towards E; where, if the stone be again turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its repelling point downwards, the

D

F

H

C

A

d

E

C

B

island will rise obliquely towards F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the island may be carried to G, and from G to H, by turning the stone so as to make its repelling extremity point directly downward. And thus, by changing the situation. of the stone as often as there is occasion, the island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique direction, and by those alternate risings and fallings (the obliquity being not considerable) is conveyed from one part of the dominions to the other.*

But it must be observed that this island cannot move beyond the extent of the dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of four miles; for which the astronomers (who have written large systems concerning the stone) assign the following reason that the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance of four miles, and that the mineral, which acts upon the stone in the bowels of the earth, and in the sea about six leagues distant from the shore, is not diffused through the whole globe, but terminates with the limits of the king's dominions; and it was easy, from the great advantage of such a superior situation, for a prince to bring under his obedience whatever country lay within the attraction of that magnet.

When the stone is put parallel to the plane of the horizon, the island stands still; for in that case the extremities of it, being at equal distances from the earth, act with equal force, the one in drawing downwards, and the other in pushing upwards, and consequently no motion can ensue.

This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to time, give it such positions as the monarch directs. They spend the greatest part of their lives in observing the celestial bodies,

The whole description of the loadstone in the centre of the island, the mode in which it is fixed and worked, and the details of the manner in which the floating island is raised and lowered, and moved about from place to place, are very ingenious and amusing. The explanation which Gulliver gives of its system of progression, by the assistance of a diagram and letters, which are published in the earlier editions, is exactly in the language and style of mathematical demonstrations, which it is evidently intended to parody.

"They spend the greatest part of their lives in observing the celestial bodies."-Page 204.

which they do by the assistance of glasses, far excelling ours in goodness. For, although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they magnify much more than those of a hundred with us, and show the stars with greater clearness. This advantage has enabled them to extend their discoveries much farther than our astronomers in Europe; for they have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars, whereas the largest of ours does not contain above one-third part of that number. They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very nearly in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance, from the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.*

Professor de Morgan observes upon these astronomical statements, that Swift has correctly placed his satellites of Mars so as to have the squares of the times as the cubes of the

They have observed ninety-three different comets, and settled their periods with great exactness. If this be true (and they affirm it with great confidence), it is much to be wished that their observations were made public, whereby the theory of comets, which at present is very lame and defective, might be brought to the same perfection as other parts of astronomy.

*

The king would be the most absolute prince in the universe, if he could but prevail on his ministry to join with him; but these having their estates below on the continent, and considering that the office of a favourite has a very uncertain tenure, would never consent to the enslaving of their country.

If any town should engage in rebellion or mutiny, fall into violent factions, or refuse to pay the usual tribute, the king has two methods of reducing them to obedience. The first and the mildest course is by

distances-one of Kepler's well-known laws. "I have no doubt," he adds, "that he was here helped to the true answers. That Swift could himself extract a cube root, or use logarithms, is more than Apella would have believed, even after twenty years' service in the Marines."

The subject of comets very much engaged the attention of the learned men of Swift's time, as will be seen by a reference to the transactions of the Royal Society, in which there are many papers upon them, and details of observations made by astronomers in various parts of Europe. Several theories had been broached by the learned from time to time as to the nature of comets, their courses through the cosmical system, and the possibility of their near approach to the sun or to the earth, and the results that might ensue. Whiston had about this time attempted to show that the comet of 1680 had, on a former visit to the earth, been the proximate cause of the Noachian deluge. One of Sir Isaac Newton's conjectures, which he entertained to the end of his life, was that comets were the aliment by which suns were sustained, and he therefore concluded that these bodies were in a state of progressive decline upon the suns round which they respectively swept, and that into these suns they from time to time fell. "I cannot say," he remarked, when in his eighty-third year, to his nephew, "when the comet of 1680 will fall into the sun; possibly after five or six revolutions: but whenever that time shall arrive, the heat of the sun will be raised by it to such a point that our globe will be burnt, and all the animals upon it will perish." These various opinions and conjectures are, no doubt, ridiculed by Swift, as we have seen in the previous chapter. At all times, and in all countries, the appearance of comets has operated powerfully on the superstitious feelings of mankind-scarcely less in modern and enlightened times than in the more remote and darker ages; and scarcely less among the most civilised than among the most barbarous. It cannot be denied that the immersion of the earth in the tail of a comet is a possible event, though it is extremely improbable. What the consequences would be can be only a matter of conjecture. If it be of a vaporous or aëriform nature, it would probably mingle with the terrestrial atmosphere, and would be likely to produce effects very injurious to health-perhaps destructive of life. Plagues have frequently been concurrent with the appearance of comets, and attributed to their influence, as the terrible epidemic in 590, the great plague in 1305, made memorable by Boccaccio, and that of London in 1665, recorded by De Foe. The nearest approach which any comet has been ascertained to have made to the earth was that of the comet of 1684, which came within 216 semi-diameters of the earth, less than four times the distance of the

moon.

keeping the island hovering over such a town and the lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the benefit of the sun and the rain, and consequently afflict the inhabitants with dearth and diseases and if the crime deserve it, they are at the same time pelted from above with great stones, against which they have no defence but by creeping into cellars or caves, while the roofs of their houses are beaten to pieces. But if they still continue obstinate, or offer to raise insurrections, he proceeds to the last remedy, by letting the island drop directly upon their heads, which makes a universal destruction both of houses and men. However, this is an extremity to which the prince is seldom driven; neither, indeed, is he willing to put it into execution; nor dare his ministers advise him to an action which, as it would render them odious to the people, so it would be a great damage to their own estates, which lie all below; for the island is the king's demesne.*

But there is still, indeed, a more weighty reason why the kings of this country have been always averse from executing so terrible an action, unless upon the utmost necessity. For, if the town intended to be destroyed should have in it any tall rocks, as it generally falls out in the larger cities—a situation probably chosen at first with a view to prevent such a catastrophe—or if it abound in high spires or pillars of stone, a sudden fall might endanger the bottom or under surface of the island, which, although it consists, as I have said, of one entire adamant, two hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by too great a shock,

I cannot help thinking that Swift, in the details which he here gives of the different methods to which the King of Laputa had recourse, in order to reduce his subjects to submission when either factious or rebellious, or unwilling to pay tribute, had some political abuses or unconstitutional practices in view, against which he covertly directs his satire. What these were, however, at this distance of time, can be only matter of conjecture, nor can I obtain any assistance from the labours of previous commentators. That which is described as the mildest proceeding may be intended to signify the withdrawal of royal favour from those individuals who resist or thwart the wishes of the sovereign; the severer process of pelting them with stones may refer to the state prosecutions to which so many of Swift's political friends were subjected. The last extremity of punishment for the obstinate and rebellious—that of letting the island drop directly on their heads-is that perhaps of coercing the people by the terror of standing armies, and the opposition of the sovereign, by means of physical force, to his people, and usurping an authority beyond what is constitutionally assigned to him. So violent a course would, as the apologue represents, endanger both the welfare of the sovereign and the ministers who might give him such impolitic advice; and so Swift indicates that even when provoked to extremity, the king proceeds with great gentleness against the people, through regard for his own safety. Whatever be the real significance of the passages in the text, I am strongly inclined to believe that Swift had some political object in view when he wrote them.

or burst by approaching too near the fires from the houses below, as the backs, both of iron and stone, will often do in our chimneys. Of all this the people are well apprised, and understand how far to carry their obstinacy, where their liberty or property is concerned. And the king, when he is highest provoked, and most determined to press a city to rubbish, orders the island to descend with great gentleness, out of a pretence of tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their philosophers that the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would fall to the ground.

By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king nor either of his two eldest sons are permitted to leave the island; nor the queen, till she has attained a certain age."

The frequent absences of George I. from England, to visit his favourite kingdom of Hanover, were regarded by the people of the former country with natural jealousy. It is likely that Swift alludes to these visits to Hanover, when he states that it was a fundamental law of the Island of Laputa that the king should not leave it.