“Without the consent of this illustrious body,
no law can be enacted, repealed, or altered:
and these nobles have likewise the decision of all
our possessions, without appeal.” {6}
[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.
