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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, the Huinnan's Notion of Truth and falsehood. The
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  Speaker 1: author's discourse disapproved by his master. The author gives a
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  Speaker 1: more particular account of himself and the accidents of his voyage.
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  Speaker 1: My master heard me with great appearances of uneasiness in
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  Speaker 1: his countenance, because doubting or not believing are so little
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  Speaker 1: known in this country that the inhabitants cannot tell how
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  Speaker 1: to behave themselves under such circumstances. And I remember, in
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  Speaker 1: frequent discourses with my master concerning the nature of manhood
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  Speaker 1: in other parts of the world, having occasioned a talk
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  Speaker 1: of lying and false reputation. It was with much difficulty
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  Speaker 1: that he comprehended what I meant, although he had otherwise
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  Speaker 1: a most acute judgment, For he argued thus that the
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  Speaker 1: use of speech was to make us understand one another
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  Speaker 1: and to receive information of facts. Now, if any one
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  Speaker 1: said the thing which was not, these ends were defeated,
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  Speaker 1: because I cannot properly be said to understand him, and
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  Speaker 1: I am so far from receiving information that he leaves
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  Speaker 1: me worse than in ignorance. For I am led to
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  Speaker 1: believe a thing black when it is white, and short
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  Speaker 1: when it is long, and these were all the notions
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  Speaker 1: he had concerned in the faculty of lying, so perfectly
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  Speaker 1: well understood and so universally practiced among human creatures. To
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  Speaker 1: return from this digression, when I asserted that the Yahoos
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  Speaker 1: were the only governing animals in my country, which my
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  Speaker 1: master said was altogether past his conception, he desired to
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  Speaker 1: know whether we had hunums among us, and what was
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  Speaker 1: their employment. I told him we had great numbers, that
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  Speaker 1: in summer they grazed in the fields, and in winter
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  Speaker 1: were kept in houses with hay and oats, where Yahoo
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  Speaker 1: servants were employed to rub their skin smooth, comb their manes,
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  Speaker 1: picked their feet, serve them with food, and make their beds.
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  Speaker 1: I understand you well, said my master. It is now
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  Speaker 1: very plain from all you have spoken that whatever share
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  Speaker 1: of reason the Yahoos pretend to, the Whinnams are your masters.
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  Speaker 1: I heartily wish our Yahoos would be so tractable. I
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  Speaker 1: begged his honor would please to excuse me from proceeding
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  Speaker 1: any further, because I was very certain that the account
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  Speaker 1: expected from me would be highly displeasing. But he insisted
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  Speaker 1: in commanding me to let him know the best and
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  Speaker 1: the worst. I told him he should be obeyed. I
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  Speaker 1: owned that the whinnams among us, whom we call horses,
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  Speaker 1: were the most generous and comely animals we had. That
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  Speaker 1: they excelled in strength and swiftness, And when they belonged
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  Speaker 1: to persons of quality were employed in traveling, racing, or
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  Speaker 1: drawing chariots, they were treated with much kindness and care
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  Speaker 1: till they fell into disease or became foundered in the feet.
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  Speaker 1: But then they were sold and used to all kinds
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  Speaker 1: of drudgery till they died, after which their skins were
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  Speaker 1: stripped and sold for what they were worth, and their
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  Speaker 1: bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey.
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  Speaker 1: But the common race of horses had not so good fortune,
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  Speaker 1: being kept by farmers and carriers and other mean people,
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  Speaker 1: who put them to great labor and fed them worse.
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  Speaker 1: I described as well as I could our way of
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  Speaker 1: riding the shape and juice of a bridle, a saddle,
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  Speaker 1: a spur, and a whip of harness and wheels. I
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  Speaker 1: added that we fastened plaits of a certain hard substance
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  Speaker 1: called iron at the bottom of their feet, to preserve
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  Speaker 1: their hoops from being broken by the stony ways on
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  Speaker 1: which we often traveled. My master, after some expressions of
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  Speaker 1: great indignation, wondered how we dared to venture upon a
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  Speaker 1: Whynham's back, For he was sure that the weakest servant
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  Speaker 1: in his house would be able to shake off the
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  Speaker 1: strongest yahoo, or by lying down and rolling on his back,
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  Speaker 1: squeezed the brute to death. I answered that our horses
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  Speaker 1: were trained up from three or four years old to
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  Speaker 1: the several uses we intended them for, that if any
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  Speaker 1: of them proved intolerably vicious, they were employed for carriages,
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  Speaker 1: that they were severely beaten while they were young, for
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  Speaker 1: any mischievous tricks. That the males designed for the common
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  Speaker 1: use of riding or draft were generally castrated about two
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  Speaker 1: years after their birth, to take down their spirits and
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  Speaker 1: make them more tame and gentle. That they were indeed
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  Speaker 1: sensible of rewards and punishments. But his Honor would please
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  Speaker 1: to consider that they had not the least tincature of
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  Speaker 1: reason any more than the Yahoos in this country. It
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  Speaker 1: put me to the pains of many circumlocutions to give
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  Speaker 1: my master a right idea of what I spoke, for
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  Speaker 1: their language does not abound in variety, of words, because
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  Speaker 1: their wants and passions are fewer than among us. But
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  Speaker 1: it is impossible to express his noble resentment at our
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  Speaker 1: savage treatment of the Huinnhum race, particularly after I had
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  Speaker 1: explained the manner and use of castrating horses among us
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  Speaker 1: to hinder them from propagating their kind and to render
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  Speaker 1: them more servile. He said, if it were possible, there
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  Speaker 1: could be any country where yahoos alone were endued with reason,
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  Speaker 1: they certainly must be the governing animal, because reason and
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  Speaker 1: time will always prevail against brute strength. But considering the
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  Speaker 1: frame of our bodies, and especially of mine, thought, no
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  Speaker 1: creature of equal bulk was so ill contrived for employing
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  Speaker 1: that reason in the common offices of life. Whereupon he
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  Speaker 1: desired to know whether those among whom I lived resembled
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  Speaker 1: me or the Yahoos of his country. I assured him
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  Speaker 1: that I was as well shaped as most of my age,
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  Speaker 1: but the younger and the females were much more soft
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  Speaker 1: and tender, and the skins of the latter generally as
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  Speaker 1: white as milk. He said, I differed, indeed from other Yahoos,
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  Speaker 1: being much more cleanly and not altogether so deformed. But
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  Speaker 1: in point of real advantage, he thought I differed from
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  Speaker 1: the worse, that my nails were of no use either
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  Speaker 1: to my four or hinder feet, as to my forefeet.
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  Speaker 1: He could not properly call them by that name, for
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  Speaker 1: he never observed me to walk upon them, That they
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  Speaker 1: were too soft to bear. The ground that I generally
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  Speaker 1: went with them uncovered near the was the covering I
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  Speaker 1: sum times worn them of the same shape or so
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  Speaker 1: strong as that on my feet behind. That I could
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  Speaker 1: not walk without any security, for if either of my
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  Speaker 1: hinder feet slipped, I must inevitably fail. He then began
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  Speaker 1: to find fault with other parts of my body, the
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  Speaker 1: flatness of my face, the prominence of my nose, mine
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  Speaker 1: eyes placed directly in front, so that I could not
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  Speaker 1: look on either side without turning my head. That I
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  Speaker 1: was not able to feed myself without lifting one on
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  Speaker 1: my four feet to my mouth, And therefore nature had
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  Speaker 1: placed those joints to answer that necessity. He knew not
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  Speaker 1: what could be the use of those several clefts and
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  Speaker 1: divisions in my feet behind. That these were too soft
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  Speaker 1: to bear the hardness and sharpness of stones without a
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  Speaker 1: covering made from the skin of some other brute, That
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  Speaker 1: my whole body wanted a fence against heat and cold,
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  Speaker 1: which I was forced to put on and off every
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  Speaker 1: day with tediousness and trouble. Lastly, that he observed every
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  Speaker 1: animal in this country naturally to abhor the yahoos, whom
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  Speaker 1: the weaker avoided and the stronger drove from them, So that,
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  Speaker 1: supposing us to have the gift of reason, he could
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  Speaker 1: not see how it were possible to cure that natural
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  Speaker 1: antipathy which every creature discovered against us, nor consequently how
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  Speaker 1: we could tame and render them serviceable. However, he would,
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  Speaker 1: as he said, debate the matter no farther, because he
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  Speaker 1: was more desirous to know my own story, the country
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  Speaker 1: where I was born, and the several actions and events
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  Speaker 1: of my life before I came hither. I assured him
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  Speaker 1: how extremely desirous I was that he should be satisfied
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  Speaker 1: in every point. But I doubted much whether it would
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  Speaker 1: be possible for me to explain myself on several subjects
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  Speaker 1: whereof his honor could have no conception, because I saw
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  Speaker 1: nothing in his country to which I could resemble them. However,
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  Speaker 1: that I would do my best and strive to express
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  Speaker 1: myself by similitudes, humbly desiring his assistance when I wanted
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  Speaker 1: proper words, which he was pleased to promise me. I said,
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  Speaker 1: my birth was of honest parents in an island called England,
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  Speaker 1: which was remote from his country, as many days journey
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  Speaker 1: as the strongest of his honored servants could travel in
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  Speaker 1: the annual course of the sun. That I was bred
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  Speaker 1: a surgeon whose trade it was to cure wounds and
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  Speaker 1: hurts in the body gotten by accident or violence. That
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  Speaker 1: my country was governed by a female man, whom we
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  Speaker 1: called Queen. That I left to get riches whereby I
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  Speaker 1: might maintain myself and family when I should return. That
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  Speaker 1: in my last voyage, I was commander of the ship
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  Speaker 1: and had about fifty yahoos under me, many of which
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  Speaker 1: died at sea, and I was forced to supply them
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  Speaker 1: by others picked out from several nations. The towership was
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  Speaker 1: twice in danger of being sunk, the first time by
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  Speaker 1: a great storm and the second by striking against a rock.
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  Speaker 1: Here my master interposed by asking me how I could
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  Speaker 1: persuade strangers out of different countries to venture with me.
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  Speaker 1: After the losses I had sustained and the hazards I
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  Speaker 1: had run, I said they were fellows of desperate fortunes,
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  Speaker 1: forced to fly from the places of their birth on
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  Speaker 1: account of their poverty or their crimes. Some were undone
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  Speaker 1: by law suits, Others spent all they had in drinking,
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  Speaker 1: houring and gaming. Others fled for treason, many for murder, theft, poisoning, robbery, perjury, forgery,
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  Speaker 1: coining false money, for committing rapes or sodomy, for flying
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  Speaker 1: from their colors, or deserting to the enemy, and most
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  Speaker 1: of them had broken prison. None of these durst return
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  Speaker 1: to their name countries for fear of being hanged or
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  Speaker 1: of starving in a jail, and therefore they were under
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of seeking a livelihood in other places. During
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  Speaker 1: this discourse, my master was pleased to interrupt me several times.
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  Speaker 1: I had made use of many circumlocutions in describing to
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  Speaker 1: him the nature of the several crimes for which most
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  Speaker 1: of our crew bedween forced to fly their country. This
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  Speaker 1: labour took up several days conversation before he was able
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  Speaker 1: to comprehend me. He was wholly at a loss to
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  Speaker 1: know what could be the use or necessity of practicing
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  Speaker 1: those vices. To clear up which I endeavored to give
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  Speaker 1: some ideas of the desire of power and riches, of
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  Speaker 1: the terrible effects of lust, intemperance, malice, and envy. All
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  Speaker 1: this I was forced to define and describe by putting
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  Speaker 1: cases and making suppositions, after which, like one whose imagination
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  Speaker 1: was struck with something never seen or heard of before,
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  Speaker 1: he would lift up his eyes with amazement and indignation. Power, government, war, law, punishment,
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  Speaker 1: and a thousand other things had no terms wherein that
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  Speaker 1: language could express them, which made the difficulty almost insuperable
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  Speaker 1: to give my master any conception of what I meant.
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  Speaker 1: But being of an excellent understanding, much improved by contemplation
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  Speaker 1: and converse, he at last arrived at a competent knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of what human nature in our parts of the world
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  Speaker 1: is capable to perform and desired. I would give him
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  Speaker 1: some particular account of that land which we call Europe,
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  Speaker 1: but especially of my own country, and apart four Chapter
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  Speaker 1: four