The sea does not care if you are a king, a simple sailor, or a ship's doctor.
When it decides to rise, it swallows everything in its path.
On a dark, howling November night in the year 1699, a great English merchant ship called the Antelope was driven by a violent storm onto a jagged rock in the middle of the East Indies.
The ship split apart like a dry walnut.
In the screaming wind and the pitch black spray, the crew was scattered into the churning water.
Six of the sailors, including the ship's surgeon, a tall, observant man named Lemuel Gulliver, managed to lower a small rowboat into the surf.
They rode with the desperate strength of men who knew the deep ocean was waiting to claim them.
But a sudden towering wave caught their tiny craft and flipped it over into the foam.
Gulliver never saw his companions again.
He swam, gasping for air, pushed forward by the wind and the tide, his boots dragging him down like lead weights.
He swam until his arms felt like hollow reeds and his chest burned for want of breath.
Just as his strength was about to give out completely, when the cold water was beginning to fill his mouth, his toes scraped against something solid.
It was sand.
With the last of his energy, Gulliver dragged himself out of the surf, stumbling up a gentle sloping beach.
The wind was dying down and the storm was moving away, leaving only the soft, rhythmic sighing of the waves.
He walked for a short distance onto a flat grassy meadow, but he could not go a step further.
He collapsed onto the soft turf, rolled onto his back, and fell into the deepest, heaviest sleep of his entire life.
When Gulliver finally opened his eyes, the sun was shining brightly, warming his face.
He felt rested, but when he tried to lift his head to look around, he found he could not budge.
He tried to move his left arm, but it was pinned fast to the earth.
He tried to lift his right hand, but it was glued to the ground.
He tried to turn his head, but his long hair, which he wore down to his shoulders, was pulled tight and fast to the soil.
He was lying flat on his back, completely immobilized.
Gulliver blinked against the bright light and began to feel his body.
Across his arms, his legs, his chest, and his neck, he could feel thousands of incredibly thin, tight bands.
It felt as though a giant spider had spun a web over him while he slept, pinning every inch of his body to the earth with tiny invisible pegs.
As he lay there in wonder and growing alarm, he felt something alive moving on his left leg.
It was light and nimble, advancing gently over his shin, past his knee, and up onto his chest.
It walked with tiny, delicate steps, coming closer and closer to his chin.
Gulliver strained his eyes, looking downward as far as he could without moving his head.
There, standing on his chest, was a human creature.
But it was a human creature unlike any Gulliver had ever seen, or even dreamed of in his wildest travels.
The little man was not six inches tall.
He was perfectly formed with handsome features, wearing a tiny, elegant coat of a strange design.
In his hand, he held a bow and an arrow no larger than a sewing needle, and on his back was a tiny quiver.
Gulliver was so utterly astonished that he let out a great, roaring shout of surprise.
The sound of his voice was like a clap of thunder to the little creature.
The tiny man shrieked in terror, turned on his heel and leaped off Gulliver's chest, tumbling into the grass below.
Gulliver could hear a sudden frantic rustling all around him, like hundreds of mice scurrying through dry leaves.
He could hear tiny high-pitched voices shouting commands in a language he had never heard before.
He struggled to free himself.
With a mighty heave, he managed to snap the strings that bound his left arm and loosen the pegs that held his hair on that side.
The movement caused him great pain as dozens of tiny hairs were torn out by the roots, but he was finally able to lift his hand.
Immediately, a shrill voice cried out a single word.
Togonac.
In an instant, Gulliver felt a stinging sensation across his hand, his neck, and his face.
It felt as though a hundred hot needles were pricking his skin all at once.
The tiny people were shooting volleys of arrows into the air, which rained down upon him.
He tried to cover his face with his free hand, but the arrows pricked his fingers.
Some of the little soldiers even tried to pierce his leather jacket with their spears, though the tough hide easily turned the tiny points away.
Gulliver realized that if he struggled, he would only anger them further.
He was one, and they were many.
He decided his best course of action was to lie perfectly still, signaling his peaceful intentions, and wait to see what these miraculous little people would do next.
This is a story that comes to us from the rich storytelling traditions of England, written down long ago in the year 1726 by a brilliant and observant man named Jonathan Swift.
Like many great tales of the sea, it has been told and retold in many different ways, but at its heart, it is a story about how different the world can look, depending on where you are standing, and how big you are compared to the things around you.
Once the tiny people saw that the great giant was lying still and no longer struggling, they stopped shooting their arrows.
The high-pitched shouting died down, replaced by a busy, industrious murmuring.
A short distance from Gulliver's right ear, he heard the sound of hammering.
He turned his head as far as the remaining threads would allow, and saw that they were building a wooden platform, about a foot and a half high, complete with tiny ladders leading up to it.
When it was finished, four noble-looking figures climbed the ladders.
One of them, who wore a long flowing robe and seemed to be a person of great authority, stepped forward to address the giant.
The speaker, whom Gulliver later learned was called a Hergo, or high official, made a long, elegant speech.
His voice was clear and sharp, like the piping of a tiny flute.
Gulliver could not understand a single word, but he listened with great respect, occasionally putting his free hand to his heart and looking up at the sky to show he meant no harm.
But as the speech went on, Gulliver's stomach let out a long, rumbling growl.
It was a sound like distant thunder, and it made the speaker pause and look about in alarm.
Gulliver had not eaten since before the shipwreck, and his hunger was becoming unbearable.
He placed his finger to his mouth, pointing to his open lips, and made a pleading expression.
The Hergo understood.
He descended from the platform and gave a series of rapid commands.
Within minutes, a grand operation was underway.
The emperor of this strange land, which was called Lilliput, had already received news of the giant's arrival, and had ordered that the man mountain be fed at once.
Gulliver watched in absolute wonder as hundreds of the emperor's subjects began to march up his body.
They had placed long ladders against his sides, and a steady line of tiny people was climbing up, carrying large baskets on their shoulders.
These baskets had been sent from the royal kitchens, loaded with all the food the palace could muster.
To the Lilliputians, these were massive quantities of food, but to Gulliver, they were delightfully, comically small.
He saw shoulders of mutton and legs of beef, but they were so small that they looked like the wings of a small bird.
He ate them two or three at a time, along with loaves of bread the size of musket balls.
The little people cheered in amazement as Gulliver devoured their entire winter stores in a matter of minutes.
They climbed up his arms, carrying tiny barrels of wine, which they called hogsheads, and rolled them toward his mouth.
Gulliver picked up a barrel with two fingers, popped the top, and drank it down in one draft.
It was a delicious light red wine, tasting of grapes and sunshine, though it took 20 of their barrels to give him even a single satisfying swallow.
When he had finished every scrap of food and every drop of wine, the little people danced on his chest, shouting with joy.
Hecan the ghoul.
They were no longer afraid of him.
They saw that although he was a mountain of a man, he was gentle, cooperative, and possessed an appetite that was nothing short of a miracle.
But the emperor of Lilliput was a practical ruler, and he knew he could not leave a giant chained to a beach forever.
He had a grand plan to bring the man mountain to the capital city, which lay about a half mile away.
To do this, the Lilliputians had to perform a feat of engineering that would have made the greatest builders of England proud.
They brought in their largest carriage, a great wooden frame on 22 wheels, which was normally used to carry their heaviest warships.
But how were they to lift a sleeping giant onto it?
They had mixed a sleeping potion into the last barrels of wine Gulliver had drunk.
As the medicine took effect, Gulliver felt a heavy, warm drowsiness steal over him, and he sank back into a deep slumber.
While he slept, 80 of the emperor's finest engineers set to work.
They drove tall wooden poles into the ground around Gulliver's body and attached strong, thick ropes, which were about the thickness of common packing thread to Gulliver, but to them were as thick as ship's cables.
They used 80 sets of pulleys, operated by 900 of their strongest men, and after several hours of coordinated, straining effort, they managed to hoist Gulliver up and slide the great carriage beneath him.
They tied him down securely and hitched 1500 of the emperor's finest horses, each about four and a half inches high, to the carriage.
When Gulliver woke up the next morning, he felt the strange rumbling vibration of the carriage beneath him.
He was moving through a beautiful miniature landscape.
The trees were no taller than cabbage plants.
The fields of yellow wheat were the size of pocket handkerchiefs, and the tiny stone houses looked like children's toys.
It was a world of perfect, delicate beauty, and he was rolling through the middle of it like a moving mountain.
The carriage finally came to a halt outside the ancient stone walls of Mildendo, the capital city of Lilliput.
The emperor had decided that Gulliver could not be kept in the city itself, as he would surely step on the houses or crush the citizens.
Instead, they housed him in the largest building in the entire empire, an ancient abandoned temple just outside the city gates.
The great gate of this temple was barely four feet high, but it was just large enough for Gulliver to crawl inside on his hands and knees.
To ensure he did not wander off and cause mischief, the royal blacksmiths forged a set of chains.
They were about the size of the chains used for an English lady's pocket watch, but to the Lilliputians, they were massive iron bonds.
They fastened these chains around Gulliver's left ankle with dozens of tiny padlocks, securing the other end to the stone pillars of the temple.
When Gulliver stood up for the first time, a great cry of wonder rose from the thousands of spectators who had gathered to see him.
He looked down at the city of Mildendo, which lay before him like a painted theatrical set.
The city was a perfect square, surrounded by a wall two and a half feet high, and the streets were just wide enough for two tiny carriages to pass each other.
The emperor himself came to visit the man mountain, riding on a magnificent white charger.
He was a handsome ruler, slightly taller than his subjects, which made him nearly six and a quarter inches high, with a sharp, elegant face and a majestic posture.
He held a drawn sword in his hand, about three inches long, ready to defend himself if the giant should prove untamed.
But Gulliver showed only the gentlest manners.
He lay down on his side so that his face was level with the emperor's horse, speaking in a soft, low voice, so as not to deafen the tiny monarch.
Over the next few weeks, Gulliver worked diligently to learn the language of Lilliput.
Every day, the emperor sent three of his finest scholars to teach him, and soon Gulliver could speak well enough to ask for his freedom.
The emperor, however, was cautious.
You must be patient, Quinbus Flestrin, the emperor told him, using the name they had given him, which meant great man mountain.
First, you must be searched for weapons, and second, you must show us that you are loyal to our crown.
Gulliver agreed to be searched.
Two tiny officers climbed into his pockets, carrying notebooks to write down everything they found.
Gulliver took great care to help them, gently lifting them in and out of his pockets.
In their official report to the emperor, which Gulliver later translated, the officers wrote of the strange wonders they discovered in the giant's pockets.
In the right coat pocket, we found a great piece of coarse cloth, large enough to serve as a carpet for your majesty's throne room, they wrote, referring to his handkerchief.
In the left pocket, we found a giant chest of iron and wood, inside of which were several flat white sheets covered in mysterious black markings, which was his journal.
But most terrifying of all, we found a great engine of iron, attached to a heavy piece of wood, which the man mountain told us was called a pistol.
When he demonstrated this engine, it made a sound like a hundred cannons, and the smoke was so thick, it blocked out the sun.
The emperor was terrified by the pistol, and he politely asked Gulliver to surrender it, along with his pocket watch, which the Lilliputians believed was a living beast, because it ticked so loudly and never stopped moving its hands.
Gulliver handed them over gently, and they were carted away by a team of 20 horses.
As the weeks passed, Gulliver became a favorite of the court.
He was allowed to walk about the countryside, taking great care to look down at every step so he would not tread on any tiny travelers or their cattle.
He spent many afternoons watching the strange customs of the Lilliputian court.
He quickly realized that in Lilliput, people did not rise to high office through wisdom, kindness, or intelligence.
Instead, they won their positions through a series of physical games.
The most famous of these was called rope dancing.
When a high office in the government became vacant, either through retirement or death, five or six candidates would petition the emperor to perform a dance on a slender white thread, stretched two feet above the ground.
The candidate who could jump the highest without falling off the rope was awarded the office.
Gulliver watched in amusement as Flimnap, the high treasurer of the empire, performed on the rope.
He could jump at least an inch higher than any other lord in the land, which made him the most powerful minister in the government, even though he was a cold, jealous man with very little wisdom.
Sometimes, the candidates fell from the rope, and Gulliver saw more than one noble lord break a limb or sprain an ankle in his attempt to become a minister of state.
There was another game, which was played only before the emperor and his empress.
The emperor would hold a thin wooden stick in his hands, pointing it horizontally.
One by one, the candidates for court honors would approach.
The emperor would suddenly lower the stick, or raise it, or spin it, and the candidates had to either leap over the stick or crawl under it on their bellies.
The one who showed the greatest agility, leaping and crawling for the longest time, was awarded a prize, a piece of colored silk thread, either blue, red, or green, to wear wrapped around their waist.
Gulliver watched these tiny, dignified politicians, dressed in their finest silks and laces, leaping over a stick and crawling on the dusty floor, all for the sake of a colored thread.
They took this game with absolute life and death seriousness.
To them, the blue thread was the greatest honor a human being could achieve, and they would look down on anyone who wore only a green one, or none at all.
Gulliver could not help but smile from his great height, thinking of the grand politicians of his own country, and how similar their own games might look to someone watching from above.
Eventually, because of his gentle behavior, Gulliver was granted his freedom.
The emperor himself came to release him from his chains, presenting him with a treaty of alliance.
Gulliver had to swear to several conditions.
He must not enter the city without permission.
He must use his great strength to help with public works, and he must be the empire's ally in their great war against the neighboring island of Blefuscu.
Gulliver signed the treaty gladly.
He was eager to be helpful, and he wanted to learn more about the great affairs of this tiny empire.
One evening, a high official named Reldresal, who was the principal secretary for private affairs, came to visit Gulliver in secret.
He climbed up Gulliver's collar and sat comfortably near his ear, speaking in a confidential whisper.
You must know, Quinbus Flestrin, Reldresal said, that our empire, which appears so strong and peaceful to you, is actually suffering from two great evils, a bitter division at home and the threat of a terrible invasion from abroad.
A division at home?
Gulliver asked, surprised.
What could cause such a division among such industrious people?
It is a matter of the utmost importance, Reldresal explained solemnly.
For over 70 moons, our empire has been split into two warring factions, the Tramixan and the Slamixan, or as you might call them, the high heels and the low heels.
Gulliver blinked.
The heels of their shoes?
Indeed, Reldresal said, his voice rising with passion.
The high heels claim that our ancient laws require everyone to wear shoes with high heels, but our emperor has decreed that only those who wear low heels may hold office in the government.
The animosity between them is so great that a high heel will not eat, drink, or speak with a low heel.
We even fear that the crown prince has a secret sympathy for the high heels, for we have noticed that one of his heels is slightly higher than the other, which makes him walk with a distinct hobble.
Gulliver shook his head in wonder.
He had seen men in England argue bitterly over politics, but he had never seen a nation divided by the thickness of their shoe leather.
But that is not the worst of it, Reldresal continued, leaning closer to Gulliver's ear.
We are also threatened by the mighty empire of Blefuscu, which is an island separated from us by a narrow channel of water.
We have been locked in a bloody, devastating war with them for 36 moons.
And what, Gulliver asked, was the cause of this war?
Reldresal sighed deeply.
It began with an egg.
An egg?
Yes, the secretary said.
It is an article of our ancient faith that all true believers should crack their boiled eggs at the most convenient end.
For generations, everyone in Lilliput cracked their eggs at the larger end.
But many years ago, when the current emperor's grandfather was a young boy, he happened to cut his finger while cracking his egg at the big end.
His father, the emperor of that time, was so angered by this injury that he published a royal edict, commanding all his subjects, upon pain of death, to crack their eggs only at the smaller end.
Gulliver stared at the tiny secretary, trying to decide if he was joking, but Reldresal's face was deadly serious.
The people were furious, Reldresal whispered.
They felt their ancient liberties were being trampled.
There have been six great rebellions over this law.
One emperor lost his life, and another lost his crown in the chaos.
The big Indians, those who insist on cracking their eggs at the large end, were outlawed in Lilliput.
Thousands of them fled across the sea to the empire of Blefuscu, where they were welcomed with open arms.
The emperor of Blefuscu has accused us of committing a terrible sin against our faith, and he has built a massive navy to invade our shores and force us to return to the big Indian way.
Gulliver sat in silence, looking out over the beautiful tiny hills of Lilliput.
He thought of the thousands of lives that had been lost, the ships that had been sunk, and the families that had been ruined, all because of an argument over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked first.
To the Lilliputians, this was a battle for the very soul of their world.
To Gulliver, standing six feet tall, it was a tragedy of absolute absurdity.
The Blefuscudians have gathered a fleet of 50 great warships, Reldresal said, his voice trembling.
They are preparing to sail with the next tide.
Our own navy is small, and we fear we cannot stop them.
The emperor begs you, Quinbus Flestrin, to use your great strength to defend us.
Gulliver looked at the tiny secretary, whose heart was beating fast with genuine fear.
Though the cause of the war was ridiculous, the danger to these little people was real.
Tell the emperor, Gulliver said softly, that I am ready to defend his empire against any invader.
The next morning, Gulliver walked down to the northeastern coast of Lilliput, looking across the narrow channel toward the island of Blefuscu.
The channel was about 800 yards wide.
Gulliver took out his pocket perspective glass, a small telescope he had managed to hide from the searchers, and looked across the water.
He saw the Blefuscudian fleet anchored in their harbor, 50 magnificent three-decked warships, along with dozens of smaller transport vessels.
They were preparing to sail, their sails unfurled and their decks crowded with tiny soldiers.
Gulliver knew he had to act quickly before the fleet could leave the harbor.
He returned to the capital and ordered a large quantity of the strongest iron cables and bars the royal Smiths could produce.
The cables were about the thickness of common pack thread, and the iron bars were no longer than knitting needles.
Gulliver took three of the iron bars at a time and twisted them together, bending the ends to form 50 strong, sharp hooks.
He then bound these hooks to the ends of 50 separate cables.
With his hooks and cables slung over his shoulder, Gulliver marched back to the coast.
He took off his leather jacket, his shoes, and his stockings, and stepped into the cold water of the channel.
The Lilliputians gathered on the cliffs behind him, holding their breath in terror as the giant waded deeper and deeper into the sea.
The water rose to his knees, then to his waist, and finally to his chest.
But the channel was shallow, and Gulliver was able to walk the entire distance without having to swim.
In less than half an hour, he reached the harbor of Blefuscu.
When the Blefuscudian sailors saw a massive, towering giant wading through the sea toward them, they were seized with an absolute screaming panic.
They did not know such a creature existed.
Thousands of soldiers and sailors leaped off their ships and swam frantically for the shore, leaving the fleet completely abandoned.
Gulliver approached the fleet.
He took his hooks and one by one, fastened them to the prow of each of the 50 great warships.
As he was doing this, the Blefuscudian soldiers on the shore recovered from their initial shock.
They gathered by the thousands on the beach and began to shoot volleys of arrows at the giant.
The arrows rained down upon Gulliver's face and hands.
They felt like sharp needles, and he was terrified that one of them might strike his eyes, which would blind him instantly.
He remembered, however, that he had a pair of spectacles in his pocket, which had escaped the search of the Lilliputian officers.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his spectacles, and fastened them securely to his nose.
Protected by this glass armor, Gulliver went back to work.
He gathered all the ends of the 50 cables into a single thick knot and held them tight in his right hand.
He gave a mighty pull.
But the ships did not budge.
They were all held fast by their anchors, which were buried deep in the sandy bottom of the harbor.
Gulliver let go of the cables.
He took out his pocket knife, and while the arrows continued to rain down upon his spectacles and face, he went from ship to ship, cutting the anchor cables one by one.
The Blefuscudians on the shore screamed in dismay, realizing what the giant was planning to do.
Gulliver gathered the 50 cables back into his hand.
He turned his back to the shore, braced his feet against the sandy bottom, and began to walk.
He pulled.
Slowly, majestically, the entire Blefuscudian fleet, the pride of their empire, the terror of the seas, began to slide through the water behind him.
They looked like a line of toy boats being pulled across a pond by a child.
As Gulliver waited back across the channel, the Lilliputians on the opposite shore watched in breathless silence.
The water was deep in the middle of the channel, and for several minutes, only Gulliver's head was visible above the waves.
The Lilliputians feared he had drowned, or that the Blefuscudians had found a way to defeat him.
But as the water grew shallower, Gulliver emerged from the sea, his chest gleaming in the sun, pulling the 50 warships behind him.
He reached the shore and held the cables high in the air, crying out in a voice like thunder.
Long live the most potent emperor of Lilliput.
The cliffs shook with the cheers of the tiny people.
The emperor himself stepped forward to meet him, his face shining with triumph.
He embraced Gulliver's ankle and declared him a Nardac, which was the highest title of nobility in the entire empire.
For a short time, Gulliver was the greatest hero Lilliput had ever known.
But in the courts of kings, glory is a fragile thing, and favor can turn as quickly as the wind.
The emperor's triumph had made him greedy.
A few days after the capture of the fleet, he called Gulliver to his palace and made a new request.
Quinbus Flestrin, the emperor said, his eyes shining with ambition, you must return to Blefuscu.
You must bring us the rest of their ships, and you must help us conquer their land completely.
We will reduce Blefuscu to a mere province of our empire, governed by a viceroy of our choosing.
We will force all their subjects to crack their eggs at the small end, and we will destroy every big Indian who refuses to obey.
Gulliver looked down at the tiny monarch, whose head was filled with grand dreams of conquest and empire.
He saw how easily the little man's fear had turned into a desire to dominate others.
Your majesty, Gulliver said firmly but gently, I am grateful for the honors you have given me, but I cannot do this.
I will never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery.
The emperor's face darkened.
He did not say a word, but he turned his back on Gulliver and walked away.
From that moment on, Gulliver's stock at court began to fall.
His enemies, who had been jealous of his glory, saw their chance.
Flimnap, the high treasurer, who had always hated Gulliver because he feared the giant's food was costing the treasury too much money, began to whisper in the emperor's ear.
Skyresh Bolgolam, the high admiral of the fleet, who was angry that Gulliver had won the war without his help, joined the conspiracy.
They accused Gulliver of treason.
They claimed he was secretly communicating with the Blefuscudians, and that he was planning to betray Lilliput.
One night, as Gulliver lay in his temple, a young courtier, whom Gulliver had once helped, came to visit him in secret.
He climbed up Gulliver's bed sheets and woke him with a gentle tap on his nose.
Quinbus Flestrin, the young man whispered, his face pale with fear.
You must leave Lilliput at once.
Your life is in grave danger.
Danger?
Gulliver asked, from whom?
The cabinet has met in secret, the courtier said, pulling a tiny sheet of paper from his pocket.
They have drawn up articles of impeachment against you.
Flimnap and Bolgolam demanded that you be put to a cruel and painful death.
They wanted to set fire to your temple at night, or shoot you with poisoned arrows.
Gulliver felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
He could easily crush the entire city with his feet, but the thought of fighting these little people, of stepping on them and destroying their beautiful homes, filled him with horror.
But the emperor, the courtier continued, in his great mercy, decided on a milder punishment.
A milder punishment?
Yes, the young man said.
He has decreed that you shall not be killed.
Instead, they will wait until you are asleep, and then the royal surgeons will put out your eyes with sharp needles.
After that, they will slowly reduce your food rations, day by day, until you starve to death.
That way, the empire will save money on your upkeep, and your great skeleton can be preserved as a monument for future generations.
Gulliver stared at the young courtier in disbelief.
This was what they called mercy?
The executioners are preparing their needles, the courtier whispered.
They plan to arrive tomorrow morning.
You must fly tonight.
Gulliver thanked his friend, who quickly slipped away into the darkness.
For several hours, Gulliver lay still, thinking of what he should do.
He could easily have picked up the palace and thrown it into the sea, but he remembered the kindness the little people had shown him when he first arrived.
He remembered the bread and the wine, and the trust they had placed in him.
He could not bring himself to hurt them, even if their leaders were cruel and small-minded.
He decided to escape.
He walked down to the coast, took a large Blefuscudian warship that was anchored in the harbor, and loaded it with his clothes and his remaining possessions.
He waited across the channel to Blefuscu, where he was welcomed by the emperor of that island, who was grateful that Gulliver had refused to destroy his country.
A few days later, while walking along the coast of Blefuscu, Gulliver saw a dark object floating in the sea.
He waited out to investigate, and found, to his absolute joy, a real full-sized ship's boat, which had been torn from some vessel during a storm and washed up on the shore.
With the help of the Blefuscudian carpenters, who made him oars and sails from their own materials, Gulliver repaired the boat.
He loaded it with the carcasses of 100 tiny sheep and 40 tiny cows, along with plenty of food and water, intending to show them to his countrymen if he ever reached home.
On September 24th, 1701, Gulliver set sail from Blefuscu, leaving the tiny islands behind him.
The end.
After several days at sea, Gulliver was spotted and picked up by an English merchant ship returning from Japan.
The captain of the ship, a kind, sensible man named John Bidle, thought Gulliver was mad when he began to tell stories of six-inch people, tiny emperors, and wars fought over eggshells.
But Gulliver reached into his pockets and produced his proof, several tiny, living cows and sheep, which he had kept fed on biscuits and water.
The captain was astonished, and when they finally returned to England, Gulliver made a tidy sum of money by showing his tiny cattle to the curious crowds of London.
But though Gulliver was home, safe in his own house with his wife and children, he found that the world looked very different to him now.
When he walked down the streets of London, the people seemed monstrously, terrifyingly large.
He found himself shouting when he spoke, because he had spent so long speaking softly to the Lilliputians so as not to deafen them.
He was constantly calling out to people to get out of his way, fearing he would step on them, forgetting that they were the same size as he was.
He would look at the grand politicians of England, dressed in their fine wigs and velvet coats, arguing with great passion about laws, taxes, and wars, and he would smile.
He would see them dancing their own kind of rope dance to win the favor of the king, and he would think of Flimnap and his blue thread.
He would see people fighting over small differences in their beliefs, and he would think of the big Indians and the little Indians, and the thousands of lives lost over the cracking of an egg.
And so, we must leave Lemuel Gulliver, sitting by his fire in England, looking at his tiny sheep as they graze on his lawn, and thinking of the world he left behind.
As you close your eyes tonight, think about the things that seem so very important to us, the arguments we have, the things we fight over, the little rules we insist everyone must follow.
If a giant were to look down on us from the clouds, how many of our grand struggles would look like nothing more than a dispute over which end of an egg to crack?
How much of what people fight over would look silly to someone seeing it from the outside?