employment in his court, and finding me abfolutely determined to return to my native country, was pleased to give me his licence to depart, and honoured me with a letter of recommendation under his own hand to the Emperor of Japan. He likewife prefented me with four hundred forty-four large pieces of gold (this nation de. lighting in even numbers) and a red diamond, which I fold in England for eleven hundred pounds.

On the 6th day of May, 1709, I took a folemn leave of his Majesty and all my friends. This prince was fo gracious, as to order a guard to conduct me to Glanguenftald, which is a royal port to the fouth-west part of the island. In fix days I found a veffel ready to carry me to Japan, and spent fifteen days in the voyage. We landed at a small port-town called Xamofchi, fituated on the fouth-east part of Japan; the town lies on the western. point, where there is a narrow ftreight leading northward into a long arm of the fea, upon the north-west part of which, Yedo the metropolis ftands. At landing I fhewed the custom-houfe officers my letter from the King of Luggnagg to his Imperial Majefty. They knew the feal perfectly well; it was as broad as the palm of my hand. The impreffion was A King lifting up a lame beggar from the earth. The magiftrates of the town, hearing of my letter, received me as a public minifter; they provided me with carriages and fervants, and bore my charges to Yedo, where I was admitted to an audience, and delivered my letter, which was opened with great ceremony, and explained to the Emperor by an interpreter, who then gave me notice by his Majefty's order, that I fhould fignify my request, and whatever it were, it should be granted for the fake of his royal brother of Luggnagg. This interpreter was a perfon employed to tranfact affairs with the Hollanders; he foon conjectured by my countenance, that I was an European, and therefore repeated his Majesty's commands in Low-dutch, which he spoke perfectly well. I answered as I had before determined) that I was a Dutch merchant fhipwrecked in a very remote country, from whence I had travelled by fea and land to Luggnagg, and then took shipping for Japan, where I knew my countrymen often traded, and with some of thefe I hoped to get an opportunity of returning into Eus

rope:

rope: I therefore most humbly entreated his royal favour to give order, that 1 fhould be conducted in fafety to Nangafac: to this I added another petition, that for the fake of my patron the King of Luggnagg, his Majesty would condefcend to excufe my performing the ceremony impofed on my countrymen, of trampling upon the crucifix becaufe I had been thrown into his kingdom by my misfortunes, without any intention of trading. When this latter petition was interpreted to the Emperor, he feemed a little furprised; and faid, he believed I was the first of my countrymen, who ever made any scruple in this point; and that he began to doubt, whether I was a real Hollander, or no; but rather fufpected I must be a Chriftian. However, for the reafons I had offered, but Ichiefly to gratify the King of Luggnagg, by an uncommon mark of his favour, he would comply with the fingularity. of my humour; but the affair must be managed with dexterity, and his officers fhould be commanded to let me pafs as it were by forgetfulness. For he affured me, that if the fecret fhould be difcovered by my countrymen the Dutch, they would cut my throat in the voyage. I returned my thanks by the interpreter for fo unusual a favour; and fome troops being at that time on their march to Nangafac, the commanding officer had orders to convey me fafe thither, with particular inftructions about the bufinefs of the crucifix.

On the 9th day of June, 1709, I arrived at Nangasac after a very long and troublesome journey. I foon fell into company of fome Dutch failors belonging to the Amboyna of Amfterdam, a ftout fhip of 450 tons. I had lived long in Holland, pursuing my ftudies at Leyden, and I fpoke Dutch well. The feamen foon knew from whence I came laft; they were curious to enquire into my voyages, and courfe of life. I made up a story as fhort and probable as I could, but concealed the greatest part. I knew many perfons in Holland; I was able to invent names for my parents, whom I pretended to be obfcure people in the province of Guelderland. I would have given the captain (one Theodorus Vangrult) what he pleased to ask for my voyage to Holland; but understanding 1 was a furgeon, he was contented to take half the usual rate, on condition that I would serve him in the

way

way of my calling. Before we took shipping, I was often asked by fome of the crew, whether I had performed the ceremony above mentioned? I evaded the question by general anfwers, that I had satisfied the Emperor and court in all particulars. However, a malicious rogue of a skipper went to an officer, and pointing to me, told him, I had not yet trampled on the crucifix: but the other, who had received inftructions to let me pafs, gave the rafcal twenty ftrokes on the fhoulders with a bamboo; after which I was no more troubled with fuch questions,

Nothing happened worth mentioning in this voyage. We failed with a fair wind to the Cape of Good Hope, where we flaid only to take in fresh water. On the 10th

of April 1710, we arrived fafe at Amsterdam, having loft only three men by fickness in the voyage, and a fourth who fell from the fore-maft into the fea, not far from the coast of Guiney. From Amfterdam I foon after fet fail for England in a fmall veffel belonging to that city.

On the 16th of April we put in at the Downs. I landed next morning, and faw once more my native country, after an absence of five years and fix months compleat. I went ftrait to Redriff, where I arrived the fame day, at two in the afternoon, and found my wife and family in good health.

TRAVELS

TRAVELS into feveral REMOTE NATION'S of the World.

PART IV.

A VOYAGE to the Country of the HOUYHNHN MS.

CHAP. I.

The author fets out as captain of a ship. His men confpire against him, confine him a long time to his cabbin. Set him on fhore in an unknown land. He travels up into the country. The Yahoos, a Strange fort of animal, defcribed. The author meets two Houyhnhums.

I

Continued at home with my wife and children about five months in a very happy condition, if I could have learned the leffon of knowing when I was well. I left my poor wife big with child, and accepted an advantage

ous

* In this last part of his imaginary travels, Swift has indulged a mifanthropy that is intolerable. The reprefentation which he has given us of human nature, muft terrify, and even debafe the mind of the reader who views it. His fallies of wit aud humour lofe all their force, nothing remaining but a melancholy and difagreeable impreffion: we are difgufted, not entertained; we are fhocked, not inftructed by the fable. I thould therefore chufe to take no notice of his YAHOOS, did I not think it neceffary to affert the vindication of human nature, and thereby, in fome meafure, to pay my duty to the great Author of our fpecies, who has created us in a very fearful, and a very wonderful manner.

ous offer made me to be captain of the Adventure, a ftout merchant-man of 350 tuns: for I understood navigation well, and being grown weary of a furgeon's employment

at

We are compofed of a mind, and of a hody, intimately united, and mutually affecting each other. Their operations indeed are entirely different. Whether the immortal spirit, that enlivens this fine machine, is originally of a fuperior nature in various bodies (which, I own, seems most confiftent, and agreeable to the feale and order of beings), or whether the difference depends on a fymmetry, or peculiar structure of the organs combined with it, is beyond my reach to determine. It is evidently certain, that the body is curiously formed with proper organs to delight, and fuch as are adapted to all the neceffary ufes of life. The fpirit animates the whole; it guides the natural appetites, and confines them within juft limits. But the natural force of this fpirit is often immerfed in matter; and the mind becomes fubfervient to paffions, which it ought to govern and direct. Horace, although of the Epicurean doctrine, acknowledges this truth, where he fays,

Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae.

It is no lefs evident, that this immortal fpirit has an independent power of acting, and, when cultivated in a proper manner, feemingly quits the corporeal frame within which it is imprisoned, and foars into higher and more fpacious regions; where, with an energy, which I had almost faid was divine, it ranges among those heavenly bodies, that, in this lower world, are fcarce visible to our eyes; and we can at once explain the distance, magnitude, and velocity of the planets, and can foretel, even to a degree of minutenefs, the particular time when a comet will return, and when the fun will be eclipfed in the next century, Thefe powers certainly evince the dignity of human nature, and the furprising effects of the inmaterial spirit within us; which, in fo confined a state, can thus difengage itself from the fetters of matter. It is from this pre-eminence of the foul over the body, that we are enabled to view the exact order and curious variety of different beings; to confider and cultivate the natural productions of the earth; and to admire and intimate the wife benevolence which reigns throughout the

whole