ETUDES AN ACCOUNT OF THE WOMEN.

with a crowd of people; but those who stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They beheld me with all the marks and circumftances of wonder; neither, indeed, was I much in their debt, having never till then feen a race of mortals fo fingular in their fhapes, habits, and countenances. Their heads were all reclined either to the right or to the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith. Their outward garments were adorned with the figures of funs, moons, and stars interwoven with thofe of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guittars, harpsichords, and many other inftruments of musick, unknown to us in Europe. I obferved here and there many in the habit of fervants, with a blown bladder faftened like a flail to the end of a short stick, which they carried in their hands. In each bladder was a fmall quantity of dried pease, or little pebbles (as I was afterwards informed.) With thefe bladders they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of those who stood near them, of which practice I could not then conceive the meaning. It seems, the minds of these people are fo taken up with intenfe fpeculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the difcourfes of others, without being rouzed by fome external taction upon the organs of fpeech and hearing; for which reafon, thofe perfons who can afford it, always keep a flapper (the original is climenole) in their family, as one of their domefticks, nor ever walk abroad or make vifits without him; and the bufinefs of this officer is, when two, three, or more perfons are in company, gently to ftrike with his bladder the inouth of him who is to speak, and the right-ear of him or them to whom the fpeaker addreffeth himself. This flapper is likewife employed diligently to attend his matter in his walks; and, upon occafion, to give him a foft flap on his eyes, because he is always fo wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifeft danger of falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every poft, and in the streets of jostling

It was neceflary to give the reader this information, without which, he understand the proceedings of these people, as they conducted me up the ftairs, to the top of the island, and from thence to the royal palace. While we were afcending, they forgot several times what they were about, and left me to myfelf, till their memories were again rouzed by their flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the fight of my foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds were more difengaged.

At last we entered the palace, and proceeded into the chamber of prefence, where I faw the king feated on his throne, attended on each fide by perfons of prime quality. Before the throne was a large table filled with globes and fpheres, and mathematical inftruments of all kinds. His majesty took not the leaft notice of us, although our entrance was not without fufficient noise by the concourfe of all perfons belonging to the court. But he was then deep in a problem, and we attended at least an hour, before he could folve it. There ftood by him on each fide a young page with flaps in their hands, and when they saw he was at leisure, one of them gently ftruck his mouth, and the other his right-ear; at which he started like one awaked on the fudden, and looking towards me and the company I was in, recollected the occafion of our coming, whereof he had been informed before. He spoke fome words, whereupon immediately a young man with a flap came up to my fide, and flapt me gently on the right-ear, but I made figns, as well as I could, that I had no occafion for fuch an inftrument; which, as I afterwards found, gave his majesty and the whole court a very mean opinion of my understanding. The king, as far as I could conjecture, asked me several questions, and I addressed myself to him in all the languages I had. When it was found, that I could neither underftand, nor be understood, I was conducted by his order to an apartment in his palace (this prince being diftinguifhed above all his predecessors for his hofpitality to ftrangers) where two

fervants

fervants were appointed to attend me. My dinner was brought, and four perfons of quality, whom I remembered to have feen very near the king's perfon, did me the honour to dine with me. We had two courses, of three difhes each. In the first course there was a fhoulder of mutton cut into an æquilateral triangle, a piece of beef into a rhomboides, and a pudding into a cycloid. The second courle was two ducks truffed up into the form of fiddles; faufages and puddings refembling flutes and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp. The fervants cut our bread into cones, cylinders, parallelograms, and feveral other mathematical figures.

While we were at dinner, I made bold to ask the names of feveral things in their language; and thofe noble perfons, by the affiftance of their flappers, delighted to give me anfwers, hoping to raife my admiration of their great abilities, if I could be brought to converfe with them. I was foon able to call for bread and drink, or whatever elfe I wanted.

After dinner, my company withdrew, and a perfon was fent to me by the king's order, attended by a Яapper. He brought with him pen, ink, and paper, and three or four books, giving me to understand by figns, that he was fent to teach me the language. We fat together four hours, in which time I wrote down a great number of words in columns, with the tranflations over-against them. I likewise made a shift to learn several short sentences; for my tutor would order one of my fervants to fetch fomething, to turn about, to make a bow, to fit, or to stand, or walk, and the like. Then I took down the fentence in writing. He fhewed me alfo in one of his books the figures of the fun, moon, and stars, the zodiack, the tropicks, and polar circles, together with the denominations of many figures of planes and folids. He gave me the names and defcriptions of all the mufical infruments, and the general terms of art in playing on each of them. After -he bad left me, I placed all my words with their interpretations in alphabetical order. And thus in a few days, by the help of a very faithful memory, I got fome insight into their language.

The word, which I interpret the flying or floating island, is in the original Laputa, whereof I could never learn the true etymology. Lap, in the old obfolete language fignifieth high, and untuh, a governor, from which, they fay, by corruption, was derived Laputa from Lapuntuh. But I do not approve of this derivation, which feems to be a little trained. I ventured to offer to the learned among them a conjecture of my own, that Laputa was quafi Lap outed, Lap fignifying properly the dancing of the fun-beams in the sea, and outed a wing; which, however, I shall not obtrude, but submit to the judicious reader.

Thofe to whom the king had entrufted me, obferving how ill I was clad, ordered a taylor to come next morning, and take measure for a fuit of cloaths. This operator did his office after a different manner from thofe of his trade in Europe. He firft took my altitude by a quadrant, and then with rule and compaffes defcribed the dimenfions and outlines of my whole body; all which he entered upon paper, and in fix days brought my cloaths very ill made, and quite out of shape, by happening to miftake a figure in the calculation. But my comfort was, that I obferved fuch accidents very frequent, and little regarded.

During my confinement for want of cloaths, and by an indifpofition that held me fome days longer, I much enlarged my dictionary; and when I went next to court, was able to understand many things the king spoke, and to return him fome kind of anfwers. His majefty had given orders that the island fhould move north-eaft and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the metropolis of the whole kingdom below upon the firm earth. It was about ninety leagues diftant, and our voyage latted four days and a half. I was not in the leaft fenfible of the progreffive motion made in the air by the island. On the fecond morning, about eleven o'clock, the king himfelf in perfon, attended by his nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical instru ments, played on them for three hours without intermiffion, fo that I was quite ftunned with the noife; neither could I poffibly gueis the meaning, till my tutor informed me. He laid, that the people

of

of their island had their ears adapted to hear the musick of the spheres, which always played at certain periods, and the court was now prepared to bear their part in whatever inftrument they most

excelled.

In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty ordered that the island should stop over certain towns and villages, from whence he might receive the petitions of his fubjects. And to this purpose feveral packthreads were let down with fmall weights at the bot tom. On thefe packthreads the people ftrung their petitions, which mounted up directly like the fcraps of paper faftened by fchool-boys at the end of the ftring that holds their kite. Sometimes we received wine and victuals from below, which were drawn up by pullies.

The knowledge I had in mathematicks gave me great affistance in acquiring their phrafeology, which depended much upon that science and mufick; and in the latter I was not unskilled. Their ideas are perpetually converfant in lines and figures. If they would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other animal, they defcribe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms, ellipfes, and other geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn from mufick, needlefs here to repeat. I obferved in the king's kitchen all forts of mathematical and mufical inftruments, after the figures of which they cut up the joints that were ferved to his ma jesty's table.

Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil, without one right-angle in any apartment; and this defect arifeth from the contempt they bear to practical geometry, which they defpife, as vulgar and mechanick, thofe inftructions they give being too refined for the intellectuals of their workmen, which occasions perpetual mistakes. And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper in the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider, yet in the common actions and behaviour of life, I have not feen a more clumfy, aukward, and unhandy people, nor fo flow and perplexed in their conceptions upon all other fubjects, except shofe of mathematicks and mufick. They are very bad reafoners, and vehemently given to oppofition, unless when they happen to be of the right opinion,

which is feldom their cafe. Imagina tion, fancy, and invention, they are wholly ftrangers to, nor have they any words in their language by which thofe ideas can be expreffed; the whole com pafs of their thoughts and mind being hut up within the two forementioned fciences.

Moft of them, and especially those who deal in the aftronomical part, have great faith in judicial aftrology, although they are ashamed to own it publickly. But what I chiefly admired, and thought altogether unaccountable, was, the ftrong difpofition I obferved in them towards news and politicks, perpetually enquiring into publick affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state, and paffionately dif puting every inch of a party opinion. I have indeed obferved the fame difpofition among moft of the mathematicians I have known in Europe, although I could never difcover the leaft analogy between the two sciences; unlefs thofe people fuppofe, that because the finalleft circle hath as many degrees as the largest, therefore the regulation and management of the world require no more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe. But, I

rather take this quality to fpring from a very common infirmity of human nature, inclining us to be more curious and conceited in matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least adapted either by study or

nature.

These people are under continual difquietudes, never enjoying a minute's peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from caufes which very little affect the reft of mortals. Their apprehenfions arife from several changes they dread in the celeftial bodies. For inftance, that the earth, by the continual approaches of the fun towards it, muft, in course of time, be absorbed or fwallowed; that the face of the fun will, by degrees, be incrufted with it's own effluvia, and give no more light to the world; that the earth very narrowly escaped a brush from the tail of the laft comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to afhes; and that the next, which they have calculated for one and thirty years hence, will probably deftroy us. For, if in it's perihelium it fhould approach within a certain degree of the fun, (as by their calculations

salculations they have reafon to dread) it will receive a degree of heat ten thousand times more intense than that of red-hot-glowing iron; and, in it's abfence from the fun, carry a blazing tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long; through which, if the earth hould pafs at the distance of one hundred thousand miles from the nucleus or main body of the comet, it mult in it's paffage be fet on fire and reduced to afhes: that the fun daily spending it's rays without any nutriment to fupply them, will at last be wholly confamed and annihilated; which must be attended with the deftruction of this earth, and of all the planets that receive their light from it.

They are fo perpetually alarmed with the apprehenfions of thefe and the like impending dangers, that they can neither fleep quietly in their beds, nor have any relish for the common pleafures or amufements of life. When they meet an acquaintance in the morning, the first question is about the fun's health, how he looked at his fetting and rifing, and what hopes they have to avoid the ftroke of the approaching comet. This converfation they are apt to run into with the fame temper that boys difcover in delighting to hear terrible ftories of spirits and hobgoblins, which they greedily liften to, and dare not go to bed for fear.

The women of the island have abundance of vivacity; they contemn their hofbands, and are exceedingly fond of Atrangers, whereof there is always a confiderable number from the contiment below, attending at court, either upon affairs of the feveral towns and corporations, or their own particular occafions, but are much defpifed, because they want the fame endowments. Among these the ladies chufe their gallants: but the vexation is, that they act with too much ease and fecurity; for the hufband is always fo wrapped in fpeculation, that the miftrefs and lover may proceed to the greateft familiarities before his face, if he be but provided with paper and implements, and without his flapper at his fide.

The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although I think it the most delicious fpot of ground in the world; and although they live here in the greatest

plenty and magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever they please, they long to fee the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis, which they are not allowed to do without a parti cular licence from the king; and this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of quality have found by frequent experience, how hard it is to perfuade their women to return from below. I was told that a great courtlady, who had feveral children, is married to the prime-minifter, the richest fubject in the kingdom, a very graceful perfon, extremely fond of her, and lives in the finest palace of the inland, went down to Lagado, on the pretence of health, there hid herself for several months, till the king fent a warrant to fearch for her, and she was found in an obfcure eating houfe all in rags, having pawned her cloaths to maintain an old deformed footman, who beat her every day, and in whose company the was taken much against her will. And. although her husband received her with all poffible kindness, and without the leaft reproach, the foon after contrived. to fteal down again, with all her jewels,. to the fame gallant, and hath not been heard of fince.

This may, perhaps, pafs with the reader rather for an European or Englifh ftory, than for one of a country fo remote: but he may pleafe to confider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform than can be eafily imagined.

In about a month's time, I had made a tolerable proficiency in their language, and was able to answer most of the king's questions, when I had the honour to attend him. His majetty difcovered not the leaft curiofity to inquire into the laws, government, hiflory, religion, or manners of the coun tries where I had been, but confined his questions to the ftate of mathematicks, and received the account I gave him with great contempt and indifference, though often rouzed by his flapper on each fide.

CHA P. III.,

A PHENOMENON SOLVED BY MODERN PHILOSOPHY AND ASTRONOMY THE LAPUTIANS GREAT IMPROVE

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LATTER THE KING'S METHOD OF SUPPRESSING INSURRECTIONS.

Defired leave of this prince to fee the curiofities of the island, which he was graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to attend me. I chiefly wanted to know to what caufe in art, or in nature, it owed it's feveral motions, whereof I will now give a philofophical account to the reader.

The flying or floating island, is exactly circular, it's diameter 7837 yards, or about four miles and a half, and confequently contains ten thousand acres. It is three hundred yards thick. The bottom or under-furface, which appears to those who view it from below, is one even regular plate of adamant, fhooting up to the height of about two hundred yards. Above it lie the feveral minerals in their usual order, and over all is a coat of rich mould ten or twelve feet deep. This declivity of the upper-furface, from the circumference of the center, is the natural caufe why all the dews and rains which fall upon the island, are conveyed in fmail rivulets towards the middle, where they are emptied into four large basons, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards diftant from the center. From these basons the water is continually exhaled by the fun in the daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing. Befides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the island above the region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling of dews and rains whenever he pleases: for the highest clouds cannot rife above two miles as naturalifts agree, at least they were never known to do so in that country.

At the center of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in diameter, from whence the aftronomers defcend into a large dome, which is therefore called Flandona Gagnole, or, the Aftronomers Cave, fituated at the depth of a hundred yards beneath the upper furface of the adamant. In this cave are twenty lamps continually burning, which, from the reflection of the adamant, calt a strong light into every part. The place is stored with great variety of fextants, quadrants, telefcopes, aftrolabes, and other aftronomical instruments. But the greatest

curiofity, upoh which the fate of the ifland depends, is a load-stone of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's fhuttle. It is in length fix yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over. This magnet is fuftained by a very strong axle of adamant palling through it's middle, upon which it plays, and is poized fo exactly that the weakest hand can turn it. It is hooped round with a hollow cylinder of adamant, four feet deep, as many thick, and twelve yards in diameter, placed horizontally, and fupported by eight adamantine feet, each fix yards high. In the middle of the concave fide there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occafion.

The stone cannot be moved from it's place by any force, because the hoop and it's feet are one continued piece with that body of adamant, which conftitutes the bottom of the island.

By means of this load-ftone, the ifland is made to rife and fall, and move from one place to another. For, with refpect to that part of the earth over which the monarch prefides, the stone is endued at one of it's fides with an attractive power, and at the other with a repulfive. Upon placing the magnet erect with it's attracting end towards the earth, the island defcends; but when the repelling extremity points downwards, the island mounts directly upwards. When the pofition of the ftone is oblique, the motion of the island is fo too. For in this magnet the forces always act in lines parallel to it's direction.

By this oblique motion the island is conveyed to different parts of the monarch's dominions. To explain the manner of it's progrefs, let A B reprefent a line drawn cross the dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the load-ftone of which let d be the repelling end, and c the attracting end; the island being over C, let the ftone be placed in the pofition c d, with it's repelling end downwards, then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D. When it is arrived at D, let the ftone be turned upon it's axle till it's attracting end points towards E, and then the island will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the tone be again turned upon it's axle till it

stands