Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels THIS QUESTION APPEARED IN THE CIVIL SERVICES EXAM How does Swift address the ‘ancients’ versus ‘moderns’ controversy in Gulliver’s Travels? None can fail to observe the controversy stirred in juxtaposing the ‘ancient ‘ with the ‘ moderns’ in Book Three of Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels( 1726). The abundance of commentary, allusions, satire and identifiable attacks conspicuously spoke of the saddened state of affairs in England. Jonathan Swift’s( 1667-1745)socio-political reality coincided with the Neo-Classical Age(1664-1702)and The Age of Enlightenment(1702-1784). Found in the midst of both, Swift attacks the ‘ New Science’ of The Royal Society. He attacks its arrogance for being detached from practical application thereby depreciating the knowledge of antiquity. Here, Swift’s Neo-Classical tendencies in the revival of the knowledge of antiquity and tradition are manifested. He is not against reason, but the tribe of ‘projectors’ in their pursuit of scientific extravagances. Regarded as a burlesque of experimental science, Chapter One in Book Three describes strange-looking individuals prodigiously decorated with celestial bodies and musical instruments. The Laputian King is shown being preoccupied with solving a math problem. This description is a direct attack on the practitioners of ‘ real science’ in the Royal Court of King George the First enjoying his Royal patronage. Lagado’s( The Royal Society) professors invented ‘ new rules and methods of agriculture and building’ but these schemes have failed miserably. Munodi’s allegiance to tradition is looked down upon and considered inferior to abstract theories. The profligacy is mocked in the undertaking of bizarre projects, where one can be seen extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, turning human excrement back into food and such others. In Glubbdubdrib, the Governor offers to summon up any dead person Gulliver wants to. Aristotle renowned for his knowledge is denounced as a liar. Swift, in his attempt to shield Aristotle’s mistake from modern scrutiny, argues for the ‘conjectural’ nature of experiences rather than the ‘certainty’ of modernists. He further explains that the new ‘Systems of Nature’ will vary in every age and those who pretend to ‘demonstrate’ from Mathematical Principals will live for a short period of time. This way, he emphasises that truth is not absolute but relative. Taking into consideration the limitedness of human mind, prudence lies in opinion and probability. He further calls for the method of imitation as necessary means for cultural transmission in uncertain times. Perhaps Swift’s affiliation with tradition sits well with T.S Eliot’s essay ‘ Tradition and Individual Talent’ where novelty is only possible in following the ideal order and also Sir William Temple’ in his essay, ‘Of Ancient and Modern Learning’,(1690). It is in this essay that Sir Temple introduced the metaphor of a dwarf( modern man) who is standing upon the ‘ shoulders of giants’( ancients). This metaphor was only to be later reused by Swift to emphasise modern man’s arrogance in holding themselves above the ancients. Swift was an Anglican and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Mere knowledge of Swift’s religious affiliations may make readers dismiss his views as being hostile to science. But this is not so. The theme of a skirmish between ancient and modern is also found in ‘The Battle of Books.’ His pessimism made him believe in the depravity of human nature thus believing that human beings are capable of ‘rationis capax’ instead of ‘animal rationale’. So, every human endeavour, according to him, is liable to be fraught with errors.
