ran to hide myself in the corn, from whence I
saw him at the top of the stile, looking back into the next field on the
right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a
speaking trumpet; but the noise was so high in the air that at first I
certainly thought it was thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like
himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook
about the largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad
as the first, whose servants or laborers they seemed to be; for, upon
some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I
lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced
to move, with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were
sometimes not above a foot distance, so that I could hardly squeeze my
body betwixt them. However, I made a shift to go forward till I came to
a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind.
Here it was impossible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so
interwoven that I could not creep through, and the beards of the fallen
ears so strong and pointed that they pierced through my clothes into my
flesh. At the same time I heard the reapers not above a hundred yards
behind me.

Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and
despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might
there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children.
I lamented my own folly and wilfulness in attempting a second voyage
against the advice of all my friends and relations. In this terrible
agitation of mind, I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose
inhabitants looked upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in
the world; where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and
perform those other actions which will be recorded forever in the
chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them,
although attested by millions. I reflected what a mortification it must
prove to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation as one single
Lilliputian would be among us. But this I conceived was to be among the
least of my misfortunes: for, as human creatures are observed to be more
savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to
be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians
that should happen to seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the
right when they tel