ne for cutting his hoof. But when the creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself” (Swift 451).
The Houyhnhnms do not know the hate and self-violence against their own species that the Yahoos do. In fact, the Houyhnhnms share the fact with Gulliver that Yahoos hate each other more than any different species of animal. He also contends that Yahoos are greedy and avaricious and, even in the midst of plenty, will combat against each other to selfishly hoard more than they need, “If you throw among five Yahoos as much food as would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears, each single one impatient to have all to itself” (Swift 459). The Houyhnhnms have the virtue of desiring no more than they need for self-sustenance and the same goes with their labor and its production. The Houyhnhnms possess virtues that make their culture appear like a collective Adam and Eve, devoid of free will and unaware of evil. As Gulliver explains, “As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by Nature with a general disposition to all virtues, and hav
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