Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 20 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter four, the author leaves Laputa is conveyed to Balnababi,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: arrives at the metropolis. A description of the metropolis and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the country adjoining the author hospitably received by a great
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: lord his conversation with that lord. Although I cannot say
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that I was ill treated in this island, yet I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: must confess I thought myself too much neglected, not without
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: some degree of contempt, For neither Prince nor people appeared
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to be curious in any part of knowledge except mathematics
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and music, wherein I was far their inferior, and upon
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that account very little regarded. On the other side, After
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: having seen all the curiosities of the island, I was
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: very desirous to leave it, being heartily weary of those people.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: They were indeed excellent in two sciences for which I
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: have great esteem, and wherein I am not unverse, but
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: at the same time so abstracted and involved in speculation,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: that I have never met with such disagreeable companions. I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: confessed only with women, tradesmen, flappers, and court pages during
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: two months of my abode, there by which at least
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I rendered myself extremely contemptible. Yet these were the only
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: people from whom I could ever receive a reasonable answer.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I had obtained, by hard study a good degree of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: knowledge in their language. I was weary of being confined
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to an island where I received so little countenance, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: resolved to leave it with the first opportunity. There was
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a great lord at court, nearly related to the King,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and for that reason alone used with respect. He was
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: universally reckoned, the most ignorant and stupid person among them.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: He had performed many eminent services for the crown, had
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honor,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but so ill an ear for music that his detractors
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: reported he had been often known to beat time in
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the wrong place. Neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the mathematics.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: He was pleased to show me many marks of favour,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: often did me the honor of a visit. Desired to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: be informed in the affairs of Europe, the laws and customs,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the manners and learning of the several countries where I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: had traveled. He listened to me with great attention, and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: made very wise observations on all I spoke. He had
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: two flappers attending him for state, but never made use
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of them except at court and in visits of ceremony,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and would always command them to withdraw when we were
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: alone together. I entreated this illustrious person to intercede in
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: my behalf with his Majesty for leave to depart, which
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: he accordingly did, as he was pleased to tell me,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: with great regret, for indeed he had made me several
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: offers very advantageous, which however, I refused, with expressions of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the highest acknowledgment. On the sixteenth of February I took
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: leave of his Majesty in the court. The King made
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: me a present to the value of about two hundred
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: pounds English, and my protector his kinsman as much more,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: together with a letter of recommendation to a friend of
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: his in Laggardo the Metropolis, the island being then hovering
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: over a mountain about two miles from it, I was
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: let down from the lowest gallery. In the same manner
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I had been taken up. The continent, as far as
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: it is subject to the monarch of the Flying Island
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: passes under the general name of Boune Barbie, and the metropolis,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: as I have said before, is called Laggardo. I felt
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: some little satisfaction in finding myself on firm ground. I
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: walked to the city without any concern, being clad like
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: one of the natives and sufficiently instructed to converse with them.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I soon found out the person's house to whom I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was recommended, presented my letter from his friend, the Grandee
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in the island, and was received with much kindness. This
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: great lord, whose name was Minodi, ordered me an apartment
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: in his own house, where I continued during my stay,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and was entertained in a most hospitable manner. The next
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: morning after my arrival, he took me in his chariot
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: to see the town, which is about half the bigness
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of London, but the houses very strangely built, and most
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of them out of repair. The people in the streets
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: walked fast, looked wild, their eyes fixed, and were generally
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in rags. We passed through one of the town gates.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I went about three miles into the country or I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: saw many laborers working with several sorts of tools in
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the ground, but was not able to conjecture what they
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: were about. Neither did observe any expectation either of corn
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: or grass, although the soil appeared to be excellent. I
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: could not forbear admiring at these odd appearances, both in
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: town and country, and I made bold to desire my
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: conductor that he would be pleased to explain to me
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: what could be meant by so many busy heads, hands
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and faces, both in the streets and the fields, because
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I did not discover any good effects they produced. But
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: on the contrary, I never knew a soil so unhappily cultivated,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: houses so ill contrived and so ruinous, or a people
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: whose countenances and habit expressed so much misery and want.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: This Lord Manodie was a person of the first rank,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and had been some years governor of Laggardo, but by
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a cable of ministers, was discharged for insufficiency. However, the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: King treated him with tenderness, as a well meaning man,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: but of a low contemptible understanding. When I gave that
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: free censure of the country and his inhabitants, he made
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: no further answer than by telling me that I had
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: not been long enough among them to form a judgment,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and that the different nations of the world had different
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: customs with other common topics to the same purpose. But
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: when we returned to his palace. He asked me how
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I liked the building, what absurdities I observed, and what
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: quarrel I had with the dress or look of his domestics.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: This he might safely do, because everything about him was magnificent, regular,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and polite. I answered that his Excellency's prudence, quality, and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: fortune had exempted him from those defects which Folly and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Beggary had produced in others. He said, if I would
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: go with him to his country house, about twenty miles distant,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: whereas estate lay, there would be more leisure for this
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: kind of conversation. I told his Excellency that I was
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: entirely at his disposal, and accordingly we set out next morning.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: During our journey he made me observe the several methods
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: used by farmers in managing their lands, which to me
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: were wholly unaccountable for. Except in some very few places,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I could not discover one ear of corn or blade
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: of grass. But in three hours traveling the scene was
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: wholly altered. We came into a most beautiful country, farmers
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: houses at small distances, neatly built, the fields enclosed, containing vineyards,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: corn ground and meadows. Neither do I remember to have
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: seen a more delightful prospect. His excellency observed my countenance
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: to cheer up. He told me with a sigh, that
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: there his estate began, and would continue the same till
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we should come to his house, that his countrymen ridiculed
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: and despised him for managing his affairs no better, and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: for setting so ill an example to the kingdom, which however,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: was followed by very few such as were old and wilful,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and weak like himself. We came at length to the house,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: which was indeed a noble structure, built according to the
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: best rules of ancient architecture. The fountains, gardens, walks, avenues,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and groves were all disposed with exact judgment and taste.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I gave due praises to everything I saw, whereof his
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Excellency took not the least notice till after supper, when
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: there being no third companion, who told me, with a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: very melancholy air, that he doubted he must throw down
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: his houses in town and country, to rebuild them after
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the present mode, destroy all his plantations and cast others
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: into such a form as modern usage required, and give
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the same directions to all his tenants, unless he would
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: submit to incur the censure of pride, singularity, affectation, ignorance, caprice,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and perhaps increase His Majesty's displeasure, that the admiration I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: appeared to be under would cease or diminish. When he
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: had informed me of some particulars which probably I had
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: never heard of at court, the people there being too
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: much taken up in their own speculations to have regard
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to what passed here below. The sum of his discourse
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was to this effect, that, about forty years ago, certain
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: persons went up to the either upon business or diversion,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and after five months continuance, came back with a very
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in that airy region. That these persons, upon their return,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: began to dislike the management of everything below, and fell
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: upon a new foot. To this end, they procured a
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: royal patent for erecting an academy of projectors in Legado,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and the humor prevailed so strongly among the people that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: there is not a town of any consequence in the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Kingdom without such an academy. In these colleges, the professors
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: contrived neurals and methods of agriculture and building, and new
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: instruments and new tools for all trades and manufacturers. Whereby,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: as the undertake one man shall do the work of ten,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a palace may be built in a whey of materials
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so durable as to last forever without repairing. All the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: season we think fit to choose, and increase one hundredfold
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: more than they do at present, with innumerable other happy proposals.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: The only inconvenience is that none of these projects are
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: yet brought to perfection, and in the meantime the whole
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruin, and the
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: people without food or clothes, by all which, instead of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: But as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: he was content to go on in the old forms,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to live in a house as his ancestors had built,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and act as they did in every part of life,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: without innovation. That some few other persons of quality gentry
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: had done the same, but were looked on with an
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: eye of contempt and ill will, as enemies to art
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ignorant and ill Commonwealth's men, preferring their own ease and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: sloth before the general improvement of their country. His lordship
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: added that he would not, by any further particulars, prevent
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the pleasure I should certainly take in viewing the grand academy,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: whither he was resolved I should go. He only desired
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: me to observe a ruined building upon the side of
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a mountain about three miles distant of which he gave
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: me this account. There had been a very convenient mill
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: within half a mile of his house, turned by a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: current from a large river, and sufficient for his own family,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: as well as a great number of his tenants, that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: about seven years ago a club of those projectors came
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: to him with proposals to destroy this mill and build
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: another on the side of that mountain, on the long ridge,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: whereof a long canal must be cut for a repository
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of water to be conveyed up by pipes and engines
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to supply the mill. Because the wind and air upon
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: a height agitated the water, and thereby made it fitter
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: for motion, and because the water descending down into clevity
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: would turn the mill with half the current of a
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: river whose course is more upon a level. He said that,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: being then not very well with the court, and pressed
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: by many of his friends, he complied with the proposal,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and after employing a hundred men for two years, the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: work miscarried. The projectors went off, laying the blame entirely
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: upon him, railing at him ever since, and putting others
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: upon the same experiment with equal assurance of success as
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: well as equal disappointment. In a few days we came
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: back to town, and his Excellency, considering the bad character he
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: had in the academy, would not go with me himself,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: but recommended me to a friend of his to bear
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: me company Thither. My Lord was pleased to represent me
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: as a great admirer of projects, and a person of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: much curiosity and easy belief, which indeed was not without truth,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: for I had myself been a sort of projector in
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my younger days. And a part three Chapter four