Gulliver in Automobilia

Upon leaving Laputa, I passed into the Island of Automobilia, the People whereof are to a marvellous Degree busied with the Conveyance of Goods and Persons about the Kingdom. To this End, they are continually engaged in the Constructing of numerous and wide Roads. Whereon they are borne at great Velocity in Carriages all of iron: the which are propelled, without Aid of Horses, by the Combustion of a volatile Fluid (so my guide informed me, though I understood his Meaning but ill).

These Carriages the infatuated Natives hold in such high Esteem, that they are blind to all the Evils attendant upon their Employment: for I was assured, that the Increase of Highways doth annually deprive the Realm of Cornland and Pasture equal to the tenth Part of a County: that their near Vicinity is rendered well-nigh intolerable by the Effusion of noxious Vapours and ceaseless Reverberation of the inward Parts of the Engines of conveyance: and that these Molochs of the Highway devour annually, without Respect for Age or Sex, as many Persons as perished in the Engagements at Blenheim and Malplaquet.

But all these Inconveniences are by the enthusiastic Populace deemed of very small Account, so be it only that Persons of ample Means may with all Expediency travel whithersoever Need or whim demand.

I was informed also that there were anciently in this land many noble Cities, diversified by the Splendour and Variety of their Edifices, both public and private; but of late the Rulers of the Kingdom have been at Pains to undo the work of their Predecessors, by laying waste a large Part of each City for the Passage and Housing of Carriages.

The Streets in particular are become very Rivers of Death, Cocytus and Phylegethon infinitely reduplicated; so that Mothers fear to give their Children Leave to go abroad unattended, and aged and impotent Persons need but leave their Dwellings, to set their very Lives at Hazard. Thus for this unhappy Land is the Prophecy of Nahum fulfilled, which he spoke against Neneveh: “The Chariots shall rage on the Streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad Ways, they shall run like the Lightnings”.

And yet, this dolorous Fate is not the work of barbarous and hostile Invaders; rather is it devised by the government, and connived at by well-nigh the whole Populace, of this fevered and immoderate Nation.

[from: The Ecologist, 1999]