r sauces
and innumerable other conveniences. I assured him "that this whole globe
of earth must be at least three times gone round before one of our better
female _Yahoos_ could get her breakfast, or a cup to put it in." He said
"that must needs be a miserable country which cannot furnish food for its
own inhabitants. But what he chiefly wondered at was, how such vast
tracts of ground as I described should be wholly without fresh water, and
the people put to the necessity of sending over the sea for drink." I
replied "that England (the dear place of my nativity) was computed to
produce three times the quantity of food more than its inhabitants are
able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or pressed out
of the fruit of certain trees, which made excellent drink, and the same
proportion in every other convenience of life. But, in order to feed the
luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we
sent away the greatest part of our necessary things to other countries,
whence, in return, we brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice,
to spend among ourselves. Hence it follows of necessity, that vast
numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging,
robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, flattering, suborning, forswearing,
forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling,
star-gazing, poisoning, whoring, canting, libelling, freethinking, and
the like occupations:" every one of which terms I was at much pains to
make him understand.

"That wine was not imported among us from foreign countries to supply the
want of water or other drinks, but because it was a sort of liquid which
made us merry by putting us out of our senses, diverted all melancholy
thoughts, begat wild extravagant imaginations in the brain, raised our
hopes and banished our fears, suspended every office of reason for a
time, and deprived us of the use of our limbs, till we fell into a
profound sleep; although it must be confessed, that we always awaked sick
and dispirited; and that the use of this liquor filled us with diseases
which made our lives uncomfortable and short.

"But beside all this, the bulk of our people supported themselves by
furnishing the necessities or conveniences of life to the rich and to
each other. For instance, when I am at home, and dressed as I ought to
be, I carry on my body the workmanship of a hundred tradesmen; the
building and furniture of