put me in good humour, and make me more diverting. Every day, when I waited on him, befide the trouble he was at in teaching, he would ask me feveral questions concerning myself, which I anfwered as well as I could; and by these means he had already received fome general ideas, though very imperfect. It would be tedious to relate the feveral steps, by which I advanced to a more regular conversation: But the first account I gave of myself, in any order and length, was to this purpose: > That I came from a very far country, as I already had attempted to tell him, with about fifty more of my own species; that we travelled upon the feas in a great hollow veffel made of wood, and larger than his Honour's houfe. I described the ship to him in the best terms I could, and explained, by the help of my handkerchief difplayed, how it was driven forward by the wind. That upon a quarrel among us, I was fet on fhore on this coaft, where I walked forward, without knowing whither, till he delivered me from the perfecution of thofe exec-able Yahoos. He afked me, who made the ship, and how it was poffible that the Houyhnhnms of my country would leave it to the management of brutes? My anfwer was, that I durft 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 promifed. He agreed; and I went on by affuring VOL. V. G g him, him, that the ship was made by creatures like myfelf, 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 see the Houyhnhnms act like rational beings, as he or his friends could be in finding fome marks of reason in a creature he was pleased to call a rahoo; to which I owned my resemblance in every part, but could not account for their degenerate and brutal nature. I faid 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 story 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 should be the prefiding creature of a nation, and a raboo the brute. СНА Р. IV. The Houyhnhnms notion of truth and falsehood. The author's difcourfe disapproved by his mafter. The author gives a more particular account of himfelf, and the accidents of his voyage. M Y mafter heard me with great appearances 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 circumstances. And I remember, in frequent difcourfes with my mafter concerning the nature of manhood in other parts of the world, having occafion to talk of lying and falfe reprefentation, 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 fpeech was to make us understand one another, and to receive information of facts: Now, if any one faid 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 short when it is long. And these were all the notions he had concerning that faculty of lying, fo perfectly well understood, and fo univerfally practifed, among human crea tures. To return from this digreffion; when I afferted that the Yaboos 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 skins fmooth, comb their manes, pick their feet, ferve them with food, and make Gg 2 their their beds.. I understand you well, fays my mafter; it is now very plain from all you have spoken, that, whatever fhare of reafon the Yahoos pretend to, the Houyhnhnms are your masters; I heartily with our Yahoos would be fo tractable. I begged his Honour would please to excufe me from proceeding any farther, because I was very certain, that the account he expected from me would be highly difpleafing. But he infifted in commanding me to let him know the beft and the worst I told him he fhould be obeyed. I owned, that the Houyhnhnms among us, whom we called horfes, were the moft 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 kindnefs and care, till they fell into difeafes, 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 stripped, 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 put them to greater labour, and fed them worfe. I defcribed, as well as I could, our way of riding; the shape and use 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 pre ferve their hoofs from being broken by the ftony ways, on which we often travelled. My master, after fome expreffions of great indignation, wondered how we dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm's back; for he was fure, that the weakest fervant in his houfe would be able to shake off the ftrongest Yahoo; or by lying down, and rolling on his back, fqueeze the brute to death. I answered, that our horfes were trained up from three or four years old to the feveral ufes 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 mischievous tricks; that the males, designed for the common use of riding or draught, were generally caftrated about two years after their birth, to take down their spirits, and make them more tame and gentle; that they were indeed fenfible of rewards and punishments; but his Honour would please to confider, that they had not the leaft tincture of reafon, any more than the Yahoos in this country. It put me to the pains of many circumlocutions, to give my mafter a right idea of what I fpoke; for their language doth not abound in variety of words, because their wants and paffions are fewer than among us. But it is impoffible to exprefs his noble refentment at our favage treatment of the Houyhnhnm race; particularly, after I had explained the manner and ufe of caftrating horfes among us, to hinder them from propagating their Gg3 kind |