would chuse to be always in the Prime of Youth, attended with Profperity and Health ; but how he would pass a perpetual Life under all the usual Difadvantages which old Age brings along with it. For although few Men will avow their Defires of being immortal upon fuch hard Conditions, yet in the two Kingdoms before-mentioned, of Balnibarbi and Japan, he obferved, that every Man defired to put off Death, for fometime longer, let it approach ever so late; and he rarely heard of any Man who died willingly, except he were incited by the Extremity of Grief or Torture. And he appealed to me, whether in thofe Countries I had travelled, as well as my own, I had not observed the fame general Difpofition.

After this Preface, he gave me a particular Account of the Struldbrugs among them. He faid they commonly acted like Mortals, till about thirty Years old, after which, by Degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, encreafing in both till they came to fourfcore, This he learned from their own Confeffion; for otherwise, there not being above two or three of that Species born in an Age, they were too few to form a general Obfervation by. When they came to fourfcore Years, which is reckoned the Extremity of living in this Country, they had not only all the Follies and Infirmities of other old Men, but many more, which arofe from the dreadful Profpects of never dying. They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morofe, vain, talkative; but incapable of Friendship, and dead to all natural Affection, which never defcended below their Grand-chil.dren. Envy and impotent Defires are their prevailing Paffions. But thofe Objects, against which their Envy feems principally directed, are

the

the Vices of the younger Sort, and the Deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themfelves cut off from all Poffibility of Pleasure and whenever they fee a Funeral, they lament and repine that others are gone to an Harbour of Reft, to which they themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no Remembrance of any Thing, but what they learned and obferved in their Youth, and middle Age, and even that is very imperfect. And, for the Truth or Particulars of any Fact, it is fafer to depend on common Traditions, than upon their belt Recollections. The leaft miferable among them appear to be thofe who turn to Dotage, and intirely lofe their Memories; these meet with more Pity and Affiftance, because they want many bad Qualities, which abound in others.

If a Struldbrug happen to marry one of his own Kind, the Marriage is diffolved of Course, by the Courtesy of the Kingdom, as foon as the younger of the two comes to be fourfcore. For the Law thinks it a reasonable Indulgence, that those who are condemned, without any Fault of their own, to a perpetual Continuance in the World, fhould not have their Mifery doubled by the Load of a Wife.

As foon as they have compleated the Term of eighty Years, they are looked on as dead in Law; their Heirs immediately fucceed to their Eftates, only a small Pittance is referved for their Support; and the poor ones are maintained at the Public Charge. After that Period, they are he'd incapable of any Employment of Truft or Profit, they cannot purchafe Lands, or take Leafes, neither are they allowed to be Witnesses in any Caufe, R 2 either

either Civil or Criminal, not even for the Deci fion of Meers and Bounds.

At Ninety they lofe their Teeth and Hair; they have at that Age no Diftinction of Tafte, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without Relifh or Appetite. The Diseases they were subject to still continue, without Encreafing or Diminishing. In Talking, they forget the common Appellation of Things, and the Names of Perfons, even of those who are their nearest Friends and Relations. For the fame Reafon they never can amuse themselves with Reading, because their Memory will not ferve to carry them from the Beginning of a Sentence to the End; and, by this Defect, they are deprived of the only Entertainment, whereof they might otherwise be capable.

The Language of this Country being always upon the Flux, the Struldbrugs of one Age do not understand thofe of another ; neither are they able, after two hundred Years, to hold any Converfation (farther than by a few general Words) with their Neighbours, the Mortals; and thus they lie under the Difadvantage of living like Foreigners in their own Country.

This was the Account given me of the Struldbrugs, as near as I can remember. I afterwards faw five or fix of different Ages, the youngest not above two hundred Years old, who were brought to me at feveral Times by fome of my Friends; but although they were told that I was a great Traveller, and had feen all the World, they had not the leaft Curiofity to ask me a Question; only defired I would give them Slumskudask, or a Token of Remembrance; which is a modest Way of Begging, to avoid the Law that ftrictly forbids it,

be

because they are provided for by the Public, although, indeed, with a very fcanty Allowance.

They are defpifed and hated by all Sorts of People; when one of them is born, it is reckoned ominous, and their Birth is recorded very particularly; fo that you may know their Age, by confulting the Regifter; which, however, hath not been kept above a thousand Years past, or, at least, hath been destroyed by Time, or public Difturbances. But the ufual Way of computing, how old they are, is, by asking them what Kings, or great Perfons, they can remember, and then confulting Hiftory; for, infallibly, the last Prince in their Mind did not begin his Reign, after they were fourfcore Years old.

They were the most mortifying Sight I ever beheld; and the Women more horrible than the Men. Befides the ufual Deformities in extreme old Age, they acquired an additional Ghaftliness, in Proportion to their Number of Years, which is not to be described; and, among half a Dozen, I foon diftinguished which was the eldeft, although there was not above a Century or two between them.

The Reader will eafily believe, that, from what I had heard and feen, my keen Appetite for Perpetuity of Life was much abated. I grew heartily afhamed of the pleafing Visions I had formed; and thought no Tyrant could invent a Death into which I would not run with Pleafure from fuch a Life. The King heard of all that had paffed between me and my Friends upon'this Occafion, and rallied me very pleasantly; wishing I would fend a Couple of Struldbrugs to my own Country, to arm our People against the Fear of Death; but this, it feems, is forbidden, by the fundamental

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Laws

Laws of the Kingdom, or elfe I fhould have been well content with the Trouble and Expence of tranfporting them.

I could not but agree that the Laws of this Kingdom, relating to the Struldbrugs, were founded upon the strongest Reasons, and fuch as any other Country would be under the Neceffity of enacting in the like Circumftances. Otherwife, as Avarice is the neceffary Confequent of old Age, those Immortals would in Time become Proprietors of the whole Nation, and engross the Civil Power; which, for Want of Abilities to manage, muft end in the Ruin of the Public.

The Author leaves Luggnagg, and fails to Japan. From thence he returns in a Dutch Ship to Amfterdam, and from Amsterdam to England.

Thought this Account of the Struldbrugs might be fome Entertainment to the Reader, because it feems to be a little out of the common Way; at leaft, I do not remember to have met the like in any Book of Travels that hath come to my Hands: : And, if I am deceived, my Excufe muft be, that it is neceffary for Travellers, who defcribe the fame Country, very often to agree in dwelling on the fame Particulars, without deferving the Cenfure of having borrowed or transcribed from those who wrote before them.

There is, indeed, a perpetual Commerce between this Kingdom and the great Empire of Japan; and it is very probable, that the Japanese

Authors