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PART III. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG,
GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN. CHAPTER III.
A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy.
The Laputians' great improvements in the latter.
The king's method of suppressing insurrections.
I desired leave of this prince to see the curiosities of the island, which he was
graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to attend me.
I chiefly wanted to know, to what cause, in art or in nature, it owed its several
motions, whereof I will now give a philosophical account to the reader.
The flying or floating island is exactly circular, its diameter 7837 yards, or about
four miles and a half, and consequently contains ten thousand acres.
It is three hundred yards thick.
The bottom, or under surface, which appears to those who view it below, is one even
regular plate of adamant, shooting up to the height of about two hundred yards.
Above it lie the several minerals in their usual order, and over all is a coat of rich
mould, ten or twelve feet deep.
The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the
natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in
small rivulets toward the middle, where
they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and
two hundred yards distant from the centre.
From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in the daytime, which
effectually prevents their overflowing.
Besides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the island above the
region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling of dews and rain
whenever he pleases.
For the highest clouds cannot rise above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least
they were never known to do so in that country.
At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in diameter, whence
the astronomers descend into a large dome, which is therefore called flandona gagnole,
or the astronomer's cave, situated at the
depth of a hundred yards beneath the upper surface of the adamant.
In this cave are twenty lamps continually burning, which, from the reflection of the
adamant, cast a strong light into every part.
The place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes,
astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments.
But the greatest curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone
of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's shuttle.
It is in length six yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over.
This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing through its middle,
upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly that the weakest hand can turn it.
It is hooped round with a hollow cylinder of adamant, four feet yards in diameter,
placed horizontally, and supported by eight adamantine feet, each six yards high.
In the middle of the concave side, there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the
extremities of the axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occasion.
The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because the hoop and its feet
are one continued piece with that body of adamant which constitutes the bottom of the
island.
By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and move from one
place to another.
For, with respect to that part of the earth over which the monarch presides, the stone
is endued at one of its sides with an attractive power, and at the other with a
repulsive.
Upon placing the magnet erect, with its attracting end towards the earth, the
island descends; but when the repelling extremity points downwards, the island
mounts directly upwards.
When the position of the stone is oblique, the motion of the island is so too: for in
this magnet, the forces always act in lines parallel to its direction.
By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of the
monarch's dominions.
To explain the manner of its progress, let A B represent a line drawn across the
dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the loadstone, of which let d be
the repelling end, and c the attracting
end, the island being over C: let the stone be placed in position c d, with its
repelling end downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D.
When it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its axle, till its attracting
end points towards E, and then the island will be carried obliquely towards E; where,
if the stone be again turned upon its axle
till it stands in the position E F, with its repelling point downwards, the island
will rise obliquely towards F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the
island may be carried to G, and from G to
H, by turning the stone, so as to make its repelling extremity to point directly
downward.
And thus, by changing the situation of the stone, as often as there is occasion, the
island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique direction, and by those
alternate risings and fallings (the
obliquity being not considerable) is conveyed from one part of the dominions to
the other.
But it must be observed, that this island cannot move beyond the extent of the
dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of four miles.
For which the astronomers (who have written large systems concerning the stone) assign
the following reason: that the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance
of four miles, and that the mineral, which
acts upon the stone in the bowels of the earth, and in the sea about six leagues
distant from the shore, is not diffused through the whole globe, but terminated
with the limits of the king's dominions;
and it was easy, from the great advantage of such a superior situation, for a prince
to bring under his obedience whatever country lay within the attraction of that
magnet.
When the stone is put parallel to the plane of the horizon, the island stands still;
for in that case the extremities of it, being at equal distance from the earth, act
with equal force, the one in drawing
downwards, the other in pushing upwards, and consequently no motion can ensue.
This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to time, give
it such positions as the monarch directs.
They spend the greatest part of their lives in observing the celestial bodies, which
they do by the assistance of glasses, far excelling ours in goodness.
For, although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they magnify much
more than those of a hundred with us, and show the stars with greater clearness.
This advantage has enabled them to extend their discoveries much further than our
astronomers in Europe; for they have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars,
whereas the largest of ours do not contain above one third part of that number.
They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about
Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly
three of his diameters, and the outermost,
five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and
a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same
proportion with the cubes of their distance
from the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law
of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.
They have observed ninety-three different comets, and settled their periods with
great exactness.
If this be true (and they affirm it with great confidence) it is much to be wished,
that their observations were made public, whereby the theory of comets, which at
present is very lame and defective, might
be brought to the same perfection with other arts of astronomy.
The king would be the most absolute prince in the universe, if he could but prevail on
a ministry to join with him; but these having their estates below on the
continent, and considering that the office
of a favourite has a very uncertain tenure, would never consent to the enslaving of
their country.
If any town should engage in rebellion or mutiny, fall into violent factions, or
refuse to pay the usual tribute, the king has two methods of reducing them to
obedience.
The first and the mildest course is, by keeping the island hovering over such a
town, and the lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the benefit of the sun
and the rain, and consequently afflict the
inhabitants with dearth and diseases: and if the crime deserve it, they are at the
same time pelted from above with great stones, against which they have no defence
but by creeping into cellars or caves,
while the roofs of their houses are beaten to pieces.
But if they still continue obstinate, or offer to raise insurrections, he proceeds
to the last remedy, by letting the island drop directly upon their heads, which makes
a universal destruction both of houses and men.
However, this is an extremity to which the prince is seldom driven, neither indeed is
he willing to put it in execution; nor dare his ministers advise him to an action,
which, as it would render them odious to
the people, so it would be a great damage to their own estates, which all lie below;
for the island is the king's demesne.
But there is still indeed a more weighty reason, why the kings of this country have
been always averse from executing so terrible an action, unless upon the utmost
necessity.
For, if the town intended to be destroyed should have in it any tall rocks, as it
generally falls out in the larger cities, a situation probably chosen at first with a
view to prevent such a catastrophe; or if
it abound in high spires, or pillars of stone, a sudden fall might endanger the
bottom or under surface of the island, which, although it consist, as I have said,
of one entire adamant, two hundred yards
thick, might happen to crack by too great a shock, or burst by approaching too near the
fires from the houses below, as the backs, both of iron and stone, will often do in
our chimneys.
Of all this the people are well apprised, and understand how far to carry their
obstinacy, where their liberty or property is concerned.
And the king, when he is highest provoked, and most determined to press a city to
rubbish, orders the island to descend with great gentleness, out of a pretence of
tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for
fear of breaking the adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their
philosophers, that the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would
fall to the ground.
By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king, nor either of his two eldest
sons, are permitted to leave the island; nor the queen, till she is past child-
bearing.