CRITICAL REMARKS ON CAPT. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. BY DOCTOR BANTLEY. Published from the author's original MSS.1 Ythalonim Vualonyth si chorathisima Comsyth, TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS MARLAY, ESQ.; LORD CHIEF BARON OF THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER IN MY LORD, HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL. The following short treatise is particularly designed for those who are masters of classical learning, and perfectly acquainted with the beauties of the ancient authors. To a person thus qualified I had a desire to inscribe it; and, after the strictest enquiry, common fame hath directed me to you. I do not pretend to have the felicity of your friendship, nor can I hope to merit it by this performance; and contrary to the received maxim of all dedicators, I will freely confess, that if any other person might be found, whose virtues were as universally owned or esteemed, or of whose learning and polite taste the world conceived so high an opinion, your Lordship would probably have escaped this impertinent application, from, my Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant, 1 See page 145, note 2, and page 432, note. R. B. CRITICAL REMARKS ON GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, &c. THE travels of Captain Gulliver have been so much the amusements of both sexes for some years past, that I need not acquaint the reader either with the character of the author or his book. However, I cannot forbear giving my opinion of that performance, and I shall endeavour to do it with all possible candour and conciseness. Criticism, although so much decried by the unlearned, and so injudiciously managed by some writers, is an art of infinite advantage; because it directs the judgments of those who might otherwise be misled, as well to disrelish compositions which merit our esteem, as to approve of those, which are only worthy of our contempt. The ancients have received new beauties from their commentators, as diamonds rough from the mine derive new lustre from the polishing. Horace among the Romans, and Milton among the poets of our own nation, are held in just honour: but, I believe, each of those eminent authors owes many of the beauties discernible in the present editions of their works to the labour and learning of their modern publishers. Those errors, which arose either from the ignorance of copyists, or the conceit of interpolators, or the negligence of printers, would be handed down to posterity as a reproach to the genius of those great men, if they had not been detected by judicious critics, and accurately restored by their unwearied application. This may suffice as an apology for my present undertaking. I am far from denying Captain Gulliver his allowed merit, or envying him that uncommon applause, which I must own he hath deservedly obtained: neque ego illi detrahere ausim Haerentem capiti multa cum laude coronam.-Hor. Sat. Nor dare I from his sacred temples tear The laurel, which he best deserves to wear.- -Roch. Yet I think the world ought to be acquainted with some particulars, which, as yet, have escaped the general observation, and may be a means to instruct us how to form a more equitable judgment of the merits and defects of that work. I had thoughts of publishing my remarks on the beauties and blemishes of it, soon after its appearance: but the town was then so universally prejudiced in its favour, that I perceived it would be impossible to prevail with the public to alter its opinion. An agreeable new book is received and treated like an agreeable young bride: men are unable to discern, and even unwilling to be told of those faults in either, which are obvious enough after a more intimate acquaintance. So that I may at present hope for more attention to what I shall propose, than I could reasonably have expected in its first success. In a late edition of Gulliver, printed by subscription in Dublin, I observe an additional letter from the Captain to his friend Mr. Sympson, which was never before published. He there complains of the various censures passed upon his Travels, and particularly of that part which treats of his voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms. That nation, which he describes as the seat of virtue, and its inhabitants as models to all the world for justice, truth, cleanliness, temperance, and wisdom, are (he says) reputed no better than mere fictions of his own brain; and the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos deemed to have no more existence than the inhabitants of Utopia. I readily own, that if we were to judge of the manners of remote countries by the conduct either of our neighbouring nations or our own, it might seem somewhat incredible, that virtue could have any kind of esteem or interest in any part of the world. And therefore a nation wholly influenced by truth and honour might as justly seem a prodigy to us, as the speech and policy of the natives of Houyhnhnm land. And so far it might appear an imaginary kingdom, rather than a real one. But as I think a good author's veracity ought not unjustly to be questioned, which might hinder all good effect from his writings, and as I am entirely unconcerned whether the Captain's reputation might be more advanced, by its passing for a fiction, than for a fact; I shall undertake to convince the learned, by sufficient evidence, that such a nation as he calls the Houyhnhnms was perfectly known by the ancients; that the fame of their private and public virtues was spread through Athens, Italy, and Britain; and that the wisest poets and historians of those nations have left us ample authorities to support this opinion. The first author I shall cite is Chaucer; a poet of our own nation, who was well read in the ancient geography, and is allowed by all critics to have been a man of universal learning, as well as of inimitable wit and humour. The passage is literally thus, as I transcribed it from a very fair ancient copy, in the Bodleian Library, and compared it with other editions, in the libraries of St. James's, my Lord Oxford, and Lord Sunderland. 1 Certainly. Do not. Concerning. Horses. before. Christian. There was. is not. Any. 15 Damnable. tending Sanctity. Bible. 24 A Jest. 10 Island. 30 6 CHAUCER. Read. Chronicle. 11 Called. 12 Horses. 13 There 18 Pre 23 The 16 Covetousness. 17 Nor leud Person. 19 Silly. 20 Like. 21 Embroidered. 22-Make. 25 Harlot. 26 Brittle ware. 27 Truly. 28 Illiterate Parson. Labour. 31 Else. 32 Deed or action. 33 Stede Land, or From this remarkable passage, it is evident that the nation of the Houyhnhnms was commonly known to the ancient inhabitants of this island, by the name of Stedlonde, or Steedland; and that their manners, which are indeed more copiously |