Harvard Classics, Volume 28 | Page 9

"Almanach des Gourmands" says, On naît rôtisseur.
And it was not merely by the sarcastic method that Swift exposed the
unreasonableness of loving and having children. In Gulliver, the folly
of love and marriage is urged by graver arguments and advice. In the
famous Lilliputian kingdom, Swift speaks with approval of the practice

of instantly removing children from their parents and educating them
by the State; and amongst his favourite horses, a pair of foals are stated
to be the very utmost a well-regulated equine couple would permit
themselves. In fact, our great satirist was of opinion that conjugal love
was unadvisable, and illustrated the theory by his own practice and
example--God help him--which made him about the most wretched
being in God's world.
The grave and logical conduct of an absurd proposition, as exemplified
in the cannibal proposal just mentioned, is our author's constant method
through all his works of humour. Given a country of people six inches
or sixty feet high, and by the mere process of the logic, a thousand
wonderful absurdities are evolved, at so many stages of the calculation.
Turning to the first minister who waited behind him with a white staff
near as tall as the mainmast of the "Royal Sovereign," the King of
Brobdingnag observes how contemptible a thing human grandeur is, as
represented by such a contemptible little creature as Gulliver. "The
Emperor of Lilliput's features are strong and masculine" (what a
surprising humour there is in this description!)--"The Emperor's
features," Gulliver says, "are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip,
an arched nose, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body
and limbs well proportioned, and his deportment majestic. He is taller
by the breadth of my nail than any of his court, which alone is enough
to strike an awe into beholders."
What a surprising humour there is in these descriptions! How noble the
satire is here! how just and honest! How perfect the image! Mr.
Macaulay has quoted the charming lines of the poet, where the king of
the pigmies is measured by the same standard. We have all read in
Milton of the spear that was like "the mast of some tall admiral," but
these images are surely likely to come to the comic poet originally. The
subject is before him. He is turning it in a thousand ways. He is full of
it. The figure suggests itself naturally to him, and comes out of his
subject, as in that wonderful passage when Gulliver's box having been
dropped by the eagle into the sea, and Gulliver having been received
into the ship's cabin, he calls upon the crew to bring the box into the
cabin, and put it on the table, the cabin being only a quarter the size of

the box. It is the veracity of the blunder which is so admirable. Had a
man come from such a country as Brobdingnag he would have
blundered so.
But the best stroke of humour, if there be a best in that abounding book,
is that where Gulliver, in the unpronounceable country, describes his
parting from his master the horse. "I took," he says, "a second leave of
my master, but as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss his hoof, he
did me the honour to raise it gently to my mouth. I am not ignorant how
much I have been censured for mentioning this last particular.
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 travellers are to
boast of extraordinary favours 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."
The surprise here, the audacity of circumstantial evidence, the
astounding gravity of the speaker, who is not ignorant how much he
has been censured, the nature of the favour conferred, and the
respectful exultation at the receipt of it, are surely complete; it is truth
topsy-turvy, entirely logical and absurd.
As for the humour and conduct of this famous fable, I suppose there is
no person who reads but must admire; as for the moral, I think it
horrible, shameful, unmanly, blasphemous; and giant and great as this
Dean is, I say we should hoot him. Some of this audience mayn't have
read the last part of Gulliver, and to such I would recall the advice of
the venerable Mr. Punch to persons about to marry, and say "Don't."
When Gulliver first lands among the Yahoos, the naked howling
wretches clamber up trees and assault him, and he describes himself as
"almost stifled with the filth which fell about him." The reader of the