“That I came from a very far country, as I already
had attempted to tell him, with about fifty more of
my own species; that we travelled upon the seas in
a great hollow vessel made of wood, and larger than
his honour’s house. I described the ship
to him in the best terms I could, and explained, by
the help of my handkerchief displayed, how it was
driven forward by the wind. That upon a quarrel
among us, I was set on shore on this coast, where I
walked forward, without knowing whither, till he delivered
me from the persecution of those execrable Yahoos.”
He asked me, “who made the ship, and how it
was possible that the Houyhnhnms of my country would
leave it to the management of brutes?” My answer
was, “that I durst proceed no further in my
relation, unless he would give me his word and honour
that he would not be offended, and then I would tell
him the wonders I had so often promised.”
He agreed; and I went on by assuring him, that the
ship was made by creatures like myself; who, in all
the countries I had travelled, as well as in my own,
were the only governing rational animals; and that
upon my arrival hither, I was as much astonished to
see the Houyhnhnms act like rational beings, as he,
or his friends, could be, in finding some marks of
reason in a creature he was pleased to call a Yahoo;
to which I owned my resemblance in every part, but
could not account for their degenerate and brutal
nature. I said farther, “that if good
fortune ever restored me to my native country, to
relate my travels hither, as I resolved to do, everybody
would believe, that I said the thing that was not,
that I invented the story out of my own head; and
(with all possible respect to himself, his family,
and friends, and under his promise of not being offended)
our countrymen would hardly think it probable that
a Houyhnhnm should be the presiding creature of a nation,
and a Yahoo the brute.”
CHAPTER IV.
[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.]
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.
