prompt:
Chapter: CHAPTER VI.

     SEVERAL CONTRIVANCES OF THE AUTHOR TO PLEASE THE KING AND QUEEN. HE
     SHOWS HIS SKILL IN MUSIC. THE KING INQUIRES INTO THE STATE OF
     ENGLAND, WHICH THE AUTHOR RELATES TO HIM. THE KING'S OBSERVATIONS
     THEREON.

I used to attend the king's levee[73] once or twice a week, and had
often seen him under the barber's hand, which indeed was at first very
terrible to behold; for the razor was almost twice as long as an
ordinary scythe. His majesty, according to the custom of the country,
was only shaved twice a week. I once prevailed on the barber to give me
some of the suds or lather, out of which I picked forty or fifty of the
strongest stumps of hair, I then took a piece of fine wood and cut it
like the back of a comb, making several holes in it at equal distance
with as small a needle as I could get from Glumdalclitch. I fixed in the
stumps so artificially, scraping and sloping them with my knife towards
the points, that I made a very tolerable comb; which was a seasonable
supply, my own being so much broken in the teeth that it was almost
useless: neither did I know any artist in that country so nice and exact
as would undertake to make me another.

And this puts me in mind of an amusement wherein I spent many of my
leisure hours. I desired the queen's woman to save for me the combings
of her majesty's hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity; and
consulting with my friend the cabinet-maker, who had received general
orders to do little jobs for me, I directed him to make two
chair-frames, no larger than those I had in my box, and then to bore
little holes with a fine awl round those parts where I designed the
backs and seats; through these holes I wove the strongest hairs I could
pick out, just after the manner of cane chairs in England. When they
were finished I made a present of them to her majesty, who kept them in
her cabinet, and used to shew them for curiosities, as indeed they were
the wonder of every one that beheld them. Of these hairs (as I had
always a mechanical genius) I likewise made a neat little purse, about
five feet long, with her majesty's name deciphered in gold letters,
which I gave to Glumdalclitch, by the queen's consent. To say the truth,
it was more for show than use, being not of strength to bear the weight
of the larger coins, and therefore she kept nothing in it, but some
little coins that girls are fond of.

The king, who delighted in music, had frequent concerts at court, to
which I was sometimes carried, and set in my box on a table to hear
them; but the noise was so great that I could hardly distinguish the
tunes. I am confident that all the drums and trumpets of a royal army
beating and sounding together just at your ears, could not equal it. My
practice was to have my box removed from the place where the performers
sat, as far as I could, then to shut the doors and windows of it, and
draw the window-curtains, after which I found their music not
disagreeable.

[Illustration]

I had learnt in my youth to play a little upon the spinet.[74]
Glumdalclitch kept one in her chamber, and a master attended twice a
week to teach her. I called it a spinet, because it somewhat resembled
that instrument, and was played upon in the same manner.

A fancy came into my head that I would entertain the king and queen
with an English tune upon this instrument. But this appeared extremely
difficult; for the spinet was nearly sixty feet long, each key being
almost a foot wide, so that with my arms extended I could not reach to
above five keys, and to press them down required a good smart stroke
with my fist, which would be too great a labor, and to no purpose. The
method I contrived was this: I prepared two round sticks, about the
bigness of common cudgels; they were thicker at one end than the other,
and I covered the thicker ends with a piece of mouse's skin, that by
rapping on them I might neither damage the tops of the keys nor
interrupt the sound. Before the spinet a bench was placed about four
feet below the keys, and I was put upon the bench. I ran sideling upon
it that way and this as fast as I could, banging the proper keys with my
two sticks, and made a shift to play a jig to the great satisfaction of
both their majesties; but it was the most violent exercise I ever
underwent, and yet I could not strike above sixteen keys, nor
consequently play the bass and treble together as other artists do,
which was a great disadvantage to my performance.

The king, who, as I before observed, was a prince of excellent
understanding, would frequently order that I should be brought in my
box, and set upon the table in his closet.[75] He would then command me
to bring one of my chairs out of the box, and sit down within three
yards distance upon the top of the cabinet, which brought me almost to a
level with his face. In this manner I had several conversations with
him. I one day took the freedom to tell his majesty that the contempt
he discovered towards Europe and the rest of the world did not seem
answerable to those excellent qualities of mind that he was master of;
that reason did not extend itself with the bulk of the body; on the
contrary, we observed in our country that the tallest persons were
usually least provided with it. That, among other animals, bees and ants
had the reputation of more industry, art, and sagacity than many of the
larger kinds; and that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be, I hoped I
might live to do his majesty some signal[76] service. The king heard me
with attention, and began to conceive a much better opinion of me than
he had ever before. He desired I would give him as exact an account of
the government of England as I possibly could because, as fond as
princes commonly are of their own customs (for he conjectured of other
monarchs by my former discourses), he should be glad to hear of anything
that might deserve imitation.

Imagine with thyself, courteous reader, how often I then wished for the
tongue of Demosthenes or Cicero, that might have enabled me to celebrate
the praise of my own dear native country, in a style equal to its merits
and felicity.

[Illustration: "THE MOST VIOLENT EXERCISE I EVER UNDERWENT." P. 71.]

I began my discourse by informing his majesty that our dominions
consisted of two islands, which composed three mighty kingdoms, under
one sovereign, besides our plantations in America. I dwelt long upon the
fertility of our soil and the temperature of our climate. I then spoke
at large upon the constitution of an English parliament, partly made up
of an illustrious body, called the House of Peers, persons of the
noblest blood and of the most ancient and ample patrimonies. I
described that extraordinary care always taken of their education in
arts and arms, to qualify them for being counsellors both to the king
and kingdom; to have a share in the legislature; to be members of the
highest court of judicature, from whence there could be no appeal; and
to be champions always ready for the defence of their prince and
country, by their valor, conduct, and fidelity. That these were the
ornament and bulwark of the kingdom, worthy followers of their most
renowned ancestors, whose honor had been the reward of their virtue,
from which their posterity were never once known to degenerate. To these
were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the
title of bishops, whose peculiar business it is to take care of
religion, and those who instruct the people therein. These were searched
and sought out through the whole nation, by the prince and his wisest
counsellors, among such of the priesthood as were most deservedly
distinguished by the sanctity of their lives and the depth of their
erudition, who were indeed the spiritual fathers of the clergy and the
people.

That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly, called
the House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen, _freely_ picked
and culled out by the people themselves, for their great abilities and
love of their country, to represent the wisdom of the whole nation. And
that these two bodies made up the most august assembly in Europe, to
whom, in conjunction with the prince, the whole legislature is
committed.

I then descended to the courts of justice, over which the judges, those
venerable sages and interpreters of the law, presided, for determining
the disputed rights and properties of men, as well as for the punishment
of vice and protection of innocence. I mentioned the prudent management
of our treasury, the valor and achievements of our forces by sea and
land. I computed the number of our people, by reckoning how many
millions there might be of each religious sect or political party among
us. I did not omit even our sports and pastimes, or any other
particular, which I thought might redound to the honor of my country.
And I finished all with a brief historical account of affairs and events
in England for about a hundred years past.

This conversation was not ended under five audiences, each of several
hours; and the king heard the whole with great attention, frequently
taking notes of what I spoke, as well as memorandums of what questions
he intended to ask me.

When I had put an end to these long discourses, his majesty, in a sixth
audience, consulting his notes, proposed many doubts, queries, and
objections, upon every article. He asked what methods were used to
cultivate the minds and bodies of our young nobility, and in what kind
of business they commonly spent the first and teachable part of their
lives? What course was taken to supply that assembly when any noble
family became extinct? What qualifications were necessary in those who
are to be created new lords; whether the humor of the prince, a sum of
money to a court lady as a prime minister, or a design of strengthening
a party opposite to the public interest, ever happened to be motives in
those advancements? What share of knowledge these lords had in the laws
of their country, and how they came by it, so as to enable them to
decide the properties of their fellow-subjects in the last resort?
Whether they were always so free from avarice, partialities, or want,
that a bribe or some other sinister view could have no place among them?
Whether those holy lords I spoke of were always promoted to that rank
upon account of their knowledge in religious matters and the sanctity of
their lives; had never been compilers with the times while they were
common priests, or slavish prostitute chaplains to some noblemen, whose
opinions they continued servilely to follow, after they were admitted
into that assembly?

He then desired to know what arts were practised in electing those whom
I called commoners; whether a stranger, with a strong purse, might not
influence the vulgar voters to choose him before their own landlord, or
the most considerable gentleman in the neighborhood? How it came to pass
that people were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly,
which I allowed to be a great trouble and expense, often to the ruin of
their families, without any salary or pension: because this appeared
such an exalted strain of virtue and public spirit, that his majesty
seemed to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere; and he desired
to know whether such zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding
themselves for the charges and trouble they were at, by sacrificing the
public good to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction
with a corrupted ministry? He multiplied his questions, and sifted me
thoroughly upon every part of this head, proposing numberless inquiries
and objections, which I think it not prudent or convenient to repeat.

Upon what I said in relation to our courts of justice, his majesty
desired to be satisfied in several points; and this I was the better
able to do, having been formerly almost ruined by a long suit in
chancery,[77] which was decreed for me with costs. He asked what time
was usually spent in determining between right and wrong, and what
degree of expense? Whether advocates and orators had liberty to plead in
causes, manifestly known to be unjust, vexatious, or oppressive? Whether
party in religion or politics was observed to be of any weight in the
scale of justice? Whether those pleading orators were persons educated
in the general knowledge of equity, or only in provincial, national, and
other local customs? Whether they, or their judges, had any part in
penning those laws which they assumed the liberty of interpreting and
glossing[78] upon at their pleasure? Whether they had ever, at different
times, pleaded for or against the same cause, and cited precedents to
prove contrary opinions? Whether they were a rich or a poor corporation?
Whether they received any pecuniary reward for pleading or delivering
their opinions? And, particularly, whether they were admitted as members
in the lower senate?

He fell next upon the management of our treasury, and said he thought my
memory had failed me, because I computed our taxes at about five or six
millions a year, and, when I came to mention the issues, he found they
sometimes amounted to more than double; for the notes he had taken were
very particular in this point, because he hoped, as he told me, that the
knowledge of our conduct might be useful to him, and he could not be
deceived in his calculations. But if what I told him were true, he was
still at a loss how a kingdom could run out of its estate like a private
person. He asked me who were our creditors, and where we found to pay
them. He wondered to hear me talk of such chargeable and expensive wars;
that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very bad
neighbors and that our generals must needs be richer than our kings. He
asked what business we had out of our own islands, unless upon the score
of trade or treaty, or to defend the coasts with our fleet. Above all,
he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army in the midst
of peace and among a free people. He said if we were governed by our own
consent, in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of
whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my
opinion, whether a private man's house might not better be defended by
himself, his children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked
up at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred
times more by cutting their throats?

He laughed at my odd kind of arithmetic (as he was pleased to call it),
in reckoning the numbers of our people by a computation drawn from the
several sects among us, in religion and politics. He said, he knew no
reason why those who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public should
be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as
it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was
weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep
poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for cordials.

He observed, that among the diversions of our nobility and gentry, I had
mentioned gaming: he desired to know at what age this entertainment was
usually taken up, and when it was laid down; how much of their time it
employed: whether it ever went so high as to affect their fortunes:
whether mean, vicious people, by their dexterity in that art, might not
arrive at great riches, and sometimes keep our very nobles in
dependence, as well as habituate them to vile companions, wholly take
them from the improvement of their minds, and force them, by the losses
they received, to learn and practise that infamous dexterity upon
others?

He was perfectly astonished with the historical account I gave him of
our affairs during the last century, protesting it was only a heap of
conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments,
the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness,
cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could
produce.

His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to recapitulate the
sum of all I had spoken; compared the questions he made with the answers
I had given; then taking me into his hands, and stroking me gently,
delivered himself in these words which I shall never forget, nor the
manner he spoke them in: "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 doth not appear, from
all you have said, how any one perfection is required towards 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 valor, 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. But by what I have
gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains
wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your
natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that
nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

[Illustration: "YOU HAVE MADE A MOST ADMIRABLE PANEGYRIC." P. 79.]

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: Once or twice a week, Gulliver attends the King's levee, a kind of reception held every morning when a King gets out of bed. He collects the hairs that drop from the King's twice-weekly shave to make himself a comb. Gulliver also uses some of the Queen's hair from her brush to make a set of chairs that the Queen keeps as curiosities. Glumdalclitch plays the spinet, which is like a miniature piano - miniature to Glumdalclitch, but huge to Gulliver. Gulliver knows that the King is fond of music, so he makes himself some clubs to use to shove the keys of the instrument down, but it's such hard work that he can't play properly. The Brobdingnagian King asks Gulliver to give him an exact account of English government, because the King wants to know if there is anything worth imitating there. Gulliver starts off by explaining that his home is an empire uniting England, Ireland, Scotland, and plantations in America under one king. This kingdom is governed by a Parliament made up of two Houses . The first is the House of Peers, now called the House of Lords, an assembly of members of the landed aristocracy. The second house is the House of Commons, elected freely by the people. Gulliver adds some information about England's law courts, treasury, armed forces, religion, and recent history. After listening to all that Gulliver has to say, the Brobdingnagian King asks him several tough questions, including: how lords are educated to suit them for government? How do lords make laws without taking into account personal interest or greed? How does the government make sure that its elected officials are in it for the good of the state and not for their own glory or profit? The King goes on to ask about the court system: does religion or politics ever factor into legal decisions? How can judges presume to interpret laws that they don't make? As for taxes, the King finds it very strange that a state can run out of money and borrow money like a private person. And how about differences in political and religious feeling - why should these private opinions be a matter of public knowledge or concern at all? Furthermore, what's all this about gambling? Doesn't this give people a method of making lots of money with no work of their own? As for Gulliver's accounts of recent English history, it all just sounds like a pile of murders, massacres, and revolutions to the King of Brobdingnag. In fact, even though Gulliver has tried really hard to convince the King of the greatness of his home country, the King concludes that England is governed by a pack of corrupt, unqualified, greedy thieves. The King of Brobdingnag believes that most Englishmen must be "the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth" - in other words, a disgusting, evil bunch of little creeps.


prompt:
Chapter: CHAPTER VII

     THE AUTHOR'S LOVE OF HIS COUNTRY. HE MAKES A PROPOSAL OF MUCH
     ADVANTAGE TO THE KING, WHICH IS REJECTED. THE KING'S GREAT
     IGNORANCE IN POLITICS. THE LEARNING OF THAT COUNTRY VERY IMPERFECT
     AND CONFINED. THE LAWS, AND MILITARY AFFAIRS, AND PARTIES IN THE
     STATE.

Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from
concealing this part of my story. It was in vain to discover my
resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to
rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so
injuriously treated. I am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can
possibly be, that such an occasion was given: but this prince happened
to be so curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that it could
not consist either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him
what satisfaction I was able. Yet this much I may be allowed to say, in
my own vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and
gave to every point a more favorable turn, by many degrees, than the
strictness of truth would allow. For I have always borne that laudable
partiality to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis[79] with
so much justice, recommends to an historian: I would hide the frailties
and deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and
beauties in the most advantageous light. This was my sincere endeavor,
in those many discourses I had with that monarch, although it
unfortunately failed of success.

But great allowances should be given to a king who lives wholly secluded
from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether
unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in other
nations: the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices,
and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we and the politer
countries of Europe are wholly exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if
so remote a prince's notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a
standard for all mankind.

To confirm what I have now said, and farther to show the miserable
effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage which
will hardly obtain belief. In hopes to ingratiate myself farther into
his majesty's favor, I told him of an invention discovered between three
and four hundred years ago, to make a certain powder into a heap, on
which the smallest spark of fire falling would kindle the whole in a
moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in
the air together with a noise and agitation greater than thunder. That a
proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or
iron, according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead with
such violence and speed as nothing was able to sustain its force. That
the largest balls thus discharged would not only destroy whole ranks of
an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink
down ships with a thousand men in each to the bottom of the sea; and,
when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and rigging,
divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them.
That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and
discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which
would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw
splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near.
That I knew the ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I
understood the manner of compounding them, and could direct his workman
how to make those tubes of a size proportionable to all other things in
his majesty's kingdom, and the largest need not to be above a hundred
feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper
quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the
strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole
metropolis if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands.
This I humbly offered to his majesty as a small tribute of
acknowledgment, in return for so many marks that I had received of his
royal favor and protection.

The king was struck with horror at the description I had given him of
those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. He was amazed, how
so impotent and grovelling an insect as I (these were his expressions),
could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to
appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation, which I
had painted, as the common effects of those destructive machines,
whereof, he said, some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the
first contriver. As for himself, he protested, that although few things
delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he
would rather lose half his kingdom than be privy to such a secret, which
he commanded me, as I valued my life, never to mention any more.

A strange effect of narrow principles and short views! that a prince
possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem;
of strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with
admirable talents for government, and almost adored by his subjects,
should, from a nice unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have
no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands, that would
have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the
fortunes of his people. Neither do I say this with the least intention
to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character
I am sensible will on this account be very much lessened in the opinion
of an English reader; but I take this defect among them to have arisen
from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a
science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For I remember very
well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I happened to say there
were several thousand books among us, written upon the art of
government, it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean
opinion of our understandings. He professed both to abominate and
despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a
minister. He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an
enemy or some rival nation were not in the case. He confined the
knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and
reason, to justice and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and
criminal causes, with some other obvious topics, which are not worth
considering. And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two
ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground,
where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more
essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put
together.

The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in
morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed
to excel. But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful
in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so
that among us it would be little esteemed. And as to ideas, entities,
abstractions, and transcendentals,[80] I could never drive the least
conception into their heads.

No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in
their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty. But indeed few of
them extend even to that length. They are expressed in the most plain
and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial[81] enough to
discover above one interpretation; and to write a comment upon any law
is a capital crime. As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings
against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little
reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either.

They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of
mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king,
which is reckoned the largest, doth not amount to above a thousand
volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, from whence I
had liberty to borrow what books I pleased. The queen's joiner had
contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms, a kind of wooden machine,
five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were
each fifty feet long: it was indeed a movable pair of stairs, the lowest
end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber. The book I
had a mind to read was put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted
to the upper step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book
began at the top of the page, and so walking to the right and left about
eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had
gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and then descending
gradually, till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and
began the other page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf,
which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and
stiff as a paste-board, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or
twenty feet long.

Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they
avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various
expressions. I have perused many of their books, especially those in
history and morality. Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little
old treatise, which always lay in Glumdalclitch's bed-chamber, and
belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in
writings of morality and devotion. The book treats of the weakness of
human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the
vulgar. However, I was curious to see what an author of that country
could say upon such a subject.

[Illustration]

This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists,
showing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in
his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the
air, or the fury of wild beasts; how much he was excelled by one
creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a
fourth in industry. He added, that nature was degenerated in these
latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only small
births, in comparison to those in ancient times. He said, it was very
reasonable to think, not only that the species of men were originally
much larger, but also, that there must have been giants in former ages;
which as it is asserted by history and tradition, so it hath been
confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in several parts of
the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of man in our days.
He argued, that the very laws of nature absolutely required we should
have been made in the beginning of a size more large and robust, not so
liable to destruction, from every little accident, of a tile falling
from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned
in a little brook. From this way of reasoning the author drew several
moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to
repeat. For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting, how universally
this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or, indeed,
rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise
with nature. And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might
be shown as ill-grounded among us as they are among that people.

As to their military affairs, they boast that the king's army consists
of a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand
horse: if that may be called an army which is made up of tradesmen in
the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are
only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward. They are indeed
perfect enough in their exercises, and under very good discipline,
wherein I saw no great merit; for how should it be otherwise, where
every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen
under that of the principal men in his own city, chosen after the manner
of Venice, by ballot?

I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise in a
great field, near the city, of twenty miles square. They were in all not
above twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse: but it was
impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of
ground they took up. A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be
about ninety feet high. I have seen this whole body of horse, upon a
word of command, draw their swords at once, and brandish them in the
air. Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so
astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were
darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.

I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no
access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his
people the practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed,
both by conversation and reading their histories: for in the course of
many ages, they have been troubled with the same disease to which the
whole race of mankind is subject; the nobility often contending for
power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion. All
which, however, happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been
sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once
occasioned civil wars, the last whereof was happily put an end to by
this prince's grandfather, in a general composition;[82] and the
militia, then settled with common consent, hath been ever since kept in
the strictest duty.

[Illustration]

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: Gulliver sits and listens to the King's intense criticism of England. He keeps quiet because it would be ungrateful of him to contradict the King, his benefactor. He also reassures us that we should forgive the Brobdingnagian King for his criticism of England - how could the King know better, when his own country is so remote from all other nations of the world? To prove how ignorant and foolish the King is, Gulliver tells us, the readers, that he offered to show the King how to make gunpowder to subdue his enemies. The Brobdingnagian King listens to Gulliver's description of guns and is totally horrified. He makes Gulliver promise never even to mention these weapons to him again. Gulliver exclaims to the reader about the foolishness of the Brobdingnagian King, who has let this great opportunity for power slip through his fingers. Gulliver also criticizes Brobdingnagian education, which focuses on practical applications of knowledge rather than on abstract mysteries. No law in Brobdingnag can be longer than 20 words. They also don't have very many books. He comments on the clarity of their writing style: they never use too many words, and everything appears in simple language. The King's army is well-disciplined because all of its soldiers are farmers and tradesmen who serve under their own landlords and chief citizens. Gulliver wonders why the King bothers to have armies at all if there are no other countries nearby. It turns out that Brobdingnag has had a number of civil wars between nobles, who want power, the people, who want freedom, and the king, who wants total authority. In the aftermath of these civil wars, all three of these - the nobles, the people, and the king - have agreed that they need a militia to keep the peace.


prompt:
Chapter: CHAPTER VIII

     THE KING AND QUEEN MAKE A PROGRESS[83] TO THE FRONTIERS. THE AUTHOR
     ATTENDS THEM. THE MANNER IN WHICH HE LEAVES THE COUNTRY VERY
     PARTICULARLY RELATED. HE RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

I had always a strong impulse that I should sometime recover my liberty,
though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any
project with the least hope of succeeding. The ship in which I sailed
was the first ever known to be driven within sight of the coast; and the
king had given strict orders, that if at any time another appeared, it
should be taken ashore, and with all its crew and passengers brought in
a tumbrel[84] to Lorbrulgrud. I was treated with much kindness: I was
the favorite of a great king and queen, and the delight of the whole
court; but it was upon such a footing as ill became the dignity of human
kind. I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me.
I wanted to be among people with whom I could converse upon even terms,
and walk about the streets and fields, without being afraid of being
trod to death like a frog or a young puppy. But my deliverance came
sooner than I expected, and in a manner not very common: the whole story
and circumstances of which I shall faithfully relate.

[Illustration: "SHE HAD SOME FOREBODING." P. 94.]

I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of
the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen in a progress
to the south coast of the kingdom. I was carried, as usual, in my
travelling-box, which, as I have already described, was a very
convenient closet of twelve feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be
fixed by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the
jolts, when a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I sometimes
desired, and would often sleep in my hammock while we were upon the
road. On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle of the
hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to
give me air in hot weather as I slept, which hole I shut at pleasure
with a board that drew backwards and forwards through a groove.

When we came to our journey's end, the king thought proper to pass a few
days at a palace he hath near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen
English of the sea-side Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued, I had
gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to
her chamber. I longed to see the ocean, which must be the only scene of
my escape, if ever it should happen I pretended to be worse than I
really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of the sea with a
page, whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with
me. I shall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch
consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page[85] to be careful of
me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some
foreboding of what was to happen.

The boy took me out in my box about half-an-hour's walk from the palace
towards the rocks on the sea-shore. I ordered him to set me down, and
lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards
the sea. I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a
mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got
in, and the boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold. I soon
fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept, the page,
thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds'
eggs, having before observed him from my windows searching about, and
picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that as it will, I found myself
suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at
the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box raised
very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed. The
first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterwards
the motion was easy enough. I called out several times, as loud as I
could raise my voice, but all to no purpose. I looked towards my
windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and sky. I heard a noise
just over my head like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive
the woful condition I was in, that some eagle had got the ring of my box
in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock like a tortoise in
a shell, and then pick out my body and devour it; for the sagacity and
smell of this bird enabled him to discover his quarry[86] at a great
distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch
board.

[Illustration]

In a little time I observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase
very fast, and my box was tossed up and down like a sign in a windy day.
I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought, given to the eagle (for
such I am certain it must have been, that held the ring of my box in his
beak), and then all on a sudden felt myself falling perpendicularly down
for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost
lost my breath. My fall was stopped by a terrible squash,[87] that
sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara; after which I
was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rise
so high that I could see light from the tops of the windows. I now
perceived I was fallen into the sea. My box, by the weight of my body,
the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength
at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep
in the water. I did then, and do now suppose, that the eagle which flew
away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let
me drop while he defended himself against the rest, who hoped to share
in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box (for
those were the strongest) preserved the balance while it fell, and
hindered it from being broken on the surface of the water. Every joint
of it was well grooved, and the door did not move on hinges, but up and
down like a sash, which kept my closet so tight that very little water
came in. I got with much difficulty out of my hammock, having first
ventured to draw back my slip-board on the roof already mentioned,
contrived on purpose to let in air, for want of which I found myself
almost stifled.

How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch, from whom
one single hour had so far divided me. And I may say with truth that in
the midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor
nurse, the grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the
queen, and the ruin of her fortune. Perhaps many travellers have not
been under greater difficulties and distress than I was at juncture,
expecting every moment to see my box dashed to pieces, or at least
overset by the first violent blast or rising wave. A breach in one
single pane of glass would have been immediate death; nor could anything
have preserved the windows but the strong lattice-wires placed on the
outside against accidents in travelling. I saw the water ooze in at
several crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I
endeavored to stop them as well as I could, I was not able to lift up
the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and
sat on the top of it, where I might at least preserve myself some hours
longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the hold. Or, if I
escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a
miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my
last.

I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed
upon that side of my box which had no window, and into which the servant
who used to carry me on horseback would put a leathern belt, and buckle
it about his waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at
least thought I heard, some kind of grating noise on that side of my box
where the staples were fixed, and soon after I began to fancy that the
box was pulled or towed along in the sea, for I now and then felt a sort
of tugging which made the waves rise near the tops of my windows,
leaving me almost in the dark. This gave me some faint hopes of relief,
although I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about. I
ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to the
floor, and having made a hard shift to screw it down again directly
under the slipping board that I had lately opened, I mounted on the
chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to the hole, I called for
help in a loud voice and in all the languages I understood. I then
fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and thrusting it
up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or ship
were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up
in the box.

I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet
to be moved along; and in the space of an hour or better, that side of
the box where the staples were and had no window struck against
something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself
tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my
closet like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed through
the ring. I then found myself hoisted up by degrees, at least three feet
higher than I was before. Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and
handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In return to
which I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such
transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them.
I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling through the
hole with a loud voice in the English tongue. "If there be anybody
below, let them speak." I answered I was an Englishman, drawn by ill
fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and
begged by all that was moving to be delivered out of the dungeon I was
in. The voice replied I was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship;
and the carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover,
large enough to pull me out. I answered that was needless, and would
take up too much time, for there was no more to be done, but let one of
the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea
into the ship, and so into the captain's cabin. Some of them upon
hearing me talk so wildly thought I was mad; others laughed; for indeed
it never came into my head that I was now got among people of my own
stature and strength. The carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a
passage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder upon which
I mounted, and from thence was taken into the ship in a very weak
condition.

[Illustration: "SOMEBODY CALLING ... IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE." P. 99.]

The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the
sight of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be, after having so
long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left. But the
captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest, worthy Shropshire man,
observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a
cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me
to take a little rest, of which I had great need. Before I went to
sleep, I gave him to understand that I had some valuable furniture in my
box, too good to be lost; a fine hammock, a handsome two chairs, a
table, and a cabinet. That my closet was hung on all sides, or rather
quilted, with silk and cotton: that if he would let one of the crew
bring my closet into his cabin, I would open it there before him, and
show him my goods. The captain, hearing me utter these absurdities,
concluded I was raving: however (I suppose to pacify me), he promised
to give orders as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men
down into my closet, from whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up
all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs, cabinet,
and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by the
ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force. Then they knocked
off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they had got
all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which, by
reason of so many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to
rights.[88] And indeed I was glad not to have been a spectator of the
havoc they made; because I am confident it would have sensibly
touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I had rather
forgotten.

I slept some hours, but was perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon waking, I
found myself much recovered. It was now about eight o'clock at night,
and the captain ordered supper immediately, thinking I had already
fasted too long. He entertained me with great kindness, observing me not
to look wildly, or talk inconsistently; and when we were left alone,
desired I would give him a relation of my travels, and by what accident
I came to be set adrift in that monstrous wooden chest.

He said that about twelve o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his
glass, he spied it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he
had a mind to make[89], being not much out of his course, in hopes of
buying some biscuit, his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming
nearer and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what
it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a
swimming-house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the
boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them. That the
weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my windows
and wire-lattices that defenced them. That he discovered two staples
upon one side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light.
He then commanded his men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable
to one of the staples, ordered them to tow my chest (as they called it)
towards the ship. When it was there, he gave directions to fasten
another cable to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise up my chest
with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do above two or
three feet. He said they saw my stick and handkerchief thrust out of the
hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be shut up in the cavity.
I asked whether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air
about the time he first discovered me? to which he answered, that,
discoursing this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them
said he had observed three eagles flying towards the north, but remarked
nothing of their being larger than the usual size, which I suppose must
be imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not guess the
reason of my question. I then asked the captain how far he reckoned we
might be from land?

He said, by the best computation he could make, we were at least a
hundred leagues. I assured him that he must be mistaken by almost half,
for I had not left the country from whence I came above two hours before
I dropt into the sea. Whereupon he began again to think that my brain
was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me to go to bed
in a cabin he had provided. I assured him I was well refreshed with his
good entertainment and company, and as much in my senses as ever I was
in my life.

He then grew serious, and desired to ask me freely whether I were not
troubled in mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which
I was punished by the command of some prince, by exposing me in that
chest, as great criminals in other countries have been forced to sea in
a leaky vessel without provisions; for although he should be sorry to
have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to
set me safe ashore in the first port where we arrived. He added that his
suspicions were much increased by some very absurd speeches I had
delivered, at first to his sailors, and afterwards to himself, in
relation to my closet chest, as well as by my odd looks and behavior
while I was at supper.

I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully did,
from the last time I left England to the moment he first discovered me.
And as truth always forceth its way into rational minds, so this honest
worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of learning and very good sense,
was immediately convinced of my candor and veracity. But, farther to
confirm all I had said, I entreated him to give order that my cabinet
should be brought, of which I had the key in my pocket (for he had
already informed me how seamen disposed of my closet). I opened it in
his own presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made
in the country from whence I had been so strangely delivered. There was
the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king's beard. There
was a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long;
four wasps' stings, like joiners' tacks; some combings of the queen's
hair; a gold ring, which one day she made me a present of in a most
obliging manner, taking it from her little finger and throwing it over
my head like a collar. I desired the captain would please to accept this
ring in return of his civilities, which he absolutely refused. Lastly I
desired him to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a
mouse's skin.

I could force nothing upon him but a footman's tooth, which I observed
him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy for it. He
received it with abundance of thanks, more than such a trifle could
deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon, in a mistake, from one of
Glumdalclitch's men, who was affected with the toothache, but it was as
sound as any in his head. I got it cleaned, and put it in my cabinet. It
was about a foot long, and four inches in diameter.

The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given
him, and said he hoped when we returned to England I would oblige the
world by putting it on paper, and making it public. My answer was, that
I thought we were already overstocked with books of travels; that
nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary; wherein I doubted
some authors less consulted truth than their own vanity, or interest, or
the diversion of ignorant readers, that my story could contain little
besides common events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange
plants, trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and
idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound. However, I
thanked him for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into
my thoughts.

He said he wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear me speak
so loud, asking me whether the king or queen of that country were thick
of hearing. I told him it was what I had been used to for above two
years past, and that I wondered as much at the voices of him and his
men, who seemed to me only to whisper, and yet I could hear them well
enough. But when I spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in
the street to another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when
I was placed on a table, or held in any person's hand. I told him I had
likewise observed another thing, that when I first got into the ship,
and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most
contemptible little creatures I had ever beheld. For indeed, while I was
in that prince's country, I could never endure to look in a glass, after
my eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the
comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself. The captain said
that while we were at supper he observed me to look at everything with a
sort of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my
laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but imputed it to some
disorder in my brain. I answered, it was very true, and I wondered how I
could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver threepence,
a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nut-shell, and so
I went on, describing the rest of his household stuff and provisions
after the same manner. For although the queen had ordered a little
equipage of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service,
yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me,
and I winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults. The
captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied that he
did not observe my stomach so good, although I had fasted all day; and,
continuing in his mirth, protested he would have gladly given a hundred
pounds to have seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and afterwards in its
fall from so great a height into the sea; which would certainly have
been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it
transmitted to future ages: and the comparison of Phaeton[90] was so
obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not much
admire the conceit.

[Illustration: "MY DAUGHTER KNEELED BUT I COULD NOT SEE HER" P. 109.]

The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England,
driven northeastward, to the latitude of 44 degrees, and of longitude
143. But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board him, we
sailed southward a long time, and, coasting New Holland, kept our course
west-south-west, and then south-south-west, till we doubled the Cape of
Good Hope. Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall not trouble the
reader with a journal of it. The captain called in at one or two ports,
and sent in his long-boat for provisions and fresh water, but I never
went out of the ship till we came into the Downs, which was on the third
day of June, 1706, about nine months after my escape. I offered to leave
pay goods in security for payment of my freight, but the captain
protested he would not receive one farthing. We took a kind leave of
each other, and I made him promise he would come to see me at my house
in Redriff. I hired a horse and guide for five shillings, which I
borrowed of the captain.

As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses--the trees,
the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput. I was
afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and often called aloud to
have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or
two broken heads for my impertinence.

When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire, one of
the servants opened the door, I bent down to go in (like a goose under a
gate), for fear of striking my head. My wife ran out to embrace me, but
I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she could otherwise never be
able to reach my mouth. My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I
could not see her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with
my head and eyes erect to above sixty feet; and then I went to take her
up with one hand by the waist. I looked down upon the servants, and one
or two friends who were in the house, as if they had been pygmies, and I
a giant. I told my wife she had been too thrifty, for I found she had
starved herself and her daughter to nothing. In short, I behaved myself
so unaccountably, that they were all of the captain's opinion when he
first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits. This I mention as an
instance of the great power of habit and prejudice.

In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding: but my wife protested I should never go to sea any more;
although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder
me, as the reader may know hereafter. In the meantime I here conclude
the second part of my unfortunate voyages.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Redriff  Rotherhithe_: then a Thames side village, now part of
London.

[2] _Pound_: nearly five dollars.

[3] _Levant_: the point where the sun rises. The countries about the
eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjoining waters.

[4] _Mrs._: it was formerly the custom to call unmarried women Mrs.

[5] _The South Sea_: the Pacific Ocean.

[6] _Van Diemen's Land_: N.W. from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and in
latitude 30 degrees 2 minutes would be in Australia or off the West
Coast.

[7] _Cable's length_: about six hundred or seven hundred feet.

[8] _Buff jerkin_ a leather jacket or waistcoat.

[9] _Small_: weak, thin.

[10] _Signet-royal_: the king's seal.

[11] _Half-pike_ a short wooden staff, upon one end of which was a
steel head.

[12] _Stang_: an old word for a perch, sixteen feet and a half, also
for a rood of ground.

[13] _Chairs_: a sedan chair is here meant. It held one person, and
was carried by two men by means of projecting poles.

[14] _Crest_: a decoration to denote rank.

[15] _Lingua Franca_: a language--Italian mixed with Arabic, Greek,
and Turkish--used by Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians trading with
Arabs, Turks, and Greeks. It is the commercial language of
Constantinople.

[16] _Imprimis_: in the first place, (pr.) im pri' mis.

[17] _Lucid_: shining, transparent.

[18] _Yeomen of the guards_: freemen forming the bodyguard of the
sovereign.

[19] _Pocket perspective_: a small spy-glass or telescope.

[20] _Trencher_: a wooden plate or platter.

[21] _Corn_: such grains as wheat, rye, barley, oats.

[22] _Quadrant_: an instrument long used for measuring altitudes.

[23] _Skirt_: coat-tail.

[24] _Alcoran_ the Koran or Mohammedan Bible.

[25] _Embargo_: an order not to sail.

[26] _Discompose them_: displace them.

[27] _Puissant_: powerful.

[28] _Junto_: a body of men secretly united to gain some political
end.

[29] _Pulling_: plucking and drawing, preparatory to cooking,

[30] _Meaner_: of lower rank.

[31] _Portion_: the part of an estate given to a child.

[32] _Domestic_: the household and all pertaining thereto.

[33] _Exchequer bills_: bills of credit issued from the exchequer by
authority of parliament.

[34] _Close chair_: sedan chair.

[35] _Cabal_: a body of men united for some sinister purpose.

[36] _Lee side_: side sheltered from the wind.

[37] _Ancient_: flag, corrupted from ensign.

[38] _Downs_: A famous natural roadstead off the southeast coast of
Kent, between Goodwin Sands and the mainland, south of the Thames
entrance.

[39] _Black Bull_: inns in England are often named after animals with
an adjective descriptive of the color of the sign; as, _The Golden
Lion, The White Horse_.

[40] _Towardly_: apt, docile.

[41] _Straits of Madagascar_: Mozambique Channel.

[42] _The line_: the equator.

[43] _Hinds_: peasants; rustics.

[44] _Pistoles_: about three dollars and sixty cents.

[45] _Trencher-side_: up to his trencher or wooden plate.

[46] _Discovering_: Showing.

[47] _From London Bridge to Chelsea_: about three miles as the birds
fly.

[48] _Pillion_: a cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on
horseback. _From London to St. Alban's_: about twenty miles.

[49] _Pumpion_: pumpkin.

[50] _Parts_: accomplishments.

[51] _Sanson's Atlas_: a very large atlas by a French geographer in
use in Swift's time.

[52] _As good a hand of me_: as much money of me.

[53] _Moidore_: a Portuguese gold piece worth about six dollars.

[54] _Guineas_: an obsolete English gold coin, of the value of five
dollars.

[55] _Phoenix_: a bird of fable said to live for a long time and rise
anew from its own ashes.

[56] _Cabinet_: a private room.

[57] _Scrutoire_: a writing-desk.

[58] _Waiting_: attendance on the king.

[59] _Lusus naturae_: a freak of nature.

[60] _Royal Sovereign_: one of the great ships of Swift's time.

[61] _Dunstable lark_: large larks are caught on the downs near
Dunstable between September and February, and sent to London for
luxurious tables.

[62] _Drone_: the largest tube of a bag-pipe, giving forth a dull
heavy tone.

[63] _Gresham College_, in London, is named after the founder, an
English merchant, who died in 1579.

[64] _The square of_: as large as the square of.

[65] _Salisbury Steeple_: this is about four hundred feet high.

[66] _Battalia_: the order of battle.

[67] _Espalier_: a lattice upon which fruit-trees or shrubs are
trained.

[68] _Scull_: a short oar.

[69] _Starboard or larboard_: right or left.

[70] _Corking-pin_: a larger-sized pin.

[71] _Stomacher_: a broad belt.

[72] _Varlet_: knave.

[73] _Levee_: a ceremonious visit received by a distinguished person
in the morning.

[74] _Spinet_: a stringed instrument, a forerunner of out piano.

[75] _Closet_: private room.

[76] _Signal_: memorable.

[77] _Chancery_: a high court of equity.

[78] _Glossing_: commenting.

[79] _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_ was born about the middle of the
first century, B.C.; he endeavored in his history to relieve his Greek
countrymen from the mortification they had felt in their subjection to
the Romans, and patched up an old legend about Rome being of Greek
origin and therefore their "political mother."

[80] _Ideas, entities, abstractions, transcendentals_, words used in
that philosophy which deals with thinking, existence, and things
beyond the senses.

[81] _Mercurial_: active, spirited.

[82] _Composition_: compact, agreement.

[83] _Progress_: an old term for the travelling of the sovereign to
different parts of his country.

[84] _Tumbrel_: a rough cart.

[85] _Page_: a serving-boy, and especially one who waits on a person
of rank.

[86] _Quarry_: prey.

[87] _Squash_: shock, concussion.

[88] _To rights_ speedily.

[89] _To make_ To get alongside.

[90] _Phaeton_ a son of Apollo who was dashed into the river Endanus
for his foolhardiness in attempting to drive the steeds of the sun for
one day.

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: Gulliver really wants to go home. He has now spent two years in Brobdingnag, and though his life has been comfortable, he wants to return to a place where he doesn't have to worry about being stomped to death by a puppy. He and Glumdalclitch are going on a tour of the south coast of the kingdom with the Brobdingnagian King and Queen. Both Gulliver and Glumdalclitch have colds, but Gulliver's is mild. He manages to persuade Glumdalclitch to let him go down to the beach with a servant. This servant carries Gulliver's traveling box down to the beach. Once they get to the beach, Gulliver decides to take a nap, so he shuts the entrance to his box and climbs into his hammock. He wakes up when he feels a sudden jolt. It would seem that the servant left Gulliver's box on the beach while going off for whatever reason, and that the box has now been snagged by an eagle. The eagle flies high and then drops Gulliver's box; Gulliver feels by the bobbing of his box that he is at sea. Gulliver feels really bad for Glumdalclitch, who is doubtless going to be blamed for his loss by the Queen. He notices that water is slowly leaking into his box, so he's getting pretty worried for himself, too. He hears something scraping at the two staples attached to the side of his box that has no windows, and wonders what it is. Gulliver calls out, and a voice answers that his box has been lashed to the side of a ship. A sailor saws a hole in the side of his box and Gulliver emerges, very weak. Gulliver has been so long in Brobdingnag that he has lost perspective on regular humans - he's surprised to be surrounded by such small people, even though they are his own height. The sailors salvage some of the contents of Gulliver's box. The captain of the ship, Thomas Wilcox, asks Gulliver to tell him where he has been. The captain thinks that Gulliver is crazy, and/or a convict who has been sent to sea in a giant box as punishment. To prove the truth of his story, Gulliver shows the captain his comb, made from the beard stubble of the King of Brobdingnag, as well as his pants, which are made of mouse skin. The captain agrees that Gulliver is telling the truth, He asks Gulliver if the King or Queen of Brobdingnag were hard of hearing, because Gulliver keeps shouting. After all, Gulliver has spent the last two years yelling to make himself heard by Brobdingnagian giants. The ship arrives back in England on June 3, 1706, 9 months after Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag. He keeps acting as though he expects to see 60-foot people around him, so Gulliver's whole family thinks he has gone nuts. Gulliver's wife tells him never again to go to sea, but there are two more parts left to Gulliver's Travels, so we think he's not going to listen to her.


prompt:
Chapter: PART I. _A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT_. CHAPTER I.

     THE AUTHOR GIVES SOME ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF AND FAMILY: HIS FIRST
     INDUCEMENTS TO TRAVEL. HE IS SHIPWRECKED, AND SWIMS FOR HIS LIFE;
     GETS SAFE ASHORE IN THE COUNTRY OF LILLIPUT; IS MADE A PRISONER,
     AND CARRIED UP THE COUNTRY.

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,[2] 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,[3] 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,[4] 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.[5] 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 northwest of Van Diemen's Land.[6]

By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees and
2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labor and
ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition.

On the fifth 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;[7] 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 labor, 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
remembered to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine
hours; for, when I awaked, it was just daylight. I attempted to rise,
but was not able to stir: for as I happened to lie on my back, I found
my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and
my hair, 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 upwards, the sun began to grow hot, and
the light offended my 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 my eyes downward, 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 meantime
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.

I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness. At
length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings,
and wrench out the pegs, that fastened my left arm to the ground; for by
lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to
bind me, and, at the same time, with a violent pull, which gave me
excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair
on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two
inches.

But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them;
whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it
ceased, I heard one of them cry aloud, _Tolgo phonac_; when, in an
instant, I felt above an hundred arrows discharged on my left hand,
which pricked me like so many needles; and, besides, they shot another
flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose,
fell on my body (though I felt them not), and some on my face, which I
immediately covered with my left hand.

When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a-groaning with grief and
pain, and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another
volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to
stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on me a buff jerkin,[8]
which they could not pierce. I thought it the most prudent method to lie
still, and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand
being already loose, I could easily free myself; and as for the
inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the
greatest army they could bring against me, if they were all of the same
size with him that I saw.

[Illustration: "I LAY ALL THIS WHILE IN GREAT UNEASINESS" P. 8.]

But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people observed I was
quiet, they discharged no more arrows: but, by the noise I heard, I knew
their numbers increased; and about four yards from me, over against my
right ear, I heard a knocking for above an hour, like that of people at
work; when, turning my head that way, as well as the pegs and strings
would permit me, I saw a stage erected, about a foot and a half from the
ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or three
ladders to mount it; from whence one of them, who seemed to be a person
of quality, made me a long speech, whereof I understood not one
syllable.

[Illustration]

But I should have mentioned, that before the principal person began his
oration, he cried out three times, _Langro debul san_ (these words, and
the former, were afterwards repeated, and explained to me). Whereupon
immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the strings that
fastened the left side of my head, which gave me the liberty of turning
it to the right, and of observing the person and gesture of him that was
to speak. He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller than any of the
other three who attended him, whereof one was a page that held up his
train, and seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle finger; the other
two stood one on each side, to support him. He acted every part of an
orator, and I could observe many periods of threatenings, and others of
promises, pity, and kindness.

I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up
my left hand, and both my eyes, to the sun, as calling him for a
witness: and, being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a
morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of
nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience
(perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger
frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food. The _hurgo_ (for
so they call a great lord, as I afterwards learned) understood me very
well. He descended from the stage, and commanded that several ladders
should be applied to my sides; on which above a hundred of the
inhabitants mounted, and walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets
full of meat, which had been provided and sent thither by the king's
orders, upon the first intelligence he received of me.

I observed there was the flesh of several animals, but could not
distinguish them by the taste. There were shoulders, legs, and loins,
shaped like those of mutton, and very well dressed, but smaller than the
wings of a lark. I ate them by two or three at a mouthful, and took
three loaves at a time, about the bigness of musket bullets. They
supplied me as they could, showing a thousand marks of wonder and
astonishment at my bulk and appetite. I then made another sign that I
wanted drink.

They found by my eating that a small quantity would not suffice me; and
being a most ingenious people, they slung up with great dexterity, one
of their largest hogsheads, then rolled it towards my hand, and beat out
the top: I drank it off at a draught; which I might well do, for it did
not hold half a pint, and tasted like a small[9] wine of Burgundy, but
much more delicious. They brought me a second hogshead, which I drank in
the same manner, and made signs for more; but they had none to give me.

When I had performed these wonders, they shouted for joy, and danced
upon my breast, repeating, several times, as they did at first, _Hekinah
degul_. They made me a sign, that I should throw down the two hogsheads,
but first warning the people below to stand out of the way, crying
aloud, _Borach nevola_; and, when they saw the vessels in the air, there
was an universal shout of _Hekinah degul_.

I confess, I was often tempted, while they were passing backwards and
forwards on my body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in
my reach, and dash them against the ground. But the remembrance of what
I had felt, which probably might not be the worst they could do, and the
promise of honor I made them--for so I interpreted my submissive
behavior--soon drove out those imaginations. Besides, I now considered
myself as bound, by the laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated
me with so much expense and magnificence. However, in my thoughts I
could not sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive
mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk upon my body, while one of
my hands was at liberty, without trembling at the very sight of so
prodigious a creature, as I must appear to them.

[Illustration: "PRODUCING HIS CREDENTIALS." P. 14.]

After some time, when they observed that I made no more demands for
meat, there appeared before me a person of high rank from his imperial
majesty. His excellency, having mounted on the small of my right leg,
advanced forwards up to my face, with about a dozen of his retinue: and,
producing his credentials under the signet-royal,[10] which he applied
close to my eyes, spoke about ten minutes, without any signs of anger,
but with a kind of determinate resolution, often pointing forwards,
which, as I afterwards found, was towards the capital city, about half a
mile distant, whither it was agreed by his majesty in council that I
must be conveyed. I answered in few words, but to no purpose, and made a
sign with my hand that was loose, putting it to the other (but over his
excellency's head, for fear of hurting him or his train) and then to my
own head and body, to signify that I desired my liberty.

It appeared that he understood me well enough, for he shook his head by
way of disapprobation, and held his hand in a posture to show that I
must be carried as a prisoner. However, he made other signs, to let me
understand that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good
treatment. Whereupon I once more thought of attempting to break my
bonds; but again, when I felt the smart of their arrows upon my face and
hands, which were all in blisters, and many of the darts still sticking
in them, and observing, likewise, that the number of my enemies
increased, I gave tokens to let them know, that they might do with me
what they pleased. Upon this the _hurgo_ and his train withdrew, with
much civility, and cheerful countenances.

Soon after, I heard a general shout, with frequent repetitions of the
words, _Peplom selan_, and I felt great numbers of people on my left
side, relaxing the cords to such a degree, that I was able to turn upon
my right, and to get a little ease. But, before this, they had daubed my
face and both my hands with a sort of ointment very pleasant to the
smell, which, in a few minutes, removed all the smart of their arrows.
These circumstances, added to the refreshment I had received by their
victuals and drink, which were very nourishing, disposed me to sleep. I
slept about eight hours, as I was afterwards assured; and it was no
wonder, for the physicians, by the emperor's order, had mingled a sleepy
potion in the hogsheads of wine.

It seems that, upon the first moment I was discovered sleeping on the
ground after my landing, the emperor had early notice of it, by an
express; and determined in council, that I should be tied in the manner
I have related (which was done in the night, while I slept), that plenty
of meat and drink should be sent to me, and a machine prepared to carry
me to the capital city.

This resolution, perhaps, may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am
confident would not be imitated by any prince in Europe, on the like
occasion. However, in my opinion, it was extremely prudent, as well as
generous; for, supposing these people had endeavored to kill me with
their spears and arrows, while I was asleep, I should certainly have
awaked with the first sense of smart, which might so far have roused my
rage and strength, as to have enabled me to break the strings wherewith
I was tied; after which, as they were not able to make resistance, so
they could expect no mercy.

These people are most excellent mathematicians, and arrived to a great
perfection in mechanics, by the countenance and encouragement of the
emperor, who is a renowned patron of learning. The prince hath several
machines fixed on wheels for the carriage of trees, and other great
weights. He often builds his largest men of war, whereof some are nine
feet long, in the woods where the timber grows, and has them carried on
these engines three or four hundred yards to the sea. Five hundred
carpenters and engineers were immediately set to work, to prepare the
greatest engine they had. It was a frame of wood, raised three inches
from the ground, about seven feet long and four wide, moving upon
twenty-two wheels. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this
engine, which, it seems, set out in four hours after my landing. It was
brought parallel to me, as I lay. But the principal difficulty was, to
raise and place me in this vehicle.

Eighty poles, each of one foot high, were erected for this purpose, and
very strong cords, of the bigness of packthread, were fastened by hooks
to many bandages, which the workmen had girt round my neck, my hands, my
body, and my legs. Nine hundred of the strongest men were employed to
draw up these cords by many pulleys fastened on the poles; and thus, in
less than three hours, I was raised and slung into the engine, and tied
fast.

[Illustration]

All this I was told; for, while the whole operation was performing, I
lay in a profound sleep, by the force of that soporiferous medicine
infused into my liquor. Fifteen hundred of the emperor's largest horses,
each about four inches and a half high, were employed to draw me
towards the metropolis, which, as I said, was half a mile distant.

About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked, by a very
ridiculous accident; for, the carriage being stopt a while, to adjust
something that was out of order, two or three of the young natives had
the curiosity to see how I looked, when I was asleep. They climbed up
into the engine, and advancing very softly to my face, one of them, an
officer in the guards, put the sharp end of his half-pike[11] a good way
up into my left nostril, which tickled my nose like a straw, and made me
sneeze violently; whereupon they stole off, unperceived, and it was
three weeks before I knew the cause of my awaking so suddenly.

We made a long march the remaining part of the day, and rested at night
with five hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half
with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me, if I should offer to stir. The
next morning, at sunrise, we continued our march, and arrived within two
hundred yards of the city gates about noon. The emperor, and all his
court, came out to meet us; but his great officers would by no means
suffer his majesty to endanger his person, by mounting on my body.

At the place where the carriage stopt, there stood an ancient temple,
esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom, which, having been
polluted some years before by an unnatural murder, was, according to the
zeal of those people, looked upon as profane, and therefore had been
applied to common use, and all the ornaments and furniture carried
away. In this edifice it was determined I should lodge. The great gate,
fronting to the north, was about four feet high, and almost two feet
wide, through which I could easily creep. On each side of the gate was a
small window, not above six inches from the ground; into that on the
left side the king's smith conveyed four score and eleven chains, like
those that hang to a lady's watch in Europe, and almost as large, which
were locked to my left leg with six-and-thirty padlocks.

[Illustration]

Over against this temple, on the other side of the great highway, at
twenty feet distance, there was a turret at least five feet high. Here
the emperor ascended, with many principal lords of his court, to have an
opportunity of viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see them. It
was reckoned that above an hundred thousand inhabitants came out of the
town upon the same errand; and, in spite of my guards, I believe there
could not be fewer than ten thousand, at several times, who mounted my
body, by the help of ladders. But a proclamation was soon issued, to
forbid it, upon pain of death.

When the workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose, they cut
all the strings that bound me; whereupon I rose up, with as melancholy a
disposition as ever I had in my life. But the noise and astonishment of
the people, at seeing me rise and walk, are not to be expressed. The
chains that held my left leg were about two yards long, and gave me not
only the liberty of walking backwards and forwards in a semi-circle,
but, being fixed within four inches of the gate, allowed me to creep in,
and lie at my full length in the temple.

[Illustration]

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: On this voyage, Gulliver goes to the sea as a surgeon on the merchant ship, Antelope. The ship is destroyed during a heavy windstorm, and Gulliver, the only survivor, swims to a nearby island, Lilliput. Being nearly exhausted from the ordeal, he falls asleep. Upon awakening, he finds that the island's inhabitants, who are no larger than six inches tall, have captured him. After the inhabitants examine Gulliver and provide him with food, the Emperor of this country orders his subjects to move Gulliver to a little-used temple, the only place large enough to house him.