{"id":243,"date":"2021-02-14T00:51:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T00:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=243"},"modified":"2021-02-14T00:51:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T00:51:37","slug":"prudent-insects-in-gullivers-travels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"Prudent Insects in Gulliver\u2019s Travels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly one hundred years prior to the release of Jonathan Swift\u2019s Gulliver\u2019s Travels, <\/em>Francis Bacon published a work titled, The New Organon, or True Directions concerning the interpretation of Nature<\/em>. Within it, he offered the public hundreds of aphorisms concerning his observations of human nature and the natural world. As a well-respected intellectual of his time, and known for his empirical scientific methodology, his ideas remained very popular throughout England even long after his death in 1626 (Quinton). A particular concept expressed in Book I of The New Organon <\/em>is that of \u201cprudent insects.\u201d Comparing the habits of the tiny creatures to the nature of human beings, Bacon concludes that \u201cThose who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance\u201d (Bacon XCV). He further expresses that the isolation of one or the other is ineffective, and the most admirable of all the insects is the \u201cbee\u201d which \u201ctakes a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own\u201d (Bacon XCV). By satirically using this well-known comparison within his own work, it appears that Jonathan Swift attempts to highlight an opinion regarding the absurdity of the political climate at the time\u2014the rigorous battle between the Whig and the Tory parties, and the powerful Whig Prime Minister, Robert Walpole.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Part III of Gulliver\u2019s Travels, <\/em>Gulliver finds himself on yet another island among the new and very intelligent Laputian people. During a visit to the Academy of Lagado where the rejected and seemingly foolish scientific ideas are considered and tested, Gulliver meets an individual whom he describes as \u201ca most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for building Houses\u201d (Swift 171). Swift describes this process which starts with the construction of the roof and then builds its way down to the foundation of the edifice. The architect apparently justifies his methodology as similar to the \u201cpractice of those two prudent Insects the Bee and the Spider\u201d (Swift 171). From the aforementioned Bacon excerpt, the ant represents experimentation, the spider reason, and the bee a balance of the two. Leaving out the symbol of experimentation in this analogy\u2014the ant\u2014Swift suggests that the Architect works in its absence, using mere philosophical dogma to accomplish this construction, without the vital piece of testing it out. Yet, the inclusion of the \u201cbee\u201d which represents the balance of the two approaches implies that there is a misunderstanding of the reference on the Architect\u2019s part, for one cannot have a balance of reason and experiment without the presence of the experimental side. This hints that the Architect not only lacks experimental ability, but also the rational intelligence to recognize his deficiency in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As previously mentioned, Swift was penning this novel during major political strife in England. Upheaval between the dominant Whig and Tory parties was a prominent conversation of his time, resulting in a victorious state for the Whig party which, with the assistance of the monarch, George I, quickly gained power and began exacting, in Swift\u2019s opinion, unpleasant change in British policy. Swift was a prominent member of the Tory party, and held the highest position for the Tories\u2019 journal in which he wrote, edited, and published many political works opposing the policies of the Whig party (Quintana). During this time, George I appointed the leading Whig member, Robert Walpole as Prime Minister, giving him significant power to affect the whole \u201chouse\u201d of government in England. Interestingly, Walpole was considered \u201cthe architect of political stability in Britain\u201d (Encyclopedia Britannica). It appears that in this passage of Gulliver\u2019s Travels, <\/em>the \u201cArchitect\u201d of reference could likely be Robert Walpole himself. While many claimed that he created stability in Britain, others believed that he merely worked with a foundation that had already been laid from generations of Tory-influenced policy. In comparing Walpole to an architect who builds his house from the top down, utilizing only sweet speech in its construction rather than effective action, Swift not only highlights the absurdity of his methods, but also the reliance on a foundation that is already present, as it is impossible to construct a roof without some form of supportive foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In making such a claim within his novel, Swift announces his political ideology to the public, calling them to consider the underlying methods behind the political powers in office. He highlights their inefficiency, and their reliance on the more stable approaches of the Tory party. He subtly mocks the Whigs, and specifically the Prime Minister, defining them as empty power, filled only with intriguing and philosophical dogma, but lacking the necessary action required for effective change in the nation. Through the use of Bacon\u2019s insect symbolism, he expresses the need for balance in office as Bacon himself also explains further in the same section of The New Organon <\/em>that \u201cfrom a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational\u2026much may be hoped\u201d (Bacon XCV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 21, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bacon, Francis. The New Organon, Book I, XCV. <\/em>ebooks@Adelaide, 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encyclopedia Britannica. \u201c18th-century Britain, 1714\u20131815.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quintana, Ricardo. \u201cJonathan Swift: Anglo-Irish Author and Clergyman.\u201d Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 15 Oct 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinton, Anthony M. \u201cFrancis Bacon: British Author, Philosopher, and Statesman.\u201d Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 8 Nov 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver\u2019s Travels. <\/em>Edited by Christopher Fox. Bedford Books of St. Martin\u2019s Press,Boston, 1995.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly one hundred years prior to the release of Jonathan Swift\u2019s Gulliver\u2019s Travels, Francis Bacon published a work titled, The New Organon, or True Directions concerning the interpretation of Nature. Within it, he offered the public hundreds of aphorisms concerning his observations of human nature and the natural world. As a well-respected intellectual of his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[76,75],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-analyses","tag-gullivers-travels","tag-jonathan-swift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}