condly, by tranfpofing the letters of the alphabet in any fufpected paper, they can lay open the deepest designs of a difcontented party. So for example, if I fhould fay in a letter to a friend, Our brother Tom has just got the piles, a fkilful decypherer would difcover, that the fame letters, which compofe that fentence, may be analysed into the following words, Refift, a plot is brought bome-The Tour. And this is the anagrammatic method. The profeffor made me great acknowledgments for communicating thefe obfervations, and promifed to make honourable mention of me in his treatife. I faw nothing in this country, that could invite me to a longer continuance, and began to think of returning home to England. CHAP. VII. The author leaves Lagado, arrives at Maldonada. No fhip ready. He takes a fhort voyage to Glubbdubdrib. His reception by the governor. T HE continent, of which this kingdom is a part, extends itself, as I have reafon to believe, caftward to that unknown tract of America weftward of Ca * Gulliver seems to have finished his voyage to Laputa in a careless hurrying manner; which makes me almost think, that fometimes he was tired with his work, and attempted to run through it as fast as he could, otherwise why was the curtain dropt fo foon, or why were we deprived of fo noble a scene as might have been discovered in the island of Glubbdubdrib, where the governor, by his skill in necromancy, had the power of calling whom he pleased from the dead. I have not time by this post to write to you my thoughts upon a subje&t, which I confefs awakened, but by no means satisfied my curiosity. I lamented to find fo many illuftrious ghosts vanish so quickly and fo abruptly from my fight, many of whom were of the bright. eft characters in hiftory. In my next letter I shall endeavour to detain them a little longer in Leicester fields, than Swift fuffered them to stay in the island of Sorcerers. Orrery. lifornia, lifornia, and north to the Pacific ocean, which is not above a hundred and fifty miles from Lagado; where there is a good port, and much commerce with the great ifland of Luggnagg, fituated to the north-weft about 29 degrees north latitude, and 140 longitude. This ifland of Luggnagg ftands fouth-eastward of Japan, about an hundred leagues diftant. There is a ftri& alliance between the Japanese Emperor and the King of Luggnagg, which af fords frequent opportunities of failing from one ifland to the other. I determined therefore to direct my course this way, in order to my return to Europe. I hired two mules, with a guide, to fhew me the way, and carry my fmall baggage. I took leave of my noble protector, who had fhewn me fo much favour, and made me a generous prefent at my departure. My journey was without any accident or adventure worth relating. When I arrived at the port of Maldonada (for fo it is called) there was no fhip in the harbour bound for Luggnagg, nor like to be in fome time. The town is about as large as Portsmouth. I foon fell into fome acquaintance, and was very hospitably received. A gentleman of diftinction faid to me, that fince the ships bound for Luggnagg could not be ready in lefs than a month, it might be no difagreeable amusement for me to take a trip to the little island of Glubbdubdrib, about five leagues off to the fouth-west. He offered himself and a friend to accompany me, and that I fhould be provided with a small convenient barque for the voyage. : Glubbdubdrib, as nearly as I can interpret the word, fignifies the ifland of Sorcerers or Magicians. It is about one third as large as the Ifle of Wight, and extremely fruitful it is governed by the head of a certain tribe, who are all magicians. This tribe marries only among each other, and the eldeft in fucceffion is prince or governor. He hath a noble palace, and a park of about three thousand acres, furrounded by a wall of hewn ftone twenty feet high. In this park are several small inclosures for cattle, corn, and gardening. The governor and his family are ferved and attended by domeftics of a kind fomewhat unusual. By his fkilt in necromancy, he hath a power of calling whom he pleaf eth from the dead, and commanding their fervice for twenty 3 twenty-four hours, but no longer; nor can he call the fame perfons up again in less than three months, except upon very extraordinary occafions. When we arrived at the island, which was about eleven in the morning, one of the gentlemen, who accompanied me, went to the governor, and desired admittance for a ftranger, who came on purpose to have the honour of attending on his highnefs. This was immediately granted, and we all three entered the gate of the palace, between two rows of guards armed and dressed after a very antic manner, and something in their countenances that made my flesh creep with a horror I cannot exprefs. We paffed through feveral apartments between fervants of the fame fort ranked on each fide, as before, till we came to the chamber of prefence, where, after three profound obey fances, and a few general queftions, we were permitted to fit on three ftools near the lowest step of his highnefs's throne. He understood the language of Balnibarbi, although it were different from that of this ifland. He defired me to give him fome account of my travels; and, to let me fee that I fhould be treated without ceremony, he difmiffed all his attendants with a turn of his finger at which, to my great aftonishment, they vanished in an inftant, like vifions in a dream, when we awake on a fudden. I could not recover myself in fome time, till the governor affured me, that I should receive no hurt; and obferving my two companions to be under no concern, who had been often entertained in the fame manner, I began to take courage, and related to his highness a short history of my feveral adventures: yet not without some befitation, and frequently looking behind me to the place, where I had feen those domestic fpectres. I had the honour to dine with the governor, where a new set of ghosts served up the meat, and waited at table. I now obferved myself to be lefs terrified than I had been in the morning. I ftayed till fun-fet, but humbly defired his highness to excufe me for not accepting his invitation of lodging in the palace. My two friends and I lay at a private house in the town adjoining, which is the capital of this little island; and the next morning we returned to pay our duty to the governor, as he was pleased to command us. After this manner we continued in the island for ten days, most part of every day with the governor, and at night in our lodging. I foon grew fo familiarifed to the fight of fpirits, that after the third or fourth time they gave me no emotion at all: or if I had any apprehenfions left, my curiofity prevailed over them. For his highness the governor ordered me to call up whatever perfons I would chufe to name, and in whatever numbers, among all the dead, from the beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to anfwer any queftions I fhould think fit to ask; with this condition, that my questions must be confined within the compass of the times they lived in. And one thing I might depend upon, that they would certainly tell me truth, for lying was a talent of no use in the lower world. I made my humble acknowledgments to his highness for so great a fayour*. We were in a chamber, from whence there was a fair profpect into the park. And, because my first inclination was to be entertained with scenes of pomp and magnificence, I defired to fee Alexander the Great at the head of his army, juft after the battle of Arbela, which, upon a motion of the governor's finger, immediately appeared in a large field under the window, where we tood. Alexander was called up into the room: it was with great difficulty that I understood his Greek, and had but little of my own. He affured me upon his honour, that he was not poisoned, but died of a fever by exceffive drinking t Next I believe it would be impoffible to find out the design of Dr. Swift, in summoning up a parcel of apparitions, that, from their behaviour, or from any thing they fay, are almost of as little consequence as the ghosts in Gay's farce of the What d'ye call it. Perhaps Swift's general defign might be to ar raign the conduct of eminent perfons after their death, and to convey their names and images to pofterity, deprived of those falfe colours in which they formerly appeared. If these were his intentions, he has miffed his aim; or at least has been fo far carried away by his disposition to raillery, that the moral which ought to arise from such a fable is buried in obscurity. Qrrery. The first airy fubftance introduced is Alexander the Great. After After a hint from Gulliver, that we have loft the true Greek idiom, the conqueror of the universe is made to declare upon his honour," that he died by excessive drinking, not by poi"fon." A trifling and an improper obfervation, because the apparition is called up as he appeared at the head of his army, juft after the battle of Arbela. I own my expectations were great, when I found his appearance was to be at that particular jun&ture. Or rather I could have wished to have feen him af ter the battle of ISSUS, when the temperate ufe which he made of his victory, was highly worthy of imitation. Such a cirtumftance might have graced his triumph. There are others too in the hiftorical records of him, that redound to his honour. The tender regard which he fhewed to Pindar, by fparing the house of that poet, when he rased the city of Thebes, feems to demand perpetual gratitude from all fucceeding bards. The manner in which he visited the tomb of Achilles; the af fection and refpe&t paid by him to Ariftotle; the undaunted confidence placed in his physician Philip, are inftances fufficient to fhew, that Alexander did not want fome virtues of humanity. And when we confider several of his rash actions of inebriety, they convince us-how far the native excellencies of the mind' may be debased and changed by paffions which too often attend fuccefs and luxury, Utcunque defecere mores Dedecorant bene nata culpe. It is evident, that Swift had conceived an absolute disgust tò Alexander, whose character he aims to destroy, by touching it in fo flight a manner, that he puts me in mind of the vifit paid by Augustus Cæfar to Alexander's fepulchre at Alexandria. Upon the Emperor's arrival, the body of the Macedonian hero was found in its full dimenfions, but so tender, notwithstand ing all the former embalming, that Cæfar, by touching only the nose of it, defaced the whole figure immediately. Orrery. In this paffage there is a peculiar beauty, though it is not discovered at an hafty view. The appearance of Alexander with a victorious army immediately after the battle of Arbela, produces only a declaration that he died by drunkenness; thus inadequate and ridiculous in the eye of reafon is the ultimate purpose for which Alexander with his army marched into a remote country, fubverted a mighty empire, and deluged a nation with blood; he gained no more than an epithet to his name; which after a few repetitions was no longer regarded even by 1 |