PART II - BOOK - "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS" by Jonathan Swift - HIS DISCOURSE ON LAW AND LAWYERS

In case you didn't read my PREVIOUS BLOG POST - "PART I" - I'll begin with an almost exact lead-in to this DISCOURSE.......

In an effort to expand my thinking and gain new knowledge, I joined a CLASSICS BOOK CLUB, which chose this book for discussion this month. I am VERY impressed by how creative the author, JONATHAN SWIFT was. 

His main character, GULLIVER can't stay still, so he chooses to leave home and set sail for years at a time. He lands in several different locations, where he is exposed to a variety of "INTELLIGENT CREATURES".  

GULLIVER describes WAR, LAW, and LAWYERS, to a HOUYHNHNM,  an inhabitant of a far-off island, whose community is so KIND and POSITIVE that it doesn't even have a word in their language for LYING or FALSEHOOD. How could they understand WAR, LAW, and LAWYERS?

In my previous BLOG POST, I shared directly from the book how GULLIVER described WAR. In THIS POST I'm sharing how he described LAW and LAWYERS.

Keep in mind that GULLIVER'S TRAVELS was first published in 1726. That's a LONG time ago and you would think a lot has changed since then. But, APPARENTLY NOT.

Be sure to note where the author CAPITALIZES or ITALICIZES a word for EMPHASIS. I found this enriched my reading experience.

As you begin to read below, it will CHALLENGE you, because the 1726 language is quite tedious...... but STICK WITH IT and let me know your reaction(s) to what was written.

"I assured his Honour, that Law was a Science wherein I had not much conversed, further than by employing Advocates in vain, upon some Injustices that had been done me. However, I would give him all the Satisfaction I was able.

I said, there was a Society of Men among us, bread up from their Youth in the Art of proving by Words multiplied for the Purpose that White is Black and Black is White, according as they are paid. To this Society all the rest of the People are Slaves. For Example, if my Neighbour hath a mind to my Cow, he hires a Lawyer to prove, that he ought to have my Cow from me. I must then hire another to defend my Right, it being against all Rules of Law that any Man should be allowed to speak for himself. Now, in this Case, I who am the true Owner lie under two great Disadvantages. First, my Lawyer being practiced almost from his Cradle in defending Falsehood, is quite out of his Element when he would be an Advocate for Justice, which is an Office unnatural, he always attempts with great Awkwardness, if not with ill Will. The second Disadvantage is, that my Lawyer must proceed with great Caution, or else he will be reprimanded by the Judges, and abhorred by his Brethren, as one that would lessen the Practice of the Law. And therefore I have but two Methods to preserve my Cow. The first is to gain over my Adversary's Lawyer with a double Fee, who will then betray his Client by insinuating that he hath Justice on his side. The second way is for my Lawyer to make my Cause appear as unjust as he can, by allowing the Cow to belong to my Adversary; and this, if it be skillfully done, will certainly bespeak the Favor of the Bench. Now, your Honour is to know that these Judges are Persons appointed to decide all Controversies of Property, as well as for the Trial of Criminals, and picked out from the most dexterous Lawyers, who are grown old or lazy, and having been biased all their Lives against Truth and Equity lie under such a fatal Necessity of favoring Fraud, Perjury, and Oppression, that I have known several of them refuse a large Bribe from the side where Justice lay, rather than injure the Faculty by doing anything unbecoming their Nature or their office.

It is a Maxim among these Lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: And therefore they take special Care to record all the Decisions formerly made against common Justice, and the general Reason of Mankind. These under the Name of Precedents they produce as Authorities to justify the most iniquitous Opinions; and the Judges never fail of decreeing accordingly

In pleading, they studiously avoid entering into the Merits of the Cause; but are loud, violent and tedious in dwelling upon all Circumstances which are not to the Purpose. For Instance, in the Case already mentioned; They never desire to know what Claim or Title my Adversary hath to my Cow, but whether the said Cow were Red or Black, her Horns long or short; whether the Field I graze her in be round or square, whether she was milked at home or abroad, what Diseases she is subject to, and the like; after which they consult Precedents, adjourn the Cause, from Time to Time, and in Ten, Twenty or Thirty Years come to an Issue.

It is likewise to be observed that this Society hath a particular Cant and Jargon of their own, that no other Mortal can understand, and wherein all their Laws are written, which they take special Care to multiply; whereby they have wholly confounded the very Essence of Truth and Falsehood, of Right and Wrong; so that it will take Thirty Years to decide whether the Field, left me by my Ancestors for six Generations, belongs to me or to a Stranger three hundred Miles off.

In the Trial of Persons accused for Crimes against the State the Method is much more short and commendable: The Judge first sends to sound the Disposition of those in Power, after which he can easily hang or save the Criminal, strictly preserving all due Forms of Law.

Here my Master interposing, said it was a Pity, that Creatures endowed with such prodigious abilities of Mind as these Lawyers by the Description I gave of them must certainly be, were not rather encouraged to be Instructors of others in Wisdom and Knowledge. In answer to which I assured his Honour, that in all Points out of their own Trade they were the most ignorant and stupid Generation among us, the most despicable in common Conversation, avowed Enemies to all Knowledge and Learning, and equally disposed to pervert the general Reason of Mankind in every other subject of Discourse, as in that of their own Profession."

My sincere apologies to any LAWYERS if you find it in poor taste that I shared these paragraphs........ I did find these passages humorous, assuming one is willing to laugh at oneself. In 300 years, many things remain the same.

JOAN

PART I - BOOK - "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS" by Jonathan Swift - HIS DISCOURSE ON WAR

In an effort to expand my thinking and gain new knowledge, I joined a CLASSICS BOOK CLUB, which chose this book for discussion this month. I am VERY impressed by how creative the author, JONATHAN SWIFT was. 

His main character, GULLIVER can't stay still, so he chooses to leave home and set sail for years at a time. He lands in several different locations, where he is exposed to a variety of "INTELLIGENT CREATURES".  

GULLIVER describes WAR, LAW, and LAWYERS, to a HOUYHNHNM,  an inhabitant of a far-off island, whose community is so KIND and POSITIVE that it doesn't even have a word in their language for LYING or FALSEHOOD. How could they understand WAR, LAW and LAWYERS?

In this BLOG POST I'm sharing directly from the book, how GULLIVER described WAR. I will immediately publish my NEXT BLOG POST where I'll share how he described LAW and LAWYERS.

Keep in mind that GULLIVER'S TRAVELS was first published in 1726. That's a LONG time ago and you would think a lot has changed since then. But, APPARENTLY NOT.

Be sure to note where the author CAPITALIZES or ITALICIZES a word for EMPHASIS. I found this enriched my reading experience.

As you begin to read below, it will CHALLENGE you, because the 1726 language is quite tedious...... but STICK WITH IT and let me know your reaction(s) to what was written.

"He asked me what were the usual Causes or Motives that made one Country go to War with another. I answered they were innumerable, but I should only mention a few of the chief. Sometimes the Ambition of Princes, who never think they have Land or People enough to govern: Sometimes the Corruption of Ministers, who engage their Master in a War in order to stifle or divert the Clamour of the Subjects against the Evil Administration. Difference in Opinions hath cost many Millions of lives: For instance, whether Flesh be Bread, or Bread be Flesh; whether the Juice of a certain Berry be Blood or Wine; whether Whistling be a Vice or a Virtue; whether it be better to kiss a Post, or throw it into the Fire; what is the best Colour for a Coat, whether Black, White, Red or Grey; and whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean, with many more. Neither are any Wars so furious and bloody, or of so long Continuance, as those occasioned by Difference in Opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.

Sometimes the Quarrel between two Princes is to decide which of them shall dispossess a Third of his Dominions, where neither of them pretend to any Right. Sometimes one Prince quarrelleth with another, for fear the other should quarrel with him. Sometimes a War is entered upon,  because the Enemy is too strong, and sometimes because he is too weak. Sometimes our Neighbors want the Things which we have or have the Things which we want; and we both fight, till they take ours or give us theirs. It is a very justifiable Cause of War to invade a Country after the People have been wasted by Famine, destroyed by Pestilence, or embroiled by Factions amongst themselves. It is justifiable to enter into War against our nearest Ally, when one of his Towns lies convenient for us, or a Territory of Land, that would render our Dominions round and complete. If a Prince sends Forces into a Nation, where the People are poor or ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to Death, and make Slaves of the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous Way of Living. It is a very kingly, honourable and frequent Practice, when one Prince desires the Assistance of another to secure him against an Invasion, that the Assistant, when he hath driven out the Invader, should seize on the Dominions himself, and kill, imprison or banish the Prince he came to relieve. Alliance by Blood or Marriage, is a frequent Cause of War between Princes, and the nearer the Kindred is, the greater is their Disposition to quarrel: Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance. For these Reasons, the Trade of a Soldier is held the most honourable of all others: Because a Soldier is a Yahoo* hired to kill in cold Blood as many of his own Species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can."

*NOTE - A Yahoo is a humanoid creature dominated by the Houyhnhnms

What did you think???


JOAN

BOOK - THE MILL ON THE FLOSS by GEORGE ELIOT (1860)

When I first started reading this book for our local CLASSICS BOOK CLUB I had just come off of 2 NONFICTION books and was a bit frustrated - I wasn't getting "the point". A friend in Book Club said, "It's just a story - a novel - about a family". Ok, so I settled in, relaxed and went with it.  About halfway through I couldn't put it down.

Some of the author's sentences run a full paragraph long. In the beginning, I felt she should "get on with it", but after a while, I didn't even notice. What I DID notice is that GEORGE ELIOT can uniquely describe in detail, a situation or an emotion that may be hard for most of us to put into words. WOW!

The story itself progressed beautifully and each character was fully developed - I felt as if I knew each one of them. The main character, MAGGIE was faced with such challenges ALL of her life. All she really wanted was to be loved and recognized - first by her father and mother, then her brother, then other family/friends and ultimately by a LOVER.....

I want to share some examples of GEORGE ELIOT'S brilliant writing talent. This and her story-telling is why her book is considered a "CLASSIC".  As you read the following, keep in mind that it was written in the year 1860. 

Pg 37

We keep apart when we have quarrelled, express ourselves in well-bred phrases, and in this way preserve a dignified alienation, showing much firmness on one side, and swallowing much grief on the other.

Pg 40

Our delight in the sunshine on the deep-bladed grass to-day, might be no more than the faint perception of wearied souls, if it were not for the sunshine and the grass in the far-off years which still live in us, and transform our perception into love.

Pg 71

Mrs. Tulliver had lived fourteen years with her husband, yet she retained in all the freshness of her early married life a facility of saying things which drove him in the opposite direction to the one she desired. Some minds are wonderful for keeping their bloom in this way, as a patriarchal gold-fish apparently retains to the last its youthful illusion that it can swim in a straight line beyond the encircling glass.

Pg 215

But you youngsters nowadays think you're to begin with living well and working easy; you've no notion of running afoot before you get on horseback. Now, you must remember what you are - you're a lad of sixteen, trained to nothing particular. There's heaps of your sort, like so many pebbles, made to fit in nowhere.

Pg 259

When uncultured minds, confined to a narrow range of personal experience, are under the pressure of continued misfortune, their inward life is apt to become a perpetually repeated round of sad and bitter thoughts: the same words, the same scenes are revolved over and over again, the same mood accompanies them - the end of the year finds them as much what they were at the beginning as if they were machines set to a recurrent series of movements.

Pg 340

And there was that slight pressure of the hands, and momentary meeting of the eyes, which will often leave a little lady with a slight flush and smile on her face that do not subside immediately when the door is closed, and with an inclination to walk up and down the room rather than to seat herself quietly at her embroidery, or other rational and improving occupation.

Pg 375

But this must end some time - perhaps it ended very soon, and only seemed long, as a minute's dream does.

Pg 402

The middle-aged, who have lived through their strongest emotions, but are yet in the time when memory is still half passionate and not merely contemplative, should surely be a sort of natural priesthood, whom life has disciplined and consecrated to be the refuge and rescue of early stumblers and victims of self-despair.

Ok if you've read this far, what do you think? Incredible? Or too wordy for your taste?

JOAN