whole system
how I should employ myself, and pass the time, if I were sure to live for
ever.

"That, if it had been my good fortune to come into the world a
_struldbrug_, 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.

"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.

"These _struldbrugs_ 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
t