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

PART I. A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.

CHAPTER I.

The author gives some account of h