bed-chamber, and belonged to her governefs, 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 thro' all the ufual topics of European moralifts, fhewing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal man was 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 industry. He added, that nature was degenerated in thefe 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 history 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 should have been made in the beginning of a fize more large and robust, not so liable to deftruction from every little accident of a tile falling from an house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being 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 spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature. And I believe, upon a ftrict inquiry, those quarrels might be fhewn as ill-grounded among us, as they are among that people *.

As

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 ftature and ftrength. Hawkef

As to their military affairs, they boaft that the King's army confifts of an hundred and seventy fix thousand foot, and thirty two thousand horse; if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the feveral cities, and farmers in the country, whofe 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 faw no great merit; for how fhould it be otherwise, 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 bailot?

I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercife 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 space 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 horfe, upon a word of command, draw their fwords at once, and brandish them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing fo grand, fo furprifing, 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 converfation and reading their hiftories: for in the course of many ages they have been troubled with the fame disease to which the whole race of mankind is fubject; 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 fince kept in the ftricteft duty.

CHAP.

CHAP. Vill.

The King and Queen make a progress 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 strong impulfe, that I fhould fome time recover my liberty, tho' it was impoffible 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 fhould be taken afhore, and with all its crew and paffengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud. He was ftrongly 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 kindness: 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 dig nity 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 ftory and circumftances 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 progress to the fouth coaft of the kingdom. I was carried as ufual in my travelling-box, which, as I have already described, 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 feryant carried

me

* Gulliver's efcape from Brobdingnag, is humorous, fatirical, and decent. Orrery.

me before him on horseback, as I fometimes defired, and would often fleep in my hammock while we were upon the road. On the roof of my clofet, not directly over the middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to give me air in hot weather, as I flept; which hole I fhut at pleasure with a board, that drew backwards and forwards through a groove.

WHEN We came to our journey's end, the King thought proper to pass a few days at a palace he hath near Flanfafnic, a city within eighteen English miles of the feafide. Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued: I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was fo ill as to be confined to her chamber. I longed to fee the ocean, which must be the only scene of my efcape, if ever it fhould happen. I pretended to be worfe than I really was, and defired leave to take the fresh air of the fea with a page, whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trufted with me. I fhall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch confented, nor the strict charge the gave the page to be careful of me, bursting at the fame time into a flood of tears, as if she had fome foreboding of what was to happen. The boy took me out in my box about half an hour's walk from the palace towards the rocks on the fea-fhore. I ordered him to fet

me down, and lifting up one of my fashes cast many a wiftful melancholy look towards the fea. I found myself not very well, and told, the page that I had a mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in, and the boy fhut the window close down to keep out the cold. I foon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I flept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds eggs, having before observed him from my window fearching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that as it will, I found myself fuddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was faftened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box raifed very high in the air, and then born forward with prodigious fpeed. The firft jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterwards the motion was eafy enough. I called out feveral times, as loud as I could raife my voice, but all to no purpofe. I looked towards

my

my windows, and could fee nothing but the clouds and fky. I heard a noise just over my head like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woeful condition I was in, that some eagle had got the ring of my box in

his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock like a tortoife in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it for the fagacity and fmell of this bird enabled him to difcover his quarry at a great distance, tho' better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.

IN a little time I obferved the noife and flutter of wings to increase very faft, and my box was toffed up and down like a fign in a windy day. I heard feveral bangs or buffets, as I thought, given to the eagle (for fuch I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak) and then all on a fudden felt myself falling perpendicularly down for above a minute, but with fuch incredible swiftnefs that I almoft loft my breath. My fall was flopped by a terrible fquafh, that founded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara *; after which I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rife fo high that I could fee light from the tops of the windows. I now perceived that I was fallen into the fea. My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron fixed for ftrength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet depth in water. I did then, and do now fuppofe, that the eagle which flew away with my box was purfued by two or three others, and forced to let me drop while he defended himself against the reft, who hoped to fhare in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box (for those were the strongest) preferved the balance while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the furface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved; and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a fash, which kept my clofet fo tight that

very

Niagara is a fettlement of the French in North-America, and the cataract is produced by the fall of a conflux of water (formed of the four vaft lakes of Canada) from a rocky precipice, the perpendicular height of which is one hundred and thirty feven feet; and it is faid to have been heard fifteen leagues. Hawkef.