Tory party in England and attacks those of the Whigs.

The _Voyage to Laputa_, from which we give no selections, was not
generally understood and hence was not popular. Its chief purpose was to
ridicule the proceedings of the Royal Society, but Swift was not well
enough acquainted with music and some of the other sciences fostered by
the Society to attack them to advantage.

The _Voyage to the Houyhnhnms_ was a bitter screed against mankind,
and is in many respects disgusting. It showed Swift's venom against the
world and something of the approach of the malady which finally hurried
him into insanity.

The following selections are somewhat condensed from the original story,
chiefly by the omission of passages of no interest to people of to-day.



ADVENTURES IN LILLIPUT

_I. The Arrival_


We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage at first was very
prosperous.

It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the
particulars of our adventures; let it suffice to inform him, that, in
our passage to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the
northwest of Van Diemen's Land.[1] By an observation we found ourselves