yet he would rather lofe half his kingdom, than be privy to fuch a fecret, which he commanded me, as I valued my life, never to mention any more.. A ftrange effect of narrow principles and short views! that a prince poffeffed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and efteem; of Itrong parts, great wifdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents for government, and almost adored by his subjects, fhould from a nice unneceffary fcruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let flip an opportunity put into his hands, that would have made him abfolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people. Neither do I fay this with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose cha racter I am fenfible will on this account be very much lesfened in the opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have rifen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For I remember very well in a difcourfe one day with the King, when I happened to fay there were feveral thoufand books among us written upon the art of government, it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings. He profeffed both to abominate and defpife all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a Prince or a Minifter. He could not tell what I meant by fecrets of fate, where an enemy, or fome rival nation, were not in the cafe. He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common fenfe and reafon, to juftice and lenity, to the fpeedy determination of civil and criminal caufes; with fome other obvious topics, which are not worth confidering. And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grafs, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deferve better of man kind, and do more effential fervice to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. The learning of this people is very defective, confifting. only in morality, hiftory, poetry, and mathematics, where in they must be allowed to excel. But the last of thefe is wholly applied to what may be ufeful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; fo that among among us it would be little efteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abftractions, and tranfcendantals, I could never drive the least conception into their heads. No law of that country muft exceed in words the num ber of letters in their alphabet, which confifts only in two and twenty. But indeed few of them extend even to that length. They are expreffed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law is a capital crime. As to the decifion of civil caufes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are fo few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either. : They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinefe, time out of mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the King, which is reckoned the lar geft, doth not amount to above a thoufand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, from whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleafed. The Queen's joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms a kind of wooden machine five and twenty feet high, formed like a ftanding ladder, the steps were each fifty feet long it was indeed a moveable pair of ftairs, the lowest. end placed at ten feet diftance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read was put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted to the upper ftep of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and fo walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and then defcending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the fame manner, and so turned over the leaf, which L could eafily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pafte-board, and in the largest folios not a-bove eighteen or twenty feet long. '. Their ftyle is clear, mafculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unneceffary words, or ufing various expreffions. I have perufed many of their books, especially thofe in hiftory and morality. Among the reft I was much diverted with a little old treatife, which always lay in Glumdalclitch's L 3 bed bed-chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion. The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar. However I was curious to fee what an author of that country could fay upon fuch a fubject. This writer went through all the ufual topics of European moralifts, fhewing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature: how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beafts: how much he was excelled by one creature in ftrength, by another in speed, by a third in forefight, by a fourth in induftry. He added, that nature was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only small abortive births, in comparison of those in ancient times. He faid it was very reasonable to think, not only that the fpecies of men were originally much larger, but also that there must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is afferted by hiftory and tradition, fo it hath been confirmed by huge bones and skulls cafually dug up in feveral parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of man in our days. He argued that the very laws of nature abfolutely required we fhould have been made in the beginning of a fize more large and robuft, not fo liable to destruction from every little accident of a tile falling from an house, or a stone caft from the hand of a boy, or be ing drowned in a little brook. From this way of reafoning, the author drew feveral moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needlefs here to repeat. For my own part I could not avoid reflecting how univerfally this talent was fpread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raife with nature. And, I believe, upon a Árict enquiry thofe quarrels might be fhewn as ill-grounded among us, as they are among that people *.. *The author's zeal to justify Providence has before been remarked; and thefe quarrels with Nature, or, in other words, with God, could not have been more forcibly reproved, than by fhewing, that the complaints upon which they are founded, would be equally fpecious among beings of fuch astonishing superiority of stature and ftrength. Hawkes.. A army As to their military affairs, they boast that the King's confifts of an hundred and feventy-fix thousand foot, and thirty-two thoufand horfe: if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility and gentry without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and under very good difcipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for how fhould it be otherwife, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his own city, chofen after the manner of Venice by ballot? I have often feen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise in a great field, near the city, of twenty miles fquare. They were in all not above twenty-five thousand foot, and fix thousand horse: but it was impoffible for me to compute their number, confidering the fpace of ground they took up. A cavalier, mounted on a large fteed, might be about ninety feet high. I have feen this whole body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their fwords at once, and brandifh them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing fo grand, fo furprising and fo aftonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the fame time from every quarter of the sky. I was curious to know how this Prince, to whofe dominions there is no accefs from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of military difcipline. But I was foon informed both by con-verfation and reading their hiftories: for in the course of many ages they have been troubled with the fame difeafe to which the whole race of mankind is fübject ; the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and' the King for abfolute dominion. All which, however, happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been fometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once occafioned civil wars, the last whereof was happily put an end to by this Prince's grandfather in a general compofition; and the militia, then fettled with common confent, hath been ever since kept in the strictest duty.. CHAP. CHAP. VIII. The King and Queen make a Progrefs to the frontiers. The author attends them. The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related. He returns to England. I Had always a ftrong impulfe, that I should fome time recover my liberty, though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any project with the leaft hope of fucceeding. The fhip in which I failed was the first ever known to be driven within fight of that coaft, and the King had given strict orders, that if at any time another appeared, it should be taken afhore, and with all its crew and paffengers brought in a tumbri) to Lorbrulgrud. He was strongly bent to get me a woman of my own fize, by whom I might propagate the breed: but I think I should rather have died, than undergone the difgrace of leaving a pofterity to be kept in cages like tame canary birds, and perhaps in time fold about the kingdom to perfons of quality for curiofities. I was indeed treated with much kindefs: I was the favourite of a great King and Queen, and the delight of the whole court; but it was upon fuch a foot, as ill became the dignity of human kind. I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me. I wanted to be among people with whom I could converfe upon even terms, and walk about the streets and fields, without being afraid of being trod to death like a frog, or a young puppy. But my deliverance came fooner than I expected, and in a manner not very common: the whole story and circumfrances of which I fhall faithfully relate. I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the third Glumdalclitch and I attended the King and Queen in a progrefs to the fouth coaft of the Kingdom. I was carried as ufual in my travelling-box, which, as I have already defcribed, was a very.convenient closet of twelve feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed by filken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a fervant carried me |