These two did I escape by God His help and grace:
The third was wine of palms, which brought me to this place."
So I became lord of the whole island and began again a hermit's life, for which I had now not only opportunity more than enough but also a fixed desire and purpose thereto. 'Tis true I made all use of the good things and gifts of this place, with hearty thanks to God, whose goodness and might alone had so richly provided for me, but withal I was careful not to misuse this superfluity. And often did I wish that I had Christian men with me that elsewhere must suffer poverty and need, to profit with me by the gifts that God had given: but because I knew that for His Almighty power 'twas more than possible, if it were but His divine will, to bring thither more folk in easier and more miraculous fashion than I had been brought, it often gave me cause humbly to thank Him for His divine Providence in that He had in such fatherly wise cared for me more than many thousands of other men, and set me in a place so full of content and peace.
Chap. xxiii.: IN WHICH THE HERMIT CONCLUDES HIS STORY AND THEREWITH ENDS THESE HIS SIX BOOKS
Now had my comrade hardly been a week dead when I marked that my abode was haunted. "Yea, yea," I thought, "Simplicissimus, thou art now alone, and so 'twas to be expected that the evil one should endeavour to torment thee. Didst not look that that malicious spirit would make thy life hard for thee? Yet why take count of him, when thou hast God to thy friend? Thou needest but somewhat wherein to exercise thyself; else wilt thou come to thy ruin from mere idleness and superfluity; for besides him thou hast no enemy but thine own self and the plenty and pleasaunce of this island; therefore make thy resolve to strive against him who in his own conceit is the strongest of all. For be he overcome by God his help, then shouldst thou, if God will, by His grace remain master of thyself."
And with these thoughts I went my way for a day or two, and they made of me a better and a piouser man; for I did prepare myself for that encounter which without doubt I must endure with the evil spirit; yet herein did I for this time deceive myself; for as on a certain evening I perceived a somewhat that could be heard, I went out of my hut, which stood close beneath a spur of that mountain, beneath which was the spring of that sweet water that floweth through the island into the sea; and there saw I my comrade that scrabbled with his fingers in a cleft of the rock. Then may ye easily understand that I was afeared; yet quickly I plucked up heart and commended myself to God's protection with the sign of Holy Cross, and thought, "this thing must be; 'twere better to-day than to-morrow."
With that I went up to the spirit and used to him such words as be customary in such a case. And then forthwith I understood that 'twas my deceased comrade, which in his lifetime had there concealed his ducats, as thinking that if, sooner or later, a ship should come to the island, he would recover them and take them away with him; yea, and he gave me to know that he had trusted more in this handful of money, whereby he hoped again to come to his home, than on God; for which cause he must now do penance by such unrest after his death, and moreover against his will be a cause of uneasiness to myself. So at his desire I took forth the money, yet held it as less than naught, as will the sooner be believed because I had nothing on which to employ it. And this was now the first affright that I had after I was left alone; yet afterwards was plagued by spirits of other sorts than this one; whereof I will say no more, but this only, that by God's help and grace I attained to this, that I found no single enemy more, save only mine own thoughts, which were oft troubled enough; for these go not scot-free before God, as men do vainly talk, but in His good time a reckoning must be paid for these also.
So that these might the less stain my soul with sins, I busied myself not only in the avoiding of that which profited naught, but did impose on myself a bodily task the which to perform with my customary prayer; for as man is born for work like the bird for flying, so on the other hand doth idleness inflict her sicknesses both on soul and body, and in the end, when we be least ware of it, eternal ruin. For this cause I planted me a garden, of which indeed I had less need than the waggon hath of a fifth wheel, seeing that the whole island might well be called one lovely pleasure-garden; so was my work of no other avail but that I brought this and that into completer order, albeit to many the natural disorder of the plants as they grew mingled together might appear more pleasing, and again that, as aforesaid, I shunned idleness. O how oft did I wish, when I had wearied out my body and must give it rest, that I had godly books wherein to comfort, to delight, and to edify myself! But such I could not come by. Yet as I had once read of a holy man that he said the whole wide world was to him one great book; wherein to recognise the wondrous works of God and to be cheered to praise Him, so I thought to follow him therein, howbeit I was, so to speak, no longer in the world. For that little island must be my whole world, and in the same, every thing, yea, every tree, an incitement to godliness and a reminder of such thoughts as a good Christian should have. Thus, did I see a prickly plant, forthwith I thought on Christ his crown of thorns; saw I an apple or a pomegranate, then I reflected on the fall of our first parents and mourned therefore; when I did draw palm-wine from a tree, I fancied to myself how mercifully my Redeemer had shed His blood for me on the tree of the Holy Cross; when I looked on sea or on mountain, then I remembered this or that miracle which our Saviour had wrought in such places; and when I found one or more stones that were convenient for casting, I had before mine eyes the picture of the Jews that would have stoned Christ; and when I walked in my garden I thought on the prayer of agony in Mount Olivet, or on the grave of Christ, and how after His Resurrection He appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden. Such thoughts were my daily occupation; never did I eat but that I thought on the Last Supper, and never cooked my food without the fire reminding me of the eternal pains of hell.
At last I found that with Brazil-juice, of which there be several sorts on this island, when mixed with lemon-juice, 'twas easy to write on a kind of large palm-leaves; which rejoiced me greatly; for now could I devise and write out prayers in order; yea, in the end, considering with hearty repentance my whole life and my knavish tricks that I had committed from my youth up, and how the merciful God, despite all such gross sins, had not only thus far preserved me from everlasting damnation, but had given me time and opportunity to better myself and to be converted, to beg His forgiveness and to thank Him for His mercies, I did write down all that had befallen me in this book made of the afore-mentioned palm-leaves, and laid them together with my comrade's ducats in this place, to the end that if at any time folk should come hither, they might find such, and therefrom learn who it was that before inhabited this island. And whoso shall find this and read it, be it to-day or to-morrow, either before or after my death, him I beg that if he meet therein with words which be not becoming, for one that would do better, to speak, much less to write, he will not be angered thereat, but will consider that the telling of light actions and stories demands words fitting thereto; and even as the houseleek cannot easily be soaked by any rain, that so a true and devout spirit cannot forthwith be infected, poisoned, and corrupted by any discourse, though it seem as wanton as you will. The honourably minded Christian reader will rather wonder, and praise the divine mercy, when he shall find that so knavish a companion as I have been yet hath had such grace of God as to resign the world and to live in such a condition that therein he hopeth to come to eternal glory and to attain to everlasting blessedness by the sufferings of his Redeemer, through a pious