Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 1/Chapter 6
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 1â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
The scale and customs of Lilliput
During his stay in the empire of Lilliput, Gulliver described its inhabitants and institutions for readers who knew little of the country.
The Lilliputians were under six inches tall, and their animals and plants were proportionately small. Their eyesight was sharp at close range but limited at a distance. Gulliver watched a cook pluck a bird no bigger than a fly and a girl thread a needle that he could not see. The tallest trees in the royal park were about seven feet high.
Learning had flourished in Lilliput for many ages. Its people wrote diagonally across the page and buried their dead head downward. They believed that the flat earth would turn over after eleven thousand moons, leaving the resurrected dead standing upright. Learned people recognized the belief as absurd, but the custom survived.
Laws, rewards and public office
Gulliver described Lilliputâs original laws while warning that they were not always faithfully observed. A person who proved innocence at a trial for a state crime received compensation, a public declaration of innocence and a mark of imperial favour. The accuser was executed, and the compensation came from the accuserâs property or, if necessary, the Crown.
Fraud was considered worse than theft and was usually punished by death. Lilliputians reasoned that vigilance could protect property from thieves, whereas honest people could not safely conduct trade if they were exposed to deception. Gulliver once asked the emperor to spare a servant who had run away with his masterâs money, arguing that the offence was merely a breach of trust.
The emperor regarded the breach of trust as an aggravation, not an excuse. Gulliver could answer only that nations had different customs, and admitted that he felt ashamed.
Lilliput also rewarded obedience to the law. Anyone who could prove good conduct for seventy-three moons received privileges, money and the personal title of Snilpall, or Legal. Its image of Justice had six eyes, an open bag of gold and a sheathed sword, showing that it was more ready to reward than punish.
For public appointments, the Lilliputians valued moral character above exceptional ability. They believed that an able but corrupt official could do more harm than an honest personâs mistakes. Disbelief in divine providence also disqualified a candidate, because the emperor claimed to rule as its representative.
Gulliver distinguished these principles from later corruption. The reigning emperorâs grandfather had introduced the practice of awarding offices for rope-dancing and honours for leaping over or crawling under sticks; faction had since made it worse. Ingratitude, meanwhile, was a capital crime, because someone who harmed a benefactor was presumed dangerous to everyone else.
Children raised in public nurseries
Lilliputians did not believe that children owed their parents gratitude merely for bringing them into the world. They considered parents poorly suited to educate their own children. Except for cottagers and labourers, families were therefore required to send boys and girls to public nurseries at twenty moons old. The schools prepared them for lives suited to their social rank, abilities and inclinations.
Boys of noble birth lived simply and were taught honour, justice, courage, modesty, mercy, religion and love of country. They worked or studied except at meals, sleep and two hours of exercise. From four years old they dressed themselves, and they played under supervision rather than mixing freely with servants.
Parents could visit only twice a year, for an hour at a time. A teacher watched to prevent private talk, excessive affection or gifts. Imperial officers collected any unpaid fees. Boys intended for trades became apprentices at eleven, while those of higher rank remained in training until fifteen, with restrictions gradually eased during their final three years.
Girls of high rank received much the same education as boys, though their exercises were less strenuous and they learned less academic material and more about domestic life. They dressed themselves from the age of five. Nurses who told them frightening or foolish stories faced public whipping, imprisonment and lifelong banishment.
The schools taught girls to reject cowardice, foolishness and excessive ornament. Gulliver explained the principle behind their education:
among people of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young.
Girls of high rank returned to their parents or guardians at twelve, the marriageable age, often parting tearfully from their teachers and companions. Girls of lower rank learned work suited to their station; those destined for apprenticeships left at seven, and the others at eleven.
Families of modest means paid low fees and contributed monthly savings for each child. Wealthier parents had to set aside an appropriate sum. Lilliputians considered it unjust to have children and leave the public to support them. Cottagers and labourers kept their children at home because their work was agricultural; hospitals supported their old and sick, and begging was unknown.
Gulliverâs household and the imperial dinner
Gulliver then described how he lived during his nine months and thirteen days in Lilliput. Necessity and his mechanical skill led him to make a table and chair from the largest trees in the royal park. Two hundred seamstresses made his shirts and household linen, stitching several layers of their fine cloth together. They measured him as he lay on the ground and used his old shirt as a pattern.
Three hundred tailors made his clothes. One climbed a ladder to measure the length of his coat, while Gulliver measured his own waist and arms. The finished garments resembled single-coloured patchwork and had to be assembled in his house because none of the Lilliputiansâ houses could hold them.
Three hundred cooks lived with their families in huts around his house and each prepared two dishes for him. Gulliver placed twenty waiters on his table; others below sent up food and drink by cords. A dish made one mouthful and a barrel one drink. He praised the beef and poultry, though his servants were astonished when he ate a piece of beef bones and all.
The emperor, hearing about Gulliverâs household, came to dine with the empress and their young relatives. Gulliver seated them in chairs of state on his table, surrounded by their guards. The Lord High Treasurer, Flimnap, attended with them and watched Gulliver sourly.
Gulliver ate more than usual, both to honour his country and to astonish the court. He believed the visit gave Flimnap an opportunity to undermine him. The treasurer told the emperor that the treasury was depleted, borrowing was expensive and Gulliver had already cost more than one and a half million sprugs, Lilliputâs largest gold coins. Flimnap advised the emperor to dismiss him at the first suitable opportunity.
Gulliver defends the treasurerâs wife
Gulliver also defended Flimnapâs wife, whose friendship with him had become the subject of court gossip. Malicious informers had made the treasurer jealous by claiming that she was passionately attracted to Gulliver and had visited him privately.
Gulliver insisted that the allegation was false. She had visited his house often, he said, but always openly and with three companions, usually including her sister and young daughter. Other court ladies visited in the same way, and his servants knew who arrived.
When visitors came, Gulliver lifted their coach and two horses onto a table fitted with a five-inch rim to prevent accidents. If a coach had six horses, four were first unharnessed. Sometimes four coaches full of company were on the table at once, and their occupants spent pleasant afternoons in conversation with him.
Gulliver challenged Flimnap and the informers Clustril and Drunlo to prove that anyone had visited him secretly. The only unannounced visitor he acknowledged was the secretary Reldresal, whom the emperor had sent on official business. Gulliver stressed that the ladyâs reputation mattered more than his own.
Gulliver added that his title of Nardac ranked above Flimnapâs title of Glumglum, although the treasurerâs office gave him precedence. Gulliver later learned of the false reports and their consequences: Flimnap treated both his wife and Gulliver coldly. Though the treasurer eventually discovered the truth and reconciled with her, he remained hostile to Gulliver. Gulliverâs influence with the emperor declined rapidly because the ruler relied too heavily on his favourite.