es like myself; who, in
all the countries I had travelled, as well as in my own, were the only
governing rational animals; and that upon my arrival hither, I was as
much astonished to see the _Houyhnhnms_ act like rational beings, as he,
or his friends, could be, in finding some marks of reason in a creature
he was pleased to call a _Yahoo_; to which I owned my resemblance in
every part, but could not account for their degenerate and brutal nature.
I said farther, "that if good fortune ever restored me to my native
country, to relate my travels hither, as I resolved to do, everybody
would believe, that I said the thing that was not, that I invented the
story out of my own head; and (with all possible respect to himself, his
family, and friends, and under his promise of not being offended) our
countrymen would hardly think it probable that a _Houyhnhnm_ should be
the presiding creature of a nation, and a _Yahoo_ the brute."

CHAPTER IV.

The Houyhnhnm's notion of truth and falsehood. The author's discourse
disapproved by his master. The author gives a more particular account of
himself, and the accidents of his voyage.

My master heard me with great appearances of uneasiness in his
countenance; because doubting, or not believing, are so little known in
this country, that the inhabitants cannot tell how to behave themselves
under such circumstances. And I remember, in frequent discourses with my
master concerning the nature of manhood in other parts of the world,
having occasion to talk of lying and false representation, it was with
much difficulty that he comprehended what I meant, although he had
otherwise a most acute judgment. For he argued thus: "that the use of
speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive information
of facts; now, if any one said the thing which was not, these ends were
defeated, because I cannot properly be said to understand him; and I am
so far from receiving information, that he leaves me worse than in
ignorance; for I am led to believe a thing black, when it is white, and
short, when it is long." And these were all the notions he had
concerning that faculty of lying, so perfectly well understood, and so
universally practised, among human creatures.

To return from this digression. When I asserted that the _Yahoos_ were
the only governing animals in my country, which my master said was
altogether past his conception, he desired to know, "whether we had
_Houyhnhnm