SUMMARY :The Luggnuggians commended. A particular Description of the Struldbruggs, with many Conversations between the Author and some eminent Persons upon that Subject.

     THE LUGGNUGGIANS are a polite and generous People, and although they are not without some Share of that Pride
which is peculiar to all Eastern Countries, yet they shew themselves courteous to Strangers, especially such who are
countenanced by the Court. I had many Acquaintance among Persons of the best Fashion, and being always attended by my
Interpreter, the Conversation we had was not disagreeable.

One Day in much good Company I was asked by a Person of Quality, whether I had seen any of their Struldbruggs, or
Immortals. I said I had not, and desired he would explain to me what he meant by such an Appellation applied to a mortal
Creature. He told me, that sometimes, though very rarely, a Child happened to be born in a Family with a red circular Spot in
the Forehead, directly over the left Eyebrow, which was an infallible Mark that it should never dye. The Spot, as he described
it, was about the Compass of a Silver Threepence, but in the Course of Time grew larger, and changed its Colour; for at twelve
Years old it became Green, so continued till Five and Twenty, then turned to a deep Blue; at Five and Forty it grew coal Black,
and as large as an English Shilling, but never admitted any further Alteration. He said these Births were so rare, that he did not
believe there could be above Eleven Hundred Struldbruggs of both Sexes in the whole Kingdom, of which he computed about
Fifty in the Metropolis, and among the rest a young Girl born about three Years ago. That these Productions were not peculiar
to any Family, but a meer Effect of Chance; and the Children of the Struldbruggs themselves, were equally Mortal with the
rest of the People.

I freely own my self to have been struck with inexpressible Delight upon hearing this Account: And the Person who gave it me
happening to understand the Balnibarbian Language, which I spoke very well, I could not forbear breaking out into
Expressions perhaps a little too extravagant. I cryed out as in a Rapture; Happy Nation where every Child hath at least a
Chance for being immortal! Happy People who enjoy so many living Examples of antient Virtue, and have Masters ready to
instruct them in the Wisdom of all former Ages! But, happiest beyond all Comparison are those excellent Struldbruggs, who
born exempt from that universal Calamity of human Nature, have their Minds free and disengaged, without the Weight and
Depression of Spirits caused by the continual Apprehension of Death. I discovered my Admiration that I had not observed any
of these illustrious Persons at Court; the black Spot on the Fore-head being so remarkable a Distinction, that I could not have
easily overlooked it: And it was impossible that his Majesty, a most judicious Prince, should not provide himself with a good
Number of such wise and able Counsellours. Yet perhaps the Virtue of those Reverend Sages was too strict for the corrupt
and libertine Manners of a Court. And we often find by Experience, that young Men are too opinionative and volatile to be
guided by the sober Dictates of their Seniors. However, since the King was pleased to allow me Access to his Royal Person, I
was resolved upon the very first Occasion to deliver my Opinion to him on this Matter freely, and at large by the help of my
Interpreter; and whether he would please to take my Advice or no, yet in one Thing I was determined, that his Majesty having
frequently offered me an Establishment in this Country, I would with great Thankfulness accept the Favour, and pass my Life
here in the Conversation of those superiour Beings the Struldbruggs, if they would please to admit me.

The Gentleman to whom I addressed my Discourse, because (as I have already observed) he spoke the Language of
Balnibarbi, said to me with a sort of a Smile, which usually ariseth from Pity to the Ignorant, that he was glad of any Occasion
to keep me among them, and desired my Permission to explain to the Company what I had spoke. He did so, and they talked
together for some time in their own Language, whereof I understood not a Syllable, neither could I observe by their
Countenances what impression my Discourse had made on them. After a short Silence, the same Person told me that his
Friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious Remarks I had made on the
great Happiness and Advantages of immortal Life, and they were desirous to know in a particular Manner, what Scheme of
Living I should have formed to my self, if it had fallen to my Lot to have been born a Struldbrugg.

I answered, it was easy to be Eloquent on so copious and delightful a Subject, especially to me who have been often apt to
amuse my self with Visions of what I should do if I were a King, a General, or a great Lord: And upon this very Case I had
frequently run over the whole System how I should employ my self, and pass the Time if I were sure to live for ever.

That, if it had been my good Fortune to come into the World a Struldbrugg, as soon as I could discover my own Happiness
by understanding the Difference between Life and Death, I would first resolve by all Arts and Methods whatsoever to procure
my self Riches. In the Pursuit of which by Thrift and Management, I might reasonably expect, in about two Hundred Years to
be the wealthiest Man in the Kingdom. In the second place, I would from my earliest Youth apply my self to the Study of Arts
and Sciences, by which I should arrive in time to excel all others in Learning. Lastly I would carefully record every Action and
Event of Consequence that happened in the Publick, impartially draw the Characters of the several Successions of Princes, and
great Ministers of State, with my own Observations on every Point. I would exactly set down the several Changes in Customs,
Languages, Fashions, Dress, Dyet and Diversions. By all which Acquirements, I should be a living Treasury of Knowledge and
Wisdom, and certainly become the Oracle of the Nation.

I would never marry after Threescore, but live in an hospitable Manner, yet still on the saving Side. I would entertain myself in
forming and directing the Minds of hopeful young Men, by convincing them from my own Remembrance, Experience and
Observation, fortified by numerous Examples, of the Usefulness of Virtue in publick and private Life. But, my Choice and
constant Companions should be a sett of my own immortal Brother hood, among whom I would elect a Dozen from the most
Ancient down to my own Contemporaries. Where any of these wanted Fortunes, I would provide them with convenient
Lodges round my own Estate, and have some of them always at my Table, only mingling a few of the most valuable among you
Mortals, whom length of Time would harden me to lose with little or no Reluctance, and treat your Posterity after the same
Manner; just as a Man diverts himself with the annual Succession of Pinks and Tulips in his Garden, without regretting the Loss
of those which withered the preceding Year.

These Struldbruggs and I would mutually communicate our Observations and Memorials through the Course of Time, remark
the several Gradations by which Corruption steals into the World, and oppose it in every Step, by giving perpetual Warning
and Instruction to Mankind; which, added to the strong Influence of our own Example, would probably prevent that continual
Degeneracy of Human Nature so justly complained of in all Ages.

Add to all this the Pleasure of seeing the various Revolutions of States and Empires, the Changes in the lower and upper
World, antient Cities in Ruins, and obscure Villages become the Seats of Kings. Famous Rivers lessening into shallow Brooks,
the Ocean leaving one Coast dry, and overwhelming another: The Discovery of many Countries yet unknown. Barbarity
over-running the politest Nations, and the most barbarous become civilized. I should then see the Discovery of the Longitude,
the perpetual Motion, the Universal Medicine, and many other great Inventions brought to the utmost Perfection.

What wonderful Discoveries should we make in Astronomy, by outliving and confirming our own Predictions, by observing the
Progress and Returns of Comets, with the Changes of Motion in the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

I enlarged upon many other Topicks, which the natural Desire of endless Life and sublunary Happiness could easily furnish me
with. When I had ended, and the Sum of my Discourse had been interpreted as before, to the rest of the Company, there was a
good deal of Talk among them the Language of the Country, not without some Laughter at my Expense. At last the same
Gentleman who had been my Interpreter said, he was desired by the rest to set me right in a few Mistakes, which I had fallen
into through the common Imbecility of human Nature, and upon that Allowance was less answerable for them. That this Breed
of Struldbruggs was peculiar to their Country, for there were no such People either in Balnibarbi or Japan, where he had the
Honour to be Embassador from his Majesty, and found the Natives in both these Kingdoms very hard to believe that the Fact
was possible, and it appeared from my Astonishment when he first mentioned the Matter to me, that I received it as a thing
wholly new, and scarcely to be credited. That in the two Kingdoms above mentioned, where during his Residence he had
conversed very much, he observed long Life to be the universal Desire and Wish of Mankind. That whoever had one Foot in
the Grave, was sure to hold back the other as strongly as he could. That the eldest had still hopes of living one Day longer, and
looked on Death as the greatest Evil, from which Nature always prompted him to retreat; only in this Island of Luggnagg, the
Appetite for living was not so eager, from the continual Example of the Struldbruggs before their Eyes.

That the System of Living contrived by me was unreasonable and unjust, because it supposed a Perpetuity of Youth, Health,
and Vigour, which no Man could be so foolish to hope, however extravagant he may be in his Wishes. That the Question
therefore was not whether a Man would choose to be always in the Prime of Youth, attended with Prosperity and Health, but
how he would pass a perpetual Life under all the usual Disadvantages which old Age brings along with it. For although few
Men will avow their Desires of being immortal upon such hard Conditions, yet in the two Kingdoms before-mentioned of
Balnibarbi and Japan, he observed that every Man desired to put off Death for sometime longer, let it approach ever so late,
and he rarely heard of any Man who died willingly, except he were incited by the Extremity of Grief or Torture. And he
appealed to me whether in those Countries I had travelled as well as my own, I had not observed the same general Disposition.

After this Preface he gave me a particular Account of the Struldbruggs among them. He said they commonly acted like
Mortals, till about thirty Years old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected, encreasing in both till they came
to four-score. This he learned from their own Confession; for otherwise there not being above two or three of that Species
born in an Age, they were too few to form a general Observation by. When they came to four-score Years, which is reckoned
the Extremity of living in this Country, they had not only all the Follies and Infirmities of other old Men, but many more which
arose from the dreadful Prospect of never dying. They were not only Opinionative, Peevish, Covetous, Morose, Vain,
Talkative, but uncapable of Friendship, and dead to all natural Affection, which never descended below their Grand-children.
Envy and impotent Desires are their prevailing Passions. But those Objects against which their Envy principally directed, are the
Vices of the younger sort, and the Deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility
of Pleasure; and whenever they see a Funeral, they lament and repine that others have gone to a Harbour of Rest, to which they
themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no Remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in their
Youth and middle Age, and even that is very imperfect. And for the Truth or Particulars of any Fact, it is safer to depend on
common Traditions than upon their best Recollections. The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to Dotage,
and entirely lose their Memories; these meet with more Pity and Assistance, because they want many bad Qualities which
abound in others.

If a Struldbrugg happen to marry one of his own kind, the Marriage is dissolved of course by the Courtesy of the Kingdom, as
soon as the younger of the two come to be four-score. For the Law thinks it a reasonable Indulgence, that those who are
condemned without any Fault of their own to a perpetual Continuance in the World, should not have their Misery doubled by
the Load of a Wife.

As soon as they have compleated the Term of eighty Years, they are look'd on as dead in Law; their Heirs immediately
succeed to their Estates, only a small Pittance is reserved for their Support, and the poor ones are maintained at the publick
Charge. After that Period they are held incapable of any Employment of Trust or Profit, they cannot purchase Lands or take
Leases, neither are they allowed to be Witnesses in any Cause, either Civil or Criminal, not even for the Decision of Meers and
Bounds.

At Ninety they lose their Teeth and Hair, they have at that age no Distinction of Taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get,
without Relish or Appetite. The Diseases they were subject to still continuing without encreasing or diminishing. In talking they
forgot the common Appellation of Things, and the Names of Persons, even of those who are their nearest Friends and
Relations. For the same Reason they never can amuse themselves with reading, because their Memory will not serve to carry
them from the beginning of a Sentence to the end; and by this Defect they are deprived of the only entertainment whereof they
might otherwise be capable.

The Language of this Country being always upon the Flux, the Struldbruggs of one Age do not understand those of another,
neither are they able after two hundred Years to hold any Conversation (farther than by a few general Words) with their
Neighbours the Mortals; and thus they lye under the Disadvantage of living like Foreigners in their own Country.

This was the Account given me of the Struldbruggs, as near as I can remember. I afterwards saw five or six of different Ages,
the youngest not above two hundred Years old, who were brought me at several Times by some of my Friends; but although
they were told that I was a great Traveller, and had seen all the World, they had not the least Curiosity to ask me a Question;
only desired I would give them Slumskudask, or a Token of Remembrance, which is a modest way of begging, to avoid the
Law that strictly forbids it, because they are provided for by the Publick, although indeed with a very scanty Allowance.

They are despised and hated by all sort of People; when one of them is born, it is reckoned ominous, and their Birth is
recorded very particularly; so that you may know their Age by consulting the Registry, which however hath not been kept
above a thousand Years past, or at least hath been destroyed by Time or publick Disturbances. But the usual way of computing
how old they are is by asking them what Kings or great Persons they can remember, and then consulting History, for infallibly
the last Prince, in their Mind, did not begin his Reign after they were four-score Years old.

They were the most mortifying Sight I ever beheld, and the Women more horrible than the Men. Besides the usual Deformities
in extreme old age, they acquired an additional Ghastliness in Proportion to their Number of Years, which is not to be
described, and among half a Dozen I soon distinguished which was the eldest, although there were not above a Century or two
between them.

The Reader will easily believe, that from what I had heard and seen, my keen Appetite for Perpetuity of Life was much abated.
I grew heartily ashamed of the pleasing Visions I had formed, and thought no Tyrant could invent a Death into which I would
not run with Pleasure from such a Life. The King heard of all that had passed between me and my Friends upon this Occasion,
and rallied me very pleasantly, wishing I would send a couple of Struldbruggs to my own Country, to arm our People against
the Fear of Death; but this it seems is forbidden by the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, or else I should have been well
content with the Trouble and Expense of transporting them.

I could not but agree that the Laws of this Kingdom relating to the Struldbruggs, were founded upon the strongest Reasons,
and such as any other Country would be under the Necessity of enacting in the like Circumstances. Otherwise, as Avarice is
the necessary Consequent of old Age, those Immortals would in Time become Proprietors of the whole Nation, and engross
the Civil Power, which, for want of Abilities to manage, must End in the Ruin of the Publick.