of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of becoming very considerable, and with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from England, and who in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too; for me to think of such a voyage, was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of. But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the offer, than I could restrain my first rambling designs, when my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, and dispose of it to such as I should direct if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formal will disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that saved my life, as before, my universal heir; but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will, one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England. In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards; to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself. But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason; and accordingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1st of September-being the same day eight years that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own interest. Our ship was about 120 tons burthen, carried 6 guns, and 14 men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. We had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells and odd trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like. This was the ship in which Crusoe was wrecked upon his island. A second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that had all our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country. In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men early in the morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea. It is not easy for any one, who has not been in a like condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances. We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly as preparing for another world, for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this. That was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that contrary to our expectations the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate. Now, though we found that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next place she broke away, and either sank or was driven off to sea, so there was no hope from her. We had another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she was actually broken already. In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, they got her slung over the ship's side, and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful high from shore, and might well be called den wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm. And now our case was dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and that we should inevitably be drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor, if we had, could we have done anything with it, so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew, that when the boat came nearer the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the However, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest manner, and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land. sea. What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of expectation was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing of this appeared: but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup-degrace. In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us, as well from the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say, “O God!” for we were all swallowed up in a moment. Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the main land than I expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as I could, before another wave should return and take me up again. But I soon found it was impossible to avoid it: for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy which I had no means or strength to contend with. My business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so by swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible. My greatest concern now being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea. The wave that came upon me again buried me at once 20 or 30 feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore, a very great way; but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new courage. I was covered again with water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to my heels and ran with what strength I had farther towards the shore. But neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again, and twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before, the shore being very flat. The last time of these two had well near been fatal to me; for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, as it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my body; and had it not returned again immediately, I must have been strangled in the water; but I recovered a little before the return of the wave, and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went back. Now as the waves were not so high as at first, being near land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near the shore that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run I took I got to the main land, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the clefts of the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach of the water. I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstacies and transports of the soul are, whon it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave. I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures and motions which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore! Then follows the well-known tale of Crusoe's life upon the island, supposed to be begun on the 30th of September, 1659, when his age was twenty-seven. Crusoe had been twenty-five years in the island when he rescued a cannibal savage who was being pursued by enemies across a creek, and whose voice was the first human voice he had heard for all those years. After he had slumbered about half an hour, he waked, and came out of the cave to me, for I had been milking the goats in the enclosure just by. When he espied me, he came running, and laid himself on the ground again, with all the possible signs of a humble, thankful disposition, making many antic gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before, and after this, made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let me know how much he would serve me as long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him know I was well pleased with him. In a little time I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and first, made him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life. I likewise taught him to say, "Master," and then let him know that was to be my name. The story of Robinson Crusoe was no doubt suggested to Defoe by an incident that interested London in 1712 and 1713. A Scottish sailor, named Alexander Selkirk, on board one of the ships cruising with Captain Dampier to the South Seas, quarrelled with captain and crew, and by general consent and his own wish was left, with a gun, powder and shot, and certain provision, on the island of Juan Fernandez, in September, 1704. He had been there all alone with his temper for nearly four years and a half, when he was taken off the island by Captain Woodes Rogers, in February, 1709. He came back to England with Captain Rogers, in October, 1711. In 1712 the incident was told in Captain Rogers's account of his voyage, and Selkirk became then for a year or two an interesting person to the Londoners. CHAPTER IX. SWIFT'S "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS." SEVEN years after "Robinson Crusoe" there appeared, in the year 1726, another book of imagined voyage and adventure Jonathan Swift's "Travels of Lemuel Gulliver into Several Remote Nations of the World." Here also the story opened with a pleasant air of matter of fact truth; but here, after the shipwreck that brought the traveller into a new kind of world, the liveliest imagination was used to produce the realism of a fairy tale, and that, too, with a very direct reference to the actual condition of man's life. The book opened with this note from THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER. The author of these travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and intimate friend: there is likewise some relation between us by the mother's side. About three years ago, Mr. Gulliver, growing weary of the concourse of curious people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made a small purchase of land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, his native country, where he now lives retired, yet in good esteem among his neighbours. Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father dwelt, yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm which, I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury, in that county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers. Before he quitted Redriff, he left the custody of the following papers in my hands, with the liberty to dispose of them as I should think fit. I have carefully perused them three times. The style is very plain and simple; and the only fault I find is, that the author, after the manner of travellers, is a little too circumstantial. There is an air of truth apparent through the whole; and, indeed, the author was so distinguished for his veracity, that it became a sort of proverb among his neighbours at Redriff, when any one affirmed a thing, to say, "it was as true as if Mr. Gulliver had spoke it." By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom, with the author's permission, I communicated these papers, I now venture to send them into the world, hoping they may be, at least for some time, a better entertainment to our young noblemen than the common scribbles of politics and party. This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute description of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; wherein I have reason to apprehend that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied: but I was resolved to fit the work as much as possible to the general capacity of readers. However, if my own ignorance in sea affairs shall have led me to commit some mistakes, I alone am answerable for them; and if any traveller hath a curiosity to see the whole work at large, as it came from the hand of the author, I will be ready to gratify him. As for any further particulars relating to the author, the reader will receive satisfaction from the first pages of the book. RICHARD SYMPSON. A portrait of Lemuel Gulliver was gravely prefixed My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining me (although I had a very scanty allowance) being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years; and my father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father; where by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden; there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages. Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell, commander; with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle in London; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter my condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier in Newgate Street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion. But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages for six years to the East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language; wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory. The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors, but it would not turn to account. After three years' expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage at first was very prosperous. It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen's Land. By an observation we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labour and ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition. On the 5th of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship; but the wind was so strong that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and the rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with labour while we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my companions in the boat, as well as those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom; but when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my depth, and by this time the storm was much abated. The declivity was so small that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight o'clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a condition that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I found myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and as I reckoned, above nine hours, for when I awaked it was just daylight. Then begin the marvels which are no marvels. Swift's book has a distinct place of its own in the series of ideal commonwealths, from Plato's Republic downward, to which Utopia belonged. It has also a place of great interest in the record of rising revolt against the unworthiness, the corruption, and the littleness, that as the eighteenth century advanced, were more and more felt to be infecting all the forms of life, in the court and the council-chamber, in the Senate, in the church, and even in the home. The French Revolution of 1789 was one outburst of resentment against the formalism and corruption that degraded human life, the petty feuds and petty aims. Everywhere the young and ardent mind was repelled by the sense of Honour misplaced, and Dignity astray; Feuds, factions, flatteries, enmity, and guile, And Decency and Custom starving Truth, The rise of a reaction against this, and of a yearning in the young to place society at once by one grand effort at the level of their hopes for man, was accompanied by a long series of writings that expressed impatience of the littleness of life, and the untruth with which it was infected. “Gulliver's Travels" only continues with keener wit and deeper wisdom the protest of which the first very distinct note in our literature came from Bernard Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees," first published in 1714, as a short poem of five hundred lines, suggesting that all the civilisation of man rests on his vices. The short poem was developed into two substantial volumes by appended notes on the condition of society. In 1723, three years before "Gulliver's Travels" appeared, the "Fable of the Bees," with its first volume of appended Treatises, was presented by the Grand Jury of Middlesex, as an immoral work; its satire being taken seriously as counsel to men to seek prosperity by cultivating the vices that support it. In 1728, two years after t'e publication of "Gulliver's Travels," Mandeville produced more essays on the corrupt basis of civilisation, in the form of a second volume of his "Fable of the Bees." From that time onward until 1789, and after 1789, the sound of battle against a corrupt state of society rises in all our European literature. With all its scorn for the meannesses of life, there is a kindliness of undertone, a happy playfulness in "Gulliver's Travels" that has made it a delight to children through all generations since it first appeared. They do not know or care for what it meant in our battle of life a hundred and fifty years ago. A true heart speaks through all its fancies, all that is felt underlying its witty invention is the conviction that men should be wiser and better than they are. The way of setting forth the littleness of human life, as it was then lived by millions, was very simple. Swift brought Gulliver into the land of Lilliput, where there was all the apparatus of statecraft, and earthly honour and glory, among a people simply reduced in scale so that every foot height in Gulliver's world becomes an inch in theirs. He, a giant among them in size and strength, sees the stir of their world as the stir of an anthill; and that the force 1 From Wordsworth's "Prelude." Book iii. 2 See, in this Library, "Shorter Prose Works," pages 253-6. of the suggestion may not be lost upon the reader, Gulliver's next voyage brings him to Brobdingnag, where the proportions are reversed, and he is himself the Lilliputian among a people differing only in size from his own. Importance is relative. A few feet less of stature makes the Lilliputian insignificant to him, and himself a weak little curiosity to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag. How must the tumult of our little anthill upon earth seem to the eyes of beings raised above us in the universe immeasurably higher than the Brobdingnagians above Gulliver? To those pure eyes And perfect witness of all judging Jove what is the pride of a man strutting among his fellows because a blue ribbon has been given him! In this sense, with of course constant satire on the shortcomings of statesmanship, the bitterness of faction, the low political motives, petty scandals, and pride in those things wherein true glory does not consist, weak vanities that coloured life in England, Swift wrote the first two parts of "Gulliver's Travels." In the following parts he brought, as we shall find, the satire closer home. But let us now return to Lemuel Gulliver, first waking in Lilliput. Maps of the places visited were given with mock seriousness in the first editions of the book, and this is the geography of Lilliput: which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could only look upward, the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended mine eyes. I heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending mine eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his back. In the mean time, I felt at least forty more of the same kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterwards told, were hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned, and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a shrill but distinct voice, "hekinah degul: " the others repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what they meant. Gulliver was conveyed to the capital by machinery contrived with infinite skill. At the court of the Emperor he saw something not unlike the suppleness of courtiers nearer home. My gentleness and good behaviour had gained so far on the Emperor and his court, and indeed upon the army and people in general, that I began to conceive hopes of getting my liberty in a short time. I took all possible methods to cultivate this favourable disposition. The natives came, by degrees, to be less apprehensive of any danger from me. I would sometimes lie down, and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls would venture to come and play at hide and seek in my hair. I had now made a good progress in understanding and speaking their language. The Emperor had a mind one day to entertain me with several of the country shows, wherein they exceed all nations I have known, both for dexterity and magnificence. I was diverted with none so much as that of the rope-dancers, performed upon a slender white thread, extended about two feet, and twelve inches from the ground; upon which I shall desire liberty, with the reader's patience, to enlarge a little. This diversion is only practised by those persons who are candidates for great employments, and high favour at court. They are trained in this art from their youth, and are not always of noble birth, or liberal education. When a great office is vacant, either by death or disgrace (which often happens), five or six of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the court with a dance on the rope; and whoever jumps the highest, without falling, succeeds in the office. Very often the chief ministers themselves are commanded to show their skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their faculty. Flimnap, the treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the straight rope, at least an inch higher than any other lord in the whole empire. I have seen him do the summerset several times together, upon a trencher fixed on the rope, which is no thicker than a common packthread in England. My friend Reldresal, principal secretary for private affairs, is, in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the treasurer; the rest of the great officers are much upon a par. These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great numbers are on record. I myself have seen two or three candidates break a limb. But the danger is |