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26 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books Library

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Chapter ten, the Lagnagians commended a particular description of the stroledbrugs, with many
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conversations between the author and some eminent persons upon that subject. The Lagnugians are
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a polite and generous people, and although they are not without some share of
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that pride which is peculiar to all Eastern countries, yet they show themselves courteous
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to strangers, especially such who were countenanced by the court. I had many
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acquaintance and among persons of the best fashion, and being always attended by my
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interpreter, the conversation we had was not disagreeable. One day, in much
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good company, I was asked by a person of quality whether I had seen
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any of their strolled brugs or immortals. I said I had not, and
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desired he would explain to me what he meant by such an appellation applied to
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a mortal creature. He told me that some time, though very rarely,
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a child happened to be born in a family with a red circular spot on
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the forehead directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible mark that it
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should never die. The spot, as he described it, was about the
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compass of a silver threepence, but in the course of time grew larger and
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changed its color. For at twelve years old it became green, so continued
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till five and twenty, then turned to a deep blue. At five and
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forty it grew coal black and as large as an English shilling, but never
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omitted any further alteration. He said these berths were so rare that he did
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not believe there could be above eleven hundred stroldbrugs of both sexes in the whole
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kingdom, of which he computed about fifteen the metropolis, and among the rest.
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A young girl born about three years ago, that these productions were not
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peculiar to any family, but a mere effect of chance, and the children
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of the Strolsbergs themselves were equally mortal with the rest of the people. I
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freely own myself to being struck with inexpressible delight upon hearing this account, and
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the person who gave it to me, happening to understand the Balnabarbian language,
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which I spoke very well, I could not forbear breaking out into expressions perhaps
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a little too extravagant. I cried out, as in a rapture happy nation
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where every child hath at least a chance for being immortal. Happy people who
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enjoy so many living examples of ancient virtue and of masters really to instruct them
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in the wisdom of all former ages. But happiest beyond all comparison are those
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excellent strolbrugs, who, being born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature,
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have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits
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caused by the continual apprehensions of death. I discovered, my admiration that I
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had not observed any of these illustrious persons at court, the black spot on
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the forehead being so remarkable a distinction that I could not have easily overlooked it.
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And it was impossible that His Majesty, a most judicious prince, should
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not provide himself with a good number of such wise and able counselors. Yet,
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perhaps the virtue of those reverend sages was too far stretched for the corrupt
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and liberty manners of a court, And we often find by experience that young
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men are too opinionated and volatile to be guided by the sober dictates of their
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seniors. However, since the king was pleased to allow me access to his
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royal person. I was resolved, upon the very first occasion, to deliver
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my opinion to him on this matter freely and at large, by the help
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of my interpreter, and whether he would be pleased to take my advice or
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not. Yet in one thing, I was determined that his Majesty, having
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frequently offered me an establishment in this country, I would with great thankfulness accept
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the favor and pass my life here in the conversation of these superior beings,
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the Strauldbruggs, if they were pleased to admit me. The gentleman to whom
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I addressed my discourse, because as I have already observed, he spoke the
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language of Aunibarbie, said to me, with a sort of smile which usually
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arises from pity to the ignorant, that he was glad of any occasion to
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keep me among them, and desired my permission to explain to the company what
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I had spoke. He did so, and they talked together for some time
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in their own language, whereof I understood not a syllable. Neither could I
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observe by their countenances what impression my discourse had made on them. After a
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short silence, the same person told me that his friends and mine, so
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he thought fit to express himself, were very much pleased with the judicious remarks
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I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they
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were desirous to know in a particular manner what scheme of living I should have
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formed to myself if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a
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Stroldbrugg. I answered, it was easy to be eloquent on so copious and
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delightful a subject, especially to me, who had been at an apt to
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amuse myself with visions of what I should do if I were a king,
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a general, or a great lord. And upon this very case I had
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frequently run over the whole system how I should employ myself and pass the time
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if I were sure to live for ever, that if it had been my
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good fortune to come into the world a stoldbrugg, as soon as I could
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discover my own happiness by understanding the difference between life and death, I would
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first resolve, by all arts and methods whatsoever, to procure myself riches,
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in the pursuit of which, by thrift and management I might reasonably expect in
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about two hundred years to be the wealthiest man in the kingdom. In the
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second place, I would from my earliest youth apply myself to the study of
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arts and sciences, by which I should arrive in time to excel all others
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in learning. Lastly, I would carefully record every action and event of consequence
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that happened in the public impartially draw the characters of the several successions of princes
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and great ministers of state with my own observations. On every point, I
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would exactly set down the several changes in customs, language, fashion of dress,
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diet and diversions, by all which acquirements I should be a living treasure
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of knowledge and wisdom, and certainly become the oracle of the nations. I
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would never marry after threescore, but live in a hospitable manner. Yet still
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on the saving side, I would entertain myself in forming and directing the minds
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of hopeful young men by convincing them from my own remembrance, experience, and
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observation, fortified by numerous examples of the usefulness of virtue in public and private
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life. But my choice and constant companions should be a set of my own
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immortal brotherhood, among whom I would elect a dozen from the most ancient down
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to my own contemporaries. Were any of these wonted fortunes, I would provide
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them with convenient lodges round my own estate, and have some of them always
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at my table, only mingling a few of the most valuable among new mortals,
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whom length of time would harden me to lose with little or no reluctance,
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and treat your posterity after the same manner, just as a man diverts
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himself with the annual succession of pinks and tulips in his garden, without regretting
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the loss of those which withered the preceding year. These straldebrugs and eye would
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mutually communicate our observations and memorials through the course of time, remark that several
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gradations by which corruption steals into the world, and oppose it in every step,
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by giving perpetual warning and instruction to mankind, which added to the strong
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influence of our own example, would probably prevent that continual degeneracy of human nature
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so justly complained of in all ages. Add to this the pleasure of seeing
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the various revolutions of states and empires, the changes in the lower and upper
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world, Ancient cities in ruins and obscure villages becoming the seats of kings,
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famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks, the ocean leaving one coast dry and overwhelming
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another. The discovery of many countries yet unknown, barbarity of running, the
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politest nations, and the most barbarous becoming civilized. I should then see the
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discovery of the longitude, the perpetual motion, the universal medicine, and many
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other great inventions brought to the utmost perfection. What wonderful discovery should we make
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in astronomy by outliving and confirming our own predictions, by observing the progress and
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return of comets, With the changes of motion in the sun, moon,
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and stars, I enlarged upon many other topics. With the natural desire of
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entless life and sublunary happiness could easily furnish me with. When I had ended
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and the summer, my discourse had been interpreted as before to the rest of
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the company, there was a good deal of talk among them in the language
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of the country, not without some laughter at my expense. At last,
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the same gentleman who had been my interpreter, said he was desired by the
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rest set me right in a few mistakes which I had fallen into through the
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common imbecility of human nature, and upon them that allowance was less answerable for
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them that this breed of Straldbruggs was peculiar to their country, for there were
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no such people in Bowna Barbie or Japan, where he had the honor to
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be ambassador for his majesty, and found the natives in both those kingdoms very
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hard to believe that the fact was possible. And it appeared, from my
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astonishment when he first mentioned the matter to me, that I received it as
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a thing wholly new and scarcely to be credited. That in the two kingdoms
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above mentioned, where during his residence he had conversed very much, he observed
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a long life to be the universal desire and wish of mankind, That whoever
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had one foot in the grave was sure to hold back the other as strongly
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as he could, that the oldest had still hopes of living one day longer,
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and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which nature always prompted
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him to retreat. Only in this island of Lugnag, the appetite for living
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was not so eager from the continual example of the stoldbrugs before their eyes.
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That the system of living contrived by me was unreasonable and unjust, because it
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supposed a perpetuity of youth, health, and vigor, which no man could
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be so foolish to hope, however extravagant he may be in his wishes.
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That the question therefore was not whether a man would choose to be always in
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the prime of youth, attended with prosperity and health, but how he would
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pass a perpetual life under all the usual disadvantages which old age brings along with
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it. For although few men will avow their desires of being a mortal upon
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such hard conditions, yet in the two kingdoms before mentioned, of Balnibabi and
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Japan, he observed that every man desired to put of death sometimes longer let
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it approach, ever so late. And he rarely heard of any man who
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died willingly, except he were incited by the extremis of grief or torture.
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And he appealed to me whether in those countries I had traveled, as well
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as my own, I had not observed the same general disposition. After this
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preface, it gave me a particular account of the Stoldbrugs. Among them,
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he said, they commonly acted like mortals till about thirty years old, after
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which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing in both till they came
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to forescore. This he learned from their own confession, for otherwise, their
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not being above two or three of that species born in the same age,
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there were too few to form a general observation by when they came to fourscore
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years, which has reckoned the extremity of living in this country. They had
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not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more,
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which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying. They were not only
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opinionative, peevish Covitus Morrose vain talkative, but incapable of friendship, and dead
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to all natural affection, which never descended below their grandchildren. Envy and impotent
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desires are their prevailing passions. But those objects against which their envy seems principally
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directed are the vices of the younger sort and the deaths of the old.
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By reflecting on the former. They find themselves cut off from all possibility of
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pleasure, and whenever they see a funeral they lament and repine that others have
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gone to a harbor of rest to which they themselves can never hope to arrive.
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They have no remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in their
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youth and middle age, and even this is very imperfect, and for the
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truth of particulars of any fact, it is safer to depend on common tradition
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than upon their best recollections. The least miserable among them appear to be those
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who turn to dotage and entirely lose their memories. These meet with more pity
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and assistance, because they want many bad qualities which are bound in others.
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If a stralsbrugg happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is
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dissolved, of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as
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the younger of the two comes to be forescore, for the law thinks it
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a reasonable indulgence that those who are condemned, without any fault of their own,
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to a perpetual continuance in the world should not have the misery doubled by
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the load of a wife. As soon as they have completed the term of
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eighty years, they are looked on as dead in law. Their heirs immediately
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succeeded to their estates. Only a small pittance is reserved for their support,
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and the poor ones are maintained at the public charge. After that period they
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are held incapable of any employment of trust or profit. They cannot purchase lands
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or take leases. Neither are they allowed to be witnesses in any cause,
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either civil or criminal, not even for the decision of merees and bounds.
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At ninety they lose their teeth and hair. They have at that age no
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distinction of taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get without relish or
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appetite. The diseases they were subject to still continue without increasing or diminishing.
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In talking, they forget the common appellation of things and the names of persons,
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even those who are their nearest friends and relations. For the same reason,
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they can never amuse themselves with reading, because their memory will not serve
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to carry them from the beginning of a sentence to the end. And by
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this defect they are deprived of the only entertainment whereof they might otherwise be capable
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the language of this country, being always upon the flux, the strolled brugs
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of one age do not understand those of another. Neither are they able,
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after two hundred years, to hold any conversation farther than by a few general
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words with their neighbors, the mortals. And thus they lie under the disadvantage
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of living like foreigners in their own country. This was the account given me
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of the stroldbrugs, as near as I can remember. I afterwards saw five
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or six of different ages, the youngest not above two hundred years old,
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who were brought to me at several times by some of my friends. But
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although they were told that I was a great traveler and had seen all the
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world, they had not the least curiosity to ask me a question. Only
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desired, I would give them slum scudesque, or a token of remembrance,
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which is a modest way of begging, to avoid the law that strictly forbids
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it. Because they are provided for by the public, although indeed with a
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very scanty allowance. They are despised and hated by all sorts of people.
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When one of them is born, it is recondominous, and their birth is
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recorded very pretty, so that you may know their age by consulting the register,
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which however, has not been kept above a thousand years past, or
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at least has been destroyed by time or public disturbances. But the usual way
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of computing how old they are is by asking them what kings or great persons
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they can remember, and then consulting history, for infallibly, the last prince,
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in their mind, did not begin his reign after they were fourscore years
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old. They were the most mortifying sight I ever beheld, and the women
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more horrible than the men. Besides the usual deformities in extreme old age,
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they acquired an additional ghastliness in proportion to their number of years, which is
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not to be described. And among half a dozen I soon distinguished which was
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the eldest, Although there was not above a century or two between them.
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The reader will easily believe that from what I had heard and seen, my
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keen appetite for perpetuity of life was much abated. I grew heartily ashamed of
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the pleasing visions I had formed, and thought no tyrant could invent a death
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into which I would not run with pleasure from such a life. The King
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heard of all that had passed between me and my friends upon this occasion,
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and rallied me very pleasantly, wishing I could send a couple of Stoldbrugs to
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my own country to arm our people against the fear of death. But this
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it seems as forbidden by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, or else I
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should have been well content with the trouble and expense of transporting them. I
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could not but agree that the laws of this kingdom relative to the Stoldbruggs were
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founded upon the strongest reasons, and such as any other country would be under
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the necessity of enacting in the like circumstances. Otherwise, as avoris is the
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necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time become proprietors of the
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whole nation and engross the civil power, which, for want of abilities to
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manage, must end in the ruin of the public. End Apart Three,
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Chapter ten.