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_ CHAPTER X
[The author's economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms. His
great improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their
conversations. The author has notice given him by his master, that
he must depart from the country. He falls into a swoon for grief;
but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the help of a
fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture.]
I had settled my little economy to my own heart's content. My
master had ordered a room to be made for me, after their manner,
about six yards from the house: the sides and floors of which I
plastered with clay, and covered with rush-mats of my own
contriving. I had beaten hemp, which there grows wild, and made of
it a sort of ticking; this I filled with the feathers of several
birds I had taken with springes made of Yahoos' hairs, and were
excellent food. I had worked two chairs with my knife, the sorrel
nag helping me in the grosser and more laborious part. When my
clothes were worn to rags, I made myself others with the skins of
rabbits, and of a certain beautiful animal, about the same size,
called nnuhnoh, the skin of which is covered with a fine down. Of
these I also made very tolerable stockings. I soled my shoes with
wood, which I cut from a tree, and fitted to the upper-leather; and
when this was worn out, I supplied it with the skins of Yahoos
dried in the sun. I often got honey out of hollow trees, which I
mingled with water, or ate with my bread. No man could more verify
the truth of these two maxims, "That nature is very easily
satisfied;" and, "That necessity is the mother of invention." I
enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind; I did not
feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of
a secret or open enemy. I had no occasion of bribing, flattering,
or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his
minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was
neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my
fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge
accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers,
backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys,
bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious
talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos;
no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to
vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets,
whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics;
no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards,
strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no
stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome,
noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no
scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or
nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords,
fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.
I had the favour of being admitted to several Houyhnhnms, who came
to visit or dine with my master; where his honour graciously
suffered me to wait in the room, and listen to their discourse.
Both he and his company would often descend to ask me questions,
and receive my answers. I had also sometimes the honour of
attending my master in his visits to others. I never presumed to
speak, except in answer to a question; and then I did it with
inward regret, because it was a loss of so much time for improving
myself; but I was infinitely delighted with the station of an
humble auditor in such conversations, where nothing passed but what
was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant words;
where, as I have already said, the greatest decency was observed,
without the least degree of ceremony; where no person spoke without
being pleased himself, and pleasing his companions; where there was
no interruption, tediousness, heat, or difference of sentiments.
They have a notion, that when people are met together, a short
silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true;
for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would
arise in their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse.
Their subjects are, generally on friendship and benevolence, on
order and economy; sometimes upon the visible operations of nature,
or ancient traditions; upon the bounds and limits of virtue; upon
the unerring rules of reason, or upon some determinations to be
taken at the next great assembly: and often upon the various
excellences of poetry. I may add, without vanity, that my presence
often gave them sufficient matter for discourse, because it
afforded my master an occasion of letting his friends into the
history of me and my country, upon which they were all pleased to
descant, in a manner not very advantageous to humankind: and for
that reason I shall not repeat what they said; only I may be
allowed to observe, that his honour, to my great admiration,
appeared to understand the nature of Yahoos much better than
myself. He went through all our vices and follies, and discovered
many, which I had never mentioned to him, by only supposing what
qualities a Yahoo of their country, with a small proportion of
reason, might be capable of exerting; and concluded, with too much
probability, "how vile, as well as miserable, such a creature must
be."
I freely confess, that all the little knowledge I have of any
value, was acquired by the lectures I received from my master, and
from hearing the discourses of him and his friends; to which I
should be prouder to listen, than to dictate to the greatest and
wisest assembly in Europe. I admired the strength, comeliness, and
speed of the inhabitants; and such a constellation of virtues, in
such amiable persons, produced in me the highest veneration. At
first, indeed, I did not feel that natural awe, which the Yahoos
and all other animals bear toward them; but it grew upon me by
decrees, much sooner than I imagined, and was mingled with a
respectful love and gratitude, that they would condescend to
distinguish me from the rest of my species.
When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the
human race in general, I considered them, as they really were,
Yahoos in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized,
and qualified with the gift of speech; but making no other use of
reason, than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their
brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted
them. When I happened to behold the reflection of my own form in a
lake or fountain, I turned away my face in horror and detestation
of myself, and could better endure the sight of a common Yahoo than
of my own person. By conversing with the Houyhnhnms, and looking
upon them with delight, I fell to imitate their gait and gesture,
which is now grown into a habit; and my friends often tell me, in a
blunt way, "that I trot like a horse;" which, however, I take for a
great compliment. Neither shall I disown, that in speaking I am
apt to fall into the voice and manner of the Houyhnhnms, and hear
myself ridiculed on that account, without the least mortification.
In the midst of all this happiness, and when I looked upon myself
to be fully settled for life, my master sent for me one morning a
little earlier than his usual hour. I observed by his countenance
that he was in some perplexity, and at a loss how to begin what he
had to speak. After a short silence, he told me, "he did not know
how I would take what he was going to say: that in the last
general assembly, when the affair of the Yahoos was entered upon,
the representatives had taken offence at his keeping a Yahoo
(meaning myself) in his family, more like a Houyhnhnm than a brute
animal; that he was known frequently to converse with me, as if he
could receive some advantage or pleasure in my company; that such a
practice was not agreeable to reason or nature, or a thing ever
heard of before among them; the assembly did therefore exhort him
either to employ me like the rest of my species, or command me to
swim back to the place whence I came: that the first of these
expedients was utterly rejected by all the Houyhnhnms who had ever
seen me at his house or their own; for they alleged, that because I
had some rudiments of reason, added to the natural pravity of those
animals, it was to be feared I might be able to seduce them into
the woody and mountainous parts of the country, and bring them in
troops by night to destroy the Houyhnhnms' cattle, as being
naturally of the ravenous kind, and averse from labour."
My master added, "that he was daily pressed by the Houyhnhnms of
the neighbourhood to have the assembly's exhortation executed,
which he could not put off much longer. He doubted it would be
impossible for me to swim to another country; and therefore wished
I would contrive some sort of vehicle, resembling those I had
described to him, that might carry me on the sea; in which work I
should have the assistance of his own servants, as well as those of
his neighbours." He concluded, "that for his own part, he could
have been content to keep me in his service as long as I lived;
because he found I had cured myself of some bad habits and
dispositions, by endeavouring, as far as my inferior nature was
capable, to imitate the Houyhnhnms."
I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general
assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which
signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have
no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only
advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without
giving up his claim to be a rational creature.
I was struck with the utmost grief and despair at my master's
discourse; and being unable to support the agonies I was under, I
fell into a swoon at his feet. When I came to myself, he told me
"that he concluded I had been dead;" for these people are subject
to no such imbecilities of nature. I answered in a faint voice,
"that death would have been too great a happiness; that although I
could not blame the assembly's exhortation, or the urgency of his
friends; yet, in my weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it might
consist with reason to have been less rigorous; that I could not
swim a league, and probably the nearest land to theirs might be
distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary for making
a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in this
country; which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and
gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing to be
impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to
destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was
the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by
some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my
days among Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want
of examples to lead and keep me within the paths of virtue? that I
knew too well upon what solid reasons all the determinations of the
wise Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken by arguments of
mine, a miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him with
my humble thanks for the offer of his servants' assistance in
making a vessel, and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a
work, I told him I would endeavour to preserve a wretched being;
and if ever I returned to England, was not without hopes of being
useful to my own species, by celebrating the praises of the
renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their virtues to the imitation
of mankind."
My master, in a few words, made me a very gracious reply; allowed
me the space of two months to finish my boat; and ordered the
sorrel nag, my fellow-servant (for so, at this distance, I may
presume to call him), to follow my instruction; because I told my
master, "that his help would be sufficient, and I knew he had a
tenderness for me."
In his company, my first business was to go to that part of the
coast where my rebellious crew had ordered me to be set on shore.
I got upon a height, and looking on every side into the sea;
fancied I saw a small island toward the north-east. I took out my
pocket glass, and could then clearly distinguish it above five
leagues off, as I computed; but it appeared to the sorrel nag to be
only a blue cloud: for as he had no conception of any country
beside his own, so he could not be as expert in distinguishing
remote objects at sea, as we who so much converse in that element.
After I had discovered this island, I considered no further; but
resolved it should if possible, be the first place of my
banishment, leaving the consequence to fortune.
I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a
copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp
flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a wooden
handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness of a
walking-staff, and some larger pieces. But I shall not trouble the
reader with a particular description of my own mechanics; let it
suffice to say, that in six weeks time with the help of the sorrel
nag, who performed the parts that required most labour, I finished
a sort of Indian canoe, but much larger, covering it with the skins
of Yahoos, well stitched together with hempen threads of my own
making. My sail was likewise composed of the skins of the same
animal; but I made use of the youngest I could get, the older being
too tough and thick; and I likewise provided myself with four
paddles. I laid in a stock of boiled flesh, of rabbits and fowls,
and took with me two vessels, one filled with milk and the other
with water.
I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master's house, and then
corrected in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with
Yahoos' tallow, till I found it staunch, and able to bear me and my
freight; and, when it was as complete as I could possibly make it,
I had it drawn on a carriage very gently by Yahoos to the sea-side,
under the conduct of the sorrel nag and another servant.
When all was ready, and the day came for my departure, I took leave
of my master and lady and the whole family, my eyes flowing with
tears, and my heart quite sunk with grief. But his honour, out of
curiosity, and, perhaps, (if I may speak without vanity,) partly
out of kindness, was determined to see me in my canoe, and got
several of his neighbouring friends to accompany him. I was forced
to wait above an hour for the tide; and then observing the wind
very fortunately bearing toward the island to which I intended to
steer my course, I took a second leave of my master: but as I was
going to prostrate myself to kiss his hoof, he did me the honour to
raise it gently to my mouth. I am not ignorant how much I have
been censured for mentioning this last particular. Detractors are
pleased to think it improbable, that so illustrious a person should
descend to give so great a mark of distinction to a creature so
inferior as I. Neither have I forgotten how apt some travellers
are to boast of extraordinary favours they have received. But, if
these censurers were better acquainted with the noble and courteous
disposition of the Houyhnhnms, they would soon change their
opinion.
I paid my respects to the rest of the Houyhnhnms in his honour's
company; then getting into my canoe, I pushed off from shore.
_____
Content of PART IV - A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS CHAPTER X [Jonathan Swift's novel: Gulliver's Travels] _
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