SUMMARY : The Author leaves Laputa, is conveyed to Balnibarbi, arrives at the Metropolis. A Description of the Metropolis and the Country adjoining. The Author hospitably received by a great Lord. His Conversation with that Lord.

 ALTHOUGH I CANNOT say that I was ill treated in this Island, yet I must confess I thought my self too much
neglected, not without some Degree of Contempt. For neither Prince nor People appeared to be curious in any Part of
Knowledge, except Mathematicks and Musick, wherein I was far their inferior, and upon that Account very little
regarded.

 On the other Side, after having seen all the Curiosities of the Island, I was very desirous to leave it, being heartily weary
of those People. They were indeed excellent in two Sciences for which I have great Esteem, and wherein I am not
unversed; but at the same time so abstracted and involved in Speculation, that I never met with such disagreeable
Companions. I conversed only with Women, Tradesmen, Flappers, and Court-Pages, during two Months of my Abode
there, by which at last I rendered my self extremely contemptible; yet these were the only People from whom I could
ever receive a reasonable Answer.

 I had obtained by hard Study a good Degree of Knowledge in their Language: I was weary of being confined to an
Island where I received so little Countenance; and resolved to leave it with the first Opportunity.

 There was a great Lord at Court, nearly related to the King, and for that Reason alone used with respect. He was
universally reckoned the most ignorant and stupid Person among them. He had performed many eminent services for the
Crown, had great natural and acquired Parts, adorned with Integrity and Honour, but so ill an Ear for Musick, that his
Detractors reported he had been often known to beat Time in the wrong Place; neither could his Tutors without extreme
Difficulty teach him to demonstrate the most easy Proposition in the Mathematicks. He was pleased to shew me many
Marks of Favour, often did me the Honour of a Visit, desired to be informed in the Affairs of Europe, the Laws and
Customs, the Manners and Learning of the several Countries where I had travelled. He listened to me with great
Attention, and made very wise Observations on all I spoke. He had two Flappers attending him for State, but never
made use of them except at Court, and in Visits of Ceremony; and would always command them to withdraw when we
were alone together.

 I entreated this illustrious Person to intercede in my Behalf with his Majesty for Leave to depart; which he accordingly
did, as he was pleased to tell me, with Regret: For, indeed he had made me several Offers very advantageous, which
however I refused with Expressions of the highest Acknowledgment.

 On the 16th Day of February, I took Leave of his Majesty and the Court. The King made me a Present to the Value of
about two Hundred Pounds English; and my Protector his Kinsman as much more, together with a Letter of
Recommendation to a Friend of his in Lagado, the Metropolis: The Island being then hovering over a Mountain about
two Miles from it, I was let down from the lowest Gallery, in the same Manner as I had been taken up.

 The Continent, as far as it is subject to the Monarch of the Flying Island, passeth under the general Name of
Balnibarbi; and the Metropolis, as I said before, is called Lagado. I felt some little Satisfaction in finding my self on firm
Ground. I walked to the City without any Concern, being clad like one of the Natives, and sufficiently instructed to
converse with them. I soon found out the Person's House to whom I was recommended; presented my Letter from his
Friend the Grandee in the Island, and was received with much Kindness. This great Lord, whose Name was Munodi,
ordered me an Apartment in his own House, where I continued during my Stay, and was entertained in a most hospitable
Manner.

 The next Morning after my Arrival, he took me in his Chariot to see the Town, which is about half the Bigness of
London, but the Houses very strangely built, and most of them out of Repair. The People in the Streets walked fast,
looked wild, their Eyes fixed, and were generally in Rags. We passed through one of the Town Gates, and went about
three Miles into the Country, where I saw many Labourers working with several Sorts of Tools in the Ground, but he
was not able to conjecture what they were about; neither did I observe any Expectation either of Corn or Grass,
although the Soil appeared to be excellent. I could not forbear admiring at these odd Appearances both in Town and
Country; and I made bold to desire my Conductor, that he would be pleased to explain to me what could be meant by
so many busy Heads, Hands, and Faces, both in the Streets and the Fields, because I did not discover any good Effects
they produced; but on the contrary, I never knew a Soil so unhappily cultivated, Houses so ill contrived and so ruinous,
or a People whose Countenances and Habit expressed so much Misery and Want.

 This Lord Munodi was a Person of the first Rank, and had been some Years Governor of Lagado; but by a Cabal of
Ministers was discharged for Insufficiency. However, the King treated him with Tenderness, as a well-meaning Man, but
of a low contemptible Understanding.

 When I gave that free Censure of the Country and its Inhabitants, he made no further Answer than by telling me, that I
had not been long enough among them to form a Judgment: and that the different Nations of the World had different
Customs; with other common Topicks to the same Purpose. But when we returned to his Palace, he asked me how I
liked the Building, what Absurdities I observed, and what Quarrel I had with the Dress or Looks of his Domesticks. This
he might safely do; because every Thing about him was magnificent, regular, and polite. I answered, that his Excellency's
Prudence, Quality, and Fortune, had exempted him from those Defects which Folly and Beggary had produced in
others. He said, if I would go with him to his Country House, about Twenty Miles distant, where his Estate lay, there
would be more Leisure for this Kind of Conversation. I told his Excellency that I was entirely at his Disposal; and
accordingly we set out next Morning.

 During our Journey, he made me observe the several Methods used by Farmers in managing their Lands; which to me
were wholly unaccountable: For except in some very few Places, I could not discover one Ear of Corn, or Blade of
Grass. But, in three Hours travelling, the Scene was wholly altered; we came into a most beautiful Country; Farmers
Houses at small Distances, neatly built, the Fields enclosed, containing Vineyards, Corngrounds, and Meadows. Neither
do I remember to have seen a more delightful Prospect. His Excellency observed my Countenance to clear up; he told
me with a Sigh that there his Estate began, and would continue the same till we should come to his House. That his
Countrymen ridiculed and despised him for managing his Affairs no better, and for setting so ill an Example to the
Kingdom; which however was followed by very few, such as were old, and wilful, and weak like himself.

 We came at length to the House, which was indeed a noble Structure, built according to the best Rules of ancient
Architecture. The Fountains, Gardens, Walks, Avenues, and Groves were all disposed with exact Judgment and Taste. I
gave due Praises to every Thing I saw, whereof his Excellency took not the least Notice till after Supper; when, there
being no third Companion, he told me with a very melancholy Air, that he doubted he must thrown down his Houses in
Town and Country, to rebuild them after the present Mode; destroy all his Plantations, and cast others into such a Form
as modern Usage required; and give the same Directions to all his Tenants, unless he would submit to incur the Censure
of Pride, Singularity, Affectation, Ignorance, Caprise; and perhaps increase his Majesty's Displeasure.

 That the Admiration I appeared to be under, would cease or diminish when he had informed me of some Particulars,
which probably I never heard of at Court, the People there being too much taken up in their own Speculations, to have
Regard to what passed here below.

 The Sum of his Discourse was to this Effect. That about Forty Years ago, certain Persons went up to Laputa, either
upon Business or Diversion; and after five Months Continuance came back with a very little Smattering in Mathematicks,
but full of Volatile Spirits acquired in that Airy Region. That these Persons upon their Return, began to dislike the
Management of every Thing below; and fell into Schemes of putting all Arts, Sciences, Languages, and Mechanicks
upon a new Foot. To this End they procured a Royal Patent for erecting an Academy of PROJECTORS in Lagado:
And the Humour prevailed so strongly among the People, that there is not a Town of any Consequence in the Kingdom
without such an Academy. In these Colleges, the Professors contrive new Rules and Methods of Agriculture and
Building, and new Instruments and Tools for all Trades and Manufactures, whereby, as they undertake, one Man shall
do the Work of Ten; a Palace may be built in a Week, of Materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. All
the Fruits of the Earth shall come to Maturity at whatever Season we think fit to chuse, and increase an Hundred Fold
more than they do at present; with innumerable other happy Proposals. The only Inconvenience is, that none of these
Projects are yet brought to Perfection; and in the mean time, the whole Country lies miserably waste, the Houses in
Ruins, and the People without Food or Cloaths. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are Fifty Times more
violently bent upon prosecuting their Schemes, driven equally on by Hope and Despair: That, as for himself, being not of
an enterprizing Spirit, he was content to go on in the old Forms; to live in the Houses his Ancestors had built, and act as
they did in every Part of Life without Innovation. That, some few other Persons of Quality and Gentry had done the
same; but were looked on with an eye of Contempt and ill Will, as enemies to Art, Ignorant, and ill Commonwealthmen,
preferring their own Ease and Sloth before the general Improvement of their Country.

 His Lordship added, that he would not by any further Particulars prevent the Pleasure I should certainly take in viewing
the grand Academy, whither he was resolved I should go. He only desired me to observe a ruined Building upon the
Side of a Mountain about three Miles distant, of which he gave me this Account. That he had a very convenient Mill
within Half a Mile of his House, turned by a Current from a large River, and sufficient for his own Family as well as a
great Number of his Tenants. That, about seven Years ago, a Club of those Projectors came to him with Proposals to
destroy this Mill, and build another on the Side of that Mountain, on the long Ridge whereof a long Canal must be cut for
a Repository of Water, to be conveyed up by Pipes and Engines to supply the Mill: Because the Wind and Air upon a
Height agitated the Water, and thereby made it fitter for Motion: And because the Water descending down a Declivity
would turn the Mill with half the Current of a River whose Course is more upon a Level. He said, that being then not
very well with the Court, and pressed by many of his Friends, he complyed with the Proposal; and after employing an
Hundred Men for two Years, the Work miscarryed, the Projectors went off, laying the Blame entirely upon him; railing
at him ever since, and putting others upon the same Experiment, with equal Assurance of Success, as well as equal
Disappointment.

 In a few Days we came back to Town; and his Excellency, considering the bad Character he had in the Academy,
would not go with me himself, but recommended me to a Friend of his to bear me Company thither. My Lord was
pleased to represent me as a great Admirer of Projects, and a Person of much Curiosity and easy Belief; which indeed
was not without Truth, for I had my self been a Sort of Projector in my younger Days.