We cannot follow Swift through all his political adventures and writings.  In those days the misgovernment of Ireland was terrible, and Swift, although he loved neither Ireland nor the Irish, fought for their rights until, from being hated by them, he became the idol of the people, and those who had thrown mud and stones now cheered him as he passed.  Wherever he went he was received with honor, his birthday was kept as a day of rejoicing by Irishmen with gratitude.  But even in his hour of triumph Swift was a lonely and discontented man as we may learn from his letters.

It was now that he published the book upon which his fame most surely rests—­Gulliver’s Travels.  It is a book which has given pleasure to numberless people ever since.  Yet Swift said himself:  “The chief end I propose to myself in all my labours is to vex the world rather than divert it, and if I could compass that design without hurting my own person or fortune, I would be the most indefatigable writer you have ever seen. . . .  I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. . . .  Upon this great foundation of misanthropy, the whole building of my Travels is erected.”

But whether Swift at the time vexed the world with Gulliver or not, ever since he has succeeded in diverting it.  Gulliver’s Travels is an allegory and a satire, but there is no need now to do more than enjoy it as a story.

The story is divided into four parts.  In the first Captain Lemuel Gulliver being wrecked finds himself upon an island where all the people are so small that he can pick them up in his thumb and finger, and it requires six hundred of their beds to make one for him.

In the second part Gulliver comes to a country where the people are giants.  They are so large that they in their turn can lift Gulliver up between thumb and finger.

In the third voyage Gulliver is taken by pirates and at last lands upon a flying island, and from there he passes on to other wonderful places.

In the fourth his men mutiny and put him ashore on an unknown land.  There he finds that horses are the rulers, and a terrible kind of degraded human being their slaves and servants.

In the last part the satire is too bitter, the degradation of man too terribly insisted upon to make it pleasant reading, and altogether the first two stories are the most interesting.

Here is how Swift tells us of Gulliver’s arrival in Lilliput, the country of the tiny folk.  After the shipwreck and a long battle with the waves he has at length reached land:—­

“I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked, it was just daylight.  I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir:  for as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner.