Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe: Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe with his Vision of the Angelic World. 1720; 1903; Google Books. 3 May 2017. E-book. [References are Kindle locations].

I have taught Robinson Crusoe for years. Some time ago in order to add to my knowledge of the novel, I read its sequel, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. In the past year I discovered that Daniel Defoe actually wrote a third book by Mr. Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe: Serious Reflections is different. It is not a novel at all, but a collection of essays which Crusoe supposedly wrote reflecting on his life and experiences.

Keep in mind that Defoe made his living much of his life as an editor and wrote many essays and editorials himself. He ended up in jail at least twice because the British government did not like what he had written. The essays in Serious Reflections are similar in style and approach to those of Addison, Steele, Johnson, and other eighteenth century contemporaries. The sentences may be longer and more complex than what we normally read today, but his language and logic are easy to follow.

The preface begins by Crusoe emphatically stating that his life story “while allegorical is also historical.” If some people think that he has made it up, he reminds us that “Even the miracles of the blessed Savior of the world suffered scorn and contempt.” (63)

The first chapter may be of most interest to students of literature and of Robinson Crusoe. Here “Crusoe” reflects on solitude. While he notes things from a Christian rather than pantheistic point of view, his reflections are very similar to those that Thoreau would write in Walden about 130 years later.

Solitude, he notes, is partly a mental state. He can achieve a state of solitude similar to that on his island even in London “…if the mind be confined, if the soul be truly master of itself, all is safe…” (170) How like Thoreau! Like Thoreau he notes that “The abstaining from evil, therefore, depends not only and wholly upon limiting or confining the man’s actions, but upon the man’s limiting and confining his desires.” (198) Again, this is similar to Walden’s praise of self-control.

He notes, as many others have, that while good company is best, “no company is better than bad company.” (207) He also questions whether monastic separation is necessary. He says that when St. Paul was dealing with his “thorn in the flesh,” he did not retreat, he prayed. God’s answer, “‘My grace is sufficient for thee’—sufficient without the help of artificial mortification.” (289 cf. II Corinthians 12:7-9)

In his novel when passing through a mountain wilderness, Crusoe jokes that he was more concerned about the two-legged variety of wolf than those with four legs. So his next chapter is on honesty.

Looking back on the end of his first novel, Crusoe expresses gratitude for the people who treated him and his property with honesty after he was cut off from human society for twenty-eight years. Similarly, he helped a Brazilian friend who was in a financial pinch. Yes, we need each other.

“Crusoe” observes that the truly honest man acknowledges his mistakes, just as Crusoe did in his tales. At the same time he notes that “every man thinks himself and proclaims himself an honest man.” (452) So who truly is honest?

The author devotes quite a few pages discussing cunning and claims that the New Englander is even more cunning than the Scot. He meant that as an insult, but I have known “Yankees” who would accept such an accusation with pride.

While discussing honesty, he makes a solid case for a reform that he hoped to see in England. It came about, but Defoe was a century and a half too early. The reform? Abolishing debtors’ prisons. He even has a Bible text to support his position.

He also uses an analogy similar to the shopkeeper’s debtor story in Pilgrim’s Progress. If a man moves to a new country and lives honestly there but has outstanding debts in his old country, true honesty would compel him to pay off those debts as well.

To a truly honest man, his word is his most valuable possession. There is a lot of wisdom in these pages. Defoe notes that “virtue is its own reward.” (843) Similarly, a truly honest man also cares about the reputation of others because he is aware of “his own frailty.” (881)

The next chapter is entitled “Of the Immorality of Conversation and Vulgar Errors of Behavior.” Crusoe said that he observed a greater coarseness in England after being away from his homeland for twenty-eight years. Western morality today is not unlike that of early 18th Century England—including her American colonies—before the Great Awakening. Crusoe writes more with concern than with self-righteousness. He repeatedly acknowledges the need for God’s grace.

Going on in the vein of virtue being its own reward, he remarks that vices seldom live to an old age. As a Whig, he acknowledges that to make laws against some vices like drinking and blaspheming is “as fruitless as making a shelter against the lightning.” (1187) So many have engaged in these things that there would be as many trespasses as there are minutes in a day.

He tells us that it was very much “the mode” among the “beaux” to “set up for atheists” and to have “committed witty in the defense of it…” (1192) No, Mr. Crusoe, things have not changed that much. Bartholomew Fair in the 1600s, atheist clubs in the 1700s, and communistic judges in the 2100s. The more things change…

Defoe notes that Augustine observed that the Romans of his day were immoral because they were imitating their immoral gods. So today, people justify their actions because even their leaders do the same things. As Chaucer wrote, “If the gold rust, what shall the iron do?”

When reflecting that moral degeneracy in the Western world goes hand in hand with atheism, he observes that even polytheists and abject heathen have some fear of a Creator or Prime Mover, a fear that many people of his day lacked. Yes, Mr. Defoe, things really have not changed that much.

Serious Reflections is pretty good at asking atheists some tough questions. Towards the end of the book, he even has a dialogue between a student of the Bible and an atheist that could have come from the pen of John Bunyan. “Crusoe” claims it really happened.

There is a chapter “On the Present State of Religion in the World.” This chapter is interesting to read as an historical document. There is a dialogue between Crusoe and an old man about the necessity for the Gospel to be carried universally. That was a message in Robinson Crusoe—ex-cannibal Friday made a better Christian than many civilized Westerners—and here Defoe extends that idea.

He does propose one thing that might have partly worked 300 years ago to some degree: That Christian countries conquer pagan lands to at least destroy false gods. Doing that might get them away from the distractions of idolatry and turn to the true God. The most one can say is that it was tried in the 18th and 19th Centuries some, but a state religion is not the same as a heart religion. Still, Crusoe argues that while Christianity in a culture may not always have a saving influence, it does have a civilizing influence.

I personally bear witness to that. When I was in college, I had two conversations each with a friend in the same week. One was a born-again Christian and the other was meditating Buddhist. I was interested in what they both had to say. They each invited me to join them in meetings that happened to meet at the same time. As I reflected on the two invitations, I considered history. There was little that I could see that Buddhism had done for the people in the oriental nations that practiced it, except maybe for the monarchs and warlords. Whereas Christianity, especially since the Reformation, had transformed the West and the world. Although it would take three more years before I was born again myself, I was on the way to meeting Defoe’s God, not the idols of the East.

Other chapters include “On Listening to the Voice of Providence” and “Of the Proportion Between Christians and the Pagan.” The first presents very practical advice about “listening” to the voice of conscience. The second carries forward points made on the chapter on the state of religion.

The appendix is entitled “A Vision of the Angelic World” where Crusoe presents what he purports to be a view of angels and demons warring in the world. This is hardly sensational and seems to rest primarily on what the Bible teaches. It is a stark reminder, again, of what Thoreau wrote in Walden, that “our whole life is startlingly moral.”

At one point Defoe seems to have forgotten he is in character and speaks on himself and Crusoe as separate people. Other than that, Defoe is writing on behalf of Crusoe. Serious Reflections can help us appreciate the Crusoe novels more and even provide some commentary on them.