Barbeau Gardiner, Anne:
'Be ye as the horse' - Swift, Spinoza, and the Society of Virtuous Atheists

In: Studies in Philology 97, 2 (2000), 229-254

Literature type: Articles
Language: English
Thematic areas: Theology / biblical hermeneutics / philosophy of religion, Reception history, Literary or artistic representation
Subject (individuals): Swift, Jonathan

Autopsy: yes
English commentary: Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's exaltation of the horse above the human has been considered as placing him in atheistical Spinozan company: In the fourth voyage, Gulliver travels to the Britain of the future, a society where reasoning horses, the Houyhnhnm, have long been the ruling class. - Why horses? - Psalm 32:9 states, “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.” St. Augustine explained that the horse in this verse represents the philosophers who refuse to worship God or acknowledge his providence [...], the horse was a known symbol of the atheist. But where Scripture exhorts, “Be ye not as the horse,” Gulliver tells us, “Be ye as the horse.” (Anne Barbeau Gardiner)
Cf. http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=17-08-034-fURL: http://ZDB - Zeitschriftendatenbank

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