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 springs 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 find the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries
of a secret or open enemy. I had no occasion of bribing or flattering to
procure the favor 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,
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 example; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping posts, or pillories; no
cheating shopkeepers, or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no
fops, bullies, drunkards; no ranting, expensive wives; no stupid, proud
pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty,
conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust for
the sake of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their
virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing masters.
I had the favor of being admitted to several Houyhnhnms who came to
visit or dine with my master; where his honor 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 honor 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
a humble auditor in such conversations, where nothing passed but what
was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant words; where
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 assembly;
and often upon the various excellencies 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 human kind; and for that
reason I shall not repeat what they said; only I may be allowed to
observe, that his honor, 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 towards them; but it grew
upon me by degrees, 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, only a little 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 a 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 gestures, 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 offense 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, nor 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 depravity 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 labor.
My master added that he was daily pressed by the Houyhnhnms of the
neighborhood, 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 a 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 neighbors. 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 endeavoring, 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 honor,
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
endeavor 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 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 towards the northeast. I took out my pocket glass, and could
then clearly distinguish it about 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 farther; 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 labor, 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 stanch, 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 seaside, 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 honor, out of curiosity, and
perhaps (if I may speak it without vanity) partly out of kindness, was
determined to see me in my canoe; and got several of his neighboring
friends to accompany him. I was forced to wait above an hour for the
tide, and then observing the wind very fortunately bearing towards 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 honor to raise it gently to my mouth. I am not ignorant
how much I have been censured for mentioning this last particular. For
my 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
travelers are to boast of extraordinary favors 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 honor’s company;
then getting into my canoe, I pushed off from the shore.