\'Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World\' is a satirical novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726. The novel is a classic work of English literature and is celebrated for its biting satire, keen social commentary, and imaginative storytelling.The story follows Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, who embarks on a series of remarkable voyages to distant lands. Gulliver's travels take him to the miniature land of Lilliput, where he is a giant among tiny inhabitants, and to Brobdingnag, where he encounters giants in comparison to his own diminished size. He also visits Laputa, a floating island inhabited by intellectuals absorbed in abstract thinking, and the land of the Houyhnhnms, intelligent horses who rule over primitive and irrational humanoid creatures called Yahoos.Swift uses Gulliver's adventures to satirize various aspects of human nature, society, and politics. The novel is a sharp critique of the prevailing political and social conditions of Swift's time, with each fantastical land serving as a lens through which he addresses issues such as government corruption, human folly, and the abuse of power.\'Gulliver's Travels\' remains a timeless and influential work, appreciated for its wit, humor, and the depth of its social and political commentary. Swift's skillful use of satire and allegory has ensured that the novel continues to be studied and enjoyed for its rich literary and intellectual contributions.
Those to whom the king had entrusted me, observing how ill I was clad, ordered a tailor to come next morning, and take measure for a suit of clothes. This operator did his office after a different manner from those of his trade in Europe. He first took my altitude by a quadrant, and then, with a rule and compasses, described the dimensions and outlines of my whole body, all which he entered upon paper; and in six days brought my clothes very ill made, and quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a figure in the calculation. But my comfort was, that I observed such accidents very frequent, and little regarded.
id: b4fe27e4e88470b26ad04c400e988ccc - page: 140
During my confinement for want of clothes, and by an indisposition that held me some days longer, I much enlarged my dictionary; and when I went next to court, was able to understand many things the king spoke, and to return him some kind of answers. His majesty had given orders, that the island should move north-east and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the metropolis of the whole kingdom below, upon the firm earth. It was about ninety leagues distant, and our voyage lasted four days and a half. I was not in the least sensible of the progressive motion made in the air by the island. On the second morning, about eleven oclock, the king himself in person, attended by his nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical instruments, played on them for three hours without intermission, so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither could I possibly guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me. He said that, the people of their island had their ears adap
id: 125b0f4cb764f246defe76836ea61e9e - page: 141
In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty ordered that the island should stop over certain towns and villages, from whence he might receive the petitions of his subjects. And to this purpose, several packthreads were let down, with small weights at the bottom. On these packthreads the people strung their petitions, which mounted up directly, like the scraps of paper fastened by schoolboys at the end of the string that holds their kite. Sometimes we received wine and victuals from below, which were drawn up by pulleys. The knowledge I had in mathematics gave me great assistance in acquiring their phraseology, which depended much upon that science, and music; and in the latter I was not unskilled. Their ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures. If they would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles,
id: fc92596e164d7dcf1ead387716c11b45 - page: 141
I observed in the kings kitchen all sorts of mathematical and musical instruments, after the figures of which they cut up the joints that were served to his majestys table.
id: 56e8bccaf55d240953cb462308d6c1d7 - page: 142