nobility of my country, was pleased to make me a compliment which I could not pretend to deserve that he was sure I must have been born of some noble family, because I far exceeded in shape, colour, and cleanliness, all the Yahoos of his nation, although I seemed to fail in strength and agility, which must be imputed to my different way of living from those other brutes; and, besides, I was not only endowed with the faculty of speech, but likewise with some rudiments of reason, to a degree that, with all his acquaintance, I passed for a prodigy.

I made his honour the most humble acknowledgments for the good opinion he was pleased to conceive of me; but assured him, at the same time, that my birth was of the lower sort, having been born of plain honest parents, who were just able to give me a tolerable education; that nobility, amongst us, was altogether a different thing from the idea he had of it; that "our young noblemen are bred from their childhood in idleness and luxury, and when their fortunes are almost ruined, they marry some women of mean birth, disagreeable person, and unsound constitution (merely for the sake of money), whom they hate and despise. The imperfections of the mind run parallel with those of the body, being a composition of spleen, dulness, ignorance, caprice, sensuality, and pride.

"Without the consent of this illustrious body no law can be enacted, repealed, or altered; and these nobles have likewise the decision of all our possessions, without appeal."*

As in the Voyage to Brobdingnag, Swift ironically attributes every virtue to the nobility of England, so here he openly denounces those vices to be found amongst that class, and to which it is peculiarly exposed from its wealth and position. In both cases he would seem to insinuate that such a body are not the best qualified to form the ultimate tribunal of appeal in all matters of law.

CHAPTER VII.

THE AUTHOR RELATES SEVERAL PARTICULARS OF THE YAHOOS.-THE GREAT VIRTUES OF THE HOUYHNHNMS.-THE EDUCATION AND EXERCISE OF THEIR YOUTH.-THEIR GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

SI ought to have understood human nature much better than I supposed it possible for my master to do, so it was easy to apply the character he gave of the Yahoos, from time to time, to myself and my countrymen; and I believed I could yet make further discoveries from my own observation. I therefore often begged his honour to let me go among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood, to which he always very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my guard, without whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures. For I have already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious animals upon my first arrival; and I afterwards failed very narrowly three or four times of falling into their clutches, when I happened to stray at any distance without my hanger. And I have reason to believe they had some imagination that I was of their own species, which I often assisted myself by stripping up my sleeves, and showing my naked arms in their sight, when my protector was with me; at which times they would approach as near as they durst, and imitate my actions after the manner of monkeys, but ever with great signs of hatred, as a tame jackdaw with cap and stockings is always persecuted by the wild ones when he happens to get among them.

They are prodigiously nimble from their infancy. However, I once caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to make it quiet; but the little imp fell a squalling, and scratching, and biting with such violence, that I was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole troop of old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe (for

away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not venture

near us.

By what I could discover, the Yahoos appear to be the most unteachable of all animals; their capacities never reaching higher than to draw or carry burdens. Yet I am of opinion this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition: for they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful; they are strong and hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and by consequence insolent, abject, and cruel. It is observed that the red-haired of both sexes are more mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much excel in strength and activity.

The Houyhnhnms keep the Yahoos for present use in huts not far from the house; but the rest are sent abroad to certain fields, where they dig up roots, eat several kinds of herbs, and search about for carrion, or sometimes catch weasels and luhimuhs (a sort of wild rat), which they greedily devour. Nature has taught them to dig deep holes with their nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein they lie by themselves, only the kennels of the females are larger, sufficient to hold two or three cubs.

They swim from their infancy like frogs, and are able to continue long under water, where they often take fish, which the females carry home to their young.

Having lived three years in this country, the reader, I suppose, will expect that I should, like other travellers, give him some account of the manners and customs of its inhabitants, which it was indeed my principal study to learn.

As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational creature, so their grand maxim is to cultivate reason and to be wholly governed by it. Neither is reason among them in a point problematical, as with us, where men can argue with plausibility on both sides of the question, but strikes you with immediate conviction, as it must needs do where it is not mingled, obscured, or discoloured by passion and interest. I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the word "opinion," or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either. So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and positiveness, in false or dubious propositions,

are evils unknown among the Houyhnhnms. In the like manner, when I used to explain to him our several systems of natural philosophy, he would laugh, that a creature pretending to reason should value itself upon the knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things where that knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use. Wherein he agreed entirely with the sentiments of Socrates, as Plato delivers them, which I mention as the highest honour I can do that prince of philosophers. I have often since reflected what destruction such doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe, and how many paths of fame would be then shut up in the learned world.

Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but universal to the whole race. For a stranger from the remotest part is equally treated with the nearest neighbour; and wherever he goes looks upon himself as at home. They preserve decency and civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of ceremony. They have no fondness for their colts or foals, but the care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the dictates of reason. And I observed my master to show the same affection to his neighbour's issue that he had for his own. They will have it that Nature teaches them to love the whole species, and it is reason only that makes a distinction of persons where there is a superior degree of virtue.*

Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements, have no place in

One cannot but feel that if this idea of universal friendship and benevolence, which Swift here extols, could be realised, it would present little to attract, and little to ennoble. Universal benevolence is no doubt to be desired, as it is constantly enjoined. But a sentiment of good will which reduces all kinds and degrees of affection, from the most ardent love to the calmest complacency, and which is the same in degree to the greatest stranger and to those connected by the nearest ties of blood, ceases almost to be a virtue, and is nothing more than the absence of a vice. Such a state in the moral world would be as cheerless and monstrous as would one vast plain be in the material, with no mountain or valley to diversify, no forest to adorn, no water to refresh; no light, no shade; no heat, no cold; no change of season; nothing to stimulate our exertions, to evoke our feelings, to excite our interest, or to make life delectable. It must, however, be admitted that this state is a necessary consequence of the nature and character which Swift has given to the Houyhnhnm. But, in so doing, he has removed the creature of his imagination so far from man's nature as to make any comparison almost impossible, and he has thus infinitely weakened, if he has not altogether destroyed, the moral which should be conveyed. It is hard to imagine that there could be any superior degree of virtue in one Houyhnhnm over another, where all equally obey the dictates of reason. It may be observed, too, that in thus attempting to raise the rational brute above the rational man, Swift has in reality degraded him, in some respects, below the irrational brute, which displays a stronger affection for its own offspring than for that of others, and will guard its young ones at the expense of its own life.