GULLIVER’S
TRAVELS
PART 6
CHAPTER VI.
Of the inhabitants of Lilliput;
their learning, laws, and customs; the manner of educating their
children. The author’s way of living in that country. His
vindication of a great lady.
Although I
intend to leave the description of this empire to a particular treatise, yet,
in the mean time, I am content to gratify the curious reader with some general
ideas. As the common size of the natives is somewhat under six inches
high, so there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants
and trees: for instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five
inches in height, the sheep an inch and half, more or less: their geese about
the bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards till you come
to the smallest, which to my sight, were almost invisible; but nature has
adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper for their view: they
see with great exactness, but at no great distance. And, to show the
sharpness of their sight towards objects that are near, I have been much
pleased with observing a cook pulling a lark, which was not so large as a
common fly; and a young girl threading an invisible needle with invisible
silk. Their tallest trees are about seven feet high: I mean some of those
in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach with my fist
clenched. The other vegetables are in the same proportion; but this I
leave to the reader’s imagination.
I shall
say but little at present of their learning, which, for many ages, has
flourished in all its branches among them: but their manner of writing is very
peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans, nor
from the right to the left, like the Arabians, nor from up to down, like the
Chinese, but aslant, from one corner of the paper to the other, like ladies in
England.
They bury
their dead with their heads directly downward, because they hold an opinion,
that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise again; in which period the
earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means
they shall, at their resurrection, be found ready standing on their feet.
The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine; but the practice
still continues, in compliance to the vulgar.
There are
some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar; and if they were not so
directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I should be tempted to say a
little in their justification. It is only to be wished they were as well
executed. The first I shall mention, relates to informers. All
crimes against the state, are punished here with the utmost severity; but, if
the person accused makes his innocence plainly to appear upon his trial, the
accuser is immediately put to an ignominious death; and out of his goods or
lands the innocent person is quadruply recompensed for the loss of his time,
for the danger he underwent, for the hardship of his imprisonment, and for all
the charges he has been at in making his defence; or, if that fund be
deficient, it is largely supplied by the crown. The emperor also confers
on him some public mark of his favour, and proclamation is made of his
innocence through the whole city.
They look
upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish
it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common
understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no
defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should
be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit,
where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the
honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I
remember, when I was once interceding with the emperor for a criminal who had
wronged his master of a great sum of money, which he had received by order and
ran away with; and happening to tell his majesty, by way of extenuation, that
it was only a breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer
as a defence the greatest aggravation of the crime; and truly I had little to
say in return, farther than the common answer, that different nations had
different customs; for, I confess, I was heartily ashamed. [330]
Although
we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which all government
turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in practice by any nation
except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient proof, that
he has strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-three moons, has a
claim to certain privileges, according to his quality or condition of life,
with a proportionable sum of money out of a fund appropriated for that use: he
likewise acquires the title of snilpall, or legal, which is added to his
name, but does not descend to his posterity. And these people thought it
a prodigious defect of policy among us, when I told them that our laws were
enforced only by penalties, without any mention of reward. It is upon
this account that the image of Justice, in their courts of judicature, is
formed with six eyes, two before, as many behind, and on each side one, to
signify circumspection; with a bag of gold open in her right hand, and a sword
sheathed in her left, to show she is more disposed to reward than to punish.
In
choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good morals than
to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to mankind, they
believe, that the common size of human understanding is fitted to some station
or other; and that Providence never intended to make the management of public
affairs a mystery to be comprehended only by a few persons of sublime genius,
of which there seldom are three born in an age: but they suppose truth,
justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man’s power; the practice of
which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention, would qualify any
man for the service of his country, except where a course of study is
required. But they thought the want of moral virtues was so far from
being supplied by superior endowments of the mind, that employments could never
be put into such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at least,
that the mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition, would
never be of such fatal consequence to the public weal, as the practices of a
man, whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities to
manage, to multiply, and defend his corruptions.
In like
manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable of holding
any public station; for, since kings avow themselves to be the deputies of
Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a prince
to employ such men as disown the authority under which he acts.
In
relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the
original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions, into which
these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that
infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or
badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under
them, the reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the
grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the
gradual increase of party and faction.
Ingratitude
is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some other
countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes ill returns to his
benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom he
has received no obligation, and therefore such a man is not fit to live.
Their
notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from
ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is founded upon the
great law of nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the
Lilliputians will needs have it, that men and women are joined together, like
other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness
towards their young proceeds from the like natural principle: for which reason
they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for
begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which,
considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor
intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love encounters, were
otherwise employed. Upon these, and the like reasonings, their opinion is,
that parents are the last of all others to be trusted with the education of
their own children; and therefore they have in every town public nurseries,
where all parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their
infants of both sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age of
twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some rudiments of
docility. These schools are of several kinds, suited to different
qualities, and both sexes. They have certain professors well skilled in
preparing children for such a condition of life as befits the rank of their
parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations. I shall first
say something of the male nurseries, and then of the female.
The
nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave and
learned professors, and their several deputies. The clothes and food of
the children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the principles of
honour, justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion, and love of their
country; they are always employed in some business, except in the times of
eating and sleeping, which are very short, and two hours for diversions
consisting of bodily exercises. They are dressed by men till four years
of age, and then are obliged to dress themselves, although their quality be
ever so great; and the women attendant, who are aged proportionably to ours at
fifty, perform only the most menial offices. They are never suffered to
converse with servants, but go together in smaller or greater numbers to take
their diversions, and always in the presence of a professor, or one of his
deputies; whereby they avoid those early bad impressions of folly and vice, to
which our children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see them
only twice a year; the visit is to last but an hour; they are allowed to kiss
the child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always stands by on
those occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling
expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like.
The
pension from each family for the education and entertainment of a child, upon
failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor’s officers.
The
nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants, traders, and
handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same manner; only those
designed for trades are put out apprentices at eleven years old, whereas those
of persons of quality continue in their exercises till fifteen, which answers
to twenty-one with us: but the confinement is gradually lessened for the last
three years.
In the
female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated much like the males,
only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own sex; but always in the
presence of a professor or deputy, till they come to dress themselves, which is
at five years old. And if it be found that these nurses ever presume to
entertain the girls with frightful or foolish stories, or the common follies
practised by chambermaids among us, they are publicly whipped thrice about the
city, imprisoned for a year, and banished for life to the most desolate part of
the country. Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and
fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and
cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by
their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not
altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them relating to domestic
life, and a smaller compass of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is,
that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and
agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young. When the girls
are twelve years old, which among them is the marriageable age, their parents
or guardians take them home, with great expressions of gratitude to the
professors, and seldom without tears of the young lady and her companions.
In the
nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are instructed in all
kinds of works proper for their sex, and their several degrees: those intended
for apprentices are dismissed at seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.
The meaner
families who have children at these nurseries, are obliged, besides their
annual pension, which is as low as possible, to return to the steward of the
nursery a small monthly share of their gettings, to be a portion for the child;
and therefore all parents are limited in their expenses by the law. For
the Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjust, than for people, in
subservience to their own appetites, to bring children into the world, and
leave the burthen of supporting them on the public. As to persons of
quality, they give security to appropriate a certain sum for each child,
suitable to their condition; and these funds are always managed with good
husbandry and the most exact justice.
The
cottagers and labourers keep their children at home, their business being only
to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their education is of little
consequence to the public: but the old and diseased among them, are supported
by hospitals; for begging is a trade unknown in this empire.
And here
it may, perhaps, divert the curious reader, to give some account of my
domestics, and my manner of living in this country, during a residence of nine
months, and thirteen days. Having a head mechanically turned, and being
likewise forced by necessity, I had made for myself a table and chair
convenient enough, out of the largest trees in the royal park. Two
hundred sempstresses were employed to make me shirts, and linen for my bed and
table, all of the strongest and coarsest kind they could get; which, however,
they were forced to quilt together in several folds, for the thickest was some
degrees finer than lawn. Their linen is usually three inches wide, and
three feet make a piece. The sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the
ground, one standing at my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord
extended, that each held by the end, while a third measured the length of the
cord with a rule of an inch long. Then they measured my right thumb, and
desired no more; for by a mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb
is once round the wrist, and so on to the neck and the waist, and by the help
of my old shirt, which I displayed on the ground before them for a pattern,
they fitted me exactly. Three hundred tailors were employed in the same
manner to make me clothes; but they had another contrivance for taking my
measure. I kneeled down, and they raised a ladder from the ground to my
neck; upon this ladder one of them mounted, and let fall a plumb-line from my
collar to the floor, which just answered the length of my coat: but my waist
and arms I measured myself. When my clothes were finished, which was done
in my house (for the largest of theirs would not have been able to hold them),
they looked like the patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine
were all of a colour.
I had
three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little convenient huts built about
my house, where they and their families lived, and prepared me two dishes
a-piece. I took up twenty waiters in my hand, and placed them on the
table: a hundred more attended below on the ground, some with dishes of meat,
and some with barrels of wine and other liquors slung on their shoulders; all
which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner, by
certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well in Europe. A dish of their
meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reasonable
draught. Their mutton yields to ours, but their beef is excellent.
I have had a sirloin so large, that I have been forced to make three bites of
it; but this is rare. My servants were astonished to see me eat it, bones
and all, as in our country we do the leg of a lark. Their geese and
turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful, and I confess they far exceed ours.
Of their smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.
One day
his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living, desired “that himself
and his royal consort, with the young princes of the blood of both sexes, might
have the happiness,” as he was pleased to call it, “of dining with me.”
They came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of state, upon my table,
just over against me, with their guards about them. Flimnap, the lord
high treasurer, attended there likewise with his white staff; and I observed he
often looked on me with a sour countenance, which I would not seem to regard,
but ate more than usual, in honour to my dear country, as well as to fill the
court with admiration. I have some private reasons to believe, that this
visit from his majesty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to
his master. That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he
outwardly caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his
nature. He represented to the emperor “the low condition of his treasury;
that he was forced to take up money at a great discount; that exchequer bills
would not circulate under nine per cent. below par; that I had cost his majesty
above a million and a half of sprugs” (their greatest gold coin, about
the bigness of a spangle) “and, upon the whole, that it would be advisable in
the emperor to take the first fair occasion of dismissing me.”
I am here
obliged to vindicate the reputation of an excellent lady, who was an innocent
sufferer upon my account. The treasurer took a fancy to be jealous of his
wife, from the malice of some evil tongues, who informed him that her grace had
taken a violent affection for my person; and the court scandal ran for some
time, that she once came privately to my lodging. This I solemnly declare
to be a most infamous falsehood, without any grounds, further than that her
grace was pleased to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and
friendship. I own she came often to my house, but always publicly, nor
ever without three more in the coach, who were usually her sister and young
daughter, and some particular acquaintance; but this was common to many other
ladies of the court. And I still appeal to my servants round, whether
they at any time saw a coach at my door, without knowing what persons were in
it. On those occasions, when a servant had given me notice, my custom was
to go immediately to the door, and, after paying my respects, to take up the
coach and two horses very carefully in my hands (for, if there were six horses,
the postillion always unharnessed four,) and place them on a table, where I had
fixed a movable rim quite round, of five inches high, to prevent
accidents. And I have often had four coaches and horses at once on my
table, full of company, while I sat in my chair, leaning my face towards them;
and when I was engaged with one set, the coachmen would gently drive the others
round my table. I have passed many an afternoon very agreeably in these
conversations. But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I will name
them, and let them make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove that any
person ever came to me incognito, except the secretary Reldresal, who
was sent by express command of his imperial majesty, as I have before
related. I should not have dwelt so long upon this particular, if it had
not been a point wherein the reputation of a great lady is so nearly concerned,
to say nothing of my own; though I then had the honour to be a nardac,
which the treasurer himself is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a glumglum,
a title inferior by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a duke in England;
yet I allow he preceded me in right of his post. These false
informations, which I afterwards came to the knowledge of by an accident not
proper to mention, made the treasurer show his lady for some time an ill
countenance, and me a worse; and although he was at last undeceived and
reconciled to her, yet I lost all credit with him, and found my interest
decline very fast with the emperor himself, who was, indeed, too much governed
by that favourite.
To be continued
