been always averfe from executing fo terrible an action, unless upon the utmost neceffity. For if the town intended to be deftroyed fhould have in it any tall rocks, as it generally falls out in the larger cities, a fituation probably chofen at first with a view to prevent fuch a catastrophe; or if it abound in high fpires, or pillars of ftone, a fudden fall might endanger the bottom or under furface of the island, which, although it confift, as I have faid, of one intire adamant two hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by too great a fhock, or burft by approaching too near the fires from the houfes below, as the backs both of iron and flone will often do in our chimnies. Of all this the people are well apprifed, and underftand how far to carry their obftinacy, where their liberty or property is concerned. And the king, when he is higheft provoked, and most determined to prefs a city to rubbish, orders the island to defcend with great gentleness out of a pretence of tendernefs to his people; but indeed for fear of breaking the adamantine bottom; in which cafe, it is the opinion of all their philofophers, that the load-ftone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mafs would fall to the ground.

By a fundamental law of this realm neither the king, nor either of his two elder fons, are permitted to leave the island, nor the queen, till the is paft child-bearing.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

The author leaves Laputa, is conveyed to Bals nibarbi, arrives at the metropolis. A deJcription of the metropolis, and the country adjoining. The author hofpitably received by a great lord. His converfation with that lord.

A

Lthough I cannot say that I was ill treated in this ifland, yet I must confefs I thought myself too much neglected, not without fome degree of contempt. For neither prince nor people appeared to be curious in any part of knowledge, except mathematics and mufic, wherein I was far their inferior, and upon that account very little regarded.

On the other fide, after having feen all the curiofities of the island, I was very defirous to leave it, being heartily weary of those people. They were indeed excellent in two fciences, for which I have great esteem, and wherein I am not unverfed, but at the fame time fo abftracted and involved in fpeculation, that I never met with fuch difagreeable companions. I converfed only with women, tradesmen, flappers, and court-pages, during two months of my abode there; by which at last I rendered myself extremely con temptible; yet thefe were the only people, from whom I could ever receive a reasonable answer.

I had obtained by hard ftudy a good degree of knowledge in their language: I was weary of being confined to an island, where I received fo little countenance, and refolved to leave it with the first opportunity.

There was a great lord at court, nearly related to the king, and for that reafon alone, used with respect. He was univerfally reckoned the most ignorant and ftupid perfon among them. He had performed many eminent fervices for the crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour, but fo ill an ear for mufic, that his detractors reported he had been often known to beat time in the wrong place; neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty teach him to demonstrate the most easy propofition in the mathematics. He was pleased to fhew me many marks of favour, often did me the honour of a vifit, defired to be informed in the affairs of Europe, the laws and customs, the manners and learning of the feveral countries where I had travelled. He liftened to me with great attention, and made very wife obfervations on all I fpoke. He had two flappers attending him for ftate, but never made use of them, except at court and in vifits of ceremony, and would always command them to withdraw, when we were alone together.

I entreated this illuftrious perfon to intercede in my behalf with his majesty for leave to depart, which he accordingly did, as he was pleased to tell me with regret: for indeed

he

he had made me feveral offers very advantageous, which however I refused with expreffions of the highest acknowledgment.

On the 16th of February I took leave of his majesty and the court. The king made me a prefent to the value of about two hundred pounds English, and my protector, his kinfman, as much more, together with a letter of recommendation to a friend of his in Lagado, the metropolis: the island being then hovering over a mountain about two miles from it, I was let down from the lowest gallery, in the fame manner as I had been taken up.

The continent, as far as it is fubject to the monarch of the flying island, paffes under the general name of Balnibarbi; and the metropolis, as I faid before, is called Lagade. I felt fome little fatisfaction in finding myself on firm ground. I walked to the city without any concern, being clad like one of the natives, and fufficiently inftructed to converse with them. I foon found out the perfon's house, to whom I was recommended, prefented my letter from his friend the grandee in the island, and was received with much kindnefs. This great lord, whose name was Munodi, ordered me an apartment in his own house, where I continued during my ftay, and was entertained in a moft hofpitable man

ner.

The next morning after my arrival he took me in his chariot to fee the town, which is about

Q3

about half the bignefs of London, but the houses very strangely built, and most of them out of repair. The people in the streets walked faft, looked wild, their eyes fixed, and were generally in rags. We paffed through one of the town gates, and went about three miles into the country, where I faw many labourers working with feveral forts of tools in the ground, but was not able to conjecture what they were about; neither did I obferve any expectation either of corn or grafs, although the foil appeared to be excellent. I could not forbear admiring at these odd appearances both in town and country; and I made bold to defire my conductor, that he would be pleased to explain to me, what could be meant by fo many bufy heads, hands, and faces both in the streets and the fields, because I did not discover any good effects they produced; but, on the contrary, I never knew a foil fo unhappily cultivated, houfes fo ill contrived and fo ruinous, or a people whofe countenances and habit expressed so much mifery and want.

This lord Munodi was a perfon of the first rank, and had been fome years governor of Lagado; but by a cabal of minifters was dif charged for infufficiency. However, the king treated him with tenderness, as a well-meaning man, but of a low contemptible underftanding.

When I gave that free cenfure of the country and its inhabitants, he made no further anfwer, than by telling me, that I had not

been