第 1 节
作者:浪剑飞舟      更新:2021-10-16 18:44      字数:8835
  A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON。
  WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1727。
  I hope you will be ready to own publicly; whenever you shall be
  called to it; that by your great and frequent urgency you
  prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of
  my travels; with directions to hire some young gentleman of
  either university to put them in order; and correct the style; as
  my cousin Dampier did; by my advice; in his book called 〃A Voyage
  round the world。〃 But I do not remember I gave you power to
  consent that any thing should be omitted; and much less that any
  thing should be inserted; therefore; as to the latter; I do here
  renounce every thing of that kind; particularly a paragraph about
  her majesty Queen Anne; of most pious and glorious memory;
  although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human
  species。  But you; or your interpolator; ought to have
  considered; that it was not my inclination; so was it not decent
  to praise any animal of our composition before my master
  HOUYHNHNM:  And besides; the fact was altogether false; for to my
  knowledge; being in England during some part of her majesty's
  reign; she did govern by a chief minister; nay even by two
  successively; the first whereof was the lord of Godolphin; and
  the second the lord of Oxford; so that you have made me say the
  thing that was not。  Likewise in the account of the academy of
  projectors; and several passages of my discourse to my master
  HOUYHNHNM; you have either omitted some material circumstances;
  or minced or changed them in such a manner; that I do hardly know
  my own work。  When I formerly hinted to you something of this in
  a letter; you were pleased to answer that you were afraid of
  giving offence; that people in power were very watchful over the
  press; and apt not only to interpret; but to punish every thing
  which looked like an INNUENDO (as I think you call it)。  But;
  pray how could that which I spoke so many years ago; and at about
  five thousand leagues distance; in another reign; be applied to
  any of the YAHOOS; who now are said to govern the herd;
  especially at a time when I little thought; or feared; the
  unhappiness of living under them?  Have not I the most reason to
  complain; when I see these very YAHOOS carried by HOUYHNHNMS in a
  vehicle; as if they were brutes; and those the rational
  creatures?  And indeed to avoid so monstrous and detestable a
  sight was one principal motive of my retirement hither。
  Thus much I thought proper to tell you in relation to yourself;
  and to the trust I reposed in you。
  I do; in the next place; complain of my own great want of
  judgment; in being prevailed upon by the entreaties and false
  reasoning of you and some others; very much against my own
  opinion; to suffer my travels to be published。  Pray bring to
  your mind how often I desired you to consider; when you insisted
  on the motive of public good; that the YAHOOS were a species of
  animals utterly incapable of amendment by precept or example:
  and so it has proved; for; instead of seeing a full stop put to
  all abuses and corruptions; at least in this little island; as I
  had reason to expect; behold; after above six months warning; I
  cannot learn that my book has produced one single effect
  according to my intentions。  I desired you would let me know; by
  a letter; when party and faction were extinguished; judges
  learned and upright; pleaders honest and modest; with some
  tincture of common sense; and Smithfield blazing with pyramids of
  law books; the young nobility's education entirely changed; the
  physicians banished; the female YAHOOS abounding in virtue;
  honour; truth; and good sense; courts and levees of great
  ministers thoroughly weeded and swept; wit; merit; and learning
  rewarded; all disgracers of the press in prose and verse
  condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton; and quench their
  thirst with their own ink。  These; and a thousand other
  reformations; I firmly counted upon by your encouragement; as
  indeed they were plainly deducible from the precepts delivered in
  my book。  And it must be owned; that seven months were a
  sufficient time to correct every vice and folly to which YAHOOS
  are subject; if their natures had been capable of the least
  disposition to virtue or wisdom。  Yet; so far have you been from
  answering my expectation in any of your letters; that on the
  contrary you are loading our carrier every week with libels; and
  keys; and reflections; and memoirs; and second parts; wherein I
  see myself accused of reflecting upon great state folk; of
  degrading human nature (for so they have still the confidence to
  style it); and of abusing the female sex。  I find likewise that
  the writers of those bundles are not agreed among themselves; for
  some of them will not allow me to be the author of my own
  travels; and others make me author of books to which I am wholly
  a stranger。
  I find likewise that your printer has been so careless as to
  confound the times; and mistake the dates; of my several voyages
  and returns; neither assigning the true year; nor the true month;
  nor day of the month:  and I hear the original manuscript is all
  destroyed since the publication of my book; neither have I any
  copy left:  however; I have sent you some corrections; which you
  may insert; if ever there should be a second edition:  and yet I
  cannot stand to them; but shall leave that matter to my judicious
  and candid readers to adjust it as they please。
  I hear some of our sea YAHOOS find fault with my sea…language; as
  not proper in many parts; nor now in use。  I cannot help it。  In
  my first voyages; while I was young; I was instructed by the
  oldest mariners; and learned to speak as they did。  But I have
  since found that the sea YAHOOS are apt; like the land ones; to
  become new…fangled in their words; which the latter change every
  year; insomuch; as I remember upon each return to my own country
  their old dialect was so altered; that I could hardly understand
  the new。 And I observe; when any YAHOO comes from London out of
  curiosity to visit me at my house; we neither of us are able to
  deliver our conceptions in a manner intelligible to the other。
  If the censure of the YAHOOS could any way affect me; I should
  have great reason to complain; that some of them are so bold as
  to think my book of travels a mere fiction out of mine own brain;
  and have gone so far as to drop hints; that the HOUYHNHNMS and
  YAHOOS have no more existence than the inhabitants of Utopia。
  Indeed I must confess; that as to the people of LILLIPUT;
  BROBDINGRAG (for so the word should have been spelt; and not
  erroneously BROBDINGNAG); and LAPUTA; I have never yet heard of
  any YAHOO so presumptuous as to dispute their being; or the facts
  I have related concerning them; because the truth immediately
  strikes every reader with conviction。  And is there less
  probability in my account of the HOUYHNHNMS or YAHOOS; when it is
  manifest as to the latter; there are so many thousands even in
  this country; who only differ from their brother brutes in
  HOUYHNHNMLAND; because they use a sort of jabber; and do not go
  naked?  I wrote for their amendment; and not their approbation。
  The united praise of the whole race would be of less consequence
  to me; than the neighing of those two degenerate HOUYHNHNMS I
  keep in my stable; because from these; degenerate as they are; I
  still improve in some virtues without any mixture of vice。
  Do these miserable animals presume to think; that I am so
  degenerated as to defend my veracity?  YAHOO as I am; it is well
  known through all HOUYHNHNMLAND; that; by the instructions and
  example of my illustrious master; I was able in the compass of
  two years (although I confess with the utmost difficulty) to
  remove that infernal habit of lying; shuffling; deceiving; and
  equivocating; so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my
  species; especially the Europeans。
  I have other complaints to make upon this vexatious occasion; but
  I forbear troubling myself or you any further。  I must freely
  confess; that since my last return; some corruptions of my YAHOO
  nature have revived in me by conversing with a few of your
  species; and particularly those of my own family; by an
  unavoidable necessity; else I should never have attempted so
  absurd a project as that of reforming the YAHOO race in this
  kingdom:  But I have now done with all such visionary schemes for
  ever。
  APRIL 2; 1727