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foort vierus! that a prince, poffeffed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of ftrong parts, great wifdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents for government, and almost adored by his fubjects, should, from a nice unnecessary fcruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let flip an opportunity put into his hands, that would have made him abfolute mafter of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people. Neither do I fay this with the leaft intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whofe cha racter I am fenfible will on this account ⚫ be very much leffened in the opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have rifen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a fcience, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For I remember very well in a difcourfe one day with the king, when I happened to fay there were feveral thoufand books among us written upon the art of government, it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings. He profeffed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minifter. He could not tell what I meant by fecrets of state, where an enemy, or fome rival nation, were not in the cafe. He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common fense and reason, to juftice and lenity, to the fpeedy determination of civil and criminal caufes; with fome other obvious topics which are not worth confidering. And he gave it for his opinion, that who ever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grafs, to grow upon a fpot of ground where only one grew before, would deferve better of mankind, and do more efsential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

The learning of this people is very defective, confifting only in morality, hiftory, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they muft be allowed to excel. But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be ufeful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; fo that among us it would be little efteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and tranfcendentals, I could never drive the leaft conception into their heads.

No law of that country muft exceed in

words the number of letters in their alphabet, which confifts only of two and twenty. But indeed few of them extend even to that length. They are expreffed in the most plain and fimple terms, wherein thofe people are not mercurial enough to difcover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law is a capital crime. As to the decifion of civil caufes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are fo few, that they have little reason to boaft of any extraordinary fkill in either.

They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is reckoned the largest, doth not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, from whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleafed. The queen's joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms a kind of wooden machine five and twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder, the steps were each fifty feet long: it was indeed a moveable pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet diftance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read was put up leaning against the wall; I first mounted to the upper ftep of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and fo walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and then defcending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the fame manner, and fo turned over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and ftiff as a pasteboard, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long.

Their ftyle is clear, mafculine, and fmooth, but not florid; for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unneceffary words, or ufing various expreffions. I have perufed many of their books, efpecially those in hiftory and morality. Among the reft, I was very much diverted with a little old treatife, which always lay in Glumdalclitch's bed-chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion. The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar. However, I was curious to fee what an au

thor

thor of that country could fay upon fuch a fubject. This writer went through all the ufual topics of European moralifts, fhewing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beafts; how much he was excelled by one creature in ftrength, by another in fpeed, by a third in forefight, by a fourth in induftry. He added, that nature was degenerated in thefe latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only fmall abortive births, in comparison of thofe in ancient times. He faid it was very reasonable to think, not only that the fpecies of men were originally much larger, but alfo that there must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is afferted by history and tradition, fo it hath been confirmed by huge bones and skulls cafually dug up in feveral parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of man in our days. He argued, that the very laws of nature abfolutely required we should have been made in the beginning of a fize more large and robuft, not fo liable to deftruction from every little accident of a tile falling from an houfe, or a stone caft from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook. From this way of reafoning, the author drew feveral moral applications useful in the conduct of life, but needlefs here to repeat. For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting how univerfally this talent was fpread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of difcontent and repining, from the quarrels we raife with nature. And, I believe, upon a ftrict enquiry, thofe quarrels might be shewn as ill grounded among us, as they are among that people*.

As to their military affairs, they boaft that the king's army confifts of an hundred and feventy-fix thousand foot, and thirtytwo thousand horfe: if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradefmen in

the feveral cities, and farmers in the country, whofe commanders are only the nobility and gentry without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their ex

The author's zeal to justify Providence has

before been remarked; and thefe quarrels with nature, or in other words with God, could not have been more forcibly reproved than by shew. ing, that the complaints upon which they are founded would be equally fpecious among beings of fuch aftonishing fuperiority of ftature and Strength.

ercifes, and under very good difcipline, wherein I faw no great merit; for how fhould it be otherwife, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the prin. cipal men in his own city, chofen after the manner of Venice by ballot?

I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrad drawn out to exercife in a great field near the city of twenty miles fquare. They were in all not above twenty-five thoufand foot, and fix thousand horfe; but it was impoffible for me to compute their number, confidering the space of ground they tock up. A cavalier, mounted on a large feed, might be about ninety feet high. I have feen this whole body of horfe, upon a word of command, draw their fwords at once, and brandish them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing fo grand, fo furprifing, and fo aftonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes oflightning were darting at the fame time from every quarter of the sky.

I was curious to know how this prince, to whofe dominions there is no accefs from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of miltary difcipline. But I was foon informed, both by converfation and reading their hiftories: for in the courfe of many ages they have been troubled with the fame disease to which the whole race of mankind is fubje&t; the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion. All which, however happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been fometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once occafioned civil wars, the laft whereof was happily put an end to by this prince's grandfather in a general compofition; and the militia, then fettled with common confent, hath been ever fince kept in the ftriételt duty.

CHAP. VIII.

The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers. The author attends them. Tet manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related. He returns is England.

I had always a strong impulfe, that I fhould fome time recover my liberty, though it was impoffible to conjecture by what means, or to form any project with the leaft hope of fucceeding. The fhip in which I failed was the fire ever known to be driven within fight of that coaft, and the king

had given ftrict orders, that, if at any time another appeared, it should be taken afhore, and with all its crew and paffengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud. He was ftrongly bent to get me a woman of my own size, by whom I might propagate the breed: but I think I fhould rather have died, than undergone the difgrace of leaving a pofterity to be kept in cages like tame canary-birds, and perhaps in time fold about the kingdom to perions of quality for curiofities. I was indeed treated with much kindness: I was the favourite of a great king and queen, and the delight of the whole court; but it was upon fuch a foot, as ill became the dignity of human kind. I could never forget thofe domestic pledges I had left behind me. I wanted to be among people with whom I could converfe upon even terms, and walk about the flreets and fields, without being afraid of being trod to death like a frog, or young puppy. But my deliverance came fooner than I expected, and in a manner not very common: the whole story and circumitances of which I fhall faithfully relate.

I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the third Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen in a progrefs to the fouth coaft of the kingdom. I was carried as ufual in my travelling-box, which, as I have already defcribed, was a very convenient clofet of twelve feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed by filken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a fervant carried me before him on horfeback, as I fometimes de fired, and would often fleep in my hammock while we were upon the road. On the roof of my clofet, not directly over the middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot fquare, to give me air in hot weather, as I lept; which hole I fhut at pleasure with a board, that drew backwards and forwards through a groove.

When we came to our journey's end, the king thought proper to pafs a few days at a palace he hath near Flanflafnic, a city within eighteen English miles of the fea-fide. Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued: 1 had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was fo ill as to be confined to her chamber. I longed to fee the ocean, which must be the only icene of my efcape, if ever it should happen. I pretended to be worse than I really was, and defired leave to take the fresh air of the sea with a page whom I was

very fond of, and who had sometimes been truited with me. I fhall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch confented, nor the ftrict charge fhe gave the page to be careful of me, buriting at the fame time into a flood of tears, as if the had fome foreboding of what was to happen. The boy took me out in my box about half an hour's walk from the palace towards the rocks on the fea-fhore. I ordered him to fet me down, and lifting up one of my fashes, caft many a wifful melancholy look towards the fea. I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in, and the boy fhut the window clofe down to keep out the cold. I foon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I flept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds eggs, having before obferved him from my window fearching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that as it will, I found myself fuddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was faftened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious fpeed. The firft jolt had like to have fhaken me out of my hammock, but afterwards the motion was eafy enough. I called out feveral times as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose. I looked towards my windows, and could fee nothing but the clouds and sky. I heard a noife juft over my head like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in, that fome eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak with an intent to let it fall on a rock like a tortoife in a fhell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the fagacity and fmell of this bird enabled him to dif cover his quarry at a great diftance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.

In a little time I obferved the noife and flutter of wings to increase very fast, and my box was toffed up and down like a fign in a windy day. I heard feveral bangs or buffets, as I thought, given to the eagle (for fuch I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak) and then all on a fudden felt myfelf falling perpendicularly down for above a minute, but with fuch incredible fwiftness that I' almoft loft my breath. My fall was ftopped by a terrible fquash, that founded louder

to

to my ears than the cataract of Niagara *; after which I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rife fo high that I could fee light from the tops of the windows. I now perceived that I was fallen into the fea. My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron fixed for ftrength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep in water. I did then, and do now fuppofe, that the eagle which flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let me drop while he defended himself against the reft, who hoped to fhare in the prey. The plates of iron faftened at the bottom of the box (for thofe were the ftrongeft) preferved the balance while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the furface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved; and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a fafh, which kept my closet so tight that very little water came in. I got with much difficulty out of my hammock, having firft ventured to draw back the flip-board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on purpose to let in air, for want of which I found myself almoft ftifled.

How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalelitch, from whom one fingle hour had fo far divided me! And I may fay with truth, that in the midft of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor nurfe, the grief fhe would fuffer for my lofs, the difpleafure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune. Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties and diftrefs than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment to fee my box dashed to pieces, or at leaft overfet by the first violent blast or rifing wave. A breach in one fingle pane of glais would have been immediate death: nor could any thing have preferved the windows but the ftrong lattice-wires placed on the outside against accidents in travelling. I faw the water ooze in at feveral crannies, although the leaks were not confiderable, and I endeavoured to flop them as well as I could. I was not able to lift up the roof of my closet, which otherwise I cer

Niagara is a fettlement of the French in North America, and the cataract is produced by the fall of a conflux of water (formed of the four vast lakes of Canada) from a rocky precipice, the perpendicular height of which is one hundred and thuy-feven feet; and it is faid to have been heard

hfteen leagues.

tainly should have done, and fat on the top of it, where I might at least preferve myfelf fome hours longer than by being that up (as I may call it) in the hold. Or if efcaped thefe dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under thefe circumftances, expecting, and indeed wishing every moment to be my laft.

I have already told the reader that there were two strong ftaples fixed upon that fide of my box which had no window, and inte which the fervant who used to carry me on horfeback would put a leathern belt, and buckle it about his waift. Being in this difconfolate ftate, I heard, or at leat thought I heard, fome kind of grating noife on that fide of my box where the ftaples were fixed, and foon after I began to fancy, that the box was pulled or towed along in the fea; for I now and then felt a fort of tugging, which made the waves rife near the tops of my windows, leaving me almoft in the dark. This gave me fome faint hopes of relief; although I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about. I ventured to unfcrew one of my chairs, which were always faftened to the floor; and having made a hard shift to fcrew it down again directly under the flipping-board that I had lately opened, I mounted on the chair, and, putting v mouth as near as I could to the hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in the languages I understood. I then f ened my handkerchief to a flick I fulv carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it feveral times in the air, that if any ot or fhip were near, the seamen might cesjecture fome unhappy mortal to be that p in the box.

I found no effect from all I could do, bat plainly perceived my closet to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, ot better, that fide of the box where the faples were, and had no window, ftruck 2gainft fomething that was hard. I appre hended it to be a rock, and found myse toffed more than ever. I plainly heard noife upon the cover of my clofet like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it paed through the ring. I then found myfei hoifted up by degrees at leaft three feet higher than I was before. Whereupon i against thruft up my stick and handkerchie calling for help till I was almost hoɑrie. In return to which, I heard a great feat repeated three times, giving me fuch traní

ports

ports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them. I now heard a trampling over my head, and fomebody calling through the hole with a loud voice in the English tongue, If there be any body below, let them fpeak. I answered, I was an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and begged by ail that was moving to be delivered out of the dungeon I was in. The voice replied, I was fafe, for my box was faftened to their fhip; and the carpenter thould immediately come and saw a hole in the cover large enough to pull me out. I answered, that was needlefs, and would take up too much time, for there was no more to be done, but let one of the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the fea into the fhip, and fo into the captain's cabin. Some of them upon hearing me talk fo wildly thought I was mad; others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head that I was now got among people of my own ftature and ftrength. The carpenter came, and in a few minutes fawed a paffage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and from thence was taken into the fhip in a very weak condition.

The failors were all in amazement, and afked me a thoufand questions, which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the fight of fo many pigmies, for fuch I took them to be, after having fo long accustomed mine eyes to the monftrous objects I had left. But the сарtain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honeft worthy Shropshireman, obferving I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advifing me to take a little reft, of which I had great need. Before I went to fleep, I gave him to understand that I had fome valuable furniture in my box too good to be loit; a fine hammock, an handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a cabinet. That my closet was hung on all fides, or rather quilted, with filk and cotton: that if he would let

*There are feveral little incidents which fhew the author to have had a deep knowledge of human nature; and I think this is one. Although the principal advantages enumerated by Gulliver in the beginning of this chapter, of mingling again among his countrymen, depended on their being of the fame fize with himfeif, yet this is forgotten in his ardour to be delivered; and he is after

wards betrayed into the fame absurdity, by his zeal to preferve his furniture,

one of the crew bring my clofet into his cabin, I would open it there before him and fhew him my goods. The captain hearing me utter thefe abfurdities concluded I was raving: however (I fuppofe to pacify me) he promised to give order as I defired, and going upon deck, fent fome of his men down into my closet, from whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up all my goods, and ftripped off the quilting; but the chairs, cabinet, and beditead, being fcrewed to the floor, were much damaged by the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force. Then they knocked off fome of the boards for the ufe of the fhip, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the fea, which by reafon of many breaches made in the bottom and fides funk to rights. And indeed I was glad not to have been a fpectator of the havock they made; because I am confident it would have fenfibly touched me, by bringing former paffages into my mind, which I had rather forget.

I flept fome hours, but perpetually dif turbed with dreams of the place I had left, and the dangers I had efcaped. However, upon waking I found myfelf much recovered. It was now about eight o'clock at night, and the captain ordered fupper immediately, thinking I had already fafted too long. He entertained me with great kindness, obferving me not to look wildly, or talk inconfiftently; and, when we were left alone, defired I would give him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be fet adrift in that monftrous wooden cheft. He faid, that about twelve o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his glafs, he fpied it at a diftance, and thought it was a fail, which he had a mind to make, being not much out of his courfe, in hopes of buying fome bifcuit, his own beginning to fall fhort. That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he fent out his long-boat to discover what I was; that his men came back in a fright, fwearing they had feen a fivimming houfe. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them. That the weather being calm he rowed round me several times, obferved my windows, and the wire-lattices that defended them. That he difcovered two ftaples upon one fide, which was all of boards without any paffage for light. He then commanded his men to row up to that fide, and fasten

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