The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D. ...: With Notes, Historical and ...

Front matter

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Part I

Chap. I. The author gives some account of himself and family : his inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life ; gets safe on shore in the country of Lilliput j is made a prisoner, and carried up the country, ib.

Chap. II. The Emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the nobility, comes to see the author in his confinement. The emperor's person and habit described. Learned men appointed to teach the author their language. He gains favour by his mild disposition. His pockets are searched, and his sword and pistols taken from him, . . . 23

Chap. III. The author diverts the emperor and his nobility of both sexes, in a very uncommon manner. The diversions of the court of Lilliput described. The author has his liberty granted him upon certain conditions, . . 3fr

Chap. IV. Mildendo, the metropolis of Lilliput, described, together with the emperor's palace. A conversation between the author and a principal secretary, concerning the affairs of that empire.' The author's offers to serve the emperor in his wars, 44

Chap. V. The author, by an extraordinary stratagem, prevents an invasion. A high title of honour is conferred upon him. Ambassadors arrive from the emperor of Blefuscu and sue for peace. The empress's apartments on fire by accident : the author instrumental in saving the rest of the palace, 50

Via ; CONTENTS.

Chap, VI. Of the inhabitants of Lilliput ; their learning, laws, and customs, the manner of educating their children. The author's way of living in that country, rlis vindication of a great lady, ........ 58

Chap. VII. The author, being informed of a design to accuse him of high treason, makes his escape toBlefuscu. His reception there, 69

Chap. VIII. The author, by a lucky accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu ; and, after some difficulties, returns safe to his native country, • . 79

PART. XL

A voyage to Brobdingnag, . * V

Chap. I. A great storm described, the long-boat sent to fetch water, the author goes with it to discover the country. He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's house. His reception, with several accidents that happened there. A description of the inhabitants, . ttL

Chap. II. A description of the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a market town and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his journey, 101

Chap. III. The author sent for to court. The queen buys him of his master the fanner, and presents him to the king. He disputes with his majesty's great scholars. An apartment at court provided for the author. He is in high fa- ' vour with the queen. He stands up for the honour of his own country. His quarrels with the queen's dwarf, 108

Chap. IV. The country described. A proposal for correcting ,

modern maps. The king's palace, and some account of 1

the metropolis. The author's way of travelling. The J

chief temple described, • 121 I

Chap. V. Several adventures that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal. The author shows his skill in navigation, ......... 128

Chap. VI. Several contrivances of the author to please the king and queen, he shows his skill in music. The king inquires into the state of England, which the author relates to him. The king's observations thereon, • 138

Chap. VII. The author's love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected. The king's great ignorance in politics. The learning of that country very imperfect and confined. The laws and military affairs, and parties in the state, .... 148

Chap. VIII. The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers. The author attends them. The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related. He returns to England, ........ 155

CONTEST*.

Part III

A vovagi to Laputa, &c. I »0

Chap. I. The author sets out on his third voyage, is taken by pirates. The malice of a Dutchman. His arrival at an island. He is received into Laputa, ib.

Chap. II. The humours and dispositions of the Laputians described. ' An account of their learning. Of the king and his court The author's reception there. The inhabitants subject to fear and disquietudes. An account of the women, 177

Chap. III. A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy. The Laputians great improvements in the latter. The king's method of suppressing insurrections, 187

Chap. IV. The author leaves Laputa, is conveyed to Balnibarbi, arrives at the metropolis. A description of the metropolis and the eountry adjoining. The author hospitably received by a great lord. His conversation with that lord, 198

Chap. V. The author permitted to see the grand academy of Lagado. The academy largely described. The acts wherein the professors employ themselves, . 200

Chap. VI. A farther account of the academy. The author 'proposes some improvements, which are honourably re* ceived, £06

Chap. VII. The author leaves Lagado, arrives at M aMbnada. No ship ready. He takes a short voyage to Ghibbdubbdrib. His reception by the governor, 215

Chap. VIII. A farther account of Glubbdubbdrib. Ancient

and modern history corrected, 220-

Chap. IX. The author returns to Maldonada. Sails tojhe kingdom of Luggnagg. The author confined. He is sent for to court. The manner of his admittance. The king's great lenity to his subjects, ...... 227

Chap. X. 'The Luggnaggians commended. A particular description of the Struldbrugs, with many conversations, between the author and some eminent persons, upon that sub- /• ject, 231

Chap. XI. The author leaves Luggnagg, and sails to Japan. From thence he returns in a Dutch ship to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to England, 241

PART IV. A votaoi to the country of the Houyhnhnms, 246

Chap. I. The author sets out as captain of a ship. His men conspire against him, confine him a long time to his cabin.

* CONTENTS.

Set him on shore in an unknown land. He travels op into the country. The Yahoos, a strange sort of animal, described. The author meets two Houbynhnms, . ib.

Chap. II. The author conducted by a Houyhnhnm to his house. The house described. The author's reception. The food of the Houyhnhnms. The author in distress for want of meat, is at last relieved. His manner of feeding in this country, 254

Chap. III. The author studies to learn the language ; the Houyhnhnm, his master, assists in teaching him. The language described. . Several Houyhnhnms of quality come out of curiosity to see the author. He gives his master a short account of his voyage, .... 261

Chap. IV. The Houyhnhnms 9 notion of truth and falsehood* The author's discourse disapproved by his master. The author gives a more particular account of himself, and the accidents of his voyage, 269

Chap. V. The author, at his master's command, informs him of the state of England. The causes of war among the princes of Europe. The author begins to explain the English constitution, 275

Chap. VI. A continuation of the state of England under Queen Anne. The character of a first minister of state in European courts, ....... 283

Chap. VII. The author's great love of his native country. His master's observations upon the constitution and administration of England, as described by the author, with parallel cases and comparisons. His master's observations upon human nature, 291

Chap. VIII. The author relates several particulars of the Yahoos. The great virtues of the Houyhnhnms. The education and exercise of their youth. Their general assembly, 300

Chap. IX. A grand debate at the general assembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was determined. The learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their buildings'. Their manner of Burials. The defectiveness of their language, . . 30?

Chap. X. The author's economy, and happy lire among the Houylinhnms. 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, 7 313

Chap. XI. The author's dangerous voyage. He arrives at New Holland, hoping to settle there. Is wounded with an arrow by one of (he natives. Is seized and carried by force

CONTENTS. xi

into a Portuguese ship. The great civflitaesof the captain.

The author arrives at England, 922

Chap. XII. The author's veracity. His design in publishing . this work. His censure of those travellers who swerve from the truth. The author clears himself from any sinister ends in writing. An objection answered. The method • of planting colonies. His native country commended. The right of the crown to those countries described by the author, is justifled. The difficulty of conquering them. The author takes his last leave of the reader; proposes his manner of living for the future: gives good advice, and con- ^dudes, . . ; i. t . . . . . 331

TRAVELS

into sevual

REMOTE NATIONS OP THE WORLD.

BY LEMUEL GULUVEB,

"First a Surgeon, and then a Captain qf several Ships. IN FOUR PARTS.

I. A VOYAGE TO ULLIPUT.

* IX. A VOYAGE TO BR0BDIN6NAG.

Jll, A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, UJGGIUGC,

OLVBBDUBDRIB, ANB. JAPAN;

<*. A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE

HOVYHXHNMf.

-* Sjfmdide Mendax." Bor.

vol. ir.

are indisputably the two most capital Works of Swift.

Dr. Warton.

" This important year sent into the world " Gulliver's Travels,"* a production so new and so strange, that it filled the reader with a mingled emotion of merriment and amazement. It was received with such avidity, that the price of the first edition was raised before t^ie second could be made ; it was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate. Criticism was for a while lost in wonder. No rules of judgment were applied to a book written in open defiance of truth and regularity. But when distinctions came tol)e made, the part which gave least pleasure was that which describes the Flying Island, and that which gave most disgust must be the history of the Hmyknhnms. Whilst Swift was enjoying the reputation of his new work, the news of the king's death arrived, and he kissed the hands of the new king and queen three days after their accession." Dr. Johnson.

These voyages are considered as a mere political romance ; to correct Vice, by showing its deformity in opposition to Virtue, and to amend the false systems of philosophy, by pointing out the errors, and applying salutary means to amend them. Orrery.

* The first part of tliese Travels appeared October 28, 1726; tin* second early in 1727.— Bishop Atterbury, in a letter from Paris to Mr. Morice, December 24, 1726, having seen it advertised, expresses his impatience to see it;— 44 I shall long," he says, "till it is with me;" and, March 31, 1727, adds, •• I had the first part of Gulliver, but not the second; however, it has been sent me here, and I have had the pleasure of reading it. Both parts are translating here, though the French will not be able to relish the humour of that piece, nor understand the meaning of it."— The bishop was perfectly right. Neither Gulliver nor John Bull can properly be either relished or understood by our volatile neighbours. Gulliver, however, was immediately translated by the Abbe* Desfontaincs, and had an extensive sale.— See a correspondence on this translation, between the Abbe and the Dean, in July and August, 1727. N..

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

THE author of these Travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and intimate friend ; there is likewise some relation between us on the mother's side. About three years ago, Mr. Gulliver, growing weary of the concourse of curious people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made a small purchase of land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, his native country; where he now lives retired, yet in good esteem among his neighbours.

Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father dwelt, jet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm which, I have observed in the church yard at Banbury in that county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers.

Before he quitted Redriff, he left the custody of the following papers in my hands, with the liberty to dispose of them as I should think fit. I have carefully perused them three times : The style is very plain and simple, and the only fault I find is, that the author, after the - manner of travellers, is a little too circumstantial. There is an air of truth apparent through the whole ; and indeed the author was so distinguished for his veracity, that it became-a sort of proverb among his neighbours at Redriff; when any one affirmed a thing, to say, " it was as true as if Mr. Gulliver had spoken it."

By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom with the author's permission I communicated these pa- • pers, I now venture to send them into the world, hoping they may be, at least for some time, a better entertain-

( 4 >

went to oar young noblemen, than the common scribbles of politics and party-.

This volume would hare been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; wherein I have reason to apprehend, that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied : but I was resolved to fit*the work as much as possible to the general capacity of readers. However, if my own ignorance in sea affairs shall have taTtoe to commit some mistakes, I alone am answerable for them : And if any traveller has a curiosity to see the whole work at large, as it came from the hands of the author, I will be ready to gratify him.

As for any further particulars relating to the author, the readfcr win receive satisfaction from the first pages *f the book.'

BICHARD SYMPSON.

<*1

A LETTER

WJLOU

CAPTAIN GULLIVER TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON. WRITTEN IN THE YEAB 1727.

X hope you wiH be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and incorrect account of my travels, with direction to hire some young gentleman of either university to put > them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dam* pier did by my advice in his book called " A Voyage round the World." But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted : therefore, as to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that kind ; particularly a paragraph about her majesty Queen Anne of most pious and glorious memory ; although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human species. But you, or your interpolator, ought to have considered, that as it was not my inclination, so was it net decent to praise any animal of our composition before my master Heuyknhnm : And besides, the fact was altogether false ; for to my knowledge, being in England .during some part of her majesty's reign, she did govern by a chief minister; nay, even,by two successively, the first whereof was the Lord of Oodolphin, and the second

6 A LETTER FROM GULLIVER

the Lord of Oxford; so that you have made me say the thing that was not. Likewise in the account of th£ academy of projectors, and several passages of my discourse to my master Houyhnhtm, you have either omitted some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in such a manner, that I do hardly know my own work. When I formerly hinted to you something of this in a letter, you were pleased to answer, " That you were afraid of giving offence : that people in power were very watchful over the press, and apt not only to interpret, but to punish every thing which looked like an inuendo" (as I think you call it.) But, pray, how could that which I spoke so many years ago, and at above five thousand leagues distance, in another reign, be applied to any of the Yahoos, who now are said to govern the herd ; especially at a time when I little thought, or feared, the unhappiness of living under them ? Have not I the most reason to complain, when I see these very Yahoos carried by Hotiyhnkntns in a vehicle, as if' they were brutes, and those the rational creatures? And indeed, to avoid so monstrous and detestable a sight was one principal motive of my retirement hither^

Thus much I thought proper to tell you in relation to yourself, and to the trust I reposed in you.

I do in the next place complain of my own great want of judgment, in being prevailed upon by the entreaties and false reasonings of you and fcome others, very much against my own opinion to suffer my travels to be published. Pray bring to your mind how often I desired you to consider, when you insisted on the motive of public good, that the Yahoos were a species of animals utterly incapable of amendment by precepts or example : and so it has proved ; for, instead of seeing a full *top put to all abuses and corruptions, at least in this

TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON. 7 •

little island, as I had reason to expect ; behold, after above six months warning, I cannot learn that my book has produced one single effect according to my intentions. I desired you would let me know, by a letter, when party and faction were extinguished ; judges learned and upright ; pleaders honest and modest, with some tincture of common sense, and Smitbfield blazing with pyramids of law books; the young nobility's edu. cation entirely changed ; the physicians banished ; the female Yahoos abounding in virtue, honour, truth, and good sense ; courts and levees of great ministers thoroughly weeded and swept ; wit, merit, and learning rewarded ; all disgracers of the press in prose and verse condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton, and quench their thirst with their own ink. These, and a thousand other reformatipns, I firmly couuted upon by your encouragement ,• as indeed they were plainly deducible from the precepts delivered in my book. And it must be owned, that seven months were a sufficient time to correct every vice and folly to which Yahoos are subject, if their natures had been capable of the least disposition to virtue or wisdom. Yet, so far have you been from answering my expectation in any of your letters ; that on the contrary you are loading our carrier every week with libels, and keys, and reflections, and memoirs, and second parts ; wherein I see myself accused of reflecting upon great state folks ; of degrading human nature (for so they have still the confidence to style it) and of abusing the female sex. I find likewise, that the writers of those bundles are not agreed among themselves ; for some of them will not allow me to be the author of my own travels ; and others make me author of books to which I am wholly a stranger.

I find likewise that your printer has been so careless as to confound the times, and mistake the dates, of my

* A LETTER FROM GULLIVER

several voyages and returns ; neither assigning the true year, nor the true month, nor day of the month : and £ hear the original manuscript is all destroyed since the publication of my book ; deither have 1 any copy left ? however, I have sent you some corrections, which you may insert, if ever there should be a second edition : and yet I cannot stand to them ; but shall leave that matter to my judicious and candid readers to adjust it as they please.

I hear some of our sea Yahoos find fault with my sea* language, as not proper in many parts, nor now ia use* I cannot help it. In my first voyages, while I was young, I was instructed by the oldest mariners, and learned to speak as they did. But I have since found that the sea Yahoos are apt, like the land ones, to become newfangled in their words, which the latter change every year ; insomuch, as I remember upon pacfi return to my own country, their old dialect was so altered*, that I could hardly understand the new. And I observe, when any Yahoos come from London out of curiosity to visit me at my house, we neither of us are able to deliver our conceptions in a manner intelligible ta the other.

If the censure of the Yahoos could any way affect jne, I should have great reason to complain, that some of them are so bold as ta think my book of travels a mere fiction out of mine own brain ; and have gone so far as to drop hints, that the Houyhrihnms and Yahoos have np more existence than the inhabitants of Utopia.

Indeed I must confess, that as to the people of IAIU* put, Brobdingrag (for so the word should have been spelt, und not erroneously Brobdingnag) and Laputa, I have never yet heard of any Yahoo so presumptuous as to dispute their being, or the facts I have related concerning them; because the truth immediately strikes

- Digitized by CjOOQI'

TO HfS COUSIN SYMPSON. «

trery reader with conviction. And is there less probability in my account of the Houyknhmns or Yahoos* when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many thousands, even in this country, who only differ from their brother brutes in Bouylmhnm-ldind, because they use a sort of jabber, and do not go naked ? I wrote for their amendment, and not their approbation. The united praise of the whole race would be of less consequence to me, than the neighing of those two degenerate Houyhnknms I keep in my stable ; because from these, degenerate as they are, I still improve in some virtues without any mixture of vice.

Bo these miserable animals presume to think, that I are so degenerated as to defend my veracity ? Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Hmtykkh%m4and, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master, I was able in the compass of two years (although I confess with the utmost difficulty) to remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my species; especially the Europeans.

I have other complaints to make upon this vexation* occasion; but I forbear troubling myself or you any further. I must freely confess, that since my last, some corruptions of my Yahoo nature have revived in me by conversing with a few of your species, and particularly those of my own family, by an unavoidable necessity; else I should never have attempted so absurd a project as that of reforming the Yahoo race in this kingdom : But I have now done with all such visionary schemes for* ever.

%** That the original copy of these Travels was altered by the person through whose hands it was conveyed to the press, is a fact ; but the passages of which Mr. Gulliver complains in this letter are to be found only in the first editions ; for the Dean having restored the text wherever it had been altered, sent the copy to the late Mr. Motte by the hands of Mr. Charles Ford. This copy has been exactly followed in every subsequent edition, except that printed in Ireland by Mr. Faulkner; the editor of which, supposing the Dean to be serious when he mentioned the corruptions of dates, and yet finding them unaltered, thought fit to alter them himself j there is however scarce one of these alterations in which he has not committed a blunder : though while he was thus busy in defacing the parts that were perfect* he suffered the accidental blemishes of otherB to remain. H.

Chap. I

The author gives same account of himself and f amity': his first inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life; gets safe on shore in the country of LMiput ; is made a prisoner, and carried up the country. _

JMy Father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sods. He seut me to Emanuel college in Cambridge, at fourteen years old, where I re-

* The Lilliputians of Swift may pass for probable beings., not so much because we know that a belief in pigmies was once current in the world (for the true ancient pigmy was at least thrice as tall aa those whom Gulliver visited,) but because we find that every circumstance relating to them accords with itself, and their supposed character. It is not the size of the people only that is diminutive ; their country, seas, ships, and towns, are all io exact proportion ; their theological and political principles, their passions, manners, customf, and all the parts of their conduct, betray a levity and littleness perfectly suitable : and so simple is the whole narration, and apparently so artless and sincere, that I should not wonder if it had imposed (as 1 have been told it has) upon some persons of no contemptible understanding. And some degree of credit may, perhaps, for the same rearson, be doe to the Giants'. Da. Bsattik.

12 eULLIVER'S TRAVELS: FART I.

sided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining roe, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years; and my father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father ; where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden ; there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.

Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recom» jneoded by my good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell, commander : with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle in London ; to which Mr. Bates, nry master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry ; and being advised to alter my condition, I married Miss Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate-street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion*

* But my good master Bates dying in two years after, «nd I having few friends, my business began to fail ; for my conscience would not suffer roe to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, X determined to go again to sea* I was sur-

A TOYAGE TO LlULIPUT. 13

, g«rt successively in two drips, and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies by which I gpt some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modem, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language ; wherein t had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.

The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter-lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors, but it would not turn to account After three years 9 expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1 699, and our voyage at first was very ^prosperous.