<p class="gutsumm">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.</p>
<p>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
<i>Yahoos’</i> 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
<i>nnuhnoh</i>, 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 <i>Yahoos</i> 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.</p>
<p>I had the favour of being admitted to several
<i>Houyhnhnms</i>, 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 <i>Yahoos</i> 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 <i>Yahoo</i>
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.”</p>
<p>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 <i>Yahoos</i> 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.</p>
<p>When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the
human race in general, I considered them, as they really were,
<i>Yahoos</i> 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 <i>Yahoo</i> than of my own person.
By conversing with the <i>Houyhnhnms</i>, 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
<i>Houyhnhnms</i>, and hear myself ridiculed on that account,
without the least mortification.</p>
<p>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 <i>Yahoos</i> was entered upon, the representatives had
taken offence at his keeping a <i>Yahoo</i> (meaning myself) in
his family, more like a <i>Houyhnhnm</i> 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 <i>Houyhnhnms</i> 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
<i>Houyhnhnms’</i> cattle, as being naturally of the
ravenous kind, and averse from labour.”</p>
<p>My master added, “that he was daily pressed by the
<i>Houyhnhnms</i> 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 <i>Houyhnhnms</i>.”</p>
<p>I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the
general assembly in this country is expressed by the word
<i>hnhloayn</i>, 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.</p>
<p>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 <i>Yahoos</i>, 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 <i>Houyhnhnms</i> were founded,
not to be shaken by arguments of mine, a miserable <i>Yahoo</i>;
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
<i>Houyhnhnms</i>, and proposing their virtues to the imitation
of mankind.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <i>Yahoos</i>, 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.</p>
<p>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 <i>Yahoos’</i> 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 <i>Yahoos</i> to the sea-side, under the conduct of the
sorrel nag and another servant.</p>
<p>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 <i>Houyhnhnms</i>, they would soon
change their opinion.</p>
<p>I paid my respects to the rest of the <i>Houyhnhnms</i> in his
honour’s company; then getting into my canoe, I pushed off
from shore.</p>
<h3>IV - CHAPTER XI.</h3>
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