Swift's contribution to satire was published in 1726 and tells the tale of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon on a merchant ship, who is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, whose remarkable inhabitants are only six inches tall. Swift fires his satirical arrows at a wide range of targets: royalty and pomp, politics and religion, philosophers, science and just generally people who take themselves too seriously. Although this book was written over three hundred years ago, many of Swift's biting observations hold true today.