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how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I" (these were his expressions) "could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a
manner, as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those
destructive machines; whereof," he said, "some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver. As for himself, he
protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his
kingdom, than be privy to such a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any more."
A strange effect of narrow principles and views! that a prince possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem;
of strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents, and almost adored by his subjects, should, from
a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have
made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people! Neither do I say this, with the least intention to
detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will, on this account, be very much lessened in the
opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced
politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king,
when I happened to say, "there were several thousand books among us written upon the art of government," it gave him (directly
contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings. He professed both to abominate and despise all mystery,
refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister. He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy, or some
rival nation, were not in the case. He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason,
to justice and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics, which are not worth
considering. And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of
ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole
race of politicians put together."
The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be
allowed to excel. But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all
mechanical arts; so that among us, it would be little esteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could never
drive the least conception into their heads.
No law in that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two and twenty. But indeed
few of them extend even to that length. They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial
enough to discover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law, is a capital crime. As to the decision of civil
causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in
either.
They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king,
which is reckoned the largest, does not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, whence I
had liberty to borrow what books I pleased. The queen's joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms, a kind of wooden
machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were each fifty feet long. It was indeed a moveable pair of
stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read, was put up leaning
against the wall: I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and
so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of
mine eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the same
manner, and so turned over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pasteboard, and in the
largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long.
Gulliver's Travels 40/96
Gulliver's Travels
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