On the second of his improbable travels, Lemuel Gulliver is blown off course to Brobdingnag, where he finds himself much diminished. By Gulliver's scale the people are gargantuan, but their understanding is small. Their education consists of mere “Morality, History, Poetry and [applied] Mathematicks.“ Abstraction is unknown; no law is more than twenty-two words long. A vast militia lies fallow, constrained by the discipline of peace. A narrow outlook affects even the King, who has no appreciation for the glories of war. — CMAJ
... In hopes to ingratiate my self farther into his Majesty's Favour, I told him of an Invention discovered between three and four hundred Years ago, to make a certain Powder; into an heap of which the smallest Spark of Fire falling, would kind the whole in a Moment, although it were as big as a Mountain; and make it all fly up in the Air together, with a Noise and Agitation greater than Thunder. ... That we often put this Powder into large hollow Balls of Iron, and discharged them by an Engine into some City we were besieging; which would rip up the Pavement, tear the Houses to Pieces, burst and throw Splinters on every Side, dashing out the Brains of all who came near. That I knew the Ingredients very well, which were Cheap, and common; I understood the Manner of compounding them, and could direct his Workmen how to make those Tubes of a Size proportionable to ... batter down the Walls of the strongest Town in his Dominions in a few Hours; or destroy the whole Metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute Commands. Thus I humbly offered to his Majesty, as a small Tribute ...
The King was struck with Horror at the Description I had given of those terrible Engines, and the Proposal I had made. He was amazed how so impotent and groveling an Insect as I (these were his Expressions) could entertain such inhuman Ideas, and in so familar a Manner as to appear wholly unmoved at all the Scenes of Blood and Desolation which I had painted as the common Effects of those destructive Machines ... . As for himself, he protested, that although few Things delighted him so much as new Discoveries in Art or in Nature; yet he would rather lose Half his Kingdom than be privy to such a Secret; which he commanded me, as I valued my Life, never to mention any more.
From Swift J. A voyage to Brobdingnag, ch. 6. Gulliver's Travels. Dublin: 1727.