"HE COMMANDED HIS GENERALS TO DRAW UP THE TROOPS."

Gulliver’s Travels

INTO SEVERAL REMOTE REGIONS OF THE WORLD

BY

JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D.

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY THOMAS M. BALLIET

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

WITH THIRTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP

PART I

A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT

PART II

A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

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 nomeans intended for them, the book was soon appropriated by the children,who have ever since continued to regard it as one of the most delightfulof their story books. They cannot comprehend the occasion which provokedthe book nor appreciate the satire which underlies the narrative, butthey delight in the wonderful adventures, and wander full of open-eyedastonishment into the new worlds through which the vivid and logicallyaccurate imagination of the author so personally conducts them. Andthere is a meaning and a moral in the stories of the Voyages to Lilliputand Brobdingnag which is entirely apart from the political satire theyare intended to convey, a meaning and a moral which the youngest childwho can read it will not fail to seize, and upon which it is scarcelynecessary for the teacher to comment.

For young children the book combines in a measure the interest ofRobinson Crusoe and that of the fairy tale; its style is objective,the narrative is simple, and the matter appeals strongly to the childishimagination. For more mature boys and girls and for adults the interestis found chiefly in the keen satire which underlies the narrative. Itappeals, therefore, to a very wide range of intelligence and taste, andcan be read with profit by the child of ten and by the young man orwoman of mature years.

This edition is practically a reprint of the original (1726-27). Thepunctuation and capitalization have been modernized, some archaismschanged, and the paragraphs have been made more frequent. A few passageshave been omitted which would offend modern ears and are unsuitable forchildren's reading, and some foot-notes have been added explainingobsolete 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 sixthschool year to the highest grade of the grammar scho

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