CHAPTER X



[The author's economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms.
His great improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their
conversations. The author has notice given him by his master,
that he must depart from the country. He falls into a swoon for
grief; but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the
help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture.]


I had settled my little economy to my own heart's content. My
master had ordered a room to be made for me, after their manner,
about six yards from the house: the sides and floors of which I
plastered with clay, and covered with rush-mats of my own
contriving. I had beaten hemp, which there grows wild, and made
of it a sort of ticking; this I filled with the feathers of
several birds I had taken with springes made of YAHOOS' hairs,
and were excellent food. I had worked two chairs with my knife,
the sorrel nag helping me in the grosser and more laborious part.

When my clothes were worn to rags, I made myself others with the
skins of rabbits, and of a certain beautiful animal, about the
same size, called NNUHNOH, the skin of which is covered with a
fine down. Of these I also made very tolerable stockings. I
soled my shoes with wood, which I cut from a tree, and fitted to
the upper-leather; and when this was worn out, I supplied it with
the skins of YAHOOS dried in the sun. I often got honey out of
hollow trees, which I mingled with water, or ate with my bread.
No man could more verify the truth of these two maxims, "That
nature is very easily satisfied;" and, "That necessity is the
mother of invention." I enjoyed perfect health of body, and
tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy
of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy. I had
no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the
favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence
against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to
destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to
watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for
hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets,
highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters,
politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists,
ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or
followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by
seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets,
whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or
mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies,
drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd,
expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate,
overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited,
swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the
merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of
their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

I had the favour of being admitted to several HOUYHNHNMS, who
came to visit or dine with my master; where his honour graciously
suffered me to wait in the room, and listen to their discourse.
Both he and his company would often descend to ask me questions,
and receive my answers. I had also sometimes the honour of
attending my master in his visits to others. I never presumed to
speak, except in answer to a question; and then I did it with
inward regret, because it was a loss of so much time for
improving myself; but I was infinitely delighted with the station
of an humble auditor in such conversations, where nothing passed
but what was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant
words; where, as I have already said, the greatest decency was
observed, without the least degree of ceremony; where no person
spoke without being pleased himself, and pleasing his companions;
where there was no interruption, tediousness, heat, or difference
of sentiments. They have a notion, that when people are met
together, a short silence does much improve conversation: this I
found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk,
new ideas would arise in their minds, which very much enlivened
the discourse. Their subjects are, generally on friendship and
benevolence, on order and economy; sometimes upon the visible
operations of nature, or ancient traditions; upon the bounds and
limits of virtue; upon the unerring rules of reason, or upon some
determinations to be taken at the next great assembly: and often
upon the various excellences of poetry. I may add, without
vanity, that my presence often gave them sufficient matter for
discourse, because it afforded my master an occasion of letting
his friends into the history of me and my country, upon which
they were all pleased to descant, in a manner not very
advantageous to humankind: and for that reason I shall not
repeat what they said; only I may be allowed to observe, that his
honour, to my great admiration, appeared to understand the nature
of YAHOOS much better than myself. He went through all our vices
and follies, and discovered many, which I had never mentioned to
him, by only supposing what qualities a YAHOO of their country,
with a small proportion of reason, might be capable of exerting;
and concluded, with too much probability, "how vile, as well as
miserable, such a creature must be."

I freely confess, that all the little knowledge I have of any
value, was acquired by the lectures I received from my master,
and from hearing the discourses of him and his friends; to which
I should be prouder to listen, than to dictate to the greatest
and wisest assembly in Europe. I admired the strength,
comeliness, and speed of the inhabitants; and such a
constellation of virtues, in such amiable persons, produced in me
the highest veneration. At first, indeed, I did not feel that
natural awe, which the YAHOOS and all other animals bear toward
them; but it grew upon me by decrees, much sooner than I
imagined, and was mingled with a respectful love and gratitude,
that they would condescend to distinguish me from the rest of my
species.

When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the
human race in general, I considered them, as they really were,
YAHOOS in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized,
and qualified with the gift of speech; but making no other use of
reason, than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their
brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted
them. When I happened to behold the reflection of my own form in
a lake or fountain, I turned away my face in horror and
detestation of myself, and could better endure the sight of a
common YAHOO than of my own person. By conversing with the
HOUYHNHNMS, and looking upon them with delight, I fell to imitate
their gait and gesture, which is now grown into a habit; and my
friends often tell me, in a blunt way, "that I trot like a
horse;" which, however, I take for a great compliment. Neither
shall I disown, that in speaking I am apt to fall into the voice
and manner of the HOUYHNHNMS, and hear myself ridiculed on that
account, without the least mortification.

In the midst of all this happiness, and when I looked upon myself
to be fully settled for life, my master sent for me one morning a
little earlier than his usual hour. I observed by his
countenance that he was in some perplexity, and at a loss how to
begin what he had to speak. After a short silence, he told me,
"he did not know how I would take what he was going to say: that
in the last general assembly, when the affair of the YAHOOS was
entered upon, the representatives had taken offence at his
keeping a YAHOO (meaning myself) in his family, more like a
HOUYHNHNM than a brute animal; that he was known frequently to
converse with me, as if he could receive some advantage or
pleasure in my company; that such a practice was not agreeable to
reason or nature, or a thing ever heard of before among them; the
assembly did therefore exhort him either to employ me like the
rest of my species, or command me to swim back to the place
whence I came: that the first of these expedients was utterly
rejected by all the HOUYHNHNMS who had ever seen me at his house
or their own; for they alleged, that because I had some rudiments
of reason, added to the natural pravity of those animals, it was
to be feared I might be able to seduce them into the woody and
mountainous parts of the country, and bring them in troops by
night to destroy the HOUYHNHNMS' cattle, as being naturally of
the ravenous kind, and averse from labour."

My master added, "that he was daily pressed by the HOUYHNHNMS of
the neighbourhood to have the assembly's exhortation executed,
which he could not put off much longer. He doubted it would be
impossible for me to swim to another country; and therefore
wished I would contrive some sort of vehicle, resembling those I
had described to him, that might carry me on the sea; in which
work I should have the assistance of his own servants, as well as
those of his neighbours." He concluded, "that for his own part,
he could have been content to keep me in his service as long as I
lived; because he found I had cured myself of some bad habits and
dispositions, by endeavouring, as far as my inferior nature was
capable, to imitate the HOUYHNHNMS."

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general
assembly in this country is expressed by the word HNHLOAYN, which
signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they
have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but
only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason,
without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.

I was struck with the utmost grief and despair at my master's
discourse; and being unable to support the agonies I was under, I
fell into a swoon at his feet. When I came to myself, he told me
"that he concluded I had been dead;" for these people are subject
to no such imbecilities of nature. I answered in a faint voice,
"that death would have been too great a happiness; that although
I could not blame the assembly's exhortation, or the urgency of
his friends; yet, in my weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it
might consist with reason to have been less rigorous; that I
could not swim a league, and probably the nearest land to theirs
might be distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary
for making a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in
this country; which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and
gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing to be
impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to
destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was
the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life
by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of
passing my days among YAHOOS, and relapsing into my old
corruptions, for want of examples to lead and keep me within the
paths of virtue? that I knew too well upon what solid reasons all
the determinations of the wise HOUYHNHNMS were founded, not to be
shaken by arguments of mine, a miserable YAHOO; and therefore,
after presenting him with my humble thanks for the offer of his
servants' assistance in making a vessel, and desiring a
reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I would
endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to
England, was not without hopes of being useful to my own species,
by celebrating the praises of the renowned HOUYHNHNMS, and
proposing their virtues to the imitation of mankind."

My master, in a few words, made me a very gracious reply; allowed
me the space of two months to finish my boat; and ordered the
sorrel nag, my fellow-servant (for so, at this distance, I may
presume to call him), to follow my instruction; because I told my
master, "that his help would be sufficient, and I knew he had a
tenderness for me."

In his company, my first business was to go to that part of the
coast where my rebellious crew had ordered me to be set on shore.
I got upon a height, and looking on every side into the sea;
fancied I saw a small island toward the north-east. I took out
my pocket glass, and could then clearly distinguish it above five
leagues off, as I computed; but it appeared to the sorrel nag to
be only a blue cloud: for as he had no conception of any country
beside his own, so he could not be as expert in distinguishing
remote objects at sea, as we who so much converse in that
element.

After I had discovered this island, I considered no further; but
resolved it should if possible, be the first place of my
banishment, leaving the consequence to fortune.

I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into
a copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a
sharp flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a
wooden handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness
of a walking-staff, and some larger pieces. But I shall not
trouble the reader with a particular description of my own
mechanics; let it suffice to say, that in six weeks time with the
help of the sorrel nag, who performed the parts that required
most labour, I finished a sort of Indian canoe, but much larger,
covering it with the skins of YAHOOS, well stitched together with
hempen threads of my own making. My sail was likewise composed
of the skins of the same animal; but I made use of the youngest I
could get, the older being too tough and thick; and I likewise
provided myself with four paddles. I laid in a stock of boiled
flesh, of rabbits and fowls, and took with me two vessels, one
filled with milk and the other with water.

I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master's house, and
then corrected in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with
YAHOOS' tallow, till I found it staunch, and able to bear me and
my freight; and, when it was as complete as I could possibly make
it, I had it drawn on a carriage very gently by YAHOOS to the
sea-side, under the conduct of the sorrel nag and another servant.

When all was ready, and the day came for my departure, I took
leave of my master and lady and the whole family, my eyes flowing
with tears, and my heart quite sunk with grief. But his honour,
out of curiosity, and, perhaps, (if I may speak without vanity,)
partly out of kindness, was determined to see me in my canoe, and
got several of his neighbouring friends to accompany him. I was
forced to wait above an hour for the tide; and then observing the
wind very fortunately bearing toward the island to which I
intended to steer my course, I took a second leave of my master:
but as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss his hoof, he did
me the honour to raise it gently to my mouth. I am not ignorant
how much I have been censured for mentioning this last
particular. Detractors are pleased to think it improbable, that
so illustrious a person should descend to give so great a mark of
distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I
forgotten how apt some travellers are to boast of extraordinary
favours they have received. But, if these censurers were better
acquainted with the noble and courteous disposition of the
HOUYHNHNMS, they would soon change their opinion.

I paid my respects to the rest of the HOUYHNHNMS in his honour's
company; then getting into my canoe, I pushed off from shore.

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