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 vilest2 opinion of humankind, from that entire congruity3 between me and their Yahoos. But I must freely confess, that the many virtues5 of those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to human corruptions6, 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 judgment7 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 amiable8 to me, that I determined9 upon sacrificing every thing to it.
Let me deal so candidly10 with the reader as to confess that there was yet a much stronger motive11 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 veneration12 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 virtue4, where I could have no example or incitement13 to vice14. 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 extenuated15 their faults as much as I durst before so strict an examiner; and upon every article gave as favourable16 a turn as the matter would bear. For, indeed, who is there alive that will not be swayed by his bias17 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.
When I had answered all his questions, and his curiosity seemed to be fully18 satisfied, he sent for me one morning early, and commanded me to sit down at some distance (an honour which he had never before conferred upon me). He said, “he had been very seriously considering my whole story, as far as it related both to myself and my country; that he looked upon us as a sort of animals, to whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture19, some small pittance20 of reason had fallen, whereof we made no other use, than by its assistance, to aggravate21 our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which nature had not given us; that we disarmed22 ourselves of the few abilities she had bestowed23; had been very successful in multiplying our original wants, and seemed to spend our whole lives in vain endeavours to supply them by our own inventions; that, as to myself, it was manifest I had neither the strength nor agility24 of a common Yahoo; that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet; had found out a contrivance to make my claws of no use or defence, and to remove the hair from my chin, which was intended as a shelter from the sun and the weather: lastly, that I could neither run with speed, nor climb trees like my brethren,” as he called them, “the Yahoos in his country.
“That our institutions of government and law were plainly owing to our gross defects in reason, and by consequence in virtue; because reason alone is sufficient to govern a rational creature; which was, therefore, a character we had no pretence25 to challenge, even from the account I had given of my own people; although he manifestly perceived, that, in order to favour them, I had concealed26 many particulars, and often said the thing which was not.
“He was the more confirmed in this opinion, because, he observed, that as I agreed in every feature of my body with other Yahoos, except where it was to my real disadvantage in point of strength, speed, and activity, the shortness of my claws, and some other particulars where nature had no part; so from the representation I had given him of our lives, our manners, and our actions, he found as near a resemblance in the disposition28 of our minds.” He said, “the Yahoos were known to hate one another, more than they did any different species of animals; and the reason usually assigned was, the odiousness29 of their own shapes, which all could see in the rest, but not in themselves. He had therefore begun to think it not unwise in us to cover our bodies, and by that invention conceal27 many of our deformities from each other, which would else be hardly supportable. But he now found he had been mistaken, and that the dissensions of those brutes32 in his country were owing to the same cause with ours, as I had described them. For if,” said he, “you throw among five Yahoos as much food as would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears, each single one impatient to have all to itself; and therefore a servant was usually employed to stand by while they were feeding abroad, and those kept at home were tied at a distance from each other: that if a cow died of age or accident, before a Houyhnhnm could secure it for his own Yahoos, those in the neighbourhood would come in herds33 to seize it, and then would ensue such a battle as I had described, with terrible wounds made by their claws on both sides, although they seldom were able to kill one another, for want of such convenient instruments of death as we had invented. At other times, the like battles have been fought between the Yahoos of several neighbourhoods, without any visible cause; those of one district watching all opportunities to surprise the next, before they are prepared. But if they find their project has miscarried, they return home, and, for want of enemies, engage in what I call a civil war among themselves.
“That in some fields of his country there are certain shining stones of several colours, whereof the Yahoos are violently fond: and when part of these stones is fixed35 in the earth, as it sometimes happens, they will dig with their claws for whole days to get them out; then carry them away, and hide them by heaps in their kennels36; but still looking round with great caution, for fear their comrades should find out their treasure.” My master said, “he could never discover the reason of this unnatural38 appetite, or how these stones could be of any use to a Yahoo; but now he believed it might proceed from the same principle of avarice39 which I had ascribed to mankind. That he had once, by way of experiment, privately40 removed a heap of these stones from the place where one of his Yahoos had buried it; whereupon the sordid41 animal, missing his treasure, by his loud lamenting42 brought the whole herd34 to the place, there miserably43 howled, then fell to biting and tearing the rest, began to pine away, would neither eat, nor sleep, nor work, till he ordered a servant privately to convey the stones into the same hole, and hide them as before; which, when his Yahoo had found, he presently recovered his spirits and good humour, but took good care to remove them to a better hiding place, and has ever since been a very serviceable brute31.”
My master further assured me, which I also observed myself, “that in the fields where the shining stones abound44, the fiercest and most frequent battles are fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads of the neighbouring Yahoos.”
He said, “it was common, when two Yahoos discovered such a stone in a field, and were contending which of them should be the proprietor45, a third would take the advantage, and carry it away from them both;” which my master would needs contend to have some kind of resemblance with our suits at law; wherein I thought it for our credit not to undeceive him; since the decision he mentioned was much more equitable46 than many decrees among us; because the plaintiff and defendant47 there lost nothing beside the stone they contended for: whereas our courts of equity48 would never have dismissed the cause, while either of them had any thing left.
My master, continuing his discourse49, said, “there was nothing that rendered the Yahoos more odious30, than their undistinguishing appetite to devour50 every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted51 flesh of animals, or all mingled52 together: and it was peculiar53 in their temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by rapine or stealth, at a greater distance, than much better food provided for them at home. If their prey54 held out, they would eat till they were ready to burst; after which, nature had pointed55 out to them a certain root that gave them a general evacuation.
“There was also another kind of root, very juicy, but somewhat rare and difficult to be found, which the Yahoos sought for with much eagerness, and would suck it with great delight; it produced in them the same effects that wine has upon us. It would make them sometimes hug, and sometimes tear one another; they would howl, and grin, and chatter56, and reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep in the mud.”
I did indeed observe that the Yahoos were the only animals in this country subject to any diseases; which, however, were much fewer than horses have among us, and contracted, not by any ill-treatment they meet with, but by the nastiness and greediness of that sordid brute. Neither has their language any more than a general appellation57 for those maladies, which is borrowed from the name of the beast, and called hnea-yahoo, or Yahoo’s evil; and the cure prescribed is a mixture of their own dung and urine, forcibly put down the Yahoo’s throat. This I have since often known to have been taken with success, and do here freely recommend it to my countrymen for the public good, as an admirable specific against all diseases produced by repletion58.
“As to learning, government, arts, manufactures, and the like,” my master confessed, “he could find little or no resemblance between the Yahoos of that country and those in ours; for he only meant to observe what parity59 there was in our natures. He had heard, indeed, some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in most herds there was a sort of ruling Yahoo (as among us there is generally some leading or principal stag in a park), who was always more deformed60 in body, and mischievous61 in disposition, than any of the rest; that this leader had usually a favourite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his master’s feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his kennel37; for which he was now and then rewarded with a piece of ass’s flesh. This favourite is hated by the whole herd, and therefore, to protect himself, keeps always near the person of his leader. He usually continues in office till a worse can be found; but the very moment he is discarded, his successor, at the head of all the Yahoos in that district, young and old, male and female, come in a body, and discharge their excrements upon him from head to foot. But how far this might be applicable to our courts, and favourites, and ministers of state, my master said I could best determine.”
I durst make no return to this malicious62 insinuation, which debased human understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.
My master told me, “there were some qualities remarkable63 in the Yahoos, which he had not observed me to mention, or at least very slightly, in the accounts I had given of humankind.” He said, “those animals, like other brutes, had their females in common; but in this they differed, that the she Yahoo would admit the males while she was pregnant; and that the hes would quarrel and fight with the females, as fiercely as with each other; both which practices were such degrees of infamous64 brutality65, as no other sensitive creature ever arrived at.
“Another thing he wondered at in the Yahoos, was their strange disposition to nastiness and dirt; whereas there appears to be a natural love of cleanliness in all other animals.” As to the two former accusations66, I was glad to let them pass without any reply, because I had not a word to offer upon them in defence of my species, which otherwise I certainly had done from my own inclinations67. But I could have easily vindicated68 humankind from the imputation69 of singularity upon the last article, if there had been any swine in that country (as unluckily for me there were not), which, although it may be a sweeter quadruped than a Yahoo, cannot, I humbly70 conceive, in justice, pretend to more cleanliness; and so his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy71 way of feeding, and their custom of wallowing and sleeping in the mud.
My master likewise mentioned another quality which his servants had discovered in several Yahoos, and to him was wholly unaccountable. He said, “a fancy would sometimes take a Yahoo to retire into a corner, to lie down, and howl, and groan72, and spurn73 away all that came near him, although he were young and fat, wanted neither food nor water, nor did the servant imagine what could possibly ail1 him. And the only remedy they found was, to set him to hard work, after which he would infallibly come to himself.” To this I was silent out of partiality to my own kind; yet here I could plainly discover the true seeds of spleen, which only seizes on the lazy, the luxurious74, and the rich; who, if they were forced to undergo the same regimen, I would undertake for the cure.
His honour had further observed, “that a female Yahoo would often stand behind a bank or a bush, to gaze on the young males passing by, and then appear, and hide, using many antic gestures and grimaces75, at which time it was observed that she had a most offensive smell; and when any of the males advanced, would slowly retire, looking often back, and with a counterfeit76 show of fear, run off into some convenient place, where she knew the male would follow her.
“At other times, if a female stranger came among them, three or four of her own sex would get about her, and stare, and chatter, and grin, and smell her all over; and then turn off with gestures, that seemed to express contempt and disdain77.”
Perhaps my master might refine a little in these speculations78, which he had drawn79 from what he observed himself, or had been told him by others; however, I could not reflect without some amazement80, and much sorrow, that the rudiments81 of lewdness82, coquetry, censure83, and scandal, should have place by instinct in womankind.
I expected every moment that my master would accuse the Yahoos of those unnatural appetites in both sexes, so common among us. But nature, it seems, has not been so expert a school-mistress; and these politer pleasures are entirely84 the productions of art and reason on our side of the globe.
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1
ail
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| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
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vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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congruity
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| n.全等，一致 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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incitement
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| 激励； 刺激； 煽动； 激励物 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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extenuated
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| v.（用偏袒的辩解或借口）减轻( extenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；低估，藐视 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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aggravate
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| vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火 | |
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disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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odiousness
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| n.可憎；讨厌；可恨 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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kennels
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| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
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kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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equitable
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| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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defendant
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| n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的 | |
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equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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repletion
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| n.充满，吃饱 | |
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parity
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| n.平价，等价，比价，对等 | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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accusations
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| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
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inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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spurn
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| v.拒绝，摈弃；n.轻视的拒绝；踢开 | |
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74
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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75
grimaces
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| n.（表蔑视、厌恶等）面部扭曲，鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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76
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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77
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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78
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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79
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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80
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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81
rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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82
lewdness
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| n. 淫荡, 邪恶 | |
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83
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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84
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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