on account of his quality and personal
merits, as well as of the many good offices he had done me during my
solicitations at court. I offered to lie down, that he might the more
conveniently reach my ear; but he chose rather to let me hold him in my
hand during our conversation. He began with compliments on my liberty;
said he might pretend to some merit in it; but, however, added, that if
it had not been for the present situation of things at court perhaps I
might not have obtained it so soon.

"For," said he, "as flourishing a condition as we may appear to be in to
foreigners, we labor under two mighty evils; a violent faction at home,
and the danger of an invasion by a most potent enemy from abroad. As to
the first, you are to understand that for above seventy moons[12] past
there have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names
_Tramecksan_ and _Slamecksan_, from the high and low heels of
their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves. It is alleged,
indeed, that the high heels are most agreeable to our ancient
constitution; but, however this be, his majesty hath determined to make
use of only low heels in the administration of the government, and all
offices in the gift of the crown, as you cannot but observe; and
particularly that his majesty's imperial heels are lower, at least by a
_drurr_, than any of his court (_drurr_ is a measure about the
fourteenth part of an inch). The animosities between these two parties
run so high that they will neither eat nor drink, nor talk with each
other. We compute the _Tramecksan_, or high heels, to exceed us in
number; but the power is wholly on our side. We apprehend his imperial
highness, the heir to the crown, to have some tendency toward the high
heels; at least we can plainly discover one of his heels higher than the
other, which gives him a hobble in his gait.

[Footnote 12: These little people measure time by _moons_ or
months, rather than by the longer division of years.]

"Now, in the midst of these intestine disquiets, we are threatened with
an invasion from the island of Blefuscu, which is the other great empire
of the universe, almost as large and powerful as this of his majesty.
For, as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other kingdoms
and states in the world, inhabited by human creatures as large as
yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather
conjecture that you dropped from the moon or one of the stars; becau