. . . he observed how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I: and yet, said he, I dare engage, these creatures have their titles and distinctions of honour, they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray. And thus he continued on, while my colour came and went several times with indignation to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously treated.
The King of Brobdingnag, where all the people are giants relative to Gulliver, reflects on the ridiculousness of human vanity and pride, which is so potent a force even among people of Gulliver's (and the reader's own) size, who are to Brobdingnagians as small and as insignificant as insects.
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Gulliver's Travels - 1726
Original title: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships
Jonathan Swift 1667-1745
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Graphic - Tadeusz Pruszkowski 1888–1942
