over an ocean of enchantment,so well pleased with my voyage that I cared not how long it might be ere it reached its termination.
And it was in this manner that I first took to the paths of knowledge.
About this time I began to be somewhat impressed with religious feelings.My parents were,to a certain extent,religious people;but,though they had done their best to afford me instruction on religious points,I had either paid no attention to what they endeavoured to communicate,or had listened with an ear far too obtuse to derive any benefit.But my mind had now become awakened from the drowsy torpor in which it had lain so long,and the reasoning powers which I possessed were no longer inactive.
Hitherto I had entertained no conception whatever of the nature and properties of God,and with the most perfect indifference had heard the divine name proceeding from the mouths of people-frequently,alas!on occasions when it ought not to be employed;but I now never heard it without a tremor,for I now knew that God was an awful and inscrutable Being,the Maker of all things;that we were His children,and that we,by our sins,had justly offended Him;that we were in very great peril from His anger,not so much in this life as in another and far stranger state of being yet to come;that we had a Saviour withal to whom it was necessary to look for help:upon this point,however,I was yet very much in the dark,as,indeed,were most of those with whom I was connected.
The power and terrors of God were uppermost in my thoughts;they fascinated though they astounded me.Twice every Sunday I was regularly taken to the church,where,from a corner of the large spacious pew,lined with black leather,I would fix my eyes on the dignified High-Church rector,and the dignified High-Church clerk,and watch the movement of their lips,from which,as they read their respective portions of the venerable liturgy,would roll many a portentous word deive of the wondrous works of the Most High.
RECTOR.Thou didst divide the sea,through thy power:thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
PHILOH.Thou smotest the heads of Leviathan in pieces:and gavest him to be meat for the people in the wilderness.
RECTOR.Thou broughtest out fountains,and waters out of the hard rocks:thou driedst up mighty waters.