eluding them. I observe among you some lines of an institution, which,
in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and
the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It does not appear,
from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the
procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are
ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their
piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for
their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors
for their wisdom. As for yourself," continued the king, "who have spent
the greatest part of your life in travelling, I am well disposed to hope
you may hitherto have escaped many vices of your country. But by what I
have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much
pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your
natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that
nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

CHAPTER VII.

The author's love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage
to the king, which is rejected. The king's great ignorance in politics.
The learning of that country very imperfect and confined. The laws, and
military affairs, and parties in the state.

Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from
concealing this part of my story. It was in vain to discover my
resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to
rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously
treated. I am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can possibly be,
that such an occasion was given: but this prince happened to be so
curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that it could not consist
either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him what
satisfaction I was able. Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own
vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to
every point a more favourable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness
of truth would allow. For I have always borne that laudable partiality
to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with so much
justice, recommends to an historian: I would hide the frailties and
deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and beauties in
the most advantageous light. This was my sincere endeavour in