The author’s great love of his native country. His master’s observations upon the constitution and administration of England, as described by the author, with parallel cases and comparisons. His master’s observations upon human nature.
Readers might wonder why I spoke so openly about the flaws of my own species to a race that already held such a low opinion of humanity. I must confess, however, that witnessing the many virtues of these noble inhabitants, in contrast to our own corruptions, had profoundly altered my perspective. I no longer felt the need to defend the honor of my kind. Furthermore, it was impossible to hide the truth from a master as observant as mine, who daily pointed out faults in my character that I had never noticed before. Under his influence, I had developed a deep respect for absolute honesty and determined to sacrifice everything for it.
I must also admit that I had grown to venerate the Houyhnhnms so much that I resolved never to return to human society. I hoped to spend the rest of my days among them, practicing virtue and avoiding the temptations of vice. Sadly, fortune proved to be my enemy, and I was not permitted to enjoy such a happy fate. Nevertheless, I can take some comfort in the fact that, when describing my countrymen, I tried to be as favorable as the truth would allow; after all, it is natural for a man to be biased toward the land of his birth.
After I had answered all his questions, my master sent for me one morning and granted me the rare honor of sitting in his presence. He told me he had been reflecting seriously on my story. He concluded that we were creatures who had somehow acquired a small portion of reason, yet we used it only to increase our natural corruptions. In his view, we had spent our lives inventing new ways to multiply our needs while losing the natural abilities we once possessed. He observed that I lacked the strength of a common Yahoo, walked unsteadily on two feet, and had even found ways to make my own claws useless.
According to my master, our systems of government and law were merely proof of our lack of true reason. If a creature were truly rational, reason alone would be enough to govern it. He was convinced that we were physically and mentally similar to the Yahoos of his country, despite my attempts to paint a better picture of my people.
He noted that the Yahoos in his land hated each other more than they hated any other species. The reason, he suggested, was the ugliness of their own reflection, which they could see in others but not in themselves. Consequently, he believed that our custom of wearing clothes was a clever invention to hide our deformities from one another. He also saw clear parallels between human behavior and the greed of the Yahoos. For instance, if you threw enough food for fifty Yahoos to five of them, they would not eat peacefully; instead, they would fight violently, each wanting everything for himself.
Furthermore, he described how Yahoos were obsessed with certain "shining stones" of various colors found in the earth. They would dig for days to find them and hide them in heaps, watching their comrades with extreme suspicion. My master could not understand the use of these stones, but I recognized it immediately as the same avarice that drives humans to hoard gold and silver. He even recounted an experiment where he removed a Yahoo’s hidden treasure; the animal became so depressed that it stopped eating and working until the stones were secretly returned.
My master also observed that if two Yahoos fought over a stone, a third would often sneak in and steal it while they were distracted. He compared this to our lawsuits, though he remarked that the Yahoos’ version was more efficient, as only the stone was lost. In our courts, he noted, the lawyers would ensure that neither side had anything left by the time the case was over.
He was equally disgusted by the Yahoos’ diet. They would devour anything they could find, often preferring food they had stolen to the superior meals provided at home. They would eat until they were sick, then seek out a particular root that acted as a medicine. They also sought a rare, juicy root that produced an effect similar to our wine; it made them howl, dance, fight, and eventually fall asleep in the mud.
I noticed that the Yahoos were the only animals in this country subject to disease, which was caused entirely by their own filth and greed. Their language had only one name for these illnesses: hnea-yahoo, or the "Yahoo’s evil." The local cure was a disgusting mixture that I shall not describe, though I suspect it would be an effective treatment for many human ailments caused by overindulgence.
When we discussed politics, my master noted that most Yahoo herds were led by a "ruling Yahoo," who was typically the most deformed and malicious of the pack. This leader always had a favorite who performed various unpleasant tasks in exchange for small rewards. This favorite was universally hated by the rest of the herd and was only protected by his proximity to the leader. However, the moment he was discarded, his successor and the entire herd would vent their anger on him in the most humiliating ways. My master suggested that I should decide for myself how much this resembled our own political ministers.
Finally, he mentioned a strange behavior his servants had observed. Occasionally, a young, healthy Yahoo would retire to a corner to howl and groan for no apparent reason. The only remedy was to force the animal into hard labor, which always cured the problem. I remained silent, recognizing that this was the very same "spleen" or depression that affects the idle and the wealthy in my own country.
As I listened to these comparisons, I was struck by a painful realization. While the Yahoos were naturally unpleasant, our "polite" human vices—such as calculated deception, complex legal fraud, and organized warfare—were actually far worse. It seemed that our reason had not made us better than the Yahoos; it had simply made us more sophisticated in our wickedness.