material points which were discoursed at several times for above two
years; his honour often desiring fuller satisfaction, as I farther
improved in the _Houyhnhnm_ tongue. I laid before him, as well as I
could, the whole state of Europe; I discoursed of trade and manufactures,
of arts and sciences; and the answers I gave to all the questions he
made, as they arose upon several subjects, were a fund of conversation
not to be exhausted. But I shall here only set down the substance of
what passed between us concerning my own country, reducing it in order as
well as I can, without any regard to time or other circumstances, while I
strictly adhere to truth. My only concern is, that I shall hardly be
able to do justice to my master's arguments and expressions, which must
needs suffer by my want of capacity, as well as by a translation into our
barbarous English.

In obedience, therefore, to his honour's commands, I related to him the
Revolution under the Prince of Orange; the long war with France, entered
into by the said prince, and renewed by his successor, the present queen,
wherein the greatest powers of Christendom were engaged, and which still
continued: I computed, at his request, "that about a million of _Yahoos_
might have been killed in the whole progress of it; and perhaps a hundred
or more cities taken, and five times as many ships burnt or sunk."

He asked me, "what were the usual causes or motives that made one country
go to war with another?" I answered "they were innumerable; but I should
only mention a few of the chief. Sometimes the ambition of princes, who
never think they have land or people enough to govern; sometimes the
corruption of ministers, who engage their master in a war, in order to
stifle or divert the clamour of the subjects against their evil
administration. Difference in opinions has cost many millions of lives:
for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the
juice of a certain berry be blood or wine; whether whistling be a vice or
a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire;
what is the best colour for a coat, whether black, white, red, or gray;
and whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean;
with many more. Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so
long a continuance, as those occasioned by difference in opinion,
especially if it be in things indifferent.

"Sometimes the quarrel between two princes