A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON
Written in the Year 1727
I hope you are prepared to acknowledge openly, whenever you are asked, that it was only through your persistent urging that I was convinced to publish this disorganized account of my travels. I had specifically instructed you to hire a young scholar to polish the style, yet I never gave you the authority to omit or insert anything. Therefore, I must firmly renounce the additions you made. I was particularly annoyed by a paragraph praising the late Queen Anne; although I respected her greatly, it was entirely inappropriate to praise any "human animal" in the presence of my Houyhnhnm master. Furthermore, your additions were factually incorrect. You have made me state things that simply were not true.
Regarding the other sections—especially those concerning the Academy of Projectors and my conversations with my master Houyhnhnm—you have either omitted vital details or distorted them so much that I hardly recognize my own work. When I previously mentioned this to you, you claimed you were afraid of offending those in power. But how could words spoken so many years ago, five thousand leagues away in a different era, possibly apply to the Yahoos who currently govern this country? It is I who should be complaining, especially when I see Yahoos being pulled in carriages by Houyhnhnms—a sight so monstrous that it was the primary reason for my retirement.
I must also confess my own lack of judgment. Against my better instincts, I allowed myself to be swayed by your arguments that publishing this book would serve the public good. I asked you to consider that Yahoos are a species utterly incapable of improving through advice or example. My predictions have been proven correct. After six months of my book being in print, I cannot find a single piece of evidence that it has had the intended effect.
I had naively expected that by now, political factions would have been abolished and judges would have become honest and upright. I anticipated a world where physicians were banished, where female Yahoos were defined by virtue and honor, and where merit and learning were finally rewarded. I truly believed that seven months would be sufficient time to correct every vice and folly of the Yahoo race. Instead, you continue to send me weekly reports of insults, critiques, and "second parts" of my story, in which I am accused of insulting the government and degrading human nature.
I also find that your printer has been incredibly careless with dates and times, making numerous errors regarding my voyages. Since the original manuscript has apparently been destroyed, I have sent some corrections for a potential second edition, though I doubt I shall bother to defend them. I will leave it to the judgment of my readers to settle such matters.
I understand that some "sea Yahoos" find fault with my maritime language, claiming it is outdated. I cannot help this. During my early voyages, I was taught by the oldest sailors and spoke as they did. I have since noticed that sailors, like land-dwellers, are constantly inventing new words. In fact, every time I return home, I find the English dialect so altered that I can barely understand my own visitors.
If the opinions of Yahoos could still affect me, I would be deeply offended by those who suggest my travels are mere fiction. Some even dare to hint that Houyhnhnms and Yahoos are as imaginary as the inhabitants of Utopia. It is strange that readers easily believe in the people of Lilliput or Brobdingnag because the truth is so obvious, yet they doubt the existence of Houyhnhnms. To me, the truth of the Yahoos is manifest; thousands of them live in this very country, differing from their wild brothers only by their use of speech and their habit of wearing clothes.
Do these miserable creatures truly expect me to defend my honesty? Although I am a Yahoo myself, it was well known in the Land of the Houyhnhnms that, under my master’s guidance, I managed to break the "human" habit of lying and deceiving. I have many other complaints about this frustrating situation, but I will not trouble myself further. I must admit that since my return, some corruptions of my own Yahoo nature have returned to me due to my unavoidable contact with your species. Had I remained solitary, I would never have attempted the absurd project of reforming the Yahoo race. I am now finished with such visionary schemes forever.
April 2, 1727