" He was also indebted to Philostratus, who
speaks of an army of pigmies attacking Hercules. Something may also have
been gathered from Defoe's minuteness of detail; and he made use of all
these with a master-hand to improve and increase the fertile resources
of his own mind. Swift produced the work, by which he will always
survive, and be young. In the voyage to Lilliput he depreciates the
court and ministers of George I., by comparing them to something
insignificantly small: in the voyage to Brobdingnag by likening them to
something grand and noble. But the immortality of the work owes nothing
to such considerations but everything to humour and fancy, especially to
the general satire upon human vanity. "The Emperor of Lilliput is taller
by almost the breadth of my nail than any of his Court, which alone is
enough to strike awe into beholders."
In the Honyhuhums, the human race is compared to the Yahoos, and placed
in a loathsome and ridiculous light. They are represented as most
irrational creatures, frequently engaged in wars or acrimonious disputes
as to whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh, whether it be better to
kiss a post or throw it into the fire, and what is the best colour of a
coat!--referring to religious disputes between Catholics and
Protestants. He says, that among the Yahoos, "It is a very justifiable
cause of war to invade the country after the people have been wasted by
famine, destroyed by pestilence, or embroiled by factions among
themselves.
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