CHAPTER VII.

THE AUTHOR LEAVES LAGADO; ARRIVES AT MALDONADA.-NO SHIP READY.-HE TAKES A SHORT VOYAGE TO GLUBBDUBDRIB.-HIS RECEPTION BY THE GOVERNOR.

HE continent, of which this kingdom is a part, extends itself, as I have reason to believe, eastward, to that unknown tract of America westward of California; and north, to the Pacific Ocean, which is not above a hundred and fifty miles from Lagado; where there is a good port, and much commerce from the great island of Luggnagg, situated to the north-west about 29 degrees north latitude and 140 longitude. This island of Luggnagg stands south-eastward of Japan, about a hundred leagues distant. There is a strict alliance between the Japanese emperor and the king of Luggnagg, which affords frequent opportunities of sailing from one island to the other. I determined therefore to direct my course this way, in order to my return to Europe. I hired two mules, with a guide to show me the way, and carry my small baggage. I took leave of my noble protector who had shown me so much favour, and made me a generous present at my departure.

My journey was without any accident or adventure worth relating. When I arrived at the port of Maldonada (for so it is called), there was no ship in the harbour bound for Luggnagg, nor likely to be for some time. The town is about as large as Portsmouth. I soon fell into some acquaintance, and was very hospitably received. A gentleman of distinction said to me, that since the ships bound for Luggnagg could not be ready in less than a month, it might be no disagreeable amusement for me to take a trip to the little island of Glubbdubdrib, about five leagues off to the south-west. He offered himself and a friend to accompany me, and that I should be provided with a small convenient barque for the voyage.

Glubbdubdrib, as near as I can interpret the word, signifies the island of sorcerers or magicians. It is about one-third as large as the Isle of Wight, and extremely fruitful: it is governed by the head of a

certain tribe, who are all magicians. This tribe marries only among each other, and the eldest in succession is prince or governor. He has a noble palace, and a park of three thousand acres, surrounded by a wall of hewn stone twenty feet high. In this park are several small enclosures for cattle, corn, and gardening.

The governor and his family are served and attended by domestics of a kind somewhat unusual. By his skill in necromancy, he has a power of calling whom he pleases from the dead, and commanding their service for twenty-four hours, but no longer; nor can he call the same persons up again in less than three months, except upon very extraordinary occasions.

When we arrived at this island, which was about eleven in the morning, one of the gentlemen who accompanied me went to the governor, and desired admittance for a stranger, who came on purpose to have the honour of attending on his highness. This was immediately granted, and we all three entered the gate of the palace between two rows of guards, armed and dressed after a very antique manner, and something in their countenances that made my flesh creep with a horror I cannot express. We passed through several apartments, between servants of the same sort, ranked on each side as before, till we came to the chamber of presence; where, after three profound obeisances, and a few general questions, we were permitted to sit on three stools, near the lowest step of his highness's throne. He understood the language of Balnibarbi, although it was different from that of this island. He desired me to give him some account of my travels; and to let me see that I should be treated without ceremony, he dismissed all his attendants with a turn of his finger; at which, to my great astonishment, they vanished in an instant, like visions in a dream when we awake on a sudden. I could not recover myself in some time, till the governor assured me that I should receive no hurt; and observing my two companions to be under no concern, who had been often entertained in the same manner, I began to take courage, and related to his highness a short history of my several adventures, yet not without some hesitation, and frequently looking behind me to the place where I had seen those domestic spectres. I had the honour to dine with the governor, where a new set of ghosts served up the meat and waited at table. I now observed myself to be less terrified than I had been in the morning. I stayed till sunset, but humbly desired his highness to excuse me for not accepting his invitation of lodging in the

palace. My two friends and I lay at a private house in the town adjoining, which is the capital of this little island; and the next morning we returned to pay our duty to the governor, as he was pleased to command us.

After this manner we continued in the island for ten days, most part of every day with the governor, and at night in our lodging. I soon grew so familiarised to the sight of spirits, that after the third or fourth time they gave me no emotion at all; or if I had any apprehensions left, my curiosity prevailed over them. For his highness the governor ordered me to call up whatever persons I might choose to name, and in whatever numbers, among all the dead from the beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to answer any questions I should think fit to ask; with this condition, that my question be confined within the compass of the times they lived in. And one thing I might depend upon, that they would certainly tell me the truth, for lying was a talent of no use in the lower world.*

I made my humble acknowledgments to his highness for so great a favour. We were in a chamber from whence there was a fair prospect into the park. And because my first inclination was to be entertained with scenes of pomp and magnificence, I desired to see Alexander the Great at the head of his army, just after the battle of Arbela, which, upon a motion of the governor's finger, immediately appeared in a large field, under the window where we stood. Alexander was called up into the room; it was with great difficulty I understood his Greek, and had but little of my own. He assured me upon his honour that he was not poisoned, but died of a bad fever by excessive drinking.+

The idea of introducing his readers into the company of the departed, was probably suggested to Swift by Lucian's "Dialogues of the Dead." What his object may have been it is not easy to determine, beyond that general moral design of exhibiting man, his acts and his objects, as they shall appear in their true light, unaffected by the passions and the prejudices which surrounded and obscured them while living. It is possible, too, that under the characters of departed celebrities, Swift may have meant to satirise the conduct of some of the men of his own day; but if this were so, we have lost the key of the interpretation. “I believe," says Lord Orrery, "it would be impossible to find out the design of Dr. Swift in summoning up a parcel of apparitions that, from their behaviour, or from anything they say, are almost of as little consequence as the ghosts in Gay's farce of the 'What d'ye Call It.' Perhaps Swift's general design might be to arraign the conduct of eminent persons after their death, and to convey their names and images to posterity, deprived of those false colours in which they formerly appeared. If these were his intentions, he has missed his aim; or at least has been so far carried away by his disposition to raillery, that the moral which ought to arise from such a fable is buried in obscurity."

Lord Orrery's criticism on this passage is neither acute nor just. "After a hint from

Next, I saw Hannibal passing the Alps, who told me he had not a drop of vinegar in his camp.

*

I saw Cæsar and Pompey at the head of their troops, just ready to engage. I saw the former in the last great triumph. I desired that the senate of Rome might appear before me, in one large chamber, and a modern representative in counterview, in another. The first seemed to be an assembly of heroes and demi-gods; the other, a knot of pedlars, pickpockets, highwaymen, and bullies.†

The governor, at my request, gave the sign for Cæsar and Brutus to advance towards us. I was struck with a profound veneration at the sight of Brutus, and could easily discover the most consummate virtue, the greatest intrepidity and firmness of mind, the truest love of his country, and general benevolence of mankind, in every lineament of his I observed, with much pleasure, that these two persons were in good intelligence with each other; and Cæsar freely confessed to me that the greatest actions of his own life were not equal, by many degrees, to the glory of taking it away. I had the honour to

countenance.

Gulliver that we have lost the true Greek idiom, the conqueror of the universe is made to declare that he died of excessive drinking, not by poison," which he calls a trifling and improper observation, when he should have spoken of some of the great events of his life. Dr. Hawkesworth has better appreciated the point of Swift's satire. "The appearance of Alexander with a victorious army after the battle of Arbela, produces only a declaration that he died by drunkenness: thus inadequate and ridiculous in the eye of reason is the ultimate purpose for which Alexander with his army marched into a remote country, subverted a mighty empire, and deluged a nation with blood; he gained no more than an epithet to his name, which, after a few repetitions, was no longer regarded even by himself. Thus the purpose of his resurrection appears to be at least equally important with that of his life, upon which it is a satire not more bitter than just." We think there is a higher moral here which even Dr. Hawkesworth has overlooked-namely, that while the deeds that filled the world have perished and are not worth a thought, the truth is eternal and all-important; and so the highest mission for the dead hero was to proclaim the truth, and thus clear the character of Antipater, even at the expense of his own.

There is here a plain intimation of the author's disbelief in the story told by Livy (Book xxi., chap. 37) of Hannibal having burst a rock which opposed his passage through the Alps, by burning wood upon it till it was heated, and then pouring vinegar upon it. "Milites ducti, quum cædendum esset saxum, arboribus circa in manibus dejectis detruncatisque, struem ingentem lignorum faciunt: eamque (quum et vis venti apta faciendo igni coorta esset) succendunt, ardentiaque saxa infuso aceto putrefaciunt." Polybius makes no mention of this, and modern writers, while admitting that vinegar might produce the effect, doubt the possibility of Hannibal having a sufficient quantity to accomplish such a feat.

† Pompey and Cæsar only appear to grace the entry of Brutus. The placing the senate of Rome in juxtaposition with a modern representative assembly gives Swift an opportunity of satirising the British Parliament, which he handles in a manner more resembling the cynic in his cell than the free-humoured Rabelais in his easy chair.

Brutus is evidently a character high in the estimation of Swift, and by the comparison between him and Cæsar, and the admission which the author puts into the mouth of the