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Because everything in Lilliput is small (from Gulliver’s perspective), nothing looks small to a Lilliputian. The Lilliputian state obviously takes honesty extremely seriously—it punishes both false accusation and fraud with death. The state’s justice system is also organized to promote obedience to the law by rewarding good behavior as well as punishing bad behavior. (Swift’s England, by contrast, promoted obedience only by punishing bad behavior.) Note how, while to Gulliver (and us) the Lilliputian's laws seem ridiculous, to them England's laws seem silly. This description of Lilliputian child rearing evokes the philosopher Plato’s notion that an ideal society would raise children apart from their parents. It also evokes ideals of egalitarianism (by treating both genders equally) and fairness (by sparing non-parents from the costs of other people’s children and by taxing people progressively). This passage introduces the symbol of clothing, which represents perspective. Gulliver’s clothes will change in each society as his perspective also changes. Flimnap’s secret agenda behind the dinner party and the rumor about Gulliver’s affair with Flimnap’s wife intertwine the theme of the state with the theme of deception, as government officials appear to be driven by concealed or untruthful motives. At the same time, Gulliver’s withholding (neglecting to explain how he heard about the rumor) could imply his own deceptiveness.