The
remainder of his travels becomes, as a narrative, comparatively tiresome
and tame; and we feel, besides, that, after his unrivalled experience, he
should have remained in England, "the observed of all observers." Yet it
must be said that we are indebted to his later journey in Spain and
France, his adventures in the Eastern Seas, his caravan ride overland from
China to Europe, for much which illustrates the manners and customs of
navigation and travel in that day.
_Robinson Crusoe_ stands alone among English books, a perennial fountain
of instruction and pleasure. It aids in educating each new generation:
children read it for its incident; men to renew their youth; literary
scholars to discover what it teaches of its time and of its author's
genius. Its influence continues unabated; it incites boys to maritime
adventure, and shows them how to use in emergency whatever they find at
hand. It does more: it tends to reclaim the erring by its simple homilies;
it illustrates the ruder navigation of its day; shows us the habits and
morals of the merchant marine, and the need and means of reforming what
was so very bad.
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