CHA P. VI. Of the inhabitants of Lilliput; their learning, laws, and cuftoms, the manner of educating their chil dren. The author's way of living in that country. His vindication of a great lady. A LTHOUGH I intend to leave the defcription of this empire to a particular treatise, yet in the mean time I am content to gratify the curious reader with fome general ideas. As the common fize of the natives is fomewhat under fix inches high, fo there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees : For instance, the tallest horfes and oxen are between four and five inches in height, the fheep an inch and half, more or lefs; their geese about the bignefs of a fparrow, and fo the feveral gradations downwards, till you come to the fmalleft, which to my fight were almost invifible; but nature hath adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper for their view: They fee with great exactness, but at no great diftance. And, to fhew the fharpness of their fight towards objects that are near, I have been much pleafed with obferving a cook pulling a lark, which was not fo large as a common fly; and a young girl threading an invifible. needle with invifible filk. Their talleft trees are about ་ about seven feet high: I mean fome of thofe in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach with my fift clinched. The other vegetables are in the fame proportion; but this I leave to the reader's imagination. I fhall fay but little at prefent of their learning, which for many ages hath flourished in all its branches among them: But their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans; nor from the right to the left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; but aflant from one corner of the paper to the other, like ladies in England. They bury their dead with their heads directly downwards, because they hold an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rife again; in which period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upfide down, and by this means they fhall at their refurrection be found ready ftanding on their feet *. The learned among them confefs the abfurdity of this doctrine, but the practice ftill continues in compliance to the vulgar +. There *Here the author dares even to exert his vein of humour fo liberally as to place the refurrection, one of the most encouraging principles of the Chriftian religion, in a ridiculous and contemptible light. Why fhould that appointment be denied to man, or appear fo very extraordinary in the human kind, which the Author of nature has illuftrated in the vegetable fpecies, where the feed dies and corrupts, before it can rife again to new beauty and glory? Orrery. This paragraph, if it were examined with judgment and candour, There are fome laws and customs in this em pire very peculiar; and; if they were not fo directly contrary to thofe of my own dear country, I thould be tempted to fay a little in their justification. It is only to be wifhed they were as well executed. The first I fhall mention, relates to informers. All crimes against the state are punished here with the utmost severity; but, if the perfon accufed maketh his innocence plainly to ap pear upon his trial, the accufer is immediately put to an ignominious death; and out of his goods or lands the innocent perfon is quadruply recom pensed for the lofs of his time, for the danger he underwent, for the hardship of his imprisonment, and for all the charges he hath been at in making his candour, would incline us to believe, that an opinion of a life to come is connected fo ́ immediately with all our reasonable faculties, that, fuppofing we had never been bleffed with any re velation from God, we should believe the refurrection to life eters nal. The Lilliputians believe, that after eleven thousand moons, the earth will be turned upfide down; and upon that account they are buried with their heads directly downwards, in order to be found ftanding upon their feet at the day of refurrection : An opinion, which I confefs, with the learned among them. felves, to be whimsical and ridiculous enough. But follies and abfurdities are always mixed with idolatry and fuperftition. The Lilliputians were rank idolaters; otherwise, how could they imagine Gulliver's watch to be the God that he worshipped? And therefore I cannot but infer, that, instead of placing the refurrection in a ridiculous contemptible light, Gulliver hath fairly manifefted the opinion of a ftate hereafter (although connected with fome vanities and abfurdities, which are the effects of fuperftition) to be the ground-work of all religion, founded upon the clear and strong dictates both of nature and reafon. Swift. his defence. largely fupplied by the crown. Or, if that fund be deficient, it is The Emperor alfo confers on him fome public mark of his favour, and proclamation is made of his innocence through the whole city. They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore feldom fail to punish it with death; for they alledge, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preferve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no fence against fuperior cunning: And fince it is neceffary that there fhould be a perpetual intercourfe of buying and felling, and dealing upon credit; where fraud is permitted and connived at, or hath no law to punish it, the honeft dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I remember when I was once interceding with the King for a criminal, who had wronged his mafter of a great fum of money, which he had received by order, and ran away with; and happening to tell his Majefty, by way of extenuation, that it was only a breach of truft; the Emperor thought it monftrous in me to offer, as a defence, the greatest aggravation of the crime: And truly I had little to fay in return, farther than the common anfwer, that different nations had different cuftoms; for, I confefs, I was heartily ashamed *. Although we ufually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which all government VOL. V. Ꮐ turns, * An act of parliament hath been fince paffed, by which fome breaches of truft have been made capital. Hawkef. turns, yet I could never obferve this maxim to be put in practice by any nation, except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient proof, that he hath ftrictly obferved the laws of his country for feventy-three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges, according to his quality and condition of life, with a proportionable fum of money out of a fund appropriated for that use: He likewife acquires the title of fnilpall, or legal, which is added to his name, but doth not defcend to his pofterity. And these people thought it a prodigious defect of policy among us, when I told them, that our laws were enforced only by penalties, without any mention of reward. It is upon this account, that the image of justice in their courts of judicature is formed with fix eyes, two before, as many behind, and on each fide one, to fignify circumfpection; with a bag of gold open in her right hand, and a fword fheathed in her left, to fhew fhe is more disposed to reward than to punish. In chufing perfons for all employments, they have more regard to good morals, than to great abilities; for, fince government is neceffary to mankind, they believe, that the common fize of human understandings is fitted to fome station or other, and that providence never intended to make the management of public affairs a myftery to be comprehended only by a few perfons of fublime genius, of which there feldom are three born in an age: But they fuppofe truth, juftice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man's |