it consist, as I have said, of one entire adamant,
two hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by
too great a shock, or burst by approaching too near
the fires from the houses below, as the backs, both
of iron and stone, will often do in our chimneys.
Of all this the people are well apprised, and understand
how far to carry their obstinacy, where their liberty
or property is concerned. And the king, when
he is highest provoked, and most determined to press
a city to rubbish, orders the island to descend with
great gentleness, out of a pretence of tenderness to
his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the
adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion
of all their philosophers, that the loadstone could
no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would fall
to the ground.
By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king,
nor either of his two eldest sons, are permitted to
leave the island; nor the queen, till she is past
child-bearing.
[The author leaves Laputa; is conveyed to Balnibarbi;
arrives at the metropolis. A description of
the metropolis, and the country adjoining. The
author hospitably received by a great lord. His
conversation with that lord.]
Although I cannot say that I was ill treated in this
island, yet I must confess I thought myself too much
neglected, not without some degree of contempt; for
neither prince nor people appeared to be curious in
any part of knowledge, except mathematics and music,
wherein I was far their inferior, and upon that account
very little regarded.
On the other side, after having seen all the curiosities
of the island, I was very desirous to leave it, being
heartily weary of those people. They were indeed
excellent in two sciences for which I have great esteem,
and wherein I am not unversed; but, at the same time,
so abstracted and involved in speculation, that I never
met with such disagreeable companions. I conversed
only with women, tradesmen, flappers, and court-pages,
during two months of my abode there; by which, at
last, I rendered myself extremely contemptible; yet
these were the only people from whom I could ever
receive a reasonable answer.
I had obtained, by hard study, a good degree of knowledge
in their language: I was weary of being confined
to an island where I received so little countenance,
and resolved to leave it with the first opportunity.
There was a great lord at court, nearly related to
the king, and for that reason alone used with respect.
He was universally reckoned the most ignorant and
stupid person among them. He had performed many
eminent services for the crown, had great natural
and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour;
but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported,
“he had been often known to beat time in the
wrong place;” neither could his tutors, without
extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most
