Gulliver’s Travels, Part III, Chapter V (the engine at Lagado)

The first professor I saw, was in a very large room, with forty pupils about him. After salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a frame, which took up the greatest part of both the length and breadth of the room, he said, “Perhaps I might wonder to see him employed in a project for improving speculative knowledge, by practical and mechanical operations. But the world would soon be sensible of its usefulness; and he flattered himself, that a more noble, exalted thought never sprang in any other man’s head. Every one knew how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his contrivance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.” He then led me to the frame, about the sides, whereof all his pupils stood in ranks. It was twenty feet square, placed in the middle of the room. The superficies was composed of several bits of wood, about the bigness of a die, but some larger than others. They were all linked together by slender wires. These bits of wood were covered, on every square, with paper pasted on them; and on these papers were written all the words of their language, in their several moods, tenses, and declensions; but without any order. The professor then desired me “to observe; for he was going to set his engine at work.” The pupils, at his command, took each of them hold of an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixed round the edges of the frame; and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of the words was entirely changed. He then commanded six-and-thirty of the lads, to read the several lines softly, as they appeared upon the frame; and where they found three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they dictated to the four remaining boys, who were scribes. This work was repeated three or four times, and at every turn, the engine was so contrived, that the words shifted into new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down.

我见到的第一位教授待在一个很大的房间里，身边围着四十个学生。寒暄过后，他看见我正出神地打量一个木架——那架子几乎占满了整个房间的长和宽——便说：“我或许会奇怪，他竟用实用的、机械的操作来从事一项改进玄思知识的计划。但世人不久就会明白它的用处；他自信，从来没有哪个人的脑袋里冒出过比这更高贵、更崇高的念头。谁都知道，用寻常的方法学习文艺和科学是多么辛苦；而凭着他的这项发明，哪怕最无知的人，只要花一笔合理的费用，出一点体力，就能写出哲学、诗歌、政治、法律、数学和神学方面的书来，丝毫不需要天才或学问的帮助。”接着他领我走到木架跟前，他的学生们全都排成行，站在架子四周。架子二十英尺见方，放在房间正中。它的表面由许多小木块组成，每块大约骰子那么大，有些大一点。木块之间都用细铁丝连在一起。每块木头的每一面都糊着纸，纸上写着他们语言里的全部词语，各种语气、时态和变格都有，但毫无次序。教授请我“仔细看着，因为他要开动他的机器了”。学生们听他一声令下，各自握住一个铁柄——架子四边一共装了四十个——猛地一转，词语的排列就全变了。他随即命令其中三十六个小伙子轻声念出架子上显现的一行行字，凡是发现有三四个词连在一起可以构成句子的一部分，就念给其余四个充当抄写员的孩子记下来。这项工作重复三四遍，而这架机器设计得很巧妙：每转一次，方木块上下翻动，词语就移到新的位置上去。

He assured me “that this invention had employed all his thoughts from his youth; that he had emptied the whole vocabulary into his frame, and made the strictest computation of the general proportion there is in books between the numbers of particles, nouns, and verbs, and other parts of speech.”

他向我保证：“这项发明从他年轻时起就占据了他全部的心思；他已经把全部词汇都倒进了他的木架，并且极其严格地计算过书籍中虚词、名词、动词及其他词类在数量上的一般比例。”

I made my humblest acknowledgment to this illustrious person, for his great communicativeness; and promised, “if ever I had the good fortune to return to my native country, that I would do him justice, as the sole inventor of this wonderful machine;” the form and contrivance of which I desired leave to delineate on paper, as in the figure here annexed. I told him, “although it were the custom of our learned in Europe to steal inventions from each other, who had thereby at least this advantage, that it became a controversy which was the right owner; yet I would take such caution, that he should have the honour entire, without a rival.”

我对这位杰出的人物如此不吝赐教表示了最谦卑的感谢，并且答应他：“如果我有幸回到祖国，我一定为他主持公道，宣布他是这部奇妙机器唯一的发明者。”我请求他允许我把这部机器的形状和构造画在纸上，就像这里附上的图那样。我对他说：“虽然在我们欧洲，学者们惯于彼此剽窃发明，这样做至少有一个好处，那就是谁才是真正的主人会成为一场争论；但我会格外小心，让这份荣誉完完整整地归于他一人，无人可与之相争。”