<p class="gutsumm">The Houyhnhnm's notion of truth and
falsehood. The author’s discourse disapproved by his
master. The author gives a more particular account of
himself, and the accidents of his voyage.</p>
<p>My master heard me with great appearances of uneasiness in his
countenance; because doubting, or not believing, are so little
known in this country, that the inhabitants cannot tell how to
behave themselves under such circumstances. And I remember,
in frequent discourses with my master concerning the nature of
manhood in other parts of the world, having occasion to talk of
lying and false representation, it was with much difficulty that
he comprehended what I meant, although he had otherwise a most
acute judgment. For he argued thus: “that the use of
speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive
information of facts; now, if any one said the thing which was
not, these ends were defeated, because I cannot properly be said
to understand him; and I am so far from receiving information,
that he leaves me worse than in ignorance; for I am led to
believe a thing black, when it is white, and short, when it is
long.” And these were all the notions he had
concerning that faculty of lying, so perfectly well understood,
and so universally practised, among human creatures.</p>
<p>To return from this digression. When I asserted that the
<i>Yahoos</i> were the only governing animals in my country,
which my master said was altogether past his conception, he
desired to know, “whether we had <i>Houyhnhnms</i> among
us, and what was their employment?” I told him,
“we had great numbers; that in summer they grazed in the
fields, and in winter were kept in houses with hay and oats,
where <i>Yahoo</i> servants were employed to rub their skins
smooth, comb their manes, pick their feet, serve them with food,
and make their beds.” “I understand you
well,” said my master: “it is now very plain, from
all you have spoken, that whatever share of reason the
<i>Yahoos</i> pretend to, the <i>Houyhnhnms</i> are your masters;
I heartily wish our <i>Yahoos</i> would be so
tractable.” I begged “his honour would please
to excuse me from proceeding any further, because I was very
certain that the account he expected from me would be highly
displeasing.” But he insisted in commanding me to let
him know the best and the worst. I told him “he
should be obeyed.” I owned “that the
<i>Houyhnhnms</i> among us, whom we called horses, were the most
generous and comely animals we had; that they excelled in
strength and swiftness; and when they belonged to persons of
quality, were employed in travelling, racing, or drawing
chariots; they were treated with much kindness and care, till
they fell into diseases, or became foundered in the feet; but
then they were sold, and used to all kind of drudgery till they
died; after which their skins were stripped, and sold for what
they were worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and
birds of prey. But the common race of horses had not so
good fortune, being kept by farmers and carriers, and other mean
people, who put them to greater labour, and fed them
worse.” I described, as well as I could, our way of
riding; the shape and use of a bridle, a saddle, a spur, and a
whip; of harness and wheels. I added, “that we
fastened plates of a certain hard substance, called iron, at the
bottom of their feet, to preserve their hoofs from being broken
by the stony ways, on which we often travelled.”</p>
<p>My master, after some expressions of great indignation,
wondered “how we dared to venture upon a
<i>Houyhnhnm’s</i> back; for he was sure, that the weakest
servant in his house would be able to shake off the strongest
<i>Yahoo</i>; or by lying down and rolling on his back, squeeze
the brute to death.” I answered “that our
horses were trained up, from three or four years old, to the
several uses we intended them for; that if any of them proved
intolerably vicious, they were employed for carriages; that they
were severely beaten, while they were young, for any mischievous
tricks; that the males, designed for the common use of riding or
draught, were generally castrated about two years after their
birth, to take down their spirits, and make them more tame and
gentle; that they were indeed sensible of rewards and
punishments; but his honour would please to consider, that they
had not the least tincture of reason, any more than the
<i>Yahoos</i> in this country.”</p>
<p>It put me to the pains of many circumlocutions, to give my
master a right idea of what I spoke; for their language does not
abound in variety of words, because their wants and passions are
fewer than among us. But it is impossible to express his
noble resentment at our savage treatment of the <i>Houyhnhnm</i>
race; particularly after I had explained the manner and use of
castrating horses among us, to hinder them from propagating their
kind, and to render them more servile. He said, “if
it were possible there could be any country where <i>Yahoos</i>
alone were endued with reason, they certainly must be the
governing animal; because reason in time will always prevail
against brutal strength. But, considering the frame of our
bodies, and especially of mine, he thought no creature of equal
bulk was so ill-contrived for employing that reason in the common
offices of life;” whereupon he desired to know
“whether those among whom I lived resembled me, or the
<i>Yahoos</i> of his country?” I assured him,
“that I was as well shaped as most of my age; but the
younger, and the females, were much more soft and tender, and the
skins of the latter generally as white as milk.” He
said, “I differed indeed from other <i>Yahoos</i>, being
much more cleanly, and not altogether so deformed; but, in point
of real advantage, he thought I differed for the worse: that my
nails were of no use either to my fore or hinder feet; as to my
fore feet, he could not properly call them by that name, for he
never observed me to walk upon them; that they were too soft to
bear the ground; that I generally went with them uncovered;
neither was the covering I sometimes wore on them of the same
shape, or so strong as that on my feet behind: that I could not
walk with any security, for if either of my hinder feet slipped,
I must inevitably fail.” He then began to find fault
with other parts of my body: “the flatness of my face, the
prominence of my nose, mine eyes placed directly in front, so
that I could not look on either side without turning my head:
that I was not able to feed myself, without lifting one of my
fore-feet to my mouth: and therefore nature had placed those
joints to answer that necessity. He knew not what could be
the use of those several clefts and divisions in my feet behind;
that these were too soft to bear the hardness and sharpness of
stones, without a covering made from the skin of some other
brute; that my whole body wanted a fence against heat and cold,
which I was forced to put on and off every day, with tediousness
and trouble: and lastly, that he observed every animal in this
country naturally to abhor the <i>Yahoos</i>, whom the weaker
avoided, and the stronger drove from them. So that,
supposing us to have the gift of reason, he could not see how it
were possible to cure that natural antipathy, which every
creature discovered against us; nor consequently how we could
tame and render them serviceable. However, he would,”
as he said, “debate the matter no farther, because he was
more desirous to know my own story, the country where I was born,
and the several actions and events of my life, before I came
hither.”</p>
<p>I assured him, “how extremely desirous I was that he
should be satisfied on every point; but I doubted much, whether
it would be possible for me to explain myself on several
subjects, whereof his honour could have no conception; because I
saw nothing in his country to which I could resemble them; that,
however, I would do my best, and strive to express myself by
similitudes, humbly desiring his assistance when I wanted proper
words;” which he was pleased to promise me.</p>
<p>I said, “my birth was of honest parents, in an island
called England; which was remote from his country, as many
days’ journey as the strongest of his honour’s
servants could travel in the annual course of the sun; that I was
bred a surgeon, whose trade it is to cure wounds and hurts in the
body, gotten by accident or violence; that my country was
governed by a female man, whom we called queen; that I left it to
get riches, whereby I might maintain myself and family, when I
should return; that, in my last voyage, I was commander of the
ship, and had about fifty <i>Yahoos</i> under me, many of which
died at sea, and I was forced to supply them by others picked out
from several nations; that our ship was twice in danger of being
sunk, the first time by a great storm, and the second by striking
against a rock.” Here my master interposed, by asking
me, “how I could persuade strangers, out of different
countries, to venture with me, after the losses I had sustained,
and the hazards I had run?” I said, “they were
fellows of desperate fortunes, forced to fly from the places of
their birth on account of their poverty or their crimes.
Some were undone by lawsuits; others spent all they had in
drinking, whoring, and gaming; others fled for treason; many for
murder, theft, poisoning, robbery, perjury, forgery, coining
false money, for committing rapes, or sodomy; for flying from
their colours, or deserting to the enemy; and most of them had
broken prison; none of these durst return to their native
countries, for fear of being hanged, or of starving in a jail;
and therefore they were under the necessity of seeking a
livelihood in other places.”</p>
<p>During this discourse, my master was pleased to interrupt me
several times. I had made use of many circumlocutions in
describing to him the nature of the several crimes for which most
of our crew had been forced to fly their country. This
labour took up several days’ conversation, before he was
able to comprehend me. He was wholly at a loss to know what
could be the use or necessity of practising those vices. To
clear up which, I endeavoured to give some ideas of the desire of
power and riches; of the terrible effects of lust, intemperance,
malice, and envy. All this I was forced to define and
describe by putting cases and making suppositions. After
which, like one whose imagination was struck with something never
seen or heard of before, he would lift up his eyes with amazement
and indignation. Power, government, war, law, punishment,
and a thousand other things, had no terms wherein that language
could express them, which made the difficulty almost insuperable,
to give my master any conception of what I meant. But being
of an excellent understanding, much improved by contemplation and
converse, he at last arrived at a competent knowledge of what
human nature, in our parts of the world, is capable to perform,
and desired I would give him some particular account of that land
which we call Europe, but especially of my own country.</p>
<h3>IV - CHAPTER V.</h3>
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