the prow that breaks the water,

is the way that you are moving,

eyes front and ever outward,

to-ward and fro-ward and on-ward,

breaking past one's own wards,

a sally forth,

abstracting, subtracting, and contracting,

well along with the calving of one's work,

ardent, zealous, eager, precocious and presumptuous,

dynamiting all that stands before you

in your way,

working your way,

unhorsed and forward

through the shards and chips and dust.

An unfamiliar word, I searched the definition to better understand the excerpt. One definition according to the OED: An earnest or humble request. Also: the action of making such a request; supplication. Here he uses a word with a very innocent connotation to describe what his mother has asked of him. In most traditional texts, prior to the novel, women always seemed to be portrayed as innocent and truthful. His mother is being portrayed here in that exact manner. As a result, this further enhances the idea that this text still contains elements of traditional pre novel texts.

"entreaty, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/62972. Accessed 12 February 2020.

Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

I don't quite follow here. What are "others" to the ascetic?

I would assume that an ascetic (one who practices austerity and self-denial, http://www.oed.com.ezp.slu.edu/view/Entry/11367?redirectedFrom=ascetic#eid) would eschew others, to deny themselves the (so-called) pleasures of the company of others, but would a recluse thereby eschew the notebook? Are "others" potential converts?

Muckelbauer has made some interesting word choices so far (see also traffic, above). Both have sexual connotations (sex trafficking, sexual promiscuity); though he's not using them in that way, I can't help but to make the association.

OED: "Done or applied with no regard for method, order, etc.; random, indiscriminate, unsystematic," from "classical Latin prōmiscuus common, shared, general, indiscriminate" (http://www.oed.com.ezp.slu.edu/view/Entry/152429?redirectedFrom=promiscuous#eid)

This is a more-or-less archaic word in the sense that it is not often used in modern times, however in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century it was a euphemism for fool or idiot (OED).

While in Austen's time the word "gay" could be defined as lighthearted, fun, or happy, in modern times it is more traditionally used as a synonym for "homosexual." Also, while in Austen's time it was a positive word, nowadays it is even sometimes used as a slang for something negative or disagreeable, or a slur (OED).

A thought or circumstance that troubles the mind or conscience; a doubt, uncertainty or hesitation in regard to right and wrong, duty, propriety, etc.; esp. one which is regarded as over-refined or over-nice, or which causes a person to hesitate where others would be bolder to act.

A disreputable or dissolute person; a rogue

A woman who has lost her chastity; a harlot or strumpet; a kept mistress

A woman that hires her person, a prostitute

One employed in pandering to sexual debauchery; a procurer or procuress; orig. in a more general sense, and in the majority of passages masculine, a ‘go-between,’ a pander; since c1700 only feminine, and applied to a procuress, or a woman keeping a place of prostitution; a woman in charge of a brothel

An act or spell of petty talk; an item of small talk or gossip