 the time I was putting
on my Cloaths.
    This was Matter of Diversion to my Master and his Family, as well as of
Mortification to my self. For now I could no longer deny, that I was a real
Yahoo, in every Limb and Feature, since the Females had a natural Propensity to
me as one of their own Species: Neither was the Hair of this Brute of a Red
Colour, (which might have been some Excuse for an Appetite a little irregular)
but black as a Sloe, and her Countenance did not make an Appearance altogether
so hideous as the rest of the Kind; for, I think, she could not be above Eleven
Years old.
    Having already lived three Years in this Country, the Reader I suppose will
expect, that I should, like other Travellers, give him some Account of the
Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, which it was indeed my principal Study
to learn.
    As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by Nature with a general Disposition
to all Virtues, and have no Conceptions or Ideas of what is evil in a rational
Creature; so their grand Maxim is, to cultivate Reason, and to be wholly
governed by it. Neither is Reason among them a Point problematical as with us,
where Men can argue with Plausibility on both Sides of a Question; but strikes
you with immediate Conviction; as it must needs do where it is not mingled,
obscured, or discoloured by Passion and Interest. I remember it was with extreme
Difficulty that I could bring my 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 Peoples 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 a Doctrine would make in the Libraries of Europe; and how many
Paths to 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
