Chapter 7 reads more like a collection of notes for a satire on the study of history than a carefully worked-out attack. While we do not know enough about the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels to say for sure, it does appear as though Swift had worked up notes for a satire on learning and history. Then, after having dropped the project, he seems to have picked it up again and inserted the notes into the Travels. We do know, for instance, that he wrote Book III last. Signs of this book's relatively hasty composition show up especially in his treatment of Gulliver. In this section, Gulliver is less complex than previously. He is not the gullible man who poses uncomfortable questions; rather, he seems to be just a visitor relating information about the curious customs of the natives.
Nevertheless, Book III is central to the Travels. In his satire on history and the historians, Swift refutes the claims made by historians and shows that politicians have degenerated, not progressed, when he compares the Roman senate and a modern parliament. Here, also, he demonstrates that reason is not trustworthy enough to supply a foundation for politics or morality. The way has been prepared for Book IV.
