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18 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two, The Humors and Dispositions of the Leputians described
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  Speaker 1: an account of their learning of the king and his court.
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  Speaker 1: The author's reception there the inhabitants subject to fear and
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  Speaker 1: disquietudes an account of the women. At my alighting, I
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  Speaker 1: was surrounded with the crowd of people, but those who
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  Speaker 1: stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They beheld
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  Speaker 1: me with all the marks and circumstances of wonder. Neither, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: was I much in their debt, having never till then
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  Speaker 1: seen a race of mortals so singular in their shapes, habits,
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  Speaker 1: and countenances. Their heads were all reclined either to the
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  Speaker 1: right or the left, one of their eyes turned inward
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  Speaker 1: and the other directly up to the zenith. Their outward
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  Speaker 1: garments were adorned with the figures of suns, moons, and stars,
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  Speaker 1: interwoven with those of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords,
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  Speaker 1: and many other musical instruments unknown to us in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: I observed here and there many in the habit of
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  Speaker 1: servants with a brown bladder fastened like a flail to
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  Speaker 1: the end of a stick, which they carried in their hands.
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  Speaker 1: In each bladder was a small quantity of dried peas
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  Speaker 1: or little pebbles. As I was afterwards informed with these bladders,
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  Speaker 1: they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of
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  Speaker 1: those who stood near them, of which practice I could
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  Speaker 1: not then conceive the meaning. It seems the mind of
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  Speaker 1: these people are so taken up with the intense speculations
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  Speaker 1: that they can neither speak nor attend to the discourses
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  Speaker 1: of others without being roused by some external taction upon
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  Speaker 1: the organs of speech and hearing, for which reason those
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  Speaker 1: persons were able to afford it, always keep a flapper
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  Speaker 1: the original on his criminal in their family as one
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  Speaker 1: of their domestics, nor ever walk abroad or make visits
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  Speaker 1: without him. And the business of this officer is, when two,
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  Speaker 1: three or more persons are in company, gently to strike
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  Speaker 1: with his bladder the mouth of him who is to speak,
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  Speaker 1: and the right ear of him or them to whom
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  Speaker 1: the speaker addresses himself. This flapper is likewise employed diligently
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  Speaker 1: to attend his master in his walks, and upon occasion,
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  Speaker 1: to give him a soft flap on his eyes, because
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  Speaker 1: he is always so wrapped up in cogitation that he
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  Speaker 1: is in manifest danger of falling down every precipice and
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  Speaker 1: bouncing his head against every post, and in the streets
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  Speaker 1: of jostling others, or being jostled himself into the kennel.
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  Speaker 1: It was necessary to give the reader this information, without
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  Speaker 1: which he would be at the same loss with me
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  Speaker 1: to understand the proceedings of these people as they conducted
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  Speaker 1: me upstairs to the top of the island, and from
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  Speaker 1: thence to the royal Palace. While we were ascending, they
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  Speaker 1: forgot several times what they were about, and left me
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  Speaker 1: to myself till their memories were again roused by their flappers,
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  Speaker 1: for they appeared altogether unmoved by the side of my
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  Speaker 1: foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of the vulgar,
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  Speaker 1: whose thoughts and minds were more disengaged. At last we
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  Speaker 1: entered the palace and proceeded into the chamber of Presents,
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  Speaker 1: where I saw the King seated on his throne, attended
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  Speaker 1: on each side by persons of prime quality. Before the
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  Speaker 1: throne was a large table filled with globes and spheres,
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  Speaker 1: and mathematical instruments of all kinds. His Majesty took not
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  Speaker 1: the least to notice of us although our entrance was
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  Speaker 1: not without sufficient noise by the concourse of all persons
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  Speaker 1: belonging to the court. But he was then deep in
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  Speaker 1: a problem, and we attended at least an hour before
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  Speaker 1: he could solve it. There stood by him on each
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  Speaker 1: side a young page with flaps in their hands, and
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  Speaker 1: when they saw he was at leisure, one of them
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  Speaker 1: gently struck his mouth, and the other his right ear,
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  Speaker 1: at which he started like one awaked on the sudden,
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  Speaker 1: and looking towards me and the company. I was in
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  Speaker 1: recollect the occasion of our coming, whereof he had been
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  Speaker 1: informed before, he spoke some words, whereupon immediately a young
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  Speaker 1: man with a flap came up to my side and
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  Speaker 1: flapped me gently on the right ear. But I made
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  Speaker 1: signs as well as I could that I had no
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  Speaker 1: occasion for such an instrument, which, as I afterwards found,
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  Speaker 1: gave his Majesty and the whole a very mean opinion
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  Speaker 1: of my understanding. The King, as far as I could conjecture,
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  Speaker 1: asked me several questions, and I addressed myself to him
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  Speaker 1: in all the languages I had. When it was found
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  Speaker 1: I could neither understand nor be understood. I was conducted
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  Speaker 1: by his order to an apartment in his palace, this
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  Speaker 1: prince being distinguished above all his predecessors for his hospitality
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  Speaker 1: to strangers. Where two servants were appointed to attend me.
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  Speaker 1: My dinner was brought, and four persons of quality, whom
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  Speaker 1: I remember to have seen very near the King's person,
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  Speaker 1: did me the honor to dine with me. We had
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  Speaker 1: two courses of three dishes each. In the first course
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  Speaker 1: there was a shoulder of mutton cut into an equal
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  Speaker 1: actual triangle, a piece of beef into a romboidis, and
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  Speaker 1: a pudding into a cycloid. The second course was two
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  Speaker 1: ducks trussed up in the form of fiddles, sausages and
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  Speaker 1: puddings resembling flutes and hoe boys, and a breast of
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  Speaker 1: veal in the shape of a harp. That servants cut
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  Speaker 1: our bread into cones, cylinders, parallelograms, and several other mathematical figures.
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  Speaker 1: After dinner, my company withdrew, and a person was sent
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  Speaker 1: to me by the King's order, and tended by a flapper.
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  Speaker 1: He brought with in pen, ink and paper, and three
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  Speaker 1: or four books, giving me to understand by signs that
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  Speaker 1: he was sent to teach me the language. We sat
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  Speaker 1: together four hours in which time I wrote down a
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  Speaker 1: great number of words in columns, with the translations over
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  Speaker 1: against them. I likewise made a shift to learn several
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  Speaker 1: short sentences for my JEWE would order one of my
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  Speaker 1: servants to fetch something, to turn about, to make a bow,
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  Speaker 1: to sit, or to stand or walk, and the like.
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  Speaker 1: Then I took down the sentence in writing. He showed
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  Speaker 1: me also in one of his books the figures of
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  Speaker 1: the Sun, moon and stars, the zodiac, the tropics, and
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  Speaker 1: polar circles, together with the denominations of many planes and solids.
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  Speaker 1: He gave me the names and descriptions of all the
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  Speaker 1: musical instruments, and to the general terms of art in
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  Speaker 1: playing on each of them. After he had left me,
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  Speaker 1: I placed all my words with their interpretations, in alphabetical order,
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  Speaker 1: and thus, in a few days, by the help of
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  Speaker 1: a very faithful memory, I got some insight into their language.
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  Speaker 1: The word which I interpret the flying or floating island,
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  Speaker 1: is in the original laputa, whereof I could never learn
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  Speaker 1: the true entomology. Lap in the old obsolete language signifies
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  Speaker 1: high and untar, a governor from which they say by corruption,
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  Speaker 1: was derived Laputa from Lapunta. But I do not approve
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  Speaker 1: of this derivation, which seems to be a little strained,
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  Speaker 1: I ventured to offer to the learned among them a
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  Speaker 1: conjecture of my own, that slaputa was quasi lapouted lap
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  Speaker 1: signifying property, the dancing of the sunbeams in the sea,
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  Speaker 1: and outed a wing, which, however, I shall not obtrude,
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  Speaker 1: but submit to the judicious reader those to whom the
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  Speaker 1: King had entrusted me. Observing how ill I was clad,
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  Speaker 1: ordered a tailor to come next morning and take measure
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  Speaker 1: for a suit of clothes. The operator did his office
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  Speaker 1: after a different manner from those of his trade in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: He first took my altitude by a quadrant, and then,
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  Speaker 1: with a rule and a compass, describe the dimensions and
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  Speaker 1: outlines of my whole body, all which he entered upon paper,
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  Speaker 1: and in six days brought me clothes very ill made
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  Speaker 1: and quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a
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  Speaker 1: figure in the calculation. But my comfort was that I
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  Speaker 1: observed such accidents very frequent and little regarded. During my
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  Speaker 1: confinement for want of clothes, and by an indisposition that
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  Speaker 1: held me some days longer, I much enlarged my dictionary,
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  Speaker 1: and when I went next to court, was able to
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  Speaker 1: understand many things the King spoke, and to return him
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  Speaker 1: some kind of answers. His Majesty had given orders that
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  Speaker 1: the island should move northeast and by east to a
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  Speaker 1: vertical point over Laggardo, the metropolis of the whole kingdom below,
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  Speaker 1: upon the firm earth. It was about ninety leagues distant,
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  Speaker 1: and our voyage lasted four days and a half. I
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  Speaker 1: was not in the least sensible of the progressive motion
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  Speaker 1: and the air by the island. On the second morning,
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  Speaker 1: about eleven o'clock, the King himself in person, attended by
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  Speaker 1: his nobility, courtiers and officers, having prepared all their musical instrument,
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  Speaker 1: played on them for three hours without intermission, so that
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  Speaker 1: I was quite stunned with the noise. Neither could I
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  Speaker 1: possibly guess the meaning till my tutor informed me. He
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  Speaker 1: said that the people of their island had their ears
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  Speaker 1: adapted to hear the music of the spheres, which always
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  Speaker 1: played at certain periods, and the court was now prepared
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  Speaker 1: to bear their part in whatever instrument they most excelled.
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  Speaker 1: In our journey towards Laggardo, the capital city. His Majesty
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  Speaker 1: ordered that the the island should stop over certain towns
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  Speaker 1: and villages, from whence he might receive the petitions of
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  Speaker 1: his subjects. And to this purpose several pack threads were
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  Speaker 1: let down with small weights at the bottom. On these
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  Speaker 1: pack threads the people strung their petitions, which mounted up
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  Speaker 1: directly like the scraps of paper fastened by schoolboys, at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the string that holds their kite. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: received wines and victuals from below, which were drawn up
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  Speaker 1: by pulleys. The knowledge I had in mathematics gave me
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  Speaker 1: great assistance in acquiring their phraseology, which depended much upon
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  Speaker 1: that science and music, and in the latter I was
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  Speaker 1: not unskilled. Their ideas are perpetually conservant in lines and figures.
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  Speaker 1: If they would, for example, praise the beauty of a
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  Speaker 1: woman or any other animal, they described it by rhombus, circles, parallelograms, ellipses,
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  Speaker 1: and other geometric terms, or by words of art or
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  Speaker 1: from music. Needless here to repeat, I observed in the
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  Speaker 1: King's kitchen all sorts of mathematical and musical instruments, after
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  Speaker 1: the figures of which they cut up the joints that
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  Speaker 1: were served to his Majesty's table. Their houses are very
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  Speaker 1: ill built, the wall's bevel without one right angle in
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  Speaker 1: any apartment. And this defect arises from the contempt they
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  Speaker 1: bear to practical geometry, which they despise as vulgar and mechanic,
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  Speaker 1: those instructions they give, being too refined for the intellects
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  Speaker 1: of their workmen, which occasions perpetual mistakes. And although they
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  Speaker 1: are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper in the
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  Speaker 1: management of the rule, the pencil and the divider, yet
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  Speaker 1: in the common actions and behavior of life, I have
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  Speaker 1: not seen a more clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor
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  Speaker 1: so slow and perplexed in their conceptions. Upon all other subjects,
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  Speaker 1: except those of mathematics and music. They are very bad
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  Speaker 1: reasoners and vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen
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  Speaker 1: to be of the right opinion, which is seldom their case. Imagination,
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  Speaker 1: fancy and invention they are wholly strangers to, nor have
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  Speaker 1: any words in their language by which these ideas can
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  Speaker 1: be expressed, the whole compass of their thoughts and minds
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  Speaker 1: being shut up within the twoforementioned sciences. Most of them,
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  Speaker 1: and especially those who deal in the astronomical part, have
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  Speaker 1: great faith in judicial astrology. Although they are ashamed to
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  Speaker 1: own it publicly. But what I chiefly admire and thought
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  Speaker 1: altogether unaccountable, was the strong disposition I observed in them
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  Speaker 1: towards news and politics, perpetually inquiring into public affairs, given
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  Speaker 1: their judgments in matters of state, and passionately disputing every
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  Speaker 1: inch of a party opinion. I have indeed observed the
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  Speaker 1: same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known
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  Speaker 1: in Europe, although I could never discover the least analogy
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  Speaker 1: between the two sciences, unless those people suppose that because
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  Speaker 1: the smallest circle has as many degrees as the largest,
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  Speaker 1: therefore the regulation and management of the world require no
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  Speaker 1: more abilities in the handling and turning of a globe.
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  Speaker 1: But I rather take this quality to spring from a
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  Speaker 1: very common infirmity of human nature, inclining us to be
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  Speaker 1: most curious and conceited in manners where we have least concern,
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  Speaker 1: and from which we are least adapted by study or nature.
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  Speaker 1: These people are under continual disquietudes, never enjoying a minute's
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  Speaker 1: peace of mind, and their disturbances proceed from causes which
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  Speaker 1: very little affect the rest of mortals. Their apprehensions arise
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  Speaker 1: from several changes they dread in the celestial bodies. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: that the Earth, by the continual approaches of the Sun
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  Speaker 1: towards it, must, in course of time be absorbed or
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  Speaker 1: swallowed up. That the face of the Sun will by
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  Speaker 1: degrees be encrusted with its own effluvia, and give no
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  Speaker 1: more light to the world. That the Earth very narrowly
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  Speaker 1: escaped a brush from the tail of the last comet,
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  Speaker 1: which would have infallibly reduced it to ashes, And that
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  Speaker 1: the next, which they have calculated for one and thirty
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  Speaker 1: years hence, will probably destroy us. For if in its
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  Speaker 1: preohelion it should approach within a certain degree of the Sun,
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  Speaker 1: as by their calculations they have reason to dread, it
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  Speaker 1: will receive a degree of heat ten thousand times more
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  Speaker 1: intense then that of a red hot, glowing iron, and
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  Speaker 1: in its absence from the Sun, carry a blazing tail
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  Speaker 1: ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long, through which, if
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  Speaker 1: the Earth should pass at a distance of one hundred
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  Speaker 1: miles from the nucleus or the main body of the comet,
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  Speaker 1: it must, in its passage be set on fire and
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  Speaker 1: reduced to ashes. That the Sun daily spending its rays
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  Speaker 1: without any nutriment to supply them will at last be
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  Speaker 1: wholly consumed and annihilated, which must be attended with the
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  Speaker 1: destruction of this earth and of all the planets that
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  Speaker 1: receive their light from it. They are so perpetually alarmed
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  Speaker 1: with the apprehensions of these and the like impending dangers,
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  Speaker 1: that they could neither sleep quietly in their beds, nor
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  Speaker 1: have any relish for the common pleasures and amusements of life.
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  Speaker 1: When they meet an acquaintance in the morning, their questions
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  Speaker 1: about the sun's health, how he looked at his setting
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  Speaker 1: and rising, and what hopes they have to avoid the
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  Speaker 1: stroke of the approaching comet. This conversation they are apt
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  Speaker 1: to run into with the same temper that boys discover
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  Speaker 1: in delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and hopgloblins,
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  Speaker 1: which they greedily listen to, and dare not go to
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  Speaker 1: bed for fear. The women of the island have abundance
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  Speaker 1: of vivacity. They contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond
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  Speaker 1: of strangers, whereof there is always a considerable number from
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  Speaker 1: the continent below attending at court, either upon affairs of
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  Speaker 1: the several towns and corporations, or their own particular occasions,
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  Speaker 1: but are much despised because they want the same endowments.
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  Speaker 1: Among these, the ladies choose their gallants, but the vexation
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  Speaker 1: is that they act with too much ease and security,
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  Speaker 1: for the husband is always so wrapt in speculation, that
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  Speaker 1: the mistress and lover may proceed to the greatest familiarities
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  Speaker 1: before his face, if he be but provided with paper
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  Speaker 1: and implements, and without his flapper at his side. The
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  Speaker 1: wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although
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  Speaker 1: I think it is the most delicious spot of ground
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  Speaker 1: in the world, and although they live here in the
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  Speaker 1: greatest plenty and magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever
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  Speaker 1: they please, they long to see the world and take
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  Speaker 1: the diversions of the metropolis, which they are not allowed
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  Speaker 1: to do without a particular license from the king, and
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  Speaker 1: that is not easy to be obtained. Because the people
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  Speaker 1: of quality are found by frequent experience, how hard it
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  Speaker 1: is to persuade their woman to return from below. I
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  Speaker 1: was told that a great court lady, who had several children,
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  Speaker 1: is married to the Prime Minister, the richest subject in
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom, a very graceful person, extremely fond of her,
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  Speaker 1: and lives in the finest palace of the island, went
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  Speaker 1: down to Laggardo on the pretense of health. There hid
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  Speaker 1: herself for several months till the king sent a warrant
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  Speaker 1: to search for her, and she was found in an
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  Speaker 1: obscure eating house, all in rags, having pawned her clothes
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  Speaker 1: to maintain an old, deformed footman who beat her every day,
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  Speaker 1: and in whose company she was taken much against her will.
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  Speaker 1: And although her husband received her with all possible kindness
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  Speaker 1: and without the least reproach, that she soon after contrived
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  Speaker 1: to steal down again with all her duels, to the
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  Speaker 1: same gallant, and has not been heard of since. This
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  Speaker 1: may perhaps pass with the reader rather for a European
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  Speaker 1: or English story than for one of a country so remote.
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  Speaker 1: But he may please to consider that the caprices of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and
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  Speaker 1: that they are much more uniform than can be easily imagined.
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  Speaker 1: In about a month's time, I had made a tolerable
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  Speaker 1: proficiency in their language, was able to answer most of
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  Speaker 1: the King's questions. When I had the honor to attend him,
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  Speaker 1: his Majesty discovered not the least curiosity to inquire into
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  Speaker 1: the laws, government, history, religion, or manners of the countries
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  Speaker 1: where I had been, but confined his questions to the
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  Speaker 1: state of mathematics, and received the account I gave him
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  Speaker 1: with great contempt and indifference, though often roused by his
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  Speaker 1: flapper on each side. End of Part three, Chapter two,