<p class="gutsumm">The Luggnaggians commended. A particular
description of the Struldbrugs, with many conversations between
the author and some eminent persons upon that subject.</p>
<p>The Luggnaggians are a polite and generous people; and
although they are not without some share of that pride which is
peculiar to all Eastern countries, yet they show themselves
courteous to strangers, especially such who are countenanced by
the court. I had many acquaintance, and among persons of
the best fashion; and being always attended by my interpreter,
the conversation we had was not disagreeable.</p>
<p>One day, in much good company, I was asked by a person of
quality, “whether I had seen any of their
<i>struldbrugs</i>, or immortals?” I said, “I
had not;” and desired he would explain to me “what he
meant by such an appellation, applied to a mortal
creature.” He told me “that sometimes, though
very rarely, a child happened to be born in a family, with a red
circular spot in the forehead, directly over the left eyebrow,
which was an infallible mark that it should never
die.” The spot, as he described it, “was about
the compass of a silver threepence, but in the course of time
grew larger, and changed its colour; for at twelve years old it
became green, so continued till five and twenty, then turned to a
deep blue: at five and forty it grew coal black, and as large as
an English shilling; but never admitted any further
alteration.” He said, “these births were so
rare, that he did not believe there could be above eleven hundred
struldbrugs, of both sexes, in the whole kingdom; of which he
computed about fifty in the metropolis, and, among the rest, a
young girl born; about three years ago: that these productions
were not peculiar to any family, but a mere effect of chance; and
the children of the <i>struldbrugs</i> themselves were equally
mortal with the rest of the people.”</p>
<p>I freely own myself to have been struck with inexpressible
delight, upon hearing this account: and the person who gave it me
happening to understand the Balnibarbian language, which I spoke
very well, I could not forbear breaking out into expressions,
perhaps a little too extravagant. I cried out, as in a
rapture, “Happy nation, where every child hath at least a
chance for being immortal! Happy people, who enjoy so many
living examples of ancient virtue, and have masters ready to
instruct them in the wisdom of all former ages! but happiest,
beyond all comparison, are those excellent <i>struldbrugs</i>,
who, being born exempt from that universal calamity of human
nature, have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight
and depression of spirits caused by the continual apprehensions
of death!” I discovered my admiration that I had not
observed any of these illustrious persons at court; the black
spot on the forehead being so remarkable a distinction, that I
could not have easily overlooked it: and it was impossible that
his majesty, a most judicious prince, should not provide himself
with a good number of such wise and able counsellors. Yet
perhaps the virtue of those reverend sages was too strict for the
corrupt and libertine manners of a court: and we often find by
experience, that young men are too opinionated and volatile to be
guided by the sober dictates of their seniors. However,
since the king was pleased to allow me access to his royal
person, I was resolved, upon the very first occasion, to deliver
my opinion to him on this matter freely and at large, by the help
of my interpreter; and whether he would please to take my advice
or not, yet in one thing I was determined, that his majesty
having frequently offered me an establishment in this country, I
would, with great thankfulness, accept the favour, and pass my
life here in the conversation of those superior beings the
<i>struldbrugs</i>, if they would please to admit me.”</p>
<p>The gentleman to whom I addressed my discourse, because (as I
have already observed) he spoke the language of Balnibarbi, said
to me, with a sort of a smile which usually arises from pity to
the ignorant, “that he was glad of any occasion to keep me
among them, and desired my permission to explain to the company
what I had spoke.” He did so, and they talked
together for some time in their own language, whereof I
understood not a syllable, neither could I observe by their
countenances, what impression my discourse had made on
them. After a short silence, the same person told me,
“that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express
himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had
made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and
they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme
of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my
lot to have been born a <i>struldbrug</i>.”</p>
<p>I answered, “it was easy to be eloquent on so copious
and delightful a subject, especially to me, who had been often
apt to amuse myself with visions of what I should do, if I were a
king, a general, or a great lord: and upon this very case, I had
frequently run over the whole system how I should employ myself,
and pass the time, if I were sure to live for ever.</p>
<p>“That, if it had been my good fortune to come into the
world a <i>struldbrug</i>, as soon as I could discover my own
happiness, by understanding the difference between life and
death, I would first resolve, by all arts and methods,
whatsoever, to procure myself riches. In the pursuit of
which, by thrift and management, I might reasonably expect, in
about two hundred years, to be the wealthiest man in the
kingdom. In the second place, I would, from my earliest
youth, apply myself to the study of arts and sciences, by which I
should arrive in time to excel all others in learning.
Lastly, I would carefully record every action and event of
consequence, that happened in the public, impartially draw the
characters of the several successions of princes and great
ministers of state, with my own observations on every
point. I would exactly set down the several changes in
customs, language, fashions of dress, diet, and diversions.
By all which acquirements, I should be a living treasure of
knowledge and wisdom, and certainly become the oracle of the
nation.</p>
<p>“I would never marry after threescore, but live in a
hospitable manner, yet still on the saving side. I would
entertain myself in forming and directing the minds of hopeful
young men, by convincing them, from my own remembrance,
experience, and observation, fortified by numerous examples, of
the usefulness of virtue in public and private life. But my
choice and constant companions should be a set of my own immortal
brotherhood; among whom, I would elect a dozen from the most
ancient, down to my own contemporaries. Where any of these
wanted fortunes, I would provide them with convenient lodges
round my own estate, and have some of them always at my table;
only mingling a few of the most valuable among you mortals, whom
length of time would harden me to lose with little or no
reluctance, and treat your posterity after the same manner; just
as a man diverts himself with the annual succession of pinks and
tulips in his garden, without regretting the loss of those which
withered the preceding year.</p>
<p>“These <i>struldbrugs</i> and I would mutually
communicate our observations and memorials, through the course of
time; remark the several gradations by which corruption steals
into the world, and oppose it in every step, by giving perpetual
warning and instruction to mankind; which, added to the strong
influence of our own example, would probably prevent that
continual degeneracy of human nature so justly complained of in
all ages.</p>
<p>“Add to this, the pleasure of seeing the various
revolutions of states and empires; the changes in the lower and
upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and obscure villages become
the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks;
the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the
discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning
the politest nations, and the most barbarous become
civilized. I should then see the discovery of the
longitude, the perpetual motion, the universal medicine, and many
other great inventions, brought to the utmost perfection.</p>
<p>“What wonderful discoveries should we make in astronomy,
by outliving and confirming our own predictions; by observing the
progress and return of comets, with the changes of motion in the
sun, moon, and stars!”</p>
<p>I enlarged upon many other topics, which the natural desire of
endless life, and sublunary happiness, could easily furnish me
with. When I had ended, and the sum of my discourse had
been interpreted, as before, to the rest of the company, there
was a good deal of talk among them in the language of the
country, not without some laughter at my expense. At last,
the same gentleman who had been my interpreter, said, “he
was desired by the rest to set me right in a few mistakes, which
I had fallen into through the common imbecility of human nature,
and upon that allowance was less answerable for them. That
this breed of <i>struldbrugs</i> was peculiar to their country,
for there were no such people either in Balnibarbi or Japan,
where he had the honour to be ambassador from his majesty, and
found the natives in both those kingdoms very hard to believe
that the fact was possible: and it appeared from my astonishment
when he first mentioned the matter to me, that I received it as a
thing wholly new, and scarcely to be credited. That in the
two kingdoms above mentioned, where, during his residence, he had
conversed very much, he observed long life to be the universal
desire and wish of mankind. That whoever had one foot in
the grave was sure to hold back the other as strongly as he
could. That the oldest had still hopes of living one day
longer, and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which
nature always prompted him to retreat. Only in this island
of Luggnagg the appetite for living was not so eager, from the
continual example of the <i>struldbrugs</i> before their
eyes.</p>
<p>“That the system of living contrived by me, was
unreasonable and unjust; because it supposed a perpetuity of
youth, health, and vigour, which no man could be so foolish to
hope, however extravagant he may be in his wishes. That the
question therefore was not, whether a man would choose to be
always in the prime of youth, attended with prosperity and
health; but how he would pass a perpetual life under all the
usual disadvantages which old age brings along with it. For
although few men will avow their desires of being immortal, upon
such hard conditions, yet in the two kingdoms before mentioned,
of Balnibarbi and Japan, he observed that every man desired to
put off death some time longer, let it approach ever so late: and
he rarely heard of any man who died willingly, except he were
incited by the extremity of grief or torture. And he
appealed to me, whether in those countries I had travelled, as
well as my own, I had not observed the same general
disposition.”</p>
<p>After this preface, he gave me a particular account of the
<i>struldbrugs</i> among them. He said, “they
commonly acted like mortals till about thirty years old; after
which, by degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing
in both till they came to fourscore. This he learned from
their own confession: for otherwise, there not being above two or
three of that species born in an age, they were too few to form a
general observation by. When they came to fourscore years,
which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they
had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men,
but many more which arose from the dreadful prospect of never
dying. They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous,
morose, vain, talkative, but incapable of friendship, and dead to
all natural affection, which never descended below their
grandchildren. Envy and impotent desires are their
prevailing passions. But those objects against which their
envy seems principally directed, are the vices of the younger
sort and the deaths of the old. By reflecting on the
former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of
pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and repine
that others have gone to a harbour of rest to which they
themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no
remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in
their youth and middle-age, and even that is very imperfect; and
for the truth or particulars of any fact, it is safer to depend
on common tradition, than upon their best recollections.
The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to
dotage, and entirely lose their memories; these meet with more
pity and assistance, because they want many bad qualities which
abound in others.</p>
<p>“If a <i>struldbrug</i> happen to marry one of his own
kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the
kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be fourscore;
for the law thinks it a reasonable indulgence, that those who are
condemned, without any fault of their own, to a perpetual
continuance in the world, should not have their misery doubled by
the load of a wife.</p>
<p>“As soon as they have completed the term of eighty
years, they are looked on as dead in law; their heirs immediately
succeed to their estates; only a small pittance is reserved for
their support; and the poor ones are maintained at the public
charge. After that period, they are held incapable of any
employment of trust or profit; they cannot purchase lands, or
take leases; neither are they allowed to be witnesses in any
cause, either civil or criminal, not even for the decision of
meers and bounds.</p>
<p>“At ninety, they lose their teeth and hair; they have at
that age no distinction of taste, but eat and drink whatever they
can get, without relish or appetite. The diseases they were
subject to still continue, without increasing or
diminishing. In talking, they forget the common appellation
of things, and the names of persons, even of those who are their
nearest friends and relations. For the same reason, they
never can amuse themselves with reading, because their memory
will not serve to carry them from the beginning of a sentence to
the end; and by this defect, they are deprived of the only
entertainment whereof they might otherwise be capable.</p>
<p>“The language of this country being always upon the
flux, the <i>struldbrugs</i> of one age do not understand those
of another; neither are they able, after two hundred years, to
hold any conversation (farther than by a few general words) with
their neighbours the mortals; and thus they lie under the
disadvantage of living like foreigners in their own
country.”</p>
<p>This was the account given me of the <i>struldbrugs</i>, as
near as I can remember. I afterwards saw five or six of
different ages, the youngest not above two hundred years old, who
were brought to me at several times by some of my friends; but
although they were told, “that I was a great traveller, and
had seen all the world,” they had not the least curiosity
to ask me a question; only desired “I would give them
<i>slumskudask</i>,” or a token of remembrance; which is a
modest way of begging, to avoid the law, that strictly forbids
it, because they are provided for by the public, although indeed
with a very scanty allowance.</p>
<p>They are despised and hated by all sorts of people. When
one of them is born, it is reckoned ominous, and their birth is
recorded very particularly so that you may know their age by
consulting the register, which, however, has not been kept above
a thousand years past, or at least has been destroyed by time or
public disturbances. But the usual way of computing how old
they are, is by asking them what kings or great persons they can
remember, and then consulting history; for infallibly the last
prince in their mind did not begin his reign after they were
fourscore years old.</p>
<p>They were the most mortifying sight I ever beheld; and the
women more horrible than the men. Besides the usual
deformities in extreme old age, they acquired an additional
ghastliness, in proportion to their number of years, which is not
to be described; and among half a dozen, I soon distinguished
which was the eldest, although there was not above a century or
two between them.</p>
<p>The reader will easily believe, that from what I had hear and
seen, my keen appetite for perpetuity of life was much
abated. I grew heartily ashamed of the pleasing visions I
had formed; and thought no tyrant could invent a death into which
I would not run with pleasure, from such a life. The king
heard of all that had passed between me and my friends upon this
occasion, and rallied me very pleasantly; wishing I could send a
couple of <i>struldbrugs</i> to my own country, to arm our people
against the fear of death; but this, it seems, is forbidden by
the fundamental laws of the kingdom, or else I should have been
well content with the trouble and expense of transporting
them.</p>
<p>I could not but agree, that the laws of this kingdom relative
to the <i>struldbrugs</i> were founded upon the strongest
reasons, and such as any other country would be under the
necessity of enacting, in the like circumstances.
Otherwise, as avarice is the necessary consequence of old age,
those immortals would in time become proprietors of the whole
nation, and engross the civil power, which, for want of abilities
to manage, must end in the ruin of the public.</p>
<h3>III - CHAPTER XI.</h3>
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