Important Quotations Explained
1. My
Father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of
five Sons. . . . I was bound Apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent
Surgeon in London . . . my Father now and then sending me small
Sums of Money. . . . When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my Father;
where, by the Assistance of him and my Uncle John . . . I got Forty
Pounds, and a Promise of Thirty Pounds a Year.
2. He
said, he knew no Reason, why those who entertain Opinions prejudicial
to the Publick, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged
to conceal them. And, as it was Tyranny in any Government to require
the first, so it was Weakness not to enforce the second.
3. My
little Friend Grildrig. . . . I cannot but conclude the Bulk of
your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin
that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.
4. [T]hey
go on Shore to rob and plunder; they see an harmless People, are
entertained with Kindness, they give the Country a new Name, they
take formal Possession of it for the King, they set up a rotten
Plank or a Stone for a Memorial, they murder two or three Dozen
of the Natives, bring away a Couple more by Force for a Sample,
return home, and get their Pardon. Here commences a New Dominion
acquired with a Title by Divine Right . . . the Earth reeking with
the Blood of its Inhabitants.
5. My
Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult,
if they would be content with those Vices and Follies only which
Nature hath entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at
the Sight of a Lawyer, a Pick-pocket, a Colonel. . . . This is all
according to the due Course of Things: But, when I behold a Lump
of Deformity, and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pride,
it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience; neither shall
I ever be able to comprehend how such an Animal and such a Vice
could tally together.
