proceed no farther in my relation, unless he would give me his word and honour that he would not be offended, and then I would tell him the wonders I had fo often promised. He agreed; and I went on by affuring him, that the fhip was made by creatures like myself, who in all the countries I had travelled, as well as in my own, were the only governing, rational animals; and that upon my arrival hither I was as much astonished to fee the Houyhnhnms act like rational beings, as he or his friends could be in finding fome marks of reafon in a creature he was pleased to call a yaboo; to which I owned my resemblance in every part, but could not account for their degenerate and brutal nature. I said farther, that if good fortune ever restored me to my native country to relate my travels hither, as I refolved to do, every body would believe, that I faid the thing which was not; that I invented the ftory out of my own head; and (with all poffible respect to himself, his family, and friends, and under his promise of not being offended) our countrymen would hardly think it probable, that a Houyhnhnm Houyhnhnm should be the prefiding creature of a nation, and a yahoo the brute. CHAP. IV. The Houyhnhnms notion of truth and falfhood. The author's difcourfe difapproved by his mafter. The author gives a more particular account of himself, and the accidents of his voyage. MY mafter heard me with great ap pearances of uneafinefs in his countenance; because doubting, or not believing, are fo little known in this country, that the inhabitants cannot tell how to behave themselves under fuch circumftances. And I remember, in frequent difcourses with my mafter concerning the nature of manhood in other parts of the world, having occafion to talk of lying and false representation, it was with much difficulty that he comprehended what I meant; although he had otherwise a most acute judgment. For he argued thus: that the use of speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive information of facts; now, if any one faid the the thing which was not, these ends were defeated; because I cannot properly be faid to understand him; and I am fo far from receiving information, that he leaves me worse than in ignorance; for I am led to believe a thing black when it is white, and fhort when it is long. And these were all the notions he had concerning that faculty of lying, fo perfectly well underftood, and fo univerfally practifed, among human creatures. To return from this digreffion; when I afferted that the yahoos were the only governing animals in my country, which my mafter faid, was altogether past his conception, he defired to know, whether we had Houyhnhnms among us, and what was their employment: I told him, we had great numbers; that in fummer they grazed in the fields, and in winter were kept in houses with hay and oats, where yahoo-fervants were employed to rub their fkins fmooth, comb their manes, pick their feet, ferve them with food, and make their beds. I understand you well, faid my mafter; it is now very plain from all you have spoken, that, whatever share of reafon the the yaboos pretend to, the Houyhnhnms are your masters; I heartily with our yahoos would be fo tractable. I begged his honour would please to excuse me from proceeding any farther, because I was very certain that the account he expected from me would be highly displeasing. But he infifted in commanding me to let him know the best and the worst: I told him he should be obeyed. I owned, that the Houyhnhnms among us, whom we called horses, were the most generous and comely animal we had; that they excelled in ftrength and swiftness; and when they belonged to perfons of quality, were employed in travelling, racing, or drawing chariots, they were treated with much kindness and care, till they fell into difeases, or became foundered in the feet; but then they were fold, and used to all kind of drudgery, till they died; after which their skins were ftripped, and fold for what they were worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey. But the common race of horses had not fo good fortune, being kept by farmers and carriers and other mean people who who put them to greater labour, and fed them worse. I defcribed, as well as I could, our way of riding; the shape and ufe of a bridle, a faddle, a fpur, and a whip; of harness and wheels. I added, that we faftened plates of a certain hard fubftance, called iron, at the bottom of their feet to preserve their hoofs from being broken by the ftony ways, on which we often travelled. My mafter, after fome expreffions of great indignation, wondered how we dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm's back ; for he was fure, that the weakeft fervant in his house would be able to shake off the ftrongest yahoo; or by lying down, and rolling on his back, fqueefe the brute to death. I answered, that our horses were trained up from three or four years old to the feveral uses we intended them for; that, if any of them proved intolerably vicious, they were employed for carriages; that they were feverely beaten, while they were young, for any mifchievous tricks: that the males, defigned for the common use of riding or draught, were generally caftrated about two years after |