The author's love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected. The king's great ignorance in politics. The learning of that country very imperfect and confined. The laws, and military affairs, and parties in the state. 作者对祖国的爱；他提出一项对国王极为有利的建议，却被拒绝；国王关于政治一无所知；这个国家学术很不完善，且范围狭窄；这个国家法律、军事和政党的情况。
Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from concealing this part of my story. It was in vain to discover my resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated. I am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can possibly be, that such an occasion was given: but this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that it could not consist either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him what satisfaction I was able. Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point a more favourable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness of truth would allow. For I have always borne that laudable partiality to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with so much justice, recommends to a historian. I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and beauties in the most advantageous light. This was my sincere endeavour in those many discourses I had with that monarch, although it unfortunately failed of success. 除了对真理的无限热爱，没有任何事情能够阻止我隐瞒这段故事。我当时就是表示出愤慨也没用，我的愤慨经常会变成笑柄；我不得不耐着性子听凭别人对我那高贵而可爱的祖国大肆侮辱。我从心里感到很难过，任何一位读者如果遇到我这种情况也一定会很难过的。可这位君王偏偏对每一件琐事都十分好奇、追根究底，我要是不尽量答复得使他满意，那我就是感恩不报或者失礼。不过我还可以为自己辩白的是，我巧妙地避开了他的许多问题，而且严格地说，我对每一个问题的回答都比事实要好很多倍，因为我对自己的祖国总是有所偏袒。我向来称颂偏袒自己的祖国，希腊的史学家狄奥尼修斯就劝告历史学家要多说自己国家的好话，这也是非常有道理的。我要掩饰自己的“政治妈妈”的缺陷和丑陋，而竭力宣扬她的美德和美丽。在和那位伟大的君王的多次谈话中，我曾真诚努力那样做的，然而不幸没有成功。
But great allowances should be given to a king, who lives wholly secluded from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in other nations, the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we, and the politer countries of Europe, are wholly exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince's notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind. 但是，我们也应该原谅这位君王，他完全与世隔绝，因此必然会对其他国家十分常见的风俗人情毫无所知。这么一种无知就产生了许多偏见以及某种思想的狭隘性，而这些东西我们和欧洲一些较文明的国家是根本不会有的。如果把生活在这么偏远地方的一位君王的善恶观念作为全人类的标准，当然是很难令人接受的。
To confirm what I have now said, and further to show the miserable effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage, which will hardly obtain belief. In hopes to ingratiate myself further into his majesty's favour, I told him of "an invention, discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a certain powder, into a heap of which, the smallest spark of fire falling, would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together, with a noise and agitation greater than thunder. That a proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force. That the largest balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea, and when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them. That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near. That I knew the ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I understood the manner of compounding them, and could direct his workmen how to make those tubes, of a size proportionable to all other things in his majesty's kingdom, and the largest need not be above a hundred feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands." This I humbly offered to his majesty, as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in return for so many marks that I had received of his royal favour and protection. 为了证实我的话，同时也为了进一步说明狭隘的教育会有什么样的悲惨结果，我在这里要添加一段几乎叫人难以置信的叙述。为了能够进一步取悦国王，我告诉他三四百年前有人发明了一种粉末，哪怕是一丁点的火星掉到像山一样高的这种粉末上也会即刻被点燃，飞到半天空，声响和震动比打雷还厉害。按照管子的大小，把一定量的这种粉末塞进一根空的铜管或铁管里，就可以将一枚铁弹或铅弹推出，没有东西可以挡住铁弹或铅弹的力量与速度。用这种方法射出去的最大弹丸可以一下子消灭一支军队，而且还能把最坚固的城墙轰成平地，将几艘载有千名士兵的船击沉海底。如果把所有的船用链子串到一起，子弹出去能打断桅杆和船索，将几千人的身体炸成两段，一切都消灭得干干净净。我们就经常将这种粉末装入空心的大铁球，用一种机器对着我们正在围攻的城池射出去，这可以将道路炸毁、房屋炸碎、碎片四处飞扬，所有走近的人都会被炸得脑浆迸裂。我告诉国王自己对这种粉末的成分十分熟悉，都是些常见而且廉价的东西。我也知道调配方法，也可以指导他的工人制造出与陛下的王国内其他各种东西比例相称的炮筒来，最长的也不会超过一百英尺。给二三十根这样的炮管装进一定数量的粉末和铁球，就可以在几小时内摧毁他领土内最坚固的城垣；要是首都的人胆敢抗拒陛下的绝对命令，也可以把整个城市炸毁。我谨将这一主意献给陛下，略表寸心，来报答陛下多次给我的恩典和庇护。
The king was struck with horror at the description I had given of those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. "He was amazed, how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I" (these were his expressions) "could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those destructive machines; whereof," he said, "some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver. As for himself, he protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom, than be privy to such a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any more." 国王对我描述的那些可怕的机器以及我提出的建议大为震惊。他很惊异，像我这么一只无能而卑贱的昆虫（这是他的说法），竟能有这样不人道的想法，谈起这些想法来还很随便，似乎我对血腥场面和废墟完全无动于衷，只把自己所描绘的那些当成毁灭性的机器所造成的普通结果。他说，最初的发明者一定是恶魔天才、人类公敌。他本人坚决表示，虽然很少有什么东西能比艺术或自然界的新发现更使他感到愉快，但他宁可失去半壁河山也不愿听到这样一件秘密。他命令我，如果我还想保住一命，就不要再提这事了。
A strange effect of narrow principles and views that a prince possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents, and almost adored by his subjects, should, from a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people! Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will, on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader; but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I happened to say, "there were several thousand books among us written upon the art of government," it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings. He professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister. He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy, or some rival nation, were not in the case. He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics, which are not worth considering. And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to hiscountry, than the whole race of politicians put together." 死板的教条和短浅的目光就产生了一种奇怪的结果——一位君王，具有种种令人崇敬、爱戴和敬仰的品质。他有卓越的才能，伟大的智慧，高深的学问，统治国家的雄才，臣民们对他的爱戴；就是这么一位君王，出于一种善意的、没有必要的顾虑，竟将到手的机会轻轻放过了，这真是我们欧洲人意想不到的，要不然他很可能成为他领导下的人民的生命、自由和财产的绝对主宰！我这么说丝毫不会降低那位卓越国王的若干美德。我清楚地知道，只因为这一点，英国的读者免不了会小看这位君王的品德。不过我认为他们有这种缺点是出于无知，因为他们至今还没能像欧洲一些比较精明的才子那样把政治变成一门科学。我记得很清楚，在有一天我和国王的谈话中，我曾偶然提到，我们写过几千本书关于施政这门学问，这使他非常鄙视我们的智慧（与我的本意相反）。他表示，不论是君王还是大臣，心里每一点神秘、精巧和阴谋都令他厌恶、瞧不起。所以他不懂我说的国家机密到底是什么意思，因为他那里既没有敌人也没有敌国。他把治理国家的知识范围划得很小，那不外乎是些常识和理智，正义和仁慈，从速判决民事、刑事案件，以及其他不值得一提的一些显而易见的事项。他还提出了这样的看法：谁能使原来只生产一串谷穗、一片草叶的土地长出两串谷穗、两片草叶来，谁就比所有的政客对国家的贡献更重大。
The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel. But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so that among us, it would be little esteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could never drive the least conception into their heads. 这个民族的学术十分贫乏，只有伦理、历史、诗歌和数学几个部分组成。但我们必须承认，他们在这几个方面的成就还是很卓越的。可是他们的数学完全应用到有益于生活的事情上去了，用来改良农业以及一切机械技术，所以在我们看来不足称道。至于什么观念、本体、抽象、先验，我是永远也不可能将哪怕是一丁点儿的概况灌输进他们的头脑中。
No law in that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two and twenty. But indeed few of them extend even to that length. They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation; and to write a comment upon any law is a capital crime. As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either. 他们一共有二十二个字母，在他们的法律条文中，没有一条超过这个数目。不过，事实上绝大部分条文甚至都到不了那么长。法律是用最明白简易的文字写成的，那里的人民也没有那么聪明，能找出另一种解释；对写文章评论任何法律进行评论都是死罪。至于民事诉讼的裁决或刑事审判的程序，由于他们的判例太少，两方面都没有什么可以值得吹嘘的特别技巧。
They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind; but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is reckoned the largest, does not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleased. The queen's joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms, a kind of wooden machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were each fifty feet long. It was indeed a moveable pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read, was put up leaning against the wall. I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of my eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to the bottom; after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pasteboard, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long. 同中国人一样，他们也是在很久很久以前就有了印刷术，可是他们的图书馆却并不很大，国王的图书馆被认为是最大的了，藏书也不过一千卷，都陈列在一条大约有一千二百英尺长的长廊里。我可以在那儿自由借阅我所喜爱的任何图书。王后的细木匠在格兰姆达尔克立契的一个房间里设计安装了一种二十五英尺高的木机械，形状很像一架直立的梯子，每一层踏板有五十英尺长。实际这是一架可以挪动的梯子，梯腿离墙壁有十英尺。我把想要看的书斜靠在墙壁上。我先爬到梯子上面的一块踏板上去，然后脸面向书，从一页书的头上开始，根据一行行不同的长度向右或者向左来回走大约八到十步，一直看到下面我眼睛看得不十分清楚的地方，再慢慢地一级一级往下降，直到最底层。之后我重新爬上梯子，用同样的方法阅读另一页，读完了就将那一张翻过去。我用双手很容易翻页，因为书页像纸板一样又厚又硬，最大的对开本的书十八到二十英尺长。
Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various expressions. I have perused many of their books, especially those in history and morality. Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise, which always lay in Glumdalclitch's bed chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion. The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar. However, I was curious to see what an author of that country could say upon such a subject. This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing "how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts; how much he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry." He added, "that nature was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only small abortive births, in comparison of those in ancient times." He said, "it was very reasonable to think, not only that the species of men were originally much larger, but also that there must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is asserted by history and tradition, so it has been confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of men in our days." He argued, "that the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook." From this way of reasoning, the author drew several moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat. For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting how universally this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature. And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded among us as they are among that people. 他们的文章风格清丽、雄健、流畅，但是并不华丽，因为他们最忌堆砌不必要的词藻或者使用各种不同的表达法。我仔细阅读过他们的许多关于历史和道德方面的书籍。其他方面的书呢，我最喜欢看一直摆在格兰姆达尔克立契卧室里的那一本比较陈旧的小论述书——这书是她的女教师的。这位老成持重的太太喜欢阅读关于道德和宗教信仰方面的著作。这本书论述了人类的弱点，不过除女人和俗人外，并不怎么受推崇。但是我倒很想看看这样一个题目，那个国家的作家能谈些什么。这位作家论述了欧洲道德学家经常谈论的所有主题，指出人本质上是一个十分渺小、卑鄙、无能的动物，既不能抵抗险恶的天气，又不能抵挡凶猛的野兽；其他动物，论力量、速度、洞察力、勤劳，各有所长，都远远超过人类。他又说，近代世界逐渐衰败，大自然都退化了。跟古时的人相比，大自然如今降生的都只是些矮小的早产儿。他说不仅原始的人种比现在的人要大得多，而且从前也确实有巨人存在，这是十分合理的想法。这一点历史和传说都有记载，而且王国各处偶然挖掘出来的巨大的骨骼和骷髅也都证明原始人类远远超过当今已缩小的人类。他认为，刚开始时，大自然的法则是绝对要求我们长得又高大又强壮的。那么，我们也就不会像现在这样，连屋上掉下一片瓦，小孩子手里扔过来的一块石子，或失足掉进一条小溪等种种小小的意外都可能送命。按照这种推论，作者提出了几条对人生处世有用的道德法则，在这里就不必加以引述了。我自己心里却觉得这种因为与自然发生不和而吸取道德方面教训的才能倒真是天下都一样，但事实上人们只不过是在发发牢骚表示其不满罢了。周密的调查过后，我认为那个民族跟自然之间的争吵也和我们的一样，都是毫无根据的。
As to their military affairs, they boast that the king's army consists of a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse; if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and under very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his own city, chosen after the manner of Venice, by ballot? 至于他们的军事，他们夸耀说国王的大军有步兵十七万六千，骑兵三十二万。这支军队由几个城市的手艺人和乡下的农民组成，担任指挥的是当地的贵族和乡绅，他们不领薪饷也不受赏赐，所以真不知道能不能管这样一队人马叫军队。他们的操练是无可挑剔的，纪律也非常好，不过我倒也看不出有什么了不起的优点来，因为每一个农民都由他自己的地主指挥，每一个市民都由他自己所在城市的重要人物统率，而这些人又都是像威尼斯的做法那样经投票选出来的，所以他们怎么会违反纪律呢？
I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise, in a great field near the city of twenty miles square. They were in all not above twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse; but it was impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of ground they took up. A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be about ninety feet high. I have seen this whole body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords at once, and brandish them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! It looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky. 我常常看到洛布鲁格鲁德城的民兵拉到城郊一块面积二十平方英里的巨大的空地上去操练。他们的总人数不会超过两万五千名步兵和六千名骑兵，不过他们所占地盘太大，我无法计算出确切的数目来。一名骑在大战马上的骑兵大约会有九十英尺高。我曾见过一整队这样的骑兵，一声令下，同时抽出剑来在空中挥舞。我简直不能想象用什么方法来描绘这样壮丽辉煌、惊心动魄的情景！看上去仿佛是万道闪电从天空中的四面八方同时照射、闪耀。
I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed, both by conversation and reading their histories; for, in the course of many ages, they have been troubled with the same disease to which the whole race of mankind is subject;the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion. All which, however happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily put an end to by this prince's grand-father, in a general composition; and the militia, then settled with common consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest duty. 我觉得奇怪，很想知道既然没有任何一个国家有路可以通到这个国家的领土，这位君王怎么会想到要有军队，还要教他的百姓进行军事训练呢？但是不久，我就通过与人交谈和阅读他们的历史知道了其中的道理。原来许多世代以来，他们也被一种许多全人类所犯的通病所困扰——贵族争权，人民争自由，君王则要绝对的专制。无论王国的法律把这三方面调协得多好，总有一方有时会出来破坏法律，这样就酿成了不止一次的内战。最近的一次内战幸而被当今国王的祖父率大军平定了，于是三方面一致同意从此设立民兵团，严格执行职责。