e human race as it existed in the land of the
Houyhnhnms, his warped judgment is unable to discern in his countrymen
any attributes but those which they seem to share with the Yahoos:--

My wife and family received me with great surprise and joy, because
they concluded me certainly dead; but I must freely confess the sight
of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt; and the
more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them. * * * As soon
as I entered the house, my wife took me in her arms and kissed me;
at which, having not been used to the touch of that odious animal
for so many years, I fell into a swoon for almost an hour. At the
time I am writing, it is five years since my last return to England:
during the first year, I could not endure my wife or children in my
presence; the very smell of them was intolerable, much less could I
suffer them to eat in the same room. To this hour they dare not
presume to touch my bread, or drink out of the same cup; neither
was I ever able to let one of them take me by the hand.

Thus Swift himself, from the vividness with which he realized, and the
intensity with which he hated, the vices and failings of humanity, was
unable to duly appreciate the good, which, in some measure, always
accompanies the evil.

It was the habit of the great Dean to utter the witticisms which caused
the continual delight or terror of all who approached him with the most
stern composure. Such was the manner of the "Travels." The solemn and
circumstantial narrative style, imitated from the old English explorers
added verisimilitude to the incidents and point to the sarcasm.
Trifles, personal to the traveller and of no consequence to the course
of the story, gave an appearance of truth to the whole work. Thus
Gulliver keeps the reader informed of the most minute details
interesting to himself. "I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry;
and being advised to alter my condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton,
second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate Street, with
whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion." In the same way he
informs us carefully that the date of his sailing on the first voyage
was May 4, 1699, from Bristol, and the storm which destroyed the ship
arose when in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. In a work of
fiction only such events are expected as have a direct bearing upon the
development