The author relates several particulars of the Yahoos. The great virtues of the Houyhnhnms. The education and exercise of their youth. Their general assembly. 作者叙述了几件有关“雅虎”的事情；“慧骃”的伟大品德；青年“慧骃”的教育和运动；它们的全国代表大会。
As I ought to have understood human nature much better than I supposed it possible for my master to do, so it was easy to apply the character he gave of the Yahoos to myself and my countrymen; and I believed I could yet make further discoveries, from my own observation. I therefore often begged his honour to let me go among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood; to which he always very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my guard; without whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures. For I have already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious animals, upon my first arrival; and I afterwards failed very narrowly, three or four times, of falling into their clutches, when I happened to stray at any distance without my hanger. And I have reason to believe they had some imagination that I was of their own species, which I often assisted myself by stripping up my sleeves, and showing my naked arms and breasts in their sight, when my protector was with me. At which times they would approach as near as they durst, and imitate my actions after the manner of monkeys, but ever with great signs of hatred; as a tame jackdaw with cap and stockings is always persecuted by the wild ones, when he happens to be got among them. 因为我对人性的了解总该比主人了解的更深刻，所以很容易把他所说的关于“雅虎”的性格安到我和同胞身上；同时我还相信，我自己根据观察还可以有进一步的发现。因此我就常常请求主人准许我到附近的“雅虎”群中去。每次主人都答应我的请求，因为他知道我非常痛恨那些畜生，绝对不会被它们引诱坏的。他还命令一名仆人给我做警卫，那是一匹健壮的栗色小马，非常诚实、脾气又好，要不是它保护我，我还真不敢去冒这样的险。因为我已经告诉过读者，刚到这地方时我被这帮可恶的畜生所纠缠，后来又有三四回也险些落入它们的手里，那是我到远处去溜达，身上不巧没有带腰刀的时候。我有理由相信它们多少认为我是它们的同类，因为当我跟警卫在一起的时候，我常常在他们面前会卷起袖子，露出胳膊和胸脯以壮声势。这样一来它们就会放胆凑上前来，像猴子一样模仿我的动作，但是也露出极其恨我的表情。我就像一只被人驯服的寒鸦，戴着帽子、穿着长袜凑巧跑到野生的鸟群中时，总要受到迫害。
They are prodigiously nimble from their infancy. However, I once caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to make it quiet;but the little imp fell a squalling, and scratching, and biting with such violence, that I was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole troop of old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe (for away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not venture near us. I observed the young animal's flesh to smell very rank, and the stink was somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but much more disagreeable. I forgot another circumstance (and perhaps I might have the reader's pardon if it were wholly omitted), that while I held the odious vermin in my hands, it voided its filthy excrements of a yellow liquid substance all over my clothes; but by good fortune there was a small brook hard by, where I washed myself as clean as I could; although I durst not come into my master's presence until I were sufficiently aired. 它们从小就身手矫健。不过有一次我倒是捉住了一只三岁的小公“雅虎”，我做出种种慈爱的表情想设法让它平静下来，可是那小东西又是哭号又是抓挠，还拼命咬我，我被迫只得将它放了。正在这时，有一大群老“雅虎”闻声赶来将我们围住，不过它们见小家伙已经很安全（因为它已跑开），我那栗色小马又在身边，它们没敢近我们的身。我发现那小畜生的肉发出一股恶臭味，既有点像黄鼠狼的味儿，又有点像狐狸味儿，不过还要难闻得多。我还忘了一件事（要是我把这一段完全删去，也许会得到读者的谅解），我把那只可恶的畜生抓在手里的时候，它忽然拉起一种污秽的黄颜色的稀屎来，把我全身衣服都弄脏了，幸亏近旁边就有一条小河，我跑到里面尽力洗干净；一直到身上的臭气全消之后，才敢去见我的主人。
By what I could discover, the Yahoos appear to be the most unteachable of all animals: their capacity never reaching higher than to draw or carry burdens. Yet I am of opinion, this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful. They are strong and hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and, by consequence, insolent, abject, and cruel. It is observed, that the red haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity. 据我所看到的事实来说，“雅虎”似乎是最不可调教的动物，它们除了会拉和抬东西外，再也没有什么更高的本领了。可是我倒认为，这一缺陷主要还是因为它们性情乖张、倔强造成的；因为它们狡猾、恶毒、奸诈、报复心强。它们身强体壮，可是性情懦弱，结果变得蛮横无理、下贱卑鄙、残忍歹毒。据说红毛的公母“雅虎”比别的更淫荡而恶毒，在体力和动作的灵活方面也远远胜过它们的同类。
The Houyhnhnms keep the Yahoos for present use in huts not far from the house; but the rest are sent abroad to certain fields, where they dig up roots, eat several kinds of herbs, and search about for carrion, or sometimes catch weasels and luhimuhs (a sort of wild rat), which they greedily devour. Nature has taught them to dig deep holes with their nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein they lie by themselves; only the kennels of the females are larger, sufficient to hold two or three cubs. “慧骃”把目前使唤的“雅虎”养在离自己房子不远的茅屋里，其余的则全赶到外面的田里去。它们就在那里刨树根，吃野草，四处寻找动物的死尸，有时还去捉黄鼠狼和野鼠，狼吞虎咽地吃个精光。它们天生就会利用爪子在土坡旁边挖一些深深的洞穴，然后自己就在这洞里睡觉。母“雅虎”的窝要大一些，还可以容得下两三只小崽。
They swim from their infancy like frogs, and are able to continue long under water, where they often take fish, which the females carry home to their young. And, upon this occasion, I hope the reader will pardon my relating an odd adventure. 它们从小就像青蛙一样会游泳，还能在水底呆很长时间，它们常常会在水里捉鱼，母的捉到鱼之后就拿回家去喂小崽。说到这里，我还要讲一件奇遇，希望读者能够原谅。
Being one day abroad with my protector the sorrel nag, and the weather exceeding hot, I entreated him to let me bathe in a river that was near. He consented, and I immediately stripped myself stark naked, and went down softly into the stream. It happened that a young female Yahoo, standing behind a bank, saw the whole proceeding, and inflamed by desire, as the nag and I conjectured, came running with all speed, and leaped into the water, within five yards of the place where I bathed. I was never in my life so terribly frightened. The nag was grazing at some distance, not suspecting any harm. She embraced me after a most fulsome manner. I roared as loud as I could, and the nag came galloping towards me, whereupon she quitted her grasp, with the utmost reluctancy, and leaped upon the opposite bank, where she stood gazing and howling all the time I was putting on my clothes. 一天，我跟我的警卫栗色小马出游在外，天气特殊地热，我请求它让我在附近的一条河里洗个澡。它同意后，我立刻脱得精光慢慢地走进了小溪里。这时凑巧有一只母“雅虎”站在一个土堆后面看到了全部的经过，她一时欲火中烧（我和小马都是这样猜想的），就以最快的速度跑了过来，在离我洗澡不到五码的地方跳进了水里。我的一生中还从来没有这么恐惧过。小马那时正在远处吃草，没想到会出什么事。她以一种极其令人作呕的动作将我搂进怀里。我拼命大声叫喊。小马闻声奔来，她十分不舍地松手，然后跳到了对面的岸上。我穿衣服的时候，她还站在那儿眼巴巴地冲我号叫。
This was a matter of diversion to my master and his family, as well as of mortification to myself. For now I could no longer deny that I was a real Yahoo in every limb and feature, since the females had a natural propensity to me, as one of their own species. Neither was the hair of this brute of a red colour (which might have been some excuse for an appetite a little irregular), but black as a sloe, and her countenance did not make an appearance altogether so hideous as the rest of her kind; for I think she could not be above eleven years old. 主人及其家人都把这件事引为笑谈，我自己却感到非常耻辱。既然母“雅虎”把我当成同类，自然就对我产生了爱慕之情，现在我再也不能否认我从四肢和身体特征上是一只真正的“雅虎”了。那畜生的毛发也不是红的（这就不能说她欲望有点不正常），而是像黑李子一般黑；面貌也并不像其他“雅虎”那样叫人厌恶；我想她的年龄不会超过十一岁。
Having lived three years in this country, the reader, I suppose, will expect that I should, like other travellers, give him some account of the manners and customs of its inhabitants, which it was indeed my principal study to learn. 我在这个国家已经生活了三年，我想读者们一定希望我像别的旅行家那样，能把当地居民的风俗习惯跟他们说一说，实际上这也是我主要想努力了解的东西。
As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational creature, so their grand maxim is, to cultivate reason, and to be wholly governed by it. Neither is reason among them a point problematical, as with us, where men can argue with plausibility on both sides of the question, but strikes you with immediate conviction; as it must needs do, where it is not mingled, obscured, or discoloured, by passion and interest. I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to understand the meaning of the word "opinion," or how a point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either. So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and positiveness, in false or dubious propositions, are evils unknown among the Houyhnhnms. In the like manner, when I used to explain to him our several systems of natural philosophy, he would laugh, "that a creature pretending to reason, should value itself upon the knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things where that knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use." Wherein he agreed entirely with the sentiments of Socrates, as Plato delivers them; which I mention as the highest honour I can do that prince of philosophers. I have often since reflected, what destruction such doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe; and how many paths of fame would be then shut up in the learned world. 因为这些高贵的“慧骃”生来就具有种种美德，根本不知道理性动物身上的罪恶是怎么一回事，所以他们的伟大准则就是培养理性，而且一切都受理性支配。同时他们的理性也不像我们的理性那样可以引起争论。在我们这儿，人们可以就一个问题的两面，花言巧语、似是而非地辩论一番；但是他们却会使你马上信服，因为他们的理性不会受感情和利益的歪曲和蒙蔽。我记得自己好不容易才使主人明白“意见”这个词的意义，还有什么样的问题会引起争议；因为理性教导我们，只有我们确认的事情才会肯定或者否定，不知道的事，无论肯定或者否定都做不到。所以争议、吵闹、争执、肯定、虚假、无把握的命题等等都是“慧骃”中闻所未闻的罪恶。同样，当我把我们自然哲学的几种体系解释给他听的时候，他总要笑起来，笑一个冒充有理性的动物竟然也会重视别人的设想，那些东西即使是真的也没有什么用处。这方面他完全赞同柏拉图表述的苏格拉底的思想；我提到苏格拉底的思想是因为我对这位哲学之王怀有最崇高的敬意。从那以后，我也常常想到这种学说不知要摧毁欧洲图书馆里的多少图书，也可能闭塞在学术界多少成名之路。
Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but universal to the whole race; for a stranger from the remotest part is equally treated with the nearest neighbour, and wherever he goes, looks upon himself as at home. They preserve decency and civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of ceremony. They have no fondness for their colts or foals, but the care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the dictates of reason. And I observed my master to show the same affection to his neighbour's issue, that he had for his own. They will have it that nature teaches them to love the whole species, and it is reason only that makes a distinction of persons, where there is a superior degree of virtue. 友谊和仁慈是“慧骃”的两种主要美德。这两种美德并不限于个别的“慧骃” 而是遍及全“慧骃”类。从最遥远的地方来的陌生客人和最新近的邻居受到的款待是一样的，不管走到哪里都像到了自己的家一样。他们保持着最高程度的端庄礼貌，可是完全不拘泥于小节。他们绝不溺爱小马驹，教育子女完全以理性为准绳。我就曾经看到，我的主人爱护邻居家的孩子跟爱抚自己的孩子是一样的。它们遵循大自然的教导，热爱自己所有的同类；只有理性才能把人分为不同的等级，因为有些德行更高一点。
When the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no longer accompany with their consorts, except they lose one of their issue by some casualty, which very seldom happens; but in such a case they meet again; or when the like accident befalls a person whose wife is past bearing, some other couple bestow on him one of their own colts, and then go together again until the mother is pregnant. This caution is necessary, to prevent the country from being overburdened with numbers. But the race of inferior Houyhnhnms, bred up to be servants, is not so strictly limited upon this article: these are allowed to produce three of each sex, to be domestics in the noble families. 母“慧骃”生下一对子女后就不再跟自己的丈夫同居了，除非是偶然出事故——其中的一个孩子夭折，但这样的事很少发生，只有在那样的情况下他们才再同居。要么就是别的“慧骃”遭遇了这种不幸而他的妻子又已经不能生育，这种时候其他某一对夫妇就会将自己的一个孩子送给它，然后它们再同居，一直到女的怀孕为止。这种措施是有必要的，可以防止国家人口过剩。但是培养成仆人的下等“慧骃” 可以不受这种严格的限制。他们每对夫妇可以生三对子女，这些子女日后也到贵族人家充当仆人。
In their marriages, they are exactly careful to choose such colours as will not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed. Strength is chiefly valued in the male, and comeliness in the female; not upon the account of love, but to preserve the race from degenerating; for where a female happens to excel in strength, a consort is chosen, with regard to comeliness. 在婚姻这件事上，他们非常注意对毛色的选择，这样做是为了避免造成令人不愉快的血统上的混乱。男方主要是看重他是不是强壮，女方则看她是不是美丽；这倒并不是为了爱情，而是为了防止种族退化。如果偶有女方力气过人，就找一个漂亮的伴侣配给她。
Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements have no place in their thoughts, or terms whereby to express them in their language. The young couple meet, and are joined, merely because it is the determination of their parents and friends; it is what they see done every day, and they look upon it as one of the necessary actions of a reasonable being. But the violation of marriage, or any other unchastity, was never heard of; and the married pair pass their lives with the same friendship and mutual benevolence, that they bear to all others of the same species who come in their way, without jealousy, fondness, quarrelling, or discontent. 他们对求婚、求爱、送礼、寡妇所得遗产、财产转让等等一无所知，他们的语言中也没有可用来表达这些概念的专门术语。年轻夫妇的结识和结合全由父母和朋友来定夺；他们每天都看到这样的事，认为这是理性动物一种必要的行为。婚姻受到破坏或者不忠贞的事却从来都没有听说过，夫妇俩像对待所有的同类一样，相敬相爱、相互关心，度过一辈子，永远不会发生嫉妒、溺爱、吵架或者不和睦的事。
In educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable, and highly deserves our imitation. These are not suffered to taste a grain of oats, except upon certain days, till eighteen years old; nor milk, but very rarely; and in summer they graze two hours in the morning, and as many in the evening, which their parents likewise observe; but the servants are not allowed above half that time, and a great part of their grass is brought home, which they eat at the most convenient hours, when they can be best spared from work. 他们教育男女青年的方法令人敬佩，值得我们效仿。除了某几天之外，孩子们在十八岁以前不让他们吃一粒燕麦，也很少让他们喝牛奶。夏天，他们早晚各在户外吃两个钟头的青草，同样，父母在一旁监督。但是仆人吃草的时间却不到一个钟头。仆人们将大部分青草带回家去，不干活的空闲时间拿出来吃。
Temperance, industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons equally enjoined to the young ones of both sexes; and my master thought it monstrous in us, to give the females a different kind of education from the males, except in some articles of domestic management; whereby, as he truly observed, one half of our natives were good for nothing but bringing children into the world; and to trust the care of our children to such useless animals, he said, was yet a greater instance of brutality. 节制、勤劳、运动和清洁是青年男女的必修课程。我的主人认为我们除家务管理方面的一些功课外，男女所受教育不同实在太荒唐了。他说的很对，这样我们的人就有一半什么事也做不好，只会把孩子一个个生到这个世上来。他说，把我们的子女交给这么一些无用的动物去照看，就更足以证明我们的残忍。
But the Houyhnhnms train up their youth to strength, speed, and hardiness, by exercising them in running races up and down steep hills, and over hard stony grounds; and when they are all in a sweat, they are ordered to leap over head and ears into a pond or river. Four times a year the youth of a certain district meet to show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of strength and agility; where the victor is rewarded with a song in his or her praise. On this festival, the servants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly. 但是“慧骃”却要训练他们的孩子在陡峭的山坡跑上跑下，或者在坚硬的石子地上跑来跑去，这样训练孩子们的体力、速度和毅力；跑得浑身出汗时，就命令他们跳进池塘或河中，全身浸在水中。一个地区的青年每年有四次机会聚到一起，表演跑跳以及其他体力和技巧方面的本领，优胜者则获得大家赞美的歌曲。在这样的节日里，仆人们就会赶着一群“雅虎”。它们把带来的干草、燕麦和牛奶送到表演场地给“慧骃”享用；东西送到，那些畜生马上就被赶回来，免得它们在会场上吵吵闹闹。
Every fourth year, at the vernal equinox, there is a representative council of the whole nation, which meets in a plain about twenty miles from our house, and continues about five or six days. Here they inquire into the state and condition of the several districts; whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows, or Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution. Here likewise the regulation of children is settled: as for instance, if a Houyhnhnm has two males, he changes one of them with another that has two females;and when a child has been lost by any casualty, where the mother is past breeding, it is determined what family in the district shall breed another to supply the loss. 每隔四年，春分时节要举行全国代表大会，开会地点是离我们家大约二十英里的一片平原，会议要连续开五六天。他们在会上汇报各地区的情况，干草、燕麦、母牛、“雅虎”是否富足；要是哪一地区缺少什么 （这种情形很少），大家一定会一致同意捐助，供应那个地方所缺少的物资。会上，关于孩子的规定也会得到解决。 例如说，一个“慧骃”有两个男孩子，就可以同有两个女孩子的“慧骃”交换一个；如果一个孩子发生事故不幸死亡，而母亲又不能再生育，大家就来决定本区的哪家再生一个来补偿这一损失。