Part Four A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

Chapter VII

[The author's great love of his native country.  His master's

observations upon the constitution and administration of England,

as described by the author, with parallel cases and comparisons.

His master's observations upon human nature.]

 

The reader may be disposed to wonder how I could prevail on

myself to give so free a representation of my own species, among

a race of mortals who are already too apt to conceive the vilest

opinion of humankind, from that entire congruity between me and

their YAHOOS. But I must freely confess, that the many virtues of

those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to human

corruptions, had so far opened my eyes and enlarged my

understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of

man in a very different light, and to think the honour of my own

kind not worth managing; which, besides, it was impossible for me

to do, before a person of so acute a judgment as my master, who

daily convinced me of a thousand faults in myself, whereof I had

not the least perception before, and which, with us, would never

be numbered even among human infirmities.  I had likewise

learned, from his example, an utter detestation of all falsehood

or disguise; and truth appeared so amiable to me, that I

determined upon sacrificing every thing to it.

 

Let me deal so candidly with the reader as to confess that there

was yet a much stronger motive for the freedom I took in my

representation of things.  I had not yet been a year in this

country before I contracted such a love and veneration for the

inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution never to return

to humankind, but to pass the rest of my life among these

admirable HOUYHNHNMS, in the contemplation and practice of every

virtue, where I could have no example or incitement to vice.  But

it was decreed by fortune, my perpetual enemy, that so great a

felicity should not fall to my share.  However, it is now some

comfort to reflect, that in what I said of my countrymen, I

extenuated their faults as much as I durst before so strict an

examiner; and upon every article gave as favourable a turn as the

matter would bear. For, indeed, who is there alive that will not

be swayed by his bias and partiality to the place of his birth?

 

I have related the substance of several conversations I had with

my master during the greatest part of the time I had the honour

to be in his service; but have, indeed, for brevity sake, omitted

much more than is here set down.

 

When I had answered all his questions, and his curiosity seemed

to be fully satisfied, he sent for me one morning early, and

commanded me to sit down at some distance (an honour which he had

never before conferred upon me).  He said, "he had been very

seriously considering my whole story, as far as it related both

to myself and my country; that he looked upon us as a sort of

animals, to whose share, by what accident he could not

conjecture, some small pittance of reason had fallen, whereof we

made no other use, than by its assistance, to aggravate our

natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which nature had

not given us; that we disarmed ourselves of the few abilities she

had bestowed; had been very successful in multiplying our

original wants, and seemed to spend our whole lives in vain

endeavours to supply them by our own inventions; that, as to

myself, it was manifest I had neither the strength nor agility of

a common YAHOO; that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet; had

found out a contrivance to make my claws of no use or defence,

and to remove the hair from my chin, which was intended as a

shelter from the sun and the weather:  lastly, that I could

neither run with speed, nor climb trees like my brethren," as he

called them, "the YAHOOS in his country.

 

"That our institutions of government and law were plainly owing

to our gross defects in reason, and by consequence in virtue;

because reason alone is sufficient to govern a rational creature;

which was, therefore, a character we had no pretence to

challenge, even from the account I had given of my own people;

although he manifestly perceived, that, in order to favour them,

I had concealed many particulars, and often said the thing which

was not.

 

"He was the more confirmed in this opinion, because, he observed,

that as I agreed in every feature of my body with other YAHOOS,

except where it was to my real disadvantage in point of strength,

speed, and activity, the shortness of my claws, and some other

particulars where nature had no part; so from the representation

I had given him of our lives, our manners, and our actions, he

found as near a resemblance in the disposition of our minds."  He

said, "the YAHOOS were known to hate one another, more than they

did any different species of animals; and the reason usually

assigned was, the odiousness of their own shapes, which all could

see in the rest, but not in themselves.  He had therefore begun

to think it not unwise in us to cover our bodies, and by that

invention conceal many of our deformities from each other, which

would else be hardly supportable.  But he now found he had been

mistaken, and that the dissensions of those brutes in his country

were owing to the same cause with ours, as I had described them.

For if," said he, "you throw among five YAHOOS as much food as

would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating

peaceably, fall together by the ears, each single one impatient

to have all to itself; and therefore a servant was usually

employed to stand by while they were feeding abroad, and those

kept at home were tied at a distance from each other:  that if a

cow died of age or accident, before a HOUYHNHNM could secure it

for his own YAHOOS, those in the neighbourhood would come in

herds to seize it, and then would ensue such a battle as I had

described, with terrible wounds made by their claws on both

sides, although they seldom were able to kill one another, for

want of such convenient instruments of death as we had invented.

At other times, the like battles have been fought between the

YAHOOS of several neighbourhoods, without any visible cause;

those of one district watching all opportunities to surprise the

next, before they are prepared.  But if they find their project

has miscarried, they return home, and, for want of enemies,

engage in what I call a civil war among themselves.

 

"That in some fields of his country there are certain shining

stones of several colours, whereof the YAHOOS are violently fond:

and when part of these stones is fixed in the earth, as it

sometimes happens, they will dig with their claws for whole days

to get them out; then carry them away, and hide them by heaps in

their kennels; but still looking round with great caution, for

fear their comrades should find out their treasure."  My master

said, "he could never discover the reason of this unnatural

appetite, or how these stones could be of any use to a YAHOO; but

now he believed it might proceed from the same principle of

avarice which I had ascribed to mankind.  That he had once, by

way of experiment, privately removed a heap of these stones from

the place where one of his YAHOOS had buried it; whereupon the

sordid animal, missing his treasure, by his loud lamenting

brought the whole herd to the place, there miserably howled, then

fell to biting and tearing the rest, began to pine away, would

neither eat, nor sleep, nor work, till he ordered a servant

privately to convey the stones into the same hole, and hide them

as before; which, when his YAHOO had found, he presently

recovered his spirits and good humour, but took good care to

remove them to a better hiding place, and has ever since been a

very serviceable brute."

 

My master further assured me, which I also observed myself, "that

in the fields where the shining stones abound, the fiercest and

most frequent battles are fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads

of the neighbouring YAHOOS."