Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they
preside, and the honour of the king their master.
But as those countries which I have described do not appear to have any
desire of being conquered and enslaved, murdered or driven out by
colonies, nor abound either in gold, silver, sugar, or tobacco, I did
humbly conceive, they were by no means proper objects of our zeal, our
valour, or our interest. However, if those whom it more concerns think
fit to be of another opinion, I am ready to depose, when I shall be
lawfully called, that no European did ever visit those countries before
me. I mean, if the inhabitants ought to be believed, unless a dispute
may arise concerning the two _Yahoos_, said to have been seen many
years ago upon a mountain in _Houyhnhnmland_, from whence the opinion
is, that the race of those brutes hath descended; and these, for
anything I know, may have been English, which indeed I was apt to
suspect from the lineaments of their posterity’s countenances, although
very much defaced. But, how far that will go to make out a title, I
leave to the learned in colony-law.
But, as to the formality of taking possession in my sovereign’s name,
it never came once into my thoughts; and if it had, yet, as my affairs
then stood, I should perhaps, in point of prudence and
self-preservation, have put it off to a better opportunity.
Having thus answered the only objection that can ever be raised against
me as a traveller, I here take a final leave of all my courteous
readers, and return to enjoy my own speculations in my little garden at
Redriff; to apply those excellent lessons of virtue which I learned
among the _Houyhnhnms_; to instruct the _Yahoos_ of my own family, as
far as I shall find them docible animals; to behold my figure often in
a glass, and thus, if possible, habituate myself by time to tolerate
the sight of a human creature; to lament the brutality to _Houyhnhnms_
in my own country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the
sake of my noble master, his family, his friends, and the whole
_Houyhnhnm_ race, whom these of ours have the honour to resemble in all
their lineaments, however their intellectuals came to degenerate.
I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the
farthest end of a long table; and to answer (but with the utmost
brevity) the few questions I asked her. Yet, the smell of a _Yahoo_
continuing very offensive, I always keep my nose well stopped with rue,
lavender, or tobacco leaves. And, although it be hard for a man late in
life to remove old habits, I am not altogether out of hopes, in some
time, to suffer a neighbour _Yahoo_ in my company, without the
apprehensions I am yet under of his teeth or his claws.
My reconcilement to the _Yahoo_-kind in general might not be so
difficult, if they would be content with those vices and follies only
which nature has entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at
the sight of a lawyer, a pickpocket, a colonel, a fool, a lord, a
gamester, a politician, a whoremonger, a physician, an evidence, a
suborner, an attorney, a traitor, or the like; this is all according to
the due course of things: but when I behold a lump of deformity and
diseases, both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately
breaks all the measures of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to
comprehend how such an animal, and such a vice, could tally together.
The wise and virtuous _Houyhnhnms_, who abound in all excellences that
can adorn a rational creature, have no name for this vice in their
language, which has no terms to express any thing that is evil, except
those whereby they describe the detestable qualities of their _Yahoos_,
among which they were not able to distinguish this of pride, for want
of thoroughly understanding human nature, as it shows itself in other
countries where that animal presides. But I, who had more experience,
could plainly observe some rudiments of it among the wild _Yahoos_.
But the _Houyhnhnms_, who live under the government of reason, are no
more proud of the good qualities they possess, than I should be for not
wanting a leg or an arm; which no man in his wits would boast of,
although he must be miserable without them. I dwell the longer upon
this subject from the desire I have to make the society of an English
_Yahoo_ by any means not insupportable; and therefore I here entreat
those who have any tincture of this absurd vice, that they will not
presume to come in my sight.
FOOTNOTES:
[301] A stang is a pole or perch; sixteen feet and a half.
[330] An act of parliament has been since passed by which some breaches
of trust have been made capital.
[454a] Britannia.—_Sir W. Scott_.
[454b] London.—_Sir W. Scott_.
[455] This is the revised text adopted by Dr. Hawksworth (1766). The
above paragraph in the original editions (1726) takes another form,
commencing:—“I told him that should I happen to live in a kingdom where
lots were in vogue,” &c. The names Tribnia and Langden are not
mentioned, and the “close stool” and its signification do not occur.
[514] This paragraph is not in the original editions.
[546] The original editions and Hawksworth’s have Rotherhith here,
though earlier in the work, Redriff is said to have been Gulliver’s
home in England.