Chapter: CHAPTER VI.

     OF THE INHABITANTS OF LILLIPUT; THEIR LEARNING, LAWS, AND CUSTOMS;
     THE MANNER OF EDUCATING THEIR CHILDREN. THE AUTHOR'S WAY OF LIVING
     IN THAT COUNTRY.


Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to a
particular treatise, yet, in the meantime, I am content to gratify the
curious reader with some general ideas. As the common size of the
natives is somewhat under six inches high, so there is an exact
proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees: for
instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five inches
in height, the sheep an inch and a half, more or less; their geese about
the bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards, till
you come to the smallest, which, to my sight, were almost invisible; but
nature hath adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper
for their view; they see with great exactness, but at no great distance.
And, to show the sharpness of their sight, towards objects that are
near, I have been much pleased with observing a cook pulling[29] a lark,
which was not so large as a common fly; and a young girl threading an
invisible needle with invisible silk.

Their tallest trees are about seven feet high; I mean some of those in
the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach with my
fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the same proportion; but this
I leave to the reader's imagination.

I shall say but little at present of their learning, which, for many
ages, hath flourished in all its branches among them: but their manner
of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right
like the Europeans; nor from the right to the left, like the Arabians;
nor from up to down, like the Chinese, but aslant, from one corner of
the paper to the other, like ladies in England.

They bury their dead with their heads directly downwards, because they
hold an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise
again, in which period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will
turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at the resurrection, be
found ready, standing on their feet. The learned among them confess the
absurdity of this doctrine, but the practice still continues, in
compliance to the vulgar.

There are some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar; and, if
they were not so directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I
should be tempted to say a little in their justification. It is only to
be wished they were as well executed. The first I shall mention relates
to informers. All crimes against the state are punished here with the
utmost severity; but, if the person accused maketh his innocence plainly
to appear upon his trial, the accuser is immediately put to an
ignominious death; and, out of his goods, or lands, the innocent person
is quadruply recompensed for the loss of his time, for the danger he
underwent, for the hardship of his imprisonment, and for all the charges
he hath been at in making his defence, or, if that fund be deficient,
it is largely supplied by the crown. The emperor also confers on him
some public mark of his favor, and proclamation is made of his innocence
through the whole city.

They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom
fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance,
with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from
thieves, but honesty has no fence against superior cunning; and, since
it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying
and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and
connived at, or hath no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always
undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I remember, when I was once
interceding with the king for a criminal, who had wronged his master of
a great sum of money, which he had received by order, and run away with,
and happening to tell his majesty, by way of extenuation, that it was
only a breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in me, to offer
as a defence the greatest aggravation of the crime; and, truly, I had
little to say in return, farther than the common answer, that different
nations had different customs; for, I confess, I was heartily ashamed.

Although we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which
all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in
practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring
sufficient proof that he hath strictly observed the laws of his country
for seventy-three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges, according
to his quality and condition of life, with a proportionable sum of out
of a fund appropriated for that use; he likewise acquires the title of
_snillpall_, or _legal_, which is added to his name, but doth not
descend to his posterity. And these people thought it a prodigious
defect of policy among us, when I told them that our laws were enforced
only by penalties, without any mention of reward. It is upon this
account that the image of Justice, in their courts of judicature, is
formed with six eyes, two before, as many behind, and on each side one,
to signify circumspection, with a bag of gold open in her right hand,
and a sword sheath in her left, to show she was more disposed to reward
than to punish.

In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good
morals than to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to
mankind, they believe that the common size of human understanding is
fitted to some station or other, and that Providence never intended to
make the management of public affairs a mystery, to be comprehended only
by a few persons of sublime genius, of which there seldom are three born
in an age; but they suppose truth, justice, temperance, and the like, to
be in every man's power, the practice of which virtues, assisted by
experience, and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service
of his country, except where a course of study is required. But they
thought the want of moral virtues was so far from being supplied by
superior endowments of the mind, that employments could never be put
into such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and at
least, that the mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous
disposition, would never be of such fatal consequences to the public
weal as the practices of a man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt,
and who had great abilities to manage, to multiply, and defend his
corruptions.

In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man
incapable of holding any public station; for, since kings avow
themselves to be the deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians think
nothing can be more absurd than for a prince to employ such men as
disown the authority under which he acts.

In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to
mean the original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions
into which these people are fallen, by the degenerate nature of man.
For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by
dancing on the ropes, or badges of favor and distinction by leaping over
sticks, and creeping under them, the reader is to observe, that they
were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor, now reigning,
and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party and
faction.

Ingratitude is, among them, a capital crime, as we read it to have been
in some other countries; for they reason thus, that whoever makes ill
returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of
mankind, from whom he hath received no obligation, and therefore such a
man is not fit to live.

Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ
extremely from ours. Their opinion is, that parents are the last of all
others to be trusted with the education of their own children; and,
therefore, they have, in every town, public nurseries, where all
parents, except cottagers and laborers, are obliged to send their
infants of both sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the
age of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some
rudiments of docility. These schools are of several kinds, suited to
different qualities, and to both sexes. They have certain professors,
well skilled in preparing children for such a condition of life as
befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities as well as
inclinations. I shall first say something of the male nurseries, and
then of the female.

The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth are provided with
grave and learned professors, and their several deputies. The clothes
and food of the children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the
principles of honor, justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion, and
love of their country; they are always employed in some business, except
in the times of eating and sleeping, which are very short, and two hours
for diversions, consisting of bodily exercises. They are dressed by men
till four years of age, and then are obliged to dress themselves,
although their quality be ever so great; and the women attendants, who
are aged proportionably to ours at fifty, perform only the most menial
offices. They are never suffered to converse with servants, but go
together in smaller or greater numbers to take their diversions, and
always in the presence of a professor, or one of his deputies; whereby
they avoid those early bad impressions of folly and vice, to which our
children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see them only twice
a year; the visit to last but an hour; they are allowed to kiss the
child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always stands by on
those occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling
expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like.

The pension from each family, for the education and entertainment of a
child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor's officers.

The nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants, traders,
and handicrafts, are managed proportionally after the same manner; only
those designed for trades are put out apprentices at eleven years old,
whereas those persons of quality continue in their exercises till
fifteen, which answers to twenty-one with us; but the confinement is
gradually lessened for the last three years.

In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated much
like the males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own
sex; but always in the presence of a professor or deputy, till they come
to dress themselves, which is at five years old. And if it be found that
these nurses ever presume to entertain the girls with frightful or
foolish stories, or the common follies practised by the chambermaids
among us, they are publicly whipped thrice about the city, imprisoned
for a year, and banished for life to the most desolate part of the
country. Thus, the young ladies there are as much ashamed of being
cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments beyond
decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their
education, made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of
the women were not altogether so robust, and that some rules were given
them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was
enjoined them: for their maxim is that, among people of quality, a wife
should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she
cannot always be young. When the girls are twelve years old, which
among them is the marriageable age, their parents or guardians take
them home, with great expressions of gratitude to the professors, and
seldom without tears of the young lady and her companions.

In the nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are
instructed in all kinds of works proper for their sex and their several
degrees; those intended for apprentices are dismissed at seven years
old, the rest are kept to eleven.

The meaner[30] families who have children at these nurseries are
obliged, besides their annual pension, which is as low as possible, to
return to the steward of the nursery a small monthly share of their
gettings, to be a portion[31] for the child; and, therefore, all parents
are limited in their expenses by the law. For the Lilliputians think
nothing can be more unjust than for people to leave the burden of
supporting their children on the public. As to persons of quality, they
give security to appropriate a certain sum for each child, suitable to
their condition; and these funds are always managed with good husbandry
and the most exact justice.

The cottagers and laborers keep their children at home, their business
being only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their
education is of little consequence to the public; but the old and
diseased among them are supported by hospitals; for begging is a trade
unknown in this empire.

And here it may perhaps divert the curious reader to give some account
of my domestic,[32] and my manner of living in this country, during a
residence of nine months and thirteen days. Having a head for
mechanics, and being likewise forced by necessity, I had made for myself
a table and chair, convenient enough, out of the largest trees in the
royal park. Two hundred sempstresses were employed to make me shirts,
and linen for my bed and table, all of the strongest and coarsest kind
they could get; which, however, they were forced to quilt together in
several folds, for the thickest was some degrees finer than lawn. Their
linen is usually three inches wide, and three feet make a piece.

The sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at
my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord extended that
each held by the end, while a third measured the length of the cord with
a rule of an inch long. Then they measured my right thumb, and desired
no more; for, by a mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb
is once round the wrist, and so on to the neck and the waist, and by the
help of my old shirt, which I displayed on the ground before them for a
pattern, they fitted me exactly. Three hundred tailors were employed in
the same manner to make me clothes; but they had another contrivance for
taking my measure. I kneeled down, and they raised a ladder from the
ground to my neck; upon this ladder one of them mounted, and let fall a
plumb-line from my collar to the floor, which just answered the length
of my coat; but my waist and arms I measured myself. When my clothes
were finished, which was done in my house (for the largest of theirs
would not have been able to hold them), they looked like the patchwork
made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a color.

[Illustration: "THREE HUNDRED TAILORS WERE EMPLOYED TO MAKE ME CLOTHES"
P. 74.]

I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little convenient
huts built about my house, where they and their families lived, and
prepared me two dishes a-piece. I took up twenty waiters in my hand, and
placed them on the table; an hundred more attended below on the ground,
some with dishes of meat, and some with barrels of wine and other
liquors, flung on their shoulders; all of which the waiters above drew
up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner, by certain cords, as we
draw the bucket up a well in Europe. A dish of their meat was a good
mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reasonable draught. Their
mutton yields to ours, but their beef is excellent, I have had a sirloin
so large that I have been forced to make three bites of it; but this is
rare. My servants were astonished to see me eat it, bones and all, as in
our country we do the leg of a lark. Their geese and turkeys I usually
eat at a mouthful, and I must confess they far exceed ours. Of their
smaller fowl, I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.

One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living,
desired that himself and his royal consort, with the young princes of
the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness, as he was pleased to
call it, of dining with me. They came accordingly, and I placed them in
chairs of state upon my table, just over against me, with their guards
about them. Flimnap, the lord high treasurer, attended there likewise,
with his white staff; and I observed he often looked on me with a sour
countenance, which I would not seem to regard, but eat more than usual,
in honor to my dear country, as well as to fill the court with
admiration. I have some private reasons to believe that this visit from
his majesty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his
master. That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he
outwardly caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his
nature. He represented to the emperor the low condition of his treasury;
that he was forced to take up money at a great discount; that exchequer
bills[33] would not circulate under nine per cent, below par; that I had
cost his majesty above a million and a half of _sprugs_ (their greatest
gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle); and, upon the whole, that it
would be advisable in the emperor to take the first fair occasion of
dismissing me.

[Illustration: "THE HAPPINESS ... OF DINING WITH ME." P. 76.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

 Gulliver provides the reader with information regarding Lilliputian culture and the personal treatment that he receives from the Lilliputians. Regarding the Lilliputian system of laws, Gulliver says that treason is severely punished, which is not particularly surprising, but other laws are. These laws punish an unsuccessful accuser as severely as a traitor; fraud is most frequently punished with death; and any innocent man who is vindicated of a charge is rewarded. Interestingly, ingratitude is a capital offense. Moral, rather than clever men, are appointed to powerful positions, and atheists are barred from all government offices. Explaining the seeming contradiction between these good laws and the rope-dancing corruptions, Gulliver says that the latter were instituted by the present Emperor's grandfather. The Lilliputians believe that parents marry out of sexual desire rather than love of children. Therefore they deny any filial obligation and establish public schools for children. Parents with children in school pay for each child's maintenance and are forced to maintain those that they breed. The schools for young nobles are spartan, and students are trained in honor, justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion, and patriotism. The schools for tradesmen and ordinary gentlemen are like those of the nobles, but the duration of schooling is shorter. The Lilliputians educate women to be reasonable, agreeable, and literate. Workers and farmers have no schools. Resuming his tale, Gulliver describes the visit of the Emperor and his family. They come to dine with Gulliver and bring Flimnap with them. The dinner proves to be a disaster because Flimnap, the royal treasurer, is appalled when he reckons the cost of feeding and housing Gulliver. What's more, Flimnap charges, his wife is attracted to Gulliver and has visited him secretly.

