If the censure of the Yahoos could any way affect
me, I should have great reason to complain, that some
of them are so bold as to think my book of travels
a mere fiction out of mine own brain, and have gone
so far as to drop hints, that the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos
have no more existence than the inhabitants of Utopia.
Indeed I must confess, that as to the people of Lilliput,
Brobdingrag (for so the word should have been spelt,
and not erroneously Brobdingnag), and Laputa, I have
never yet heard of any Yahoo so presumptuous as to
dispute their being, or the facts I have related concerning
them; because the truth immediately strikes every
reader with conviction. And is there less probability
in my account of the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it
is manifest as to the latter, there are so many thousands
even in this country, who only differ from their brother
brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a sort of
jabber, and do not go naked? I wrote for their
amendment, and not their approbation. The united
praise of the whole race would be of less consequence
to me, than the neighing of those two degenerate Houyhnhnms
I keep in my stable; because from these, degenerate
as they are, I still improve in some virtues without
any mixture of vice.
Do these miserable animals presume to think, that
I am so degenerated as to defend my veracity?
Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Houyhnhnmland,
that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious
master, I was able in the compass of two years (although
I confess with the utmost difficulty) to remove that
infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and
equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of
all my species; especially the Europeans.
I have other complaints to make upon this vexatious
occasion; but I forbear troubling myself or you any
further. I must freely confess, that since my
last return, some corruptions of my Yahoo nature have
revived in me by conversing with a few of your species,
and particularly those of my own family, by an unavoidable
necessity; else I should never have attempted so absurd
a project as that of reforming the Yahoo race in this
kingdom: But I have now done with all such visionary
schemes for ever.
April 2, 1727
PART I—A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.
CHAPTER I.
[The author gives some account of himself and family.
His first inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked,
and swims for his life. Gets safe on shore in
the country of Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried
up the country.]
