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