Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 4/Chapter 5
from the Collection “Gulliver's Travels. Part 4”
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
During more than two years among the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver held many conversations with his master as he learned their language. At his master’s request, he described Europe and, in particular, his own country. He later arranged the substance of their discussions by subject rather than by time.
His Houyhnhnm master questioned him about human customs, judging them against nature and reason.
The causes and costs of war
Gulliver told his master about the revolution under the Prince of Orange and the continuing war with France, renewed under the reigning queen. At his master’s request, he estimated that a million Yahoos, as he called people, might have been killed, a hundred cities taken and three hundred ships destroyed.
Asked why countries fought, he listed rulers’ ambition, ministers’ attempts to distract their subjects from corruption, and disputes over beliefs and ceremonies. He said wars over differences of opinion were especially bloody and prolonged, even when the disputed matters were of little importance.
He described princes fighting to seize another ruler’s land, attacking out of fear or greed, and exploiting countries weakened by famine, disease or internal conflict. His examples included invaders killing and enslaving people in the name of civilization, and allies taking over the lands they had been asked to defend. Family ties could provoke quarrels; poorer rulers also hired their troops out to richer ones and kept most of their pay.
Gulliver summed up the supposed honour of military service by telling his master what a soldier was:
a Yahoo hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.
The master learns about weapons
The master doubted Gulliver’s death toll. Human Yahoos had such small teeth and weak claws, he said, that they could hardly do one another much harm. Gulliver smiled at his ignorance and described firearms, cannon, sieges and naval battles, as well as the dead and wounded, plunder, rape and destruction. He had seen English forces blow up a hundred enemies at a time, while spectators enjoyed the sight.
His master ordered him to stop. He could believe Yahoos capable of such acts if their cunning matched their malice, but the account disturbed him and increased his hatred of the species. He did not blame the local Yahoos for their nature; creatures claiming reason, however, seemed capable of something worse than mere brutality. He concluded that humans possessed a faculty that enlarged and distorted their vices rather than reason.
A dispute over a cow
The master changed the subject to law. Gulliver had said that some of his shipmates had left home after being ruined by it. The master could not understand how laws intended to protect people could ruin them. Gulliver admitted that his own knowledge came chiefly from unsuccessfully employing lawyers after suffering injustices.
He described lawyers as a profession trained to argue for whichever side paid them. To show how they worked, he imagined a neighbour claiming his cow: each would have to hire a lawyer, and the rightful owner’s advocate would be uncomfortable defending justice. Gulliver claimed he could save the cow either by bribing the opposing lawyer to betray his client or by making his own claim appear unjust.
Judges, he said, were chosen from experienced lawyers and favoured fraud and oppression. They relied on precedents—earlier decisions treated as authorities—even when those decisions contradicted common justice. In the cow case, lawyers would argue over irrelevant details and postpone judgment for years. Their obscure language and multiplying laws made even an inherited field’s ownership difficult to establish.
Trials and the lawyers’ supposed wisdom
Gulliver said trials for crimes against the state were quicker: a judge first discovered what those in power wanted, then condemned or saved the accused while observing legal forms.
The master thought lawyers with such remarkable mental abilities ought to teach wisdom and knowledge. Gulliver replied that outside their profession they were usually ignorant, hostile to learning and just as ready to distort reason in other subjects as they were in law.