A difficult read
These 1700's books tend to be very didactic
It is a hard look at human nature both the wealthy and the poor. I don't' know how much of an aristocrat Swift was but he knew the inner working of those in power.
I don't recommend it just because it is so tedious, however, the outline of corruption, pettiness, manipulation, etc. is as relevant today as it has ever has been.
Not really having any idea that it was in 4 parts I found the obvious or simplistic switch between parts annoying. The endless rationalization of the various worlds is tedious too, and I love the tedium of the early 1800s writings but...
This nice 1912 addition is illustrated with some fun good quality pieces
As we know Swift was not a fan of base human nature, this made it all worthwhile, these are some of his searing commentary:
"“My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable
panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved, that
ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for
qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained,
interpreted, and applied, by those whose interest and abilities
lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them. I observe
among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original,
might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest
wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It does not
appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is
required toward the procurement of any one station among you;
much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that
priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for
their conduct or valour; judges, for their integrity; senators,
for the love of their country; or counsellors for their
wisdom. As for yourself,” continued the king,
“who have spent the greatest part of your life in
travelling, I am well disposed to hope you may hitherto have
escaped many vices of your country."
" I have too great a veneration for
crowned heads, to dwell any longer on so nice a subject.
But as to counts, marquises, dukes, earls, and the like, I was
not so scrupulous. And I confess, it was not without some
pleasure, that I found myself able to trace the particular
features, by which certain families are distinguished, up to
their originals. I could plainly discover whence one family
derives a long chin; why a second has abounded with knaves for
two generations, and fools for two more; why a third happened to
be crack-brained, and a fourth to be sharpers; whence it came,
what Polydore Virgil says of a certain great house,
Nec vir
fortis,
nec foemina casta; how cruelty, falsehood, and
cowardice, grew to be characteristics by which certain families
are distinguished as much as by their coats of arms; who first
brought the pox into a noble house, which has lineally descended
scrofulous tumours to their posterity. Neither could I
wonder at all this, when I saw such an interruption of lineages,
by pages, lackeys, valets, coachmen, gamesters, fiddlers,
players, captains, and pickpockets."
"He asked me, “what were the usual causes or motives that
made one country go to war with another?” I answered
“they were innumerable; but I should only mention a few of
the chief. Sometimes the ambition of princes, who never
think they have land or people enough to govern; sometimes the
corruption of ministers, who engage their master in a war, in
order to stifle or divert the clamour of the subjects against
their evil administration. Difference in opinions has cost
many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or
bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or
wine; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be
better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire; what is the
best colour for a coat, whether black, white, red, or gray; and
whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or
clean; with many more. Neither are any wars so furious and
bloody, or of so long a continuance, as those occasioned by
difference in opinion, especially if it be in things
indifferent."
"I told him, “that a first or chief minister of state,
who was the person I intended to describe, was the creature
wholly exempt from joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and
anger; at least, makes use of no other passions, but a violent
desire of wealth, power, and titles; that he applies his words to
all uses, except to the indication of his mind; that he never
tells a truth but with an intent that you should take it for a
lie; nor a lie, but with a design that you should take it for a
truth; that those he speaks worst of behind their backs are in
the surest way of preferment; and whenever he begins to praise
you to others, or to yourself, you are from that day
forlorn. The worst mark you can receive is a promise,
especially when it is confirmed with an oath; after which, every
wise man retires, and gives over all hopes."
By the way, Yahoo's in Swift's world are stupid beings useful only for work and to cause trouble.
"But I had another reason, which made me less forward to
enlarge his majesty’s dominions by my discoveries. To
say the truth, I had conceived a few scruples with relation to
the distributive justice of princes upon those occasions.
For instance, a crew of pirates are driven by a storm they know
not whither; at length a boy discovers land from the topmast;
they go on shore to rob and plunder, they see a harmless people,
are entertained with kindness; they give the country a new name;
they take formal possession of it for their king; they set up a
rotten plank, or a stone, for a memorial; they murder two or
three dozen of the natives, bring away a couple more, by force,
for a sample; return home, and get their pardon. Here
commences a new dominion acquired with a title by divine
right. Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the
natives driven out or destroyed; their princes tortured to
discover their gold; a free license given to all acts of
inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its
inhabitants: and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so
pious an expedition, is a modern colony, sent to convert and
civilize an idolatrous and barbarous people!"
