Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 4/Chapter 4
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 4â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
In the country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver continued telling his horse-like master about human beings. His account troubled the master, whose people were unfamiliar with doubt and deception.
The purpose of speech
Gulliver recalled how difficult it had been to explain lying to his master. The Houyhnhnm reasoned that speech existed to convey understanding and information; a false statement defeated both purposes and left its hearer worse off than before. Gulliver contrasted this view with the widespread practice of lying among humans.
The master had been unable to imagine that Yahoosâthe human-like creatures despised in his countryâgoverned Gulliverâs own land. When he asked what Houyhnhnms did there, Gulliver described horses grazing in summer and being sheltered, fed and groomed by servants in winter. The master concluded:
I understand you well, said my master, it is now very plain, from all you have spoken, that whatever share of reason the Yahoos pretend to, the Houyhnhnms are your masters;
How humans use horses
Gulliver feared the rest of the explanation would offend his master, but the Houyhnhnm ordered him to continue. Gulliver said that horses belonging to wealthy people were cared for while they could travel, race or draw carriages. Once sick or injured, however, they were sold into hard labour; after death their skins were sold and their bodies left to scavengers. Farmersâ and carriersâ horses generally worked harder and ate less.
He described riding equipment, harnesses, whips and the iron shoes used to protect horsesâ hooves. His indignant master wondered why a horse did not throw or crush a rider. Gulliver explained that horses were trained young, beaten for misbehaviour and often castrated to make them easier to control. He insisted that, unlike humans, they had no reason.
The master was especially outraged by castration. He conceded that, if Yahoos possessed reason, they might eventually rule through it despite their physical weakness. Yet he questioned how creatures with bodies like Gulliverâs could make other animals serve them.
Compared with the local Yahoos, Gulliver was cleaner and less deformed, the master thought, but less well equipped for practical life. His hands and feet were soft, he could fall when walking on two legs, and he needed clothes and shoes for protection. Moreover, other animals naturally avoided or drove away Yahoos. The master then set the question aside and asked Gulliver for his life story.
Gulliverâs voyage and crew
Gulliver warned that many things in his story had no equivalent in Houyhnhnm country. With his masterâs promised help, he tried to explain them by comparison. He said he had been born in England, an island ruled by a queen, and trained as a surgeon. He had gone to sea to earn money for his family.
On his last voyage he had commanded about fifty men. Many died, and he recruited replacements from several countries after the ship had survived a storm and a collision with a rock. Asked why strangers would sail with him after such dangers, Gulliver explained that they were desperate men who could not safely return home.
Some had been ruined by lawsuits or squandered their money; others were fleeing punishment for crimes or desertion. Many had escaped prison and risked execution or starvation if they returned.
Explaining human vices
Over several days, Gulliver struggled to explain the crewâs crimes and the desires and passions behind them. His master repeatedly interrupted, unable to see any need for such acts. The Houyhnhnm language lacked words for many human institutions and conflicts, so Gulliver had to invent examples and describe imagined situations.
As he began to understand, the master reacted with amazement and indignation. Gulliver summed up the difficulty:
Power, government, war, law, punishment, and a thousand other things had no terms, wherein that language could express them, which made the difficulty almost insuperable to give my master any conception of what I meant.
Eventually the master gained some understanding of what humans were capable of doing. He asked Gulliver for a fuller account of Europe, and especially of England.