Gulliver's Travels

he author’s economy, and happy life among the Houyhnhnms. His great
improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their conversations. The
author has notice given him by his master, that he must depart from the
country. He falls into a swoon for grief; but submits. He contrives and
finishes a canoe by the help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a
venture.

I had settled my little economy to my own heart’s content. My master
had ordered a room to be made for me, after their manner, about six
yards from the house: the sides and floors of which I plastered with
clay, and covered with rush-mats of my own contriving. I had beaten
hemp, which there grows wild, and made of it a sort of ticking; this I
filled with the feathers of several birds I had taken with springes
made of Yahoos’ hairs, and were excellent food. I had worked two
chairs with my knife, the sorrel nag helping me in the grosser and more
laborious part. When my clothes were worn to rags, I made myself others
with the skins of rabbits, and of a certain beautiful animal, about the
same size, called nnuhnoh, the skin of which is covered with a fine
down. Of these I also made very tolerable stockings. I soled my shoes
with wood, which I cut from a tree, and fitted to the upper-leather;
and when this was worn out, I supplied it with the skins of Yahoos
dried in the sun. I often got honey out of hollow trees, which I
mingled with water, or ate with my bread. No man could more verify the
truth of these two maxims, “That nature is very easily satisfied;” and,
“That necessity is the mother of invention.” I enjoyed perfect health
of body, and tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or
inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy. I
had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the
favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against
fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor
lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions,
or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers,
censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers,
attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics,
tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers,
virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no
encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes,
gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or
mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies,
drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive
wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing,
quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no
scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or
nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords,
fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

I had the favour of being admitted to several Houyhnhnms, who came to
visit or dine with my master; where his honour graciously suffered me
to wait in the room, and listen to their discourse. Both he and his
company would often descend to ask me questions, and receive my
answers. I had also sometimes the honour of attending my master in his
visits to others. I never presumed to speak, except in answer to a
question; and then I did it with inward regret, because it was a loss
of so much time for improving myself; but I was infinitely delighted
with the station of an humble auditor in such conversations, where
nothing passed but what was useful, expressed in the fewest and most
significant words; where, as I have already said, the greatest decency
was observed, without the least degree of ceremony; where no person
spoke without being pleased himself, and pleasing his companions; where
there was no interruption, tediousness, heat, or difference of
sentiments. They have a notion, that when people are met together, a
short silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true;
for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in
their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse. Their subjects
are generally on friendship and benevolence, on order and economy;
sometimes upon the visible operations of nature, or ancient traditions;
upon the bounds and limits of virtue; upon the unerring rules of
reason, or upon some determinations to be taken at the next great
assembly: and often upon the various excellences of poetry. I may add,
without vanity, that my presence often gave them sufficient matter for
discourse, because it afforded my master an occasion of letting his
friends into the history of me and my country, upon which they were all
pleased to descant, in a manner not very advantageous to humankind: and
for that reason I shall not repeat what they said; only I may be
allowed to observe, that his honour, to my great admiration, appeared
to understand the nature of Yahoos much better than myself. He went
through all our vices and follies, and discovered many, which I had
never mentioned to him, by only supposing what qualities a Yahoo of
their country, with a small proportion of reason, might be capable of
exerting; and concluded, with too much probability, “how vile, as well
as miserable, such a creature must be.”

I freely confess, that all the little knowledge I have of any value,
was acquired by the lectures I received from my master, and from
hearing the discourses of him and his friends; to which I should be
prouder to listen, than to dictate to the greatest and wisest assembly
in Europe. I admired the strength, comeliness, and speed of the
inhabitants; and such a constellation of virtues, in such amiable
persons, produced in me the highest veneration. At first, indeed, I did
not feel that natural awe, which the Yahoos and all other animals
bear toward them; but it grew upon me by degrees, much sooner than I
imagined, and was mingled with a respectful love and gratitude, that
they would condescend to distinguish me from the rest of my species.

When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the human
race in general, I considered them, as they really were, Yahoos in
shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified
with the gift of speech; but making no other use of reason, than to
improve and multiply those vices whereof their brethren in this country
had only the share that nature allotted them. When I happened to behold
the reflection of my own form in a lake or fountain, I turned away my
face in horror and detestation of myself, and could better endure the
sight of a common Yahoo than of my own person. By conversing with the
Houyhnhnms, and looking upon them with delight, I fell to imitate
their gait and gesture, which is now grown into a habit; and my friends
often tell me, in a blunt way, “that I trot like a horse;” which,
however, I take for a great compliment. Neither shall I disown, that in
speaking I am apt to fall into the voice and manner of the
Houyhnhnms, and hear myself ridiculed on that account, without the
least mortification.

In the midst of all this happiness, and when I looked upon myself to be
fully settled for life, my master sent for me one morning a little
earlier than his usual hour. I observed by his countenance that he was
in some perplexity, and at a loss how to begin what he had to speak.
After a short silence, he told me, “he did not know how I would take
what he was going to say: that in the last general assembly, when the
affair of the Yahoos was entered upon, the representatives had taken
offence at his keeping a Yahoo (meaning myself) in his family, more
like a Houyhnhnm than a brute animal; that he was known frequently to
converse with me, as if he could receive some advantage or pleasure in
my company; that such a practice was not agreeable to reason or nature,
or a thing ever heard of before among them; the assembly did therefore
exhort him either to employ me like the rest of my species, or command
me to swim back to the place whence I came: that the first of these
expedients was utterly rejected by all the Houyhnhnms who had ever
seen me at his house or their own; for they alleged, that because I had
some rudiments of reason, added to the natural pravity of those
animals, it was to be feared I might be able to seduce them into the
woody and mountainous parts of the country, and bring them in troops by
night to destroy the Houyhnhnms’ cattle, as being naturally of the
ravenous kind, and averse from labour.”

My master added, “that he was daily pressed by the Houyhnhnms of the
neighbourhood to have the assembly’s exhortation executed, which he
could not put off much longer. He doubted it would be impossible for me
to swim to another country; and therefore wished I would contrive some
sort of vehicle, resembling those I had described to him, that might
carry me on the sea; in which work I should have the assistance of his
own servants, as well as those of his neighbours.” He concluded, “that
for his own part, he could have been content to keep me in his service
as long as I lived; because he found I had cured myself of some bad
habits and dispositions, by endeavouring, as far as my inferior nature
was capable, to imitate the Houyhnhnms.”

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general
assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which
signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have no
conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised,
or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without giving up
his claim to be a rational creature.

I was struck with the utmost grief and despair at my master’s
discourse; and being unable to support the agonies I was under, I fell
into a swoon at his feet. When I came to myself, he told me “that he
concluded I had been dead;” for these people are subject to no such
imbecilities of nature. I answered in a faint voice, “that death would
have been too great a happiness; that although I could not blame the
assembly’s exhortation, or the urgency of his friends; yet, in my weak
and corrupt judgment, I thought it might consist with reason to have
been less rigorous; that I could not swim a league, and probably the
nearest land to theirs might be distant above a hundred: that many
materials, necessary for making a small vessel to carry me off, were
wholly wanting in this country; which, however, I would attempt, in
obedience and gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing
to be impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to
destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the
least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by some
strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days
among Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want of
examples to lead and keep me within the paths of virtue? That I knew
too well upon what solid reasons all the determinations of the wise
Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken by arguments of mine, a
miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him with my humble
thanks for the offer of his servants’ assistance in making a vessel,
and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I
would endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to
England, was not without hopes of being useful to my own species, by
celebrating the praises of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing
their virtues to the imitation of mankind.”

My master, in a few words, made me a very gracious reply; allowed me
the space of two months to finish my boat; and ordered the sorrel nag,
my fellow-servant (for so, at this distance, I may presume to call
him), to follow my instruction; because I told my master, “that his
help would be sufficient, and I knew he had a tenderness for me.”

In his company, my first business was to go to that part of the coast
where my rebellious crew had ordered me to be set on shore. I got upon
a height, and looking on every side into the sea, fancied I saw a small
island toward the north-east. I took out my pocket glass, and could
then clearly distinguish it above five leagues off, as I computed; but
it appeared to the sorrel nag to be only a blue cloud: for as he had no
conception of any country beside his own, so he could not be as expert
in distinguishing remote objects at sea, as we who so much converse in
that element.

After I had discovered this island, I considered no further; but
resolved it should, if possible, be the first place of my banishment,
leaving the consequence to fortune.

I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a
copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp
flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a wooden
handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness of a
walking-staff, and some larger pieces. But I shall not trouble the
reader with a particular description of my own mechanics; let it
suffice to say, that in six weeks time with the help of the sorrel nag,
who performed the parts that required most labour, I finished a sort of
Indian canoe, but much larger, covering it with the skins of Yahoos,
well stitched together with hempen threads of my own making. My sail
was likewise composed of the skins of the same animal; but I made use
of the youngest I could get, the older being too tough and thick; and I
likewise provided myself with four paddles. I laid in a stock of boiled
flesh, of rabbits and fowls, and took with me two vessels, one filled
with milk and the other with water.

I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master’s house, and then
corrected in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with Yahoos’
tallow, till I found it staunch, and able to bear me and my freight;
and, when it was as complete as I could possibly make it, I had it
drawn on a carriage very gently by Yahoos to the sea-side, under the
conduct of the sorrel nag and another servant.

When all was ready, and the day came for my departure, I took leave of
my master and lady and the whole family, my eyes flowing with tears,
and my heart quite sunk with grief. But his honour, out of curiosity,
and, perhaps, (if I may speak without vanity,) partly out of kindness,
was determined to see me in my canoe, and got several of his
neighbouring friends to accompany him. I was forced to wait above an
hour for the tide; and then observing the wind very fortunately bearing
toward the island to which I intended to steer my course, I took a
second leave of my master; but as I was going to prostrate myself to
kiss his hoof, he did me the honour to raise it gently to my mouth. I
am not ignorant how much I have been censured for mentioning this last
particular. Detractors are pleased to think it improbable, that so
illustrious a person should descend to give so great a mark of
distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I forgotten
how apt some travellers are to boast of extraordinary favours they have
received. But, if these censurers were better acquainted with the noble
and courteous disposition of the Houyhnhnms, they would soon change
their opinion.

I paid my respects to the rest of the Houyhnhnms in his honour’s
company; then getting into my canoe, I pushed off from shore.