could not possibly be on
shore any where thereabouts: secondly, when I came to measure the mark
with my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both
these things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me the
vapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook with cold like one
in an ague; and I went home again, filled with the belief that some man
or men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island was
inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware; and what course
to take for my security I knew not.

O what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! It
deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their
relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down my
enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the
enemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the
same or the like booty: then to the simple thing of digging up my two
corn fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still be
prompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent,
that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to
look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.

These were the subject of the first night's cogitataions after I was
come home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run my mind
were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as above. Thus fear
of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when
apparent to the eyes; and we find the burthen of anxiety greater, by
much, than the evil which we are anxious about: and, which was worse
than all this, I had not that relief in this trouble from the
resignation I used to practise, that I hoped to have. I looked, I
thought, like Saul, who complained not, only that the Philistines were
upon him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways
to compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon
his providence, as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance;
which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supported
under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more
resolution.

This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the
morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been, as
it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and
waked much better composed than I