own devices he was beyond redemption. His passions naturally inclined him toward vice, and his reason, so far from bringing him out of his vicious ways, led him even further into error. Only Divine Relevation could bring men back to the straight and narrow path of virtue. Although man is naturally inclined toward evil, nevertheless his own unaided reason could bring him to a knowledge of moral truth. The connection of the fourth voyage to this debate is obvious. The Yahoos symbolize man as the incorrigible sinner. The Houyhnhnms symbolize man, directed by reason, into the path of righteousness. The Houyhnhnm word for to die is "Lhnuwnh". The word is strongly expressive in their language. It signifies, to retire to his first Mother. This is not a euphemism, for the Houyhnhnms cannot say the thing that is not. They have therefore some notion of existence after death, though of course they have not benefited from Christianity. Reason was not enough for the Houyhnhnms. It did not enable them to imagine a different country from their own, so that they accused Gulliver of lying when he told them that he came from over the sea. They also failed to figure out what his clothes were. The Sorrel Nag who first discovered Gulliver undressed could only explain the sight by saying he was not the same thing when he slept as he appeared to be at other times. Gulliver could only show his master what his clothes were by undressing before him. The truth had to be revealed even to a Houyhnhnm. The moral of the encounter with the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms is that Reason alone might be enough for men if they would only use it properly. Yet instead of employing it as the Houyhnhnms did to eliminate passion, in the words of Gullivers host "We made no other use of it than by its assistance to aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones which Nature had not given us". Reason, instead of leading men into Virtue, led them into Vice. To the Houyhnhnm...
