Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 6.djvu/309

Rh among us. But it is impossible to express his noble resentment at our savage treatment of the Houyhnhnm race; particularly, after I had explained the manner and use of castrating horses among us, to hinder them from propagating their kind, and to render them more servile. He said, if it were possible there could be any country, where yahoos alone were endued with reason, they certainly must be the governing animal: because reason in time will always prevail against brutal strength. But, considering the frame of our bodies, and especially of mine, he thought no creature, of equal bulk, was so ill contrived for employing that reason in the common offices of life; whereupon, he desired to know whether those among whom I lived, resembled me or the yahoos of his country. I assured him, that I was as well shaped as most of my age: but the younger, and the females, were much more soft and tender, and the skins of the latter, generally as white as milk. He said, I differed indeed from other yahoos, being much more cleanly, and not altogether so deformed; but in point of real advantage, he thought I differed for the worse. That my nails were of no use either to my fore or hinder feet; as to my forefeet, he could not properly call them by that name, for he never observed me to walk upon them; that they were too soft to bear the ground; that I generally went with them uncovered; neither was the covering, I sometimes wore on them, of the same shape, or so strong as that on my feet behind. That I could not walk with any security, for if either of my hinder feet slipped, I must inevitably fall. He then began to find fault with other parts of my body: the flatness of my face, the prominence of my nose, mine