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For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any such things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they are dead

I was as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brazils

With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of another

I was still as uneasy as I was before; I had no relish for the place, no employment in it

This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island; where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not want it; and bred no more goats

This affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of the vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing

That homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz.

Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken away in me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing to seek

In this kind of temper I lived some years; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion but what had something or other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night that she believed there was some secret

I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stir that people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their minds

I had no rent to pay, was limited by no articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased