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power; the practice of which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service of his country,
except where a course of study is required. But they thought the want of moral virtues was so far from being supplied by superior
endowments of the mind, that employments could never be put into such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at
least, that the mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition, would never be of such fatal consequence to the public weal,
as the practices of a man, whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities to manage, to multiply, and defend his
corruptions.
In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable of holding any public station; for, since kings avow
themselves to be the deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a prince to employ such men as
disown the authority under which he acts.
In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions, and not the most scandalous
corruptions, into which these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great
employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader
is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the
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Gulliver's Travels
gradual increase of party and faction.
Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some other countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes
ill returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom he has received no obligation, and
therefore such a man is not fit to live.
Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is
founded upon the great law of nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the Lilliputians will needs have it, that men and
women are joined together, like other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness towards their young
proceeds from the like natural principle: for which reason they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for
begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in
itself, nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love encounters, were otherwise employed. Upon these, and the like
reasonings, their opinion is, that parents are the last of all others to be trusted with the education of their own children; and therefore
they have in every town public nurseries, where all parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their infants of both
sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some rudiments
of docility. These schools are of several kinds, suited to different qualities, and both sexes. They have certain professors well skilled in
preparing children for such a condition of life as befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations. I shall
first say something of the male nurseries, and then of the female.
The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave and learned professors, and their several deputies. The
clothes and food of the children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the principles of honour, justice, courage, modesty,
clemency, religion, and love of their country; they are always employed in some business, except in the times of eating and sleeping,
which are very short, and two hours for diversions consisting of bodily exercises. They are dressed by men till four years of age, and
then are obliged to dress themselves, although their quality be ever so great; and the women attendant, who are aged proportionably to
ours at fifty, perform only the most menial offices. They are never suffered to converse with servants, but go together in smaller or
greater numbers to take their diversions, and always in the presence of a professor, or one of his deputies; whereby they avoid those
early bad impressions of folly and vice, to which our children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see them only twice a year; the
visit is to last but an hour; they are allowed to kiss the child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always stands by on those
occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like.
The pension from each family for the education and entertainment of a child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor's
officers.
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