Gulliver's Travels

master to understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a
point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or
deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot
do either.  So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and
positiveness, in false or dubious propositions, are evils unknown
among the Houyhnhnms.  In the like manner, when I used to explain
to him our several systems of natural philosophy, he would laugh,
"that a creature pretending to reason, should value itself upon the
knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things where that
knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use."  Wherein he
agreed entirely with the sentiments of Socrates, as Plato delivers
them; which I mention as the highest honour I can do that prince of
philosophers.  I have often since reflected, what destruction such
doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe; and how many paths
of fame would be then shut up in the learned world.

Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the
Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but
universal to the whole race; for a stranger from the remotest part
is equally treated with the nearest neighbour, and wherever he
goes, looks upon himself as at home.  They preserve decency and
civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of
ceremony.  They have no fondness for their colts or foals, but the
care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the
dictates of reason.  And I observed my master to show the same
affection to his neighbour's issue, that he had for his own.  They
will have it that nature teaches them to love the whole species,
and it is reason only that makes a distinction of persons, where
there is a superior degree of virtue.

When the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no
longer accompany with their consorts, except they lose one of their
issue by some casualty, which very seldom happens; but in such a
case they meet again; or when the like accident befalls a person
whose wife is past bearing, some other couple bestow on him one of
their own colts, and then go together again until the mother is
pregnant.  This caution is necessary, to prevent the country from
being overburdened with numbers.  But the race of inferior
Houyhnhnms, bred up to be servants, is not so strictly limited upon
this article:  these are allowed to produce three of each sex, to
be domestics in the noble families.

In their marriages, they are exactly careful to choose such colours
as will not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed.  Strength
is chiefly valued in the male, and comeliness in the female; not
upon the account of love, but to preserve the race from
degenerating; for where a female happens to excel in strength, a
consort is chosen, with regard to comeliness.

Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements have no place in
their thoughts, or terms whereby to express them in their language.
The young couple meet, and are joined, merely because it is the
determination of their parents and friends; it is what they see
done every day, and they look upon it as one of the necessary
actions of a reasonable being.  But the violation of marriage, or
any other unchastity, was never heard of; and the married pair pass
their lives with the same friendship and mutual benevolence, that
they bear to all others of the same species who come in their way,
without jealousy, fondness, quarrelling, or discontent.

In educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable,
and highly deserves our imitation.  These are not suffered to taste
a grain of oats, except upon certain days, till eighteen years old;
nor milk, but very rarely; and in summer they graze two hours in
the morning, and as many in the evening, which their parents
likewise observe; but the servants are not allowed above half that
time, and a great part of their grass is brought home, which they
eat at the most convenient hours, when they can be best spared from
work.

Temperance, industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons
equally enjoined to the young ones of both sexes:  and my master
thought it monstrous in us, to give the females a different kind of
education from the males, except in some articles of domestic
management; whereby, as he truly observed, one half of our natives
were good for nothing but bringing children into the world; and to
trust the care of our children to such useless animals, he said,
was yet a greater instance of brutality.

But the Houyhnhnms train up their youth to strength, speed, and
hardiness, by exercising them in running races up and down steep
hills, and over hard stony grounds; and when they are all in a
sweat, they are ordered to leap over head and ears into a pond or
river.  Four times a year the youth of a certain district meet to
show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of
strength and agility; where the victor is rewarded with a song in
his or her praise.  On this festival, the servants drive a herd of
Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a
repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately
driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.

Every fourth year, at the vernal equinox, there is a representative
council of the whole nation, which meets in a plain about twenty
miles from our house, and continues about five or six days.  Here
they inquire into the state and condition of the several districts;
whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows, or
Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is
immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution.  Here
likewise the regulation of children is settled:  as for instance,
if a Houyhnhnm has two males, he changes one of them with another