that Day forlorn. The worst Mark you can receive is a Promife, efpecially when it is confirmed with an Oath; after which every wife Man retires, and gives over all Hopes.

THERE are three Methods by which a Man may rife to be a Chief Minifter: The firft is, by knowing how with Prudence to dispose of a Wife, a Daughter, or a Sifter: The second, by betraying or undermining his Predeceffor: And the third is, by a furious Zeal in publick Affemblies against the. Corruptions of the Court. But a wife Prince would rather chufe to employ those who practise the last of these Methods; becaufe fuch Zealots prove always the moft obfequious and fubfervient to the Will and Paffions of their Mafter. That, these Ministers having all Employments at their Difpofal, preferve themselves in Power by bribing the Majority of a Senate, or great Council; and at last by an Expedient called an Act of Indemnity (whereof I described the Nature to him) they fecure themfelves from After-Reckonings, and retire from the Publick, laden with the Spoils of the Nation.

THE Palace of a Chief Minifter, is a Seminary, to breed up others in his own Trade: The Pages, Lacquies, and Porter, by imitating their Mafter, become Ministers of State in their feveral Districts, and learn to excel in the three principal Ingredients, of Infolence, Lying, and Bribery. Accordingly, they have a Subaltern Court paid to them by Perfons of the best Rank; and fometimes by the Force of Dexterity and Impudence, arrive through feveral Gradations to be Succeffors to their Lord.

He is ufually governed by a decayed Wench, or favourite Footman, who are the Tunnels through which all Graces are conveyed, and may properly

be

be called, in the laft Refort, the Governors of the Kingdom.

ONE Day, my Mafter, having heard me mention the Nobility of my Country, was pleafed to make me a Compliment which I could not pretend to deferve: That, he was fure, I must have been born of fome noble Family, because I far exceeded in Shape, Colour, and Cleanlinefs, all the Taboos of his Nation, although I feemed to fail in Strength, and Agility, which must be imputed to my different Way of Living from thofe other Brutes; and befides, I was not only endowed with the Faculty of Speech, but likewife with fome Rudiments of Reafon, to a Degree, that with all his Acquaintance I paffed for a Prodigy.

He made me obferve, that among the Houyhnhnms, the White, the Sorrel, and the IronGrey, were not fo exactly shaped as the Bay, the Dapple-Grey, and the Black; nor born with equal Talents of Mind, or a Capacity to improve them; and therefore continued always in the Condition of Servants, without ever afpiring to match out of their own Race, which in that Country would be reckoned monftrous and unnatural.

I MADE his Honour my moft humble Acknowledgments for the good Opinion he was pleased to conceive of me; but affured him at the fame Time, that my Birth was of the lower Sort, having been born of plain, honeft Parents, who were just able to give me a tolerable Education: That, Nobility among us was altogether a different Thing from the Idea he had of it: That, our young Noblemen are bred from their Childhood in Idlenefs and Luxury : That, as foon as Years will permit, they confume their Vigour, and contract odious Diseases among lewd Females; and when their Fortunes are almost

ruined,

ruined, they marry fome Woman of mean Birth, difagreeable Perfon, and unfound Conftitution, merely for the Sake of Money, whom they hate and defpife: That, the Production of fuch Marriages are generally fcrophulous, rickety, or deformed Children; by which Means the Family feldom continues above three Generations, unless the Wife take Care to provide a healthy Father among her Neighbours, or Domesticks, in order to improve and continue the Breed: That, a weak diseased Body, a meager Countenance, and fallow Complexion, are the true Marks of noble Blood; and a healthy robust Appearance is fo difgraceful in a Man of Quality, that the World concludes his real Father to have been a Groom or a Coachman. The Imperfections of his Mind run parallel with those of his Body; being a Compofition of Spleen, Dulness, Ignorance, Caprice, Senfuality, and Pride.

WITHOUT the Confent of this illuftrious Body, no Law can be enacted, repealed, or altered: And thefe Nobles have likewife the Decifion of all our Poffeffions without Appeal.

CHAP.

CHA P. VII.

The Author's great Love of bis Native Country. His Master's Obfervations upon the Conftitution and Adminiftration of ENGLAND, as defcribed by the Author, with parallel Cafes and Comparisons. His Master's Obfervations upon buman Nature.

HE Reader may be difpofed to wonder how I could prevail on my felf to give fo free a Reprefentation of my own Species, among a Race of Mortals who were already too apt to conceive the vileft Opinion of human Kind, from that entire Congruity betwixt me and their Yaboos. But, I must freely confefs, that the many Virtues of thofe excellent Quadrupeds placed in oppofite View to human Corruptions, had fo far opened mine Eyes, and enlarged my Understanding, that I began to view the Actions and Paffions of Man in a very different Light; and to think the Honour of my own Kind not worth managing; which, befides, it was impoffible for me to do before a Perfon of fo acute a Judgment as my Mafter, who daily convinced me of a thousand Faults in my felf, whereof I had not the leaft Perception before, and which with us would never be numbered, even

among

among human Infirmities. I had likewife learned from his Example an utter Deteftation of all Falfehood or Difguife; and Truth appeared fo amiable to me, that I determined upon facrificing every Thing to it.

LET me deal fo candidly with the Reader, as to confefs, that there was yet a much stronger Motive for the Freedom I took in my Representation of Things. I had not been a Year in this Country, before I contracted fuch a Love and Veneration for the Inhabitants, that I entered on a firm Refolution never to return to human Kind, but to pafs the rest of my Life among these admirable Houyhnhnms, in the Contemplation and Practice of every Virtue; where I could have no Example or Incitement to Vice. But it was decreed by Fortune, my perpetual Enemy, that fo great Felicity should not fall to my Share. However, it is now fome Comfort to reflect, that in what I faid of my Countrymen, I extenuated their Faults as much as I durft before fo ftrict an Examiner; and upon every Article, gave as favourable a Turn, as the Matter would bear. For, indeed, who is there alive that will not be fwayed by his Byafs and Partiality to the Place of his Birth?

I HAVE related the Subftance of feveral Converfations I had with my Mafter, during the greatest Part of the Time I had the Honour to be in his Service; but have indeed for Brevity Sake omitted much more than is here fet down.

WHEN I had answered all his Questions, and his Curiofity feemed to be fully fatisfied; he fent for me one Morning early, and commanding me to fit down at fome Distance, (an Honour which he had never before conferred upon me) he faid, he had been very seriously confidering my whole Story,