y way of extenuation, that it was
only a breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer
as a defence the greatest aggravation of the crime; and truly I had
little to say in return, farther than the common answer, that different
nations had different customs; for, I confess, I was heartily ashamed.
{330}

Although we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which
all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in
practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring
sufficient proof, that he has strictly observed the laws of his country
for seventy-three moons, has a claim to certain privileges, according to
his quality or condition of life, with a proportionable sum of money out
of a fund appropriated for that use: he likewise acquires the title of
_snilpall_, or legal, which is added to his name, but does not descend to
his posterity. And these people thought it a prodigious defect of policy
among us, when I told them that our laws were enforced only by penalties,
without any mention of reward. It is upon this account that the image of
Justice, in their courts of judicature, is formed with six eyes, two
before, as many behind, and on each side one, to signify circumspection;
with a bag of gold open in her right hand, and a sword sheathed in her
left, to show she is more disposed to reward than to punish.

In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good
morals than to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to
mankind, they believe, that the common size of human understanding is
fitted to some station or other; and that Providence never intended to
make the management of public affairs a mystery to be comprehended only
by a few persons of sublime genius, of which there seldom are three born
in an age: but they suppose truth, justice, temperance, and the like, to
be in every man's power; the practice of which virtues, assisted by
experience and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service of
his country, except where a course of study is required. But they
thought the want of moral virtues was so far from being supplied by
superior endowments of the mind, that employments could never be put into
such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at least,
that the mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition,
would never be of such fatal consequence to the public weal, as the
pr