fairs, reduced to a miniature, seem diminutive and ridiculous— as a very small man does in the eyes of men of average dimensions. As Hazlitt points out, Gulliver's carrying off of the whole fleet of Blefuscu is "a mortifying stroke, aimed at national glory"—for the pomp and circumstance of naval warfare are reduced to toyshop scale and so made mirth-provoking. Lying down behind a hillock, I took out my small perspective glass, and viewed the enemy's fleet at anchor, consisting of about fifty men-of-war, and a great number of transports: I then came back to my house, and gave order (for which I had a warrant) for a great quantity of the strongest cable and bars of iron. The cable was about as thick as packthread, and the bars of the length and size of a knitting needle. I trebled the cable to make it stronger, and, for the same reason, I twisted three of the iron bars together, binding the extremities into a hook. Having thus fixed fifty hooks to as many cables, I went back to the north-east coast, and putting off my coat, shoes, and stockings, walked into the sea. . . . The enemy was so frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships, and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand souls. I then took my tackling, and, fastening a hook to the hole at the prow of each, I tied all the cords together at the end. While I was thus employed, the enemy discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck in my hands and face, and, besides the excessive smart, gave me much disturbance in my work. . . . I went on boldly in spite of the enemy's arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but without any other effect, farther than a little to discompose them. I had now fastened all the hooks, and, taking the knot in my hand, began to pull, but not a ship would stir, for they were all too fast held by their anchors, so that the boldest part of my enterprise remained. I therefore let go the cord, and leaving the hooks fixed to the ships, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors, receiving above two hundred shots in my face and hands; then I took up the knotted end of the cables to which my hooks were tied, and with great ease drew fifty of the enemy's largest men-of-war after me. In Brobdingnag we look through the other end of the telescope. Gulliver is among giants who show a gigantic magnanimity, which contrasts with the pettiness of human beings. It is almost impossible to open Swift's writings at any page without lighting upon some passage which has become a household word. Such, for instance, as the following: And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages. Swift is both a glory and a disgrace of world-literature. In his books, in his life, he exposes to the mind's eye the lowest deeps and the loftiest heights of which the mutable spirit of man is capable. In him Reason, as the eighteenth century understood it, committed suicide. BIBLIOGRAPHY For a general survey of this period see the Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. ix, "From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift." ALEXANDER POPE: Poetical Works. Essay on Criticism, edited by J. Churton Collins. Sir Leslie Stephen's Pope. JOHN GAY: The Beggar's Opera. Polly. RICHARD STEELE: Selections from the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, edited by Austin Essays, edited by L. E. Steele. The Complete Plays of Richard Steele in the "Mermaid" Series. JOSEPH ADDISON: The Works, in 6 vols., with the Notes of Bishop Hurd. The Spectator, in 4 vols., in Everyman's Library. W. J. Courthope's Addison JONATHAN SWIFT: Gulliver's Travels in the Everyman's Library. The Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, etc. (1 vol.), in the Everyman's Library. Sir Leslie Stephen's Swift. |