
down their Spirits, and make them more tame and gentle: That they were indeed
sensible of Rewards and Punishments; but his Honour would please to consider,
that they had not the least Tincture of Reason any more than the Yahoos in this
Country.
    It put me to the Pains of many Circumlocutions to give my Master a right
Idea of what I spoke; for their Language doth not abound in Variety of Words,
because their Wants and Passions are fewer than 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
will in Time 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 fore Feet, 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 Eyes placed directly in Front, so that I could not
look on either Side without turning my Head: That I was not able to feed my
self, without lifting one of my fore Feet to my Mouth: And therefore Nature had
placed those Joints to answer that Necessity.
