once in a siege, and as many in a ship; and beheld the dead bodies come down in pieces from the clouds to the great diversion of the spectators.

I was going on to more particulars when my master commanded me silence. He said, whoever understood the nature of Yahoos might easily believe it possible for so vile an animal, to be capable of every action I had named, if their strength and cunning equaled their malice. But as my discourse had increased his abhorrence of the whole species, so he found it gave him a disturbance in his mind, to which he was wholly a stranger before. He thought his ears, being used to such abominable words, might, by degrees, admit them with less detestation. That although he hated the Yahoos of this country, yet he no more blamed them for their odious qualities, than he did a gnnayh (a bird of prey) for its cruelty, or a sharp stone for cutting his hoof. But when a creature, pretending to reason, could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself. He seemed therefore confident that, instead of reason, we were only possessed of some quality fitted to increase our natural vices; as the reflection from a troubled stream returns the image of an ill-shapen body, not only larger, but more distorted.

7. The Uses of Wealth

[From A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, Chapter VI.]

My master was yet wholly at a loss to understand what motives could incite this race of lawyers to perplex, disquiet, and weary themselves, and engage in a confederacy of injustice, merely for the sake of injuring their fellow-animals; neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying, they did it for hire. Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the materials it was made of, and the value of the metals; that, when a Yahoo had got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he had a mind to, the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the most costly meats and drinks; and have his choice of the most beautiful females. Therefore, since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our Yahoos thought they could never have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they

found themselves inclined, from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice. That the rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man's labor, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former. That the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by laboring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully. I enlarged myself much on these and many other particulars, to the same purpose, but his Honor was still to seek: for he went upon a supposition, that all animals had a title to their share in the productions of the earth; and especially those who presided over the rest. Therefore he desired I would let him know what these costly meats were, and how any of us happened to want them. Whereupon I enumerated as many sorts as came into my head, with the various methods of dressing them, which could not be done without sending vessels by sea to every part of the world, as well for liquors to drink, as for sauces, and innumerable other conveniences. I assured him, that this whole globe of earth must be at least three times gone round, before one of our better female Yahoos could get her breakfast, or a cup to put it in. He said, that must needs be a miserable country, which cannot furnish food for its own inhabitants. But what he chiefly wondered at, was how such vast tracts of ground as I described, should be wholly without fresh water, and the people put to the necessity of sending over the sea for drink. I replied, that England (the dear place of my nativity) was computed to produce three times the quantity of food, more than its inhabitants are able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or pressed out of the fruit of certain trees, which made excellent drink; and the same proportion in every other convenience of life. But in order to feed the luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent away the greatest part of our necessary things to other countries, from whence, in return, we brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice, to spend among ourselves. Hence it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, forswearing, flattering, suborning, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling, star-gazing, poisoning, canting, libeling, freethinking, and the like occupations: every one of which terms I was at much pains to make him understand.

That wine was not imported among us from foreign countries, to supply the want of water or other drinks, but because it was a sort of liquid which made us merry, by putting us out of our senses; diverted all melancholy thoughts, begat wild extravagant imaginations in the brain, raised our hopes, and banished our fears; suspended every office of reason for a time, and deprived us of the use of our limbs till we fell into a profound sleep; although it must be confessed, that we always awaked sick and

WOMAN

dispirited; and that the use of this liquor filled us with diseases, which made our lives uncomfortable and short.

But, beside all this, the bulk of our people supported themselves by furnishing the necessities or conveniences of life to the rich, and to each other. For instance, when I am at home, and dressed, as I ought to be, I carry on my body the workmanship of an hundred tradesmen; the building and furniture of my house employ as many more, and five times the number to adorn my wife.

ALEXANDER POPE

[From the Moral Essays, 1735.]

O! blest with temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make tomorrow cheerful as today;
She who can love a sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humor most when she obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will,
Disdains all loss of tickets or Codille;
Spleen, Vapors, or Smallpox, above them.
all,

And mistress of herself, tho' china fall.
And yet believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman's at best a contradiction still.
Heav'n when it strives to polish all it can
Its last best work, but forms a softer Man;
Picks from each sex to make the fav'rite
blest,

Your love of pleasure, our desire of rest;
Blends, in exception to all genʼral rules,
Your taste of follies with our scorn of fools;
Reserve with Frankness, Art with Truth,
allied,

Courage with Softness, Modesty with Pride;
Fix'd principles, with fancy ever new:
Shakes all together, and produces-You.
Be this a woman's fame; with this unblest,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a
jest.

This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes first open'd on the

sphere;

Ascendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with

care,

Averted half your parents' simple prayer,
And gave you beauty, but denied the pelf
That buys your sex a tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous God who wit and gold refines,
And ripens spirits as he ripens mines,
Kept dross for Duchesses, the world shall
know it,

To you gave Sense, Good-humor, and a Poet.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

ALEXANDER POPE

[From The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, 1737.]

Yes, sir, how small soever be my heap,
A part I will enjoy as well as keep.
My heir may sigh, and think it want of grace
A man so poor would live without a place;
But sure no statute in his favor says,
How free or frugal I shall pass my days;
I who at some times spend, at others spare,
Divided between carelessness and care.
'Tis one thing, madly to disperse my store;
Another, not to heed to treasure more;
Glad, like a boy, to snatch the first good day,
And pleas'd if sordid want be far away.
What is 't to me (a passenger, God wot)
Whether my vessel be first-rate or not?
The ship itself may make a better figure,
But I that sail, am neither less nor bigger.
I neither strut with every fav'ring breath,
Nor strive with all the tempest in my teeth;
In Power, Wit, Figure, Virtue, Fortune,
placed

Behind the foremost, and before the last.
"But why all this of Av'rice? I have none."
I wish you joy, sir, of a tyrant gone:
But does no other lord it at this hour,
As wild and mad? the avarice of Pow'r?

Does neither Rage inflame nor Fear appall? Not the black fear of Death, that saddens all? With terrors round, can Reason hold her throne,

Despise the known, nor tremble at th' unknown?

Survey both worlds, intrepid and entire,
In spite of witches, devils, dreams, and fire.
Pleas'd to look forward, pleas'd to look
behind,

And count each birthday with a grateful mind?

Has life no sourness, drawn so near its end?
Canst thou endure a foe, forgive a friend?
Has age but melted the rough parts away,
As winter fruits grow mild ere they decay?
Or will you think, my friend! your bus'ness
done,

When of a hundred thorns you pull out one?
Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
You've play'd and lov'd, and ate and drank,

your fill.

Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age Comes titt'ring on, and shoves you from the stage;

Leave such to trifle with more grace and

Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known,

25

'Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples every star,
May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame the bearings, and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul
Looked through? or can a part contain the
whole?

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?

Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. When the proud steed shall know why man restrains

His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;

When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,

Alone made perfect here, immortal there, 120 Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,

Re-judge his justice, be the god of God.
In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:

And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause. 130
V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies
shine,

Earth for whose use? Pride answers, ""Tis for mine:

For me kind nature wakes her genial power, Suckles each herb, and spreads out every

flower;

Annual for me, the grape, the rose, renew 135 The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;

For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;

Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise: My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 140 But errs not Nature from this gracious end,

From burning suns when livid deaths descend,

When earthquakes swallow, or when tem

Be pleased with nothing, if not blessed with all?

The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find)

190

Is not to act or think beyond mankind;
Νο powers of body or of soul to share,
But what his nature and his state can bear.
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.
Say what the use, were finer opties given, 195
T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the
heaven?

Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at every pore?
Or, quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?
If nature thundered in his opening ears,
And stunned him with the music of the

spheres,

200