PART II

A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

[Illustration: "HE COMMANDED HIS GENERALS TO DRAW UP THE TROOPS." P. 42.]

D.C. Heath & Co., Publishers

Boston New York Chicago

1900

PREFACE.

And lo! the book, from all its end beguiled,

A harmless wonder to some happy child.

LORD LYTTON.

Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726; and, although it was by no

means intended for them, the book was soon appropriated by the children,

who have ever since continued to regard it as one of the most delightful

of their story books. They cannot comprehend the occasion which provoked

the book nor appreciate the satire which underlies the narrative, but

they delight in the wonderful adventures, and wander full of open-eyed

astonishment into the new worlds through which the vivid and logically

accurate imagination of the author so personally conducts them. And

there is a meaning and a moral in the stories of the Voyages to Lilliput

and Brobdingnag which is entirely apart from the political satire they

are intended to convey, a meaning and a moral which the youngest child

who can read it will not fail to seize, and upon which it is scarcely

necessary for the teacher to comment.

For young children the book combines in a measure the interest of

_Robinson Crusoe_ and that of the fairy tale; its style is objective,

the narrative is simple, and the matter appeals strongly to the childish

imagination. For more mature boys and girls and for adults the interest

is found chiefly in the keen satire which underlies the narrative. It

appeals, therefore, to a very wide range of intelligence and taste, and

can be read with profit by the child of ten and by the young man or

woman of mature years.

This edition is practically a reprint of the original (1726-27). The

punctuation and capitalization have been modernized, some archaisms

changed, and the paragraphs have been made more frequent. A few passages

have been omitted which would offend modern ears and are unsuitable for

children's reading, and some foot-notes have been added explaining

obsolete words and obscure expressions.

As a reading book in school which must be adapted to the average mind,

these stories will be found suitable for classes from the fifth or sixth

school year to the highest grade of the grammar school.

THOMAS M. BALLIET.

CONTENTS.

VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.