“O that there had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul. saved out of this ship… to have conversed with!”

Answer: These lines have been taken from Chapter 17 of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Here Crusoe gives vent to his earnest desire to be in touch with human company.

At this stage of Crusoe’s life, he has lived on this solitary island for many years his thirsty car and soul have not listened to any human voice, nor has he come across any human figure for a long period of time. He now feels a strange, desire in his soul and says that if there had been just one human soul alive in the wrecked ship, he would have found a human company. He continues that a fellow creature could have spoken to him, and conversed with him. He feels that the company of a fellow creature would have acted as a soothing balm to his lonely heart.

These lines express the deep sorrow of Crusoe’s heart and he eagerly longs for a living human company to comfort his solitary soul.