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UTOPIA

by Thomas More

INTRODUCTION

Sir Thomas Moreson of Sir John Morea justice of the King's
Benchwas born in 1478in Milk Streetin the city of London.
After his earlier education at St. Anthony's Schoolin
Threadneedle Streethe was placedas a boyin the household of
Cardinal John MortonArchbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor.
It was not unusual for persons of wealth or influence and sons of
good families to be so established together in a relation of patron
and client. The youth wore his patron's liveryand added to his
state. The patron usedafterwardshis wealth or influence in
helping his young client forward in the world. Cardinal Morton had
been in earlier days that Bishop of Ely whom Richard III. sent to
the Tower; was busy afterwards in hostility to Richard; and was a
chief adviser of Henry VII.who in 1486 made him Archbishop of
Canterburyand nine months afterwards Lord Chancellor. Cardinal
Morton--of talk at whose table there are recollections in "Utopia"-
delighted in the quick wit of young Thomas More. He once said
Whoever shall live to try it, shall see this child here waiting at
table prove a notable and rare man.

At the age of about nineteenThomas More was sent to Canterbury
CollegeOxfordby his patronwhere he learnt Greek of the first
men who brought Greek studies from Italy to England--William Grocyn
and Thomas Linacre. Linacrea physicianwho afterwards took
orderswas also the founder of the College of Physicians. In
1499More left Oxford to study law in Londonat Lincoln's Inn
and in the next year Archbishop Morton died.

More's earnest character caused him while studying law to aim at
the subduing of the fleshby wearing a hair shirttaking a log
for a pillowand whipping himself on Fridays. At the age of
twenty-one he entered Parliamentand soon after he had been called
to the bar he was made Under-Sheriff of London. In 1503 he opposed
in the House of Commons Henry VII.'s proposal for a subsidy on
account of the marriage portion of his daughter Margaret; and he
opposed with so much energy that the House refused to grant it.
One went and told the king that a beardless boy had disappointed
all his expectations. During the last yearsthereforeof Henry

VII. More was under the displeasure of the kingand had thoughts
of leaving the country.
Henry VII. died in April1509when More's age was a little over
thirty. In the first years of the reign of Henry VIII. he rose to
large practice in the law courtswhere it is said he refused to
plead in cases which he thought unjustand took no fees from
widowsorphansor the poor. He would have preferred marrying the
second daughter of John Coltof New Hallin Essexbut chose her


elder sisterthat he might not subject her to the discredit of
being passed over.

In 1513 Thomas Morestill Under-Sheriff of Londonis said to have
written his "History of the Life and Death of King Edward V.and
of the Usurpation of Richard III." The bookwhich seems to
contain the knowledge and opinions of More's patronMortonwas
not printed until 1557when its writer had been twenty-two years
dead. It was then printed from a MS. in More's handwriting.

In the year 1515 WolseyArchbishop of Yorkwas made Cardinal by
Leo X.; Henry VIII. made him Lord Chancellorand from that year
until 1523 the King and the Cardinal ruled England with absolute
authorityand called no parliament. In May of the year 1515
Thomas More--not knighted yet--was joined in a commission to the
Low Countries with Cuthbert Tunstal and others to confer with the
ambassadors of Charles V.then only Archduke of Austriaupon a
renewal of alliance. On that embassy Moreaged about thirtyseven
was absent from England for six monthsand while at Antwerp
he established friendship with Peter Giles (Latinised AEgidius)a
scholarly and courteous young manwho was secretary to the
municipality of Antwerp.

Cuthbert Tunstal was a rising churchmanchancellor to the
Archbishop of Canterburywho in that year (1515) was made
Archdeacon of Chesterand in May of the next year (1516) Master of
the Rolls. In 1516 he was sent again to the Low Countriesand
More then went with him to Brusselswhere they were in close
companionship with Erasmus.

More's "Utopia" was written in Latinand is in two partsof which
the seconddescribing the place ([Greek text]--or Nusquamaas he
called it sometimes in his letters--"Nowhere")was probably
written towards the close of 1515; the first partintroductory
early in 1516. The book was first printed at Louvainlate in
1516under the editorship of ErasmusPeter Gilesand other of
More's friends in Flanders. It was then revised by Moreand
printed by Frobenius at Basle in November1518. It was reprinted
at Paris and Viennabut was not printed in England during More's
lifetime. Its first publication in this country was in the English
translationmade in Edward's VI.'s reign (1551) by Ralph Robinson.
It was translated with more literary skill by Gilbert Burnetin
1684soon after he had conducted the defence of his friend Lord
William Russellattended his executionvindicated his memoryand
been spitefully deprived by James II. of his lectureship at St.
Clement's. Burnet was drawn to the translation of "Utopia" by the
same sense of unreason in high places that caused More to write the
book. Burnet's is the translation given in this volume.

The name of the book has given an adjective to our language--we
call an impracticable scheme Utopian. Yetunder the veil of a
playful fictionthe talk is intensely earnestand abounds in
practical suggestion. It is the work of a scholarly and witty
Englishmanwho attacks in his own way the chief political and
social evils of his time. Beginning with factMore tells how he
was sent into Flanders with Cuthbert Tunstalwhom the king's
majesty of late, to the great rejoicing of all men, did prefer to
the office of Master of the Rolls;how the commissioners of
Charles met them at Brugesand presently returned to Brussels for
instructions; and how More then went to Antwerpwhere he found a
pleasure in the society of Peter Giles which soothed his desire to
see again his wife and childrenfrom whom he had been four months
away. Then fact slides into fiction with the finding of Raphael
Hythloday (whose namemade of two Greek words [Greek text] and


[Greek text]means "knowing in trifles")a man who had been with
Amerigo Vespucci in the three last of the voyages to the new world
lately discoveredof which the account had been first printed in
1507only nine years before Utopia was written.

Designedly fantastic in suggestion of detailsUtopiais the work
of a scholar who had read Plato's "Republic and had his fancy
quickened after reading Plutarch's account of Spartan life under
Lycurgus. Beneath the veil of an ideal communism, into which there
has been worked some witty extravagance, there lies a noble English
argument. Sometimes More puts the case as of France when he means
England. Sometimes there is ironical praise of the good faith of
Christian kings, saving the book from censure as a political attack
on the policy of Henry VIII. Erasmus wrote to a friend in 1517
that he should send for More's Utopia if he had not read it, and
wished to see the true source of all political evils." And to
More Erasmus wrote of his bookA burgomaster of Antwerp is so
pleased with it that he knows it all by heart.

H. M.
DISCOURSES OF RAPHAEL HYTHLODAY
OF THE BEST STATE OF A COMMONWEALTH

Henry VIII.the unconquered King of Englanda prince adorned with
all the virtues that become a great monarchhaving some
differences of no small consequence with Charles the most serene
Prince of Castilesent me into Flandersas his ambassadorfor
treating and composing matters between them. I was colleague and
companion to that incomparable man Cuthbert Tonstalwhom the King
with such universal applauselately made Master of the Rolls; but
of whom I will say nothing; not because I fear that the testimony
of a friend will be suspectedbut rather because his learning and
virtues are too great for me to do them justiceand so well known
that they need not my commendationsunless I wouldaccording to
the proverbShow the sun with a lantern.Those that were
appointed by the Prince to treat with usmet us at Bruges
according to agreement; they were all worthy men. The Margrave of
Bruges was their headand the chief man among them; but he that
was esteemed the wisestand that spoke for the restwas George
Temsethe Provost of Casselsee: both art and nature had concurred
to make him eloquent: he was very learned in the law; andas he
had a great capacitysoby a long practice in affairshe was
very dexterous at unravelling them. After we had several times
metwithout coming to an agreementthey went to Brussels for some
daysto know the Prince's pleasure; andsince our business would
admit itI went to Antwerp. While I was thereamong many that
visited methere was one that was more acceptable to me than any
otherPeter Gilesborn at Antwerpwho is a man of great honour
and of a good rank in his townthough less than he deserves; for I
do not know if there be anywhere to be found a more learned and a
better bred young man; for as he is both a very worthy and a very
knowing personso he is so civil to all menso particularly kind
to his friendsand so full of candour and affectionthat there is
notperhapsabove one or two anywhere to be foundthat is in all
respects so perfect a friend: he is extraordinarily modestthere
is no artifice in himand yet no man has more of a prudent
simplicity. His conversation was so pleasant and so innocently
cheerfulthat his company in a great measure lessened any longings


to go back to my countryand to my wife and childrenwhich an
absence of four months had quickened very much. One dayas I was
returning home from mass at St. Mary'swhich is the chief church
and the most frequented of any in AntwerpI saw himby accident
talking with a strangerwho seemed past the flower of his age; his
face was tannedhe had a long beardand his cloak was hanging
carelessly about himso thatby his looks and habitI concluded
he was a seaman. As soon as Peter saw mehe came and saluted me
and as I was returning his civilityhe took me asideand pointing
to him with whom he had been discoursinghe saidDo you see that
man? I was just thinking to bring him to you.I answeredHe
should have been very welcome on your account.And on his own
too,replied heif you knew the man, for there is none alive
that can give so copious an account of unknown nations and
countries as he can do, which I know you very much desire.
Then,said II did not guess amiss, for at first sight I took
him for a seaman.But you are much mistaken,said hefor he
has not sailed as a seaman, but as a traveller, or rather a
philosopher. This Raphael, who from his family carries the name of
Hythloday, is not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but is eminently
learned in the Greek, having applied himself more particularly to
that than to the former, because he had given himself much to
philosophy, in which he knew that the Romans have left us nothing
that is valuable, except what is to be found in Seneca and Cicero.
He is a Portuguese by birth, and was so desirous of seeing the
world, that he divided his estate among his brothers, ran the same
hazard as Americus Vesputius, and bore a share in three of his four
voyages that are now published; only he did not return with him in
his last, but obtained leave of him, almost by force, that he might
be one of those twenty-four who were left at the farthest place at
which they touched in their last voyage to New Castile. The
leaving him thus did not a little gratify one that was more fond of
travelling than of returning home to be buried in his own country;
for he used often to say, that the way to heaven was the same from
all places, and he that had no grave had the heavens still over
him. Yet this disposition of mind had cost him dear, if God had
not been very gracious to him; for after he, with five Castalians,
had travelled over many countries, at last, by strange good
fortune, he got to Ceylon, and from thence to Calicut, where he,
very happily, found some Portuguese ships; and, beyond all men's
expectations, returned to his native country.When Peter had said
this to meI thanked him for his kindness in intending to give me
the acquaintance of a man whose conversation he knew would be so
acceptable; and upon that Raphael and I embraced each other. After
those civilities were past which are usual with strangers upon
their first meetingwe all went to my houseand entering into the
gardensat down on a green bank and entertained one another in
discourse. He told us that when Vesputius had sailed awayheand
his companions that stayed behind in New Castileby degrees
insinuated themselves into the affections of the people of the
countrymeeting often with them and treating them gently; and at
last they not only lived among them without dangerbut conversed
familiarly with themand got so far into the heart of a prince
whose name and country I have forgotthat he both furnished them
plentifully with all things necessaryand also with the
conveniences of travellingboth boats when they went by waterand
waggons when they trained over land: he sent with them a very
faithful guidewho was to introduce and recommend them to such
other princes as they had a mind to see: and after many days'
journeythey came to townsand citiesand to commonwealthsthat
were both happily governed and well peopled. Under the equator
and as far on both sides of it as the sun movesthere lay vast
deserts that were parched with the perpetual heat of the sun; the
soil was witheredall things looked dismallyand all places were


either quite uninhabitedor abounded with wild beasts and
serpentsand some few menthat were neither less wild nor less
cruel than the beasts themselves. Butas they went farthera new
scene openedall things grew milderthe air less burningthe
soil more verdantand even the beasts were less wild: andat
lastthere were nationstownsand citiesthat had not only
mutual commerce among themselves and with their neighboursbut
tradedboth by sea and landto very remote countries. There they
found the conveniencies of seeing many countries on all handsfor
no ship went any voyage into which he and his companions were not
very welcome. The first vessels that they saw were flat-bottomed
their sails were made of reeds and wickerwoven close together
only some were of leather; butafterwardsthey found ships made
with round keels and canvas sailsand in all respects like our
shipsand the seamen understood both astronomy and navigation. He
got wonderfully into their favour by showing them the use of the
needleof which till then they were utterly ignorant. They sailed
before with great cautionand only in summer time; but now they
count all seasons aliketrusting wholly to the loadstonein which
they areperhapsmore secure than safe; so that there is reason
to fear that this discoverywhich was thought would prove so much
to their advantagemayby their imprudencebecome an occasion of
much mischief to them. But it were too long to dwell on all that
he told us he had observed in every placeit would be too great a
digression from our present purpose: whatever is necessary to be
told concerning those wise and prudent institutions which he
observed among civilised nationsmay perhaps be related by us on a
more proper occasion. We asked him many questions concerning all
these thingsto which he answered very willingly; we made no
inquiries after monstersthan which nothing is more common; for
everywhere one may hear of ravenous dogs and wolvesand cruel meneaters
but it is not so easy to find states that are well and
wisely governed.

As he told us of many things that were amiss in those newdiscovered
countriesso he reckoned up not a few thingsfrom
which patterns might be taken for correcting the errors of these
nations among whom we live; of which an account may be givenas I
have already promisedat some other time; forat presentI
intend only to relate those particulars that he told usof the
manners and laws of the Utopians: but I will begin with the
occasion that led us to speak of that commonwealth. After Raphael
had discoursed with great judgment on the many errors that were
both among us and these nationshad treated of the wise
institutions both here and thereand had spoken as distinctly of
the customs and government of every nation through which he had
pastas if he had spent his whole life in itPeterbeing struck
with admirationsaidI wonder, Raphael, how it comes that you
enter into no king's service, for I am sure there are none to whom
you would not be very acceptable; for your learning and knowledge,
both of men and things, is such, that you would not only entertain
them very pleasantly, but be of great use to them, by the examples
you could set before them, and the advices you could give them; and
by this means you would both serve your own interest, and be of
great use to all your friends.As for my friends,answered he
I need not be much concerned, having already done for them all
that was incumbent on me; for when I was not only in good health,
but fresh and young, I distributed that among my kindred and
friends which other people do not part with till they are old and
sick: when they then unwillingly give that which they can enjoy no
longer themselves. I think my friends ought to rest contented with
this, and not to expect that for their sakes I should enslave
myself to any king whatsoever.Soft and fair!said Peter; "I do
not mean that you should be a slave to any kingbut only that you


should assist them and be useful to them." "The change of the
word said he, does not alter the matter." "But term it as you
will replied Peter, I do not see any other way in which you can
be so usefulboth in private to your friends and to the public
and by which you can make your own condition happier." "Happier?"
answered Raphaelis that to be compassed in a way so abhorrent to
my genius? Now I live as I will, to which I believe, few courtiers
can pretend; and there are so many that court the favour of great
men, that there will be no great loss if they are not troubled
either with me or with others of my temper.Upon thissaid II
perceive, Raphael, that you neither desire wealth nor greatness;
and, indeed, I value and admire such a man much more than I do any
of the great men in the world. Yet I think you would do what would
well become so generous and philosophical a soul as yours is, if
you would apply your time and thoughts to public affairs, even
though you may happen to find it a little uneasy to yourself; and
this you can never do with so much advantage as by being taken into
the council of some great prince and putting him on noble and
worthy actions, which I know you would do if you were in such a
post; for the springs both of good and evil flow from the prince
over a whole nation, as from a lasting fountain. So much learning
as you have, even without practice in affairs, or so great a
practice as you have had, without any other learning, would render
you a very fit counsellor to any king whatsoever.You are doubly
mistaken,said heMr. More, both in your opinion of me and in
the judgment you make of things: for as I have not that capacity
that you fancy I have, so if I had it, the public would not be one
jot the better when I had sacrificed my quiet to it. For most
princes apply themselves more to affairs of war than to the useful
arts of peace; and in these I neither have any knowledge, nor do I
much desire it; they are generally more set on acquiring new
kingdoms, right or wrong, than on governing well those they
possess: and, among the ministers of princes, there are none that
are not so wise as to need no assistance, or at least, that do not
think themselves so wise that they imagine they need none; and if
they court any, it is only those for whom the prince has much
personal favour, whom by their fawning and flatteries they
endeavour to fix to their own interests; and, indeed, nature has so
made us, that we all love to be flattered and to please ourselves
with our own notions: the old crow loves his young, and the ape
her cubs. Now if in such a court, made up of persons who envy all
others and only admire themselves, a person should but propose
anything that he had either read in history or observed in his
travels, the rest would think that the reputation of their wisdom
would sink, and that their interests would be much depressed if
they could not run it down: and, if all other things failed, then
they would fly to this, that such or such things pleased our
ancestors, and it were well for us if we could but match them.
They would set up their rest on such an answer, as a sufficient
confutation of all that could be said, as if it were a great
misfortune that any should be found wiser than his ancestors. But
though they willingly let go all the good things that were among
those of former ages, yet, if better things are proposed, they
cover themselves obstinately with this excuse of reverence to past
times. I have met with these proud, morose, and absurd judgments
of things in many places, particularly once in England.Were you
ever there?said I. "YesI was answered he, and stayed some
months therenot long after the rebellion in the West was
suppressedwith a great slaughter of the poor people that were
engaged in it.

I was then much obliged to that reverend prelate, John Morton,
Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal, and Chancellor of England; a
man,said hePeter (for Mr. More knows well what he was), that


was not less venerable for his wisdom and virtues than for the high
character he bore: he was of a middle stature, not broken with
age; his looks begot reverence rather than fear; his conversation
was easy, but serious and grave; he sometimes took pleasure to try
the force of those that came as suitors to him upon business by
speaking sharply, though decently, to them, and by that he
discovered their spirit and presence of mind; with which he was
much delighted when it did not grow up to impudence, as bearing a
great resemblance to his own temper, and he looked on such persons
as the fittest men for affairs. He spoke both gracefully and
weightily; he was eminently skilled in the law, had a vast
understanding, and a prodigious memory; and those excellent talents
with which nature had furnished him were improved by study and
experience. When I was in England the King depended much on his
counsels, and the Government seemed to be chiefly supported by him;
for from his youth he had been all along practised in affairs; and,
having passed through many traverses of fortune, he had, with great
cost, acquired a vast stock of wisdom, which is not soon lost when
it is purchased so dear. One day, when I was dining with him,
there happened to be at table one of the English lawyers, who took
occasion to run out in a high commendation of the severe execution
of justice upon thieves, 'who,' as he said, 'were then hanged so
fast that there were sometimes twenty on one gibbet!' and, upon
that, he said, 'he could not wonder enough how it came to pass
that, since so few escaped, there were yet so many thieves left,
who were still robbing in all places.' Upon this, I (who took the
boldness to speak freely before the Cardinal) said, 'There was no
reason to wonder at the matter, since this way of punishing thieves
was neither just in itself nor good for the public; for, as the
severity was too great, so the remedy was not effectual; simple
theft not being so great a crime that it ought to cost a man his
life; no punishment, how severe soever, being able to restrain
those from robbing who can find out no other way of livelihood. In
this,' said I, 'not only you in England, but a great part of the
world, imitate some ill masters, that are readier to chastise their
scholars than to teach them. There are dreadful punishments
enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good
provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live,
and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of
dying for it.' 'There has been care enough taken for that,' said
he; 'there are many handicrafts, and there is husbandry, by which
they may make a shift to live, unless they have a greater mind to
follow ill courses.' 'That will not serve your turn,' said I, 'for
many lose their limbs in civil or foreign wars, as lately in the
Cornish rebellion, and some time ago in your wars with France, who,
being thus mutilated in the service of their king and country, can
no more follow their old trades, and are too old to learn new ones;
but since wars are only accidental things, and have intervals, let
us consider those things that fall out every day. There is a great
number of noblemen among you that are themselves as idle as drones,
that subsist on other men's labour, on the labour of their tenants,
whom, to raise their revenues, they pare to the quick. This,
indeed, is the only instance of their frugality, for in all other
things they are prodigal, even to the beggaring of themselves; but,
besides this, they carry about with them a great number of idle
fellows, who never learned any art by which they may gain their
living; and these, as soon as either their lord dies, or they
themselves fall sick, are turned out of doors; for your lords are
readier to feed idle people than to take care of the sick; and
often the heir is not able to keep together so great a family as
his predecessor did. Now, when the stomachs of those that are thus
turned out of doors grow keen, they rob no less keenly; and what
else can they do? For when, by wandering about, they have worn out
both their health and their clothes, and are tattered, and look


ghastly, men of quality will not entertain them, and poor men dare
not do it, knowing that one who has been bred up in idleness and
pleasure, and who was used to walk about with his sword and
buckler, despising all the neighbourhood with an insolent scorn as
far below him, is not fit for the spade and mattock; nor will he
serve a poor man for so small a hire and in so low a diet as he can
afford to give him.' To this he answered, 'This sort of men ought
to be particularly cherished, for in them consists the force of the
armies for which we have occasion; since their birth inspires them
with a nobler sense of honour than is to be found among tradesmen
or ploughmen.' 'You may as well say,' replied I, 'that you must
cherish thieves on the account of wars, for you will never want the
one as long as you have the other; and as robbers prove sometimes
gallant soldiers, so soldiers often prove brave robbers, so near an
alliance there is between those two sorts of life. But this bad
custom, so common among you, of keeping many servants, is not
peculiar to this nation. In France there is yet a more pestiferous
sort of people, for the whole country is full of soldiers, still
kept up in time of peace (if such a state of a nation can be called
a peace); and these are kept in pay upon the same account that you
plead for those idle retainers about noblemen: this being a maxim
of those pretended statesmen, that it is necessary for the public
safety to have a good body of veteran soldiers ever in readiness.
They think raw men are not to be depended on, and they sometimes
seek occasions for making war, that they may train up their
soldiers in the art of cutting throats, or, as Sallust observed,
for keeping their hands in usethat they may not grow dull by too
long an intermission." But France has learned to its cost how
dangerous it is to feed such beasts. The fate of the Romans
Carthaginiansand Syriansand many other nations and cities
which were both overturned and quite ruined by those standing
armiesshould make others wiser; and the folly of this maxim of
the French appears plainly even from thisthat their trained
soldiers often find your raw men prove too hard for themof which
I will not say muchlest you may think I flatter the English.
Every day's experience shows that the mechanics in the towns or the
clowns in the country are not afraid of fighting with those idle
gentlemenif they are not disabled by some misfortune in their
body or dispirited by extreme want; so that you need not fear that
those well-shaped and strong men (for it is only such that noblemen
love to keep about them till they spoil them)who now grow feeble
with ease and are softened with their effeminate manner of life
would be less fit for action if they were well bred and well
employed. And it seems very unreasonable thatfor the prospect of
a warwhich you need never have but when you pleaseyou should
maintain so many idle menas will always disturb you in time of
peacewhich is ever to be more considered than war. But I do not
think that this necessity of stealing arises only from hence; there
is another cause of itmore peculiar to England.' 'What is that?'
said the Cardinal: 'The increase of pasture' said I'by which
your sheepwhich are naturally mildand easily kept in ordermay
be said now to devour men and unpeoplenot only villagesbut
towns; for wherever it is found that the sheep of any soil yield a
softer and richer wool than ordinarythere the nobility and
gentryand even those holy menthe dobots! not contented with the
old rents which their farms yieldednor thinking it enough that
theyliving at their easedo no good to the publicresolve to do
it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture
destroying houses and townsreserving only the churchesand
enclose grounds that they may lodge their sheep in them. As if
forests and parks had swallowed up too little of the landthose
worthy countrymen turn the best inhabited places into solitudes;
for when an insatiable wretchwho is a plague to his country
resolves to enclose many thousand acres of groundthe ownersas


well as tenantsare turned out of their possessions by trick or by
main forceorbeing wearied out by ill usagethey are forced to
sell them; by which means those miserable peopleboth men and
womenmarried and unmarriedold and youngwith their poor but
numerous families (since country business requires many hands)are
all forced to change their seatsnot knowing whither to go; and
they must sellalmost for nothingtheir household stuffwhich
could not bring them much moneyeven though they might stay for a
buyer. When that little money is at an end (for it will be soon
spent)what is left for them to do but either to stealand so to
be hanged (God knows how justly!)or to go about and beg? and if
they do this they are put in prison as idle vagabondswhile they
would willingly work but can find none that will hire them; for
there is no more occasion for country labourto which they have
been bredwhen there is no arable ground left. One shepherd can
look after a flockwhich will stock an extent of ground that would
require many hands if it were to be ploughed and reaped. This
likewisein many places raises the price of corn. The price of
wool is also so risen that the poor peoplewho were wont to make
clothare no more able to buy it; and thislikewisemakes many
of them idle: for since the increase of pasture God has punished
the avarice of the owners by a rot among the sheepwhich has
destroyed vast numbers of them--to us it might have seemed more
just had it fell on the owners themselves. Butsuppose the sheep
should increase ever so muchtheir price is not likely to fall;
sincethough they cannot be called a monopolybecause they are
not engrossed by one personyet they are in so few handsand
these are so richthatas they are not pressed to sell them
sooner than they have a mind to itso they never do it till they
have raised the price as high as possible. And on the same account
it is that the other kinds of cattle are so dearbecause many
villages being pulled downand all country labour being much
neglectedthere are none who make it their business to breed them.
The rich do not breed cattle as they do sheepbut buy them lean
and at low prices; andafter they have fattened them on their
groundssell them again at high rates. And I do not think that
all the inconveniences this will produce are yet observed; foras
they sell the cattle dearsoif they are consumed faster than the
breeding countries from which they are brought can afford them
then the stock must decreaseand this must needs end in great
scarcity; and by these meansthis your islandwhich seemed as to
this particular the happiest in the worldwill suffer much by the
cursed avarice of a few persons: besides thisthe rising of corn
makes all people lessen their families as much as they can; and
what can those who are dismissed by them do but either beg or rob?
And to this last a man of a great mind is much sooner drawn than to
the former. Luxury likewise breaks in apace upon you to set
forward your poverty and misery; there is an excessive vanity in
appareland great cost in dietand that not only in noblemen's
familiesbut even among tradesmenamong the farmers themselves
and among all ranks of persons. You have also many infamous
housesandbesides those that are knownthe taverns and alehouses
are no better; add to these dicecardstablesfootball
tennisand quoitsin which money runs fast away; and those that
are initiated into them mustin the conclusionbetake themselves
to robbing for a supply. Banish these plaguesand give orders
that those who have dispeopled so much soil may either rebuild the
villages they have pulled down or let out their grounds to such as
will do it; restrain those engrossings of the richthat are as bad
almost as monopolies; leave fewer occasions to idleness; let
agriculture be set up againand the manufacture of the wool be
regulatedthat so there may be work found for those companies of
idle people whom want forces to be thievesor who nowbeing idle
vagabonds or useless servantswill certainly grow thieves at last.


If you do not find a remedy to these evils it is a vain thing to
boast of your severity in punishing theftwhichthough it may
have the appearance of justiceyet in itself is neither just nor
convenient; for if you suffer your people to be ill-educatedand
their manners to be corrupted from their infancyand then punish
them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them
what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make
thieves and then punish them?'

While I was talking thus, the Counsellor, who was present, had
prepared an answer, and had resolved to resume all I had said,
according to the formality of a debate, in which things are
generally repeated more faithfully than they are answered, as if
the chief trial to be made were of men's memories. 'You have
talked prettily, for a stranger,' said he, 'having heard of many
things among us which you have not been able to consider well; but
I will make the whole matter plain to you, and will first repeat in
order all that you have said; then I will show how much your
ignorance of our affairs has misled you; and will, in the last
place, answer all your arguments. And, that I may begin where I
promised, there were four things--' 'Hold your peace!' said the
Cardinal; 'this will take up too much time; therefore we will, at
present, ease you of the trouble of answering, and reserve it to
our next meeting, which shall be to-morrow, if Raphael's affairs
and yours can admit of it. But, Raphael,' said he to me, 'I would
gladly know upon what reason it is that you think theft ought not
to be punished by death: would you give way to it? or do you
propose any other punishment that will be more useful to the
public? for, since death does not restrain theft, if men thought
their lives would be safe, what fear or force could restrain ill
men? On the contrary, they would look on the mitigation of the
punishment as an invitation to commit more crimes.' I answered,
'It seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a man's life for a
little money, for nothing in the world can be of equal value with a
man's life: and if it be said, that it is not for the money that
one suffersbut for his breaking the law I must say, extreme
justice is an extreme injury: for we ought not to approve of those
terrible laws that make the smallest offences capital, nor of that
opinion of the Stoics that makes all crimes equal; as if there were
no difference to be made between the killing a man and the taking
his purse, between which, if we examine things impartially, there
is no likeness nor proportion. God has commanded us not to kill,
and shall we kill so easily for a little money? But if one shall
say, that by that law we are only forbid to kill any except when
the laws of the land allow of it, upon the same grounds, laws may
be made, in some cases, to allow of adultery and perjury: for God
having taken from us the right of disposing either of our own or of
other people's lives, if it is pretended that the mutual consent of
men in making laws can authorise man-slaughter in cases in which
God has given us no example, that it frees people from the
obligation of the divine law, and so makes murder a lawful action,
what is this, but to give a preference to human laws before the
divine? and, if this is once admitted, by the same rule men may, in
all other things, put what restrictions they please upon the laws
of God. If, by the Mosaical law, though it was rough and severe,
as being a yoke laid on an obstinate and servile nation, men were
only fined, and not put to death for theft, we cannot imagine, that
in this new law of mercy, in which God treats us with the
tenderness of a father, He has given us a greater licence to
cruelty than He did to the Jews. Upon these reasons it is, that I
think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and
obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the
commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally
punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is


convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will
naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would
only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is
more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best
make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much
provokes them to cruelty.

But as to the question'What more convenient way of punishment
can be found?' I think it much easier to find out that than to
invent anything that is worse; why should we doubt but the way that
was so long in use among the old Romanswho understood so well the
arts of governmentwas very proper for their punishment? They
condemned such as they found guilty of great crimes to work their
whole lives in quarriesor to dig in mines with chains about them.
But the method that I liked best was that which I observed in my
travels in Persiaamong the Polyleritswho are a considerable and
well-governed people: they pay a yearly tribute to the King of
Persiabut in all other respects they are a free nationand
governed by their own laws: they lie far from the seaand are
environed with hills; andbeing contented with the productions of
their own countrywhich is very fruitfulthey have little
commerce with any other nation; and as theyaccording to the
genius of their countryhave no inclination to enlarge their
bordersso their mountains and the pension they pay to the
Persiansecure them from all invasions. Thus they have no wars
among them; they live rather conveniently than with splendourand
may be rather called a happy nation than either eminent or famous;
for I do not think that they are knownso much as by nameto any
but their next neighbours. Those that are found guilty of theft
among them are bound to make restitution to the ownerand notas
it is in other placesto the princefor they reckon that the
prince has no more right to the stolen goods than the thief; but if
that which was stolen is no more in beingthen the goods of the
thieves are estimatedand restitution being made out of themthe
remainder is given to their wives and children; and they themselves
are condemned to serve in the public worksbut are neither
imprisoned nor chainedunless there happens to be some
extraordinary circumstance in their crimes. They go about loose
and freeworking for the public: if they are idle or backward to
work they are whippedbut if they work hard they are well used and
treated without any mark of reproach; only the lists of them are
called always at nightand then they are shut up. They suffer no
other uneasiness but this of constant labour; foras they work for
the publicso they are well entertained out of the public stock
which is done differently in different places: in some places
whatever is bestowed on them is raised by a charitable
contribution; andthough this way may seem uncertainyet so
merciful are the inclinations of that peoplethat they are
plentifully supplied by it; but in other places public revenues are
set aside for themor there is a constant tax or poll-money raised
for their maintenance. In some places they are set to no public
workbut every private man that has occasion to hire workmen goes
to the market-places and hires them of the publica little lower
than he would do a freeman. If they go lazily about their task he
may quicken them with the whip. By this means there is always some
piece of work or other to be done by them; andbesides their
livelihoodthey earn somewhat still to the public. They all wear
a peculiar habitof one certain colourand their hair is cropped
a little above their earsand a piece of one of their ears is cut
off. Their friends are allowed to give them either meatdrinkor
clothesso they are of their proper colour; but it is deathboth
to the giver and takerif they give them money; nor is it less
penal for any freeman to take money from them upon any account
whatsoever: and it is also death for any of these slaves (so they


are called) to handle arms. Those of every division of the country
are distinguished by a peculiar markwhich it is capital for them
to lay asideto go out of their boundsor to talk with a slave of
another jurisdictionand the very attempt of an escape is no less
penal than an escape itself. It is death for any other slave to be
accessory to it; and if a freeman engages in it he is condemned to
slavery. Those that discover it are rewarded--if freemenin
money; and if slaveswith libertytogether with a pardon for
being accessory to it; that so they might find their account rather
in repenting of their engaging in such a design than in persisting
in it.

These are their laws and rules in relation to robbery, and it is
obvious that they are as advantageous as they are mild and gentle;
since vice is not only destroyed and men preserved, but they are
treated in such a manner as to make them see the necessity of being
honest and of employing the rest of their lives in repairing the
injuries they had formerly done to society. Nor is there any
hazard of their falling back to their old customs; and so little do
travellers apprehend mischief from them that they generally make
use of them for guides from one jurisdiction to another; for there
is nothing left them by which they can rob or be the better for it,
since, as they are disarmed, so the very having of money is a
sufficient conviction: and as they are certainly punished if
discovered, so they cannot hope to escape; for their habit being in
all the parts of it different from what is commonly worn, they
cannot fly away, unless they would go naked, and even then their
cropped ear would betray them. The only danger to be feared from
them is their conspiring against the government; but those of one
division and neighbourhood can do nothing to any purpose unless a
general conspiracy were laid amongst all the slaves of the several
jurisdictions, which cannot be done, since they cannot meet or talk
together; nor will any venture on a design where the concealment
would be so dangerous and the discovery so profitable. None are
quite hopeless of recovering their freedom, since by their
obedience and patience, and by giving good grounds to believe that
they will change their manner of life for the future, they may
expect at last to obtain their liberty, and some are every year
restored to it upon the good character that is given of them. When
I had related all this, I added that I did not see why such a
method might not be followed with more advantage than could ever be
expected from that severe justice which the Counsellor magnified so
much. To this he answered, 'That it could never take place in
England without endangering the whole nation.' As he said this he
shook his head, made some grimaces, and held his peace, while all
the company seemed of his opinion, except the Cardinal, who said,
'That it was not easy to form a judgment of its success, since it
was a method that never yet had been tried; but if,' said he, 'when
sentence of death were passed upon a thief, the prince would
reprieve him for a while, and make the experiment upon him, denying
him the privilege of a sanctuary; and then, if it had a good effect
upon him, it might take place; and, if it did not succeed, the
worst would be to execute the sentence on the condemned persons at
last; and I do not see,' added he, 'why it would be either unjust,
inconvenient, or at all dangerous to admit of such a delay; in my
opinion the vagabonds ought to be treated in the same manner,
against whom, though we have made many laws, yet we have not been
able to gain our end.' When the Cardinal had done, they all
commended the motion, though they had despised it when it came from
me, but more particularly commended what related to the vagabonds,
because it was his own observation

I do not know whether it be worth while to tell what followedfor
it was very ridiculous; but I shall venture at itfor as it is not


foreign to this matterso some good use may be made of it. There
was a Jester standing bythat counterfeited the fool so naturally
that he seemed to be really one; the jests which he offered were so
cold and dull that we laughed more at him than at themyet
sometimes he saidas it were by chancethings that were not
unpleasantso as to justify the old proverb'That he who throws
the dice oftenwill sometimes have a lucky hit.' When one of the
company had said that I had taken care of the thievesand the
Cardinal had taken care of the vagabondsso that there remained
nothing but that some public provision might be made for the poor
whom sickness or old age had disabled from labour'Leave that to
me' said the Fool'and I shall take care of themfor there is no
sort of people whose sight I abhor morehaving been so often vexed
with them and with their sad complaints; but as dolefully soever as
they have told their talethey could never prevail so far as to
draw one penny from me; for either I had no mind to give them
anythingorwhen I had a mind to do itI had nothing to give
them; and they now know me so well that they will not lose their
labourbut let me pass without giving me any troublebecause they
hope for nothing--no morein faiththan if I were a priest; but I
would have a law made for sending all these beggars to monasteries
the men to the Benedictinesto be made lay-brothersand the women
to be nuns.' The Cardinal smiledand approved of it in jestbut
the rest liked it in earnest. There was a divine presentwho
though he was a grave morose manyet he was so pleased with this
reflection that was made on the priests and the monks that he began
to play with the Fooland said to him'This will not deliver you
from all beggarsexcept you take care of us Friars.' 'That is
done already' answered the Fool'for the Cardinal has provided
for you by what he proposed for restraining vagabonds and setting
them to workfor I know no vagabonds like you.' This was well
entertained by the whole companywholooking at the Cardinal
perceived that he was not ill-pleased at it; only the Friar himself
was vexedas may be easily imaginedand fell into such a passion
that he could not forbear railing at the Fooland calling him
knaveslandererbackbiterand son of perditionand then cited
some dreadful threatenings out of the Scriptures against him. Now
the Jester thought he was in his elementand laid about him
freely. 'Good Friar' said he'be not angryfor it is written
In patience possess your soul.' The Friar answered (for I shall
give you his own words)'I am not angryyou hangman; at leastI
do not sin in itfor the Psalmist saysBe ye angry and sin
not.' Upon this the Cardinal admonished him gentlyand wished
him to govern his passions. 'Nomy lord' said he'I speak not
but from a good zealwhich I ought to havefor holy men have had
a good zealas it is saidThe zeal of thy house hath eaten me
up;and we sing in our church that those who mocked Elisha as he
went up to the house of God felt the effects of his zealwhich
that mockerthat roguethat scoundrelwill perhaps feel.' 'You
do thisperhapswith a good intention' said the Cardinal'but
in my opinionit were wiser in youand perhaps better for you
not to engage in so ridiculous a contest with a Fool.' 'Nomy
lord' answered he'that were not wisely donefor Solomonthe
wisest of mensaidAnswer a Fool according to his folly,which
I now doand show him the ditch into which he will fallif he is
not aware of it; for if the many mockers of Elishawho was but one
bald manfelt the effect of his zealwhat will become of the
mocker of so many Friarsamong whom there are so many bald men?
We havelikewisea bullby which all that jeer us are
excommunicated.' When the Cardinal saw that there was no end of
this matter he made a sign to the Fool to withdrawturned the
discourse another wayand soon after rose from the tableand
dismissing uswent to hear causes.


Thus, Mr. More, I have run out into a tedious story, of the length
of which I had been ashamed, if (as you earnestly begged it of me)
I had not observed you to hearken to it as if you had no mind to
lose any part of it. I might have contracted it, but I resolved to
give it you at large, that you might observe how those that
despised what I had proposed, no sooner perceived that the Cardinal
did not dislike it but presently approved of it, fawned so on him
and flattered him to such a degree, that they in good earnest
applauded those things that he only liked in jest; and from hence
you may gather how little courtiers would value either me or my
counsels.

To this I answeredYou have done me a great kindness in this
relation; for as everything has been related by you both wisely and
pleasantly, so you have made me imagine that I was in my own
country and grown young again, by recalling that good Cardinal to
my thoughts, in whose family I was bred from my childhood; and
though you are, upon other accounts, very dear to me, yet you are
the dearer because you honour his memory so much; but, after all
this, I cannot change my opinion, for I still think that if you
could overcome that aversion which you have to the courts of
princes, you might, by the advice which it is in your power to
give, do a great deal of good to mankind, and this is the chief
design that every good man ought to propose to himself in living;
for your friend Plato thinks that nations will be happy when either
philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers. It is no
wonder if we are so far from that happiness while philosophers will
not think it their duty to assist kings with their counsels.
They are not so base-minded,said hebut that they would
willingly do it; many of them have already done it by their books,
if those that are in power would but hearken to their good advice.
But Plato judged right, that except kings themselves became
philosophers, they who from their childhood are corrupted with
false notions would never fall in entirely with the counsels of
philosophers, and this he himself found to be true in the person of
Dionysius.

Do not you think that if I were about any kingproposing good
laws to himand endeavouring to root out all the cursed seeds of
evil that I found in himI should either be turned out of his
courtorat leastbe laughed at for my pains? For instance
what could I signify if I were about the King of Franceand were
called into his cabinet councilwhere several wise menin his
hearingwere proposing many expedients; asby what arts and
practices Milan may be keptand Naplesthat has so often slipped
out of their handsrecovered; how the Venetiansand after them
the rest of Italymay be subdued; and then how FlandersBrabant
and all Burgundyand some other kingdoms which he has swallowed
already in his designsmay be added to his empire? One proposes a
league with the Venetiansto be kept as long as he finds his
account in itand that he ought to communicate counsels with them
and give them some share of the spoil till his success makes him
need or fear them lessand then it will be easily taken out of
their hands; another proposes the hiring the Germans and the
securing the Switzers by pensions; another proposes the gaining the
Emperor by moneywhich is omnipotent with him; another proposes a
peace with the King of Arragonandin order to cement itthe
yielding up the King of Navarre's pretensions; another thinks that
the Prince of Castile is to be wrought on by the hope of an
allianceand that some of his courtiers are to be gained to the
French faction by pensions. The hardest point of all iswhat to
do with England; a treaty of peace is to be set on footandif
their alliance is not to be depended onyet it is to be made as
firm as possibleand they are to be called friendsbut suspected


as enemies: therefore the Scots are to be kept in readiness to be
let loose upon England on every occasion; and some banished
nobleman is to be supported underhand (for by the League it cannot
be done avowedly) who has a pretension to the crownby which means
that suspected prince may be kept in awe. Now when things are in
so great a fermentationand so many gallant men are joining
counsels how to carry on the warif so mean a man as I should
stand up and wish them to change all their counsels--to let Italy
alone and stay at homesince the kingdom of France was indeed
greater than could be well governed by one man; that therefore he
ought not to think of adding others to it; and ifafter thisI
should propose to them the resolutions of the Achoriansa people
that lie on the south-east of Utopiawho long ago engaged in war
in order to add to the dominions of their prince another kingdom
to which he had some pretensions by an ancient alliance: this they
conqueredbut found that the trouble of keeping it was equal to
that by which it was gained; that the conquered people were always
either in rebellion or exposed to foreign invasionswhile they
were obliged to be incessantly at wareither for or against them
and consequently could never disband their army; that in the
meantime they were oppressed with taxestheir money went out of
the kingdomtheir blood was spilt for the glory of their king
without procuring the least advantage to the peoplewho received
not the smallest benefit from it even in time of peace; and that
their manners being corrupted by a long warrobbery and murders
everywhere aboundedand their laws fell into contempt; while their
kingdistracted with the care of two kingdomswas the less able
to apply his mind to the interest of either. When they saw this
and that there would be no end to these evilsthey by joint
counsels made an humble address to their kingdesiring him to
choose which of the two kingdoms he had the greatest mind to keep
since he could not hold both; for they were too great a people to
be governed by a divided kingsince no man would willingly have a
groom that should be in common between him and another. Upon which
the good prince was forced to quit his new kingdom to one of his
friends (who was not long after dethroned)and to be contented
with his old one. To this I would add that after all those warlike
attemptsthe vast confusionsand the consumption both of treasure
and of people that must follow themperhaps upon some misfortune
they might be forced to throw up all at last; therefore it seemed
much more eligible that the king should improve his ancient kingdom
all he couldand make it flourish as much as possible; that he
should love his peopleand be beloved of them; that he should live
among themgovern them gently and let other kingdoms alonesince
that which had fallen to his share was big enoughif not too big
for him:- prayhow do you think would such a speech as this be
heard?"

I confess,said II think not very well.

But what,said heif I should sort with another kind of
ministers, whose chief contrivances and consultations were by what
art the prince's treasures might be increased? where one proposes
raising the value of specie when the king's debts are large, and
lowering it when his revenues were to come in, that so he might
both pay much with a little, and in a little receive a great deal.
Another proposes a pretence of a war, that money might be raised in
order to carry it on, and that a peace be concluded as soon as that
was done; and this with such appearances of religion as might work
on the people, and make them impute it to the piety of their
prince, and to his tenderness for the lives of his subjects. A
third offers some old musty laws that have been antiquated by a
long disuse (and which, as they had been forgotten by all the
subjects, so they had also been broken by them), and proposes the


levying the penalties of these laws, that, as it would bring in a
vast treasure, so there might be a very good pretence for it, since
it would look like the executing a law and the doing of justice. A
fourth proposes the prohibiting of many things under severe
penalties, especially such as were against the interest of the
people, and then the dispensing with these prohibitions, upon great
compositions, to those who might find their advantage in breaking
them. This would serve two ends, both of them acceptable to many;
for as those whose avarice led them to transgress would be severely
fined, so the selling licences dear would look as if a prince were
tender of his people, and would not easily, or at low rates,
dispense with anything that might be against the public good.
Another proposes that the judges must be made sure, that they may
declare always in favour of the prerogative; that they must be
often sent for to court, that the king may hear them argue those
points in which he is concerned; since, how unjust soever any of
his pretensions may be, yet still some one or other of them, either
out of contradiction to others, or the pride of singularity, or to
make their court, would find out some pretence or other to give the
king a fair colour to carry the point. For if the judges but
differ in opinion, the clearest thing in the world is made by that
means disputable, and truth being once brought in question, the
king may then take advantage to expound the law for his own profit;
while the judges that stand out will be brought over, either
through fear or modesty; and they being thus gained, all of them
may be sent to the Bench to give sentence boldly as the king would
have it; for fair pretences will never be wanting when sentence is
to be given in the prince's favour. It will either be said that
equity lies of his side, or some words in the law will be found
sounding that way, or some forced sense will be put on them; and,
when all other things fail, the king's undoubted prerogative will
be pretended, as that which is above all law, and to which a
religious judge ought to have a special regard. Thus all consent
to that maxim of Crassus, that a prince cannot have treasure
enough, since he must maintain his armies out of it; that a king,
even though he would, can do nothing unjustly; that all property is
in him, not excepting the very persons of his subjects; and that no
man has any other property but that which the king, out of his
goodness, thinks fit to leave him. And they think it is the
prince's interest that there be as little of this left as may be,
as if it were his advantage that his people should have neither
riches nor liberty, since these things make them less easy and
willing to submit to a cruel and unjust government. Whereas
necessity and poverty blunts them, makes them patient, beats them
down, and breaks that height of spirit that might otherwise dispose
them to rebel. Now what if, after all these propositions were
made, I should rise up and assert that such counsels were both
unbecoming a king and mischievous to him; and that not only his
honour, but his safety, consisted more in his people's wealth than
in his own; if I should show that they choose a king for their own
sake, and not for his; that, by his care and endeavours, they may
be both easy and safe; and that, therefore, a prince ought to take
more care of his people's happiness than of his own, as a shepherd
is to take more care of his flock than of himself? It is also
certain that they are much mistaken that think the poverty of a
nation is a mean of the public safety. Who quarrel more than
beggars? who does more earnestly long for a change than he that is
uneasy in his present circumstances? and who run to create
confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who, having
nothing to lose, hope to gain by them? If a king should fall under
such contempt or envy that he could not keep his subjects in their
duty but by oppression and ill usage, and by rendering them poor
and miserable, it were certainly better for him to quit his kingdom
than to retain it by such methods as make him, while he keeps the


name of authority, lose the majesty due to it. Nor is it so
becoming the dignity of a king to reign over beggars as over rich
and happy subjects. And therefore Fabricius, a man of a noble and
exalted temper, said 'he would rather govern rich men than be rich
himself; since for one man to abound in wealth and pleasure when
all about him are mourning and groaning, is to be a gaoler and not
a king.' He is an unskilful physician that cannot cure one disease
without casting his patient into another. So he that can find no
other way for correcting the errors of his people but by taking
from them the conveniences of life, shows that he knows not what it
is to govern a free nation. He himself ought rather to shake off
his sloth, or to lay down his pride, for the contempt or hatred
that his people have for him takes its rise from the vices in
himself. Let him live upon what belongs to him without wronging
others, and accommodate his expense to his revenue. Let him punish
crimes, and, by his wise conduct, let him endeavour to prevent
them, rather than be severe when he has suffered them to be too
common. Let him not rashly revive laws that are abrogated by
disuse, especially if they have been long forgotten and never
wanted. And let him never take any penalty for the breach of them
to which a judge would not give way in a private man, but would
look on him as a crafty and unjust person for pretending to it. To
these things I would add that law among the Macarians--a people
that live not far from Utopia--by which their king, on the day on
which he began to reign, is tied by an oath, confirmed by solemn
sacrifices, never to have at once above a thousand pounds of gold
in his treasures, or so much silver as is equal to that in value.
This law, they tell us, was made by an excellent king who had more
regard to the riches of his country than to his own wealth, and
therefore provided against the heaping up of so much treasure as
might impoverish the people. He thought that moderate sum might be
sufficient for any accident, if either the king had occasion for it
against the rebels, or the kingdom against the invasion of an
enemy; but that it was not enough to encourage a prince to invade
other men's rights--a circumstance that was the chief cause of his
making that law. He also thought that it was a good provision for
that free circulation of money so necessary for the course of
commerce and exchange. And when a king must distribute all those
extraordinary accessions that increase treasure beyond the due
pitch, it makes him less disposed to oppress his subjects. Such a
king as this will be the terror of ill men, and will be beloved by
all the good.

IfI sayI should talk of these or such-like things to men that
had taken their bias another wayhow deaf would they be to all I
could say!" "No doubtvery deaf answered I; and no wonderfor
one is never to offer propositions or advice that we are certain
will not be entertained. Discourses so much out of the road could
not avail anythingnor have any effect on men whose minds were
prepossessed with different sentiments. This philosophical way of
speculation is not unpleasant among friends in a free conversation;
but there is no room for it in the courts of princeswhere great
affairs are carried on by authority." "That is what I was saying
replied he, that there is no room for philosophy in the courts of
princes." "Yesthere is said I, but not for this speculative
philosophythat makes everything to be alike fitting at all times;
but there is another philosophy that is more pliablethat knows
its proper sceneaccommodates itself to itand teaches a man with
propriety and decency to act that part which has fallen to his
share. If when one of Plautus' comedies is upon the stageand a
company of servants are acting their partsyou should come out in
the garb of a philosopherand repeatout of Octaviaa discourse
of Seneca's to Nerowould it not be better for you to say nothing
than by mixing things of such different natures to make an


impertinent tragi-comedy? for you spoil and corrupt the play that
is in hand when you mix with it things of an opposite natureeven
though they are much better. Therefore go through with the play
that is acting the best you canand do not confound it because
another that is pleasanter comes into your thoughts. It is even so
in a commonwealth and in the councils of princes; if ill opinions
cannot be quite rooted outand you cannot cure some received vice
according to your wishesyou must notthereforeabandon the
commonwealthfor the same reasons as you should not forsake the
ship in a storm because you cannot command the winds. You are not
obliged to assault people with discourses that are out of their
roadwhen you see that their received notions must prevent your
making an impression upon them: you ought rather to cast about and
to manage things with all the dexterity in your powerso thatif
you are not able to make them go wellthey may be as little ill as
possible; forexcept all men were goodeverything cannot be
rightand that is a blessing that I do not at present hope to
see." "According to your argument answered he, all that I could
be able to do would be to preserve myself from being mad while I
endeavoured to cure the madness of others; forif I speak withI
must repeat what I have said to you; and as for lyingwhether a
philosopher can do it or not I cannot tell: I am sure I cannot do
it. But though these discourses may be uneasy and ungrateful to
themI do not see why they should seem foolish or extravagant;
indeedif I should either propose such things as Plato has
contrived in his 'Commonwealth' or as the Utopians practise in
theirsthough they might seem betteras certainly they areyet
they are so different from our establishmentwhich is founded on
property (there being no such thing among them)that I could not
expect that it would have any effect on them. But such discourses
as minewhich only call past evils to mind and give warning of
what may followleave nothing in them that is so absurd that they
may not be used at any timefor they can only be unpleasant to
those who are resolved to run headlong the contrary way; and if we
must let alone everything as absurd or extravagant--whichby
reason of the wicked lives of manymay seem uncouth--we musteven
among Christiansgive over pressing the greatest part of those
things that Christ hath taught usthough He has commanded us not
to conceal thembut to proclaim on the housetops that which He
taught in secret. The greatest parts of His precepts are more
opposite to the lives of the men of this age than any part of my
discourse has beenbut the preachers seem to have learned that
craft to which you advise me: for theyobserving that the world
would not willingly suit their lives to the rules that Christ has
givenhave fitted His doctrineas if it had been a leaden rule
to their livesthat sosome way or otherthey might agree with
one another. But I see no other effect of this compliance except
it be that men become more secure in their wickedness by it; and
this is all the success that I can have in a courtfor I must
always differ from the restand then I shall signify nothing; or
if I agree with themI shall then only help forward their madness.
I do not comprehend what you mean by your 'casting about' or by
'the bending and handling things so dexterously thatif they go
not wellthey may go as little ill as may be;' for in courts they
will not bear with a man's holding his peace or conniving at what
others do: a man must barefacedly approve of the worst counsels
and consent to the blackest designsso that he would pass for a
spyorpossiblyfor a traitorthat did but coldly approve of
such wicked practices; and therefore when a man is engaged in such
a societyhe will be so far from being able to mend matters by his
'casting about' as you call itthat he will find no occasions of
doing any good--the ill company will sooner corrupt him than be the
better for him; or ifnotwithstanding all their ill companyhe
still remains steady and innocentyet their follies and knavery


will be imputed to him; andby mixing counsels with themhe must
bear his share of all the blame that belongs wholly to others.

It was no ill simile by which Plato set forth the unreasonableness
of a philosopher's meddling with government. 'If a man,' says he,
'were to see a great company run out every day into the rain and
take delight in being wet--if he knew that it would be to no
purpose for him to go and persuade them to return to their houses
in order to avoid the storm, and that all that could be expected by
his going to speak to them would be that he himself should be as
wet as they, it would be best for him to keep within doors, and,
since he had not influence enough to correct other people's folly,
to take care to preserve himself.'

Thoughto speak plainly my real sentimentsI must freely own
that as long as there is any propertyand while money is the
standard of all other thingsI cannot think that a nation can be
governed either justly or happily: not justlybecause the best
things will fall to the share of the worst men; nor happily
because all things will be divided among a few (and even these are
not in all respects happy)the rest being left to be absolutely
miserable. Thereforewhen I reflect on the wise and good
constitution of the Utopiansamong whom all things are so well
governed and with so few lawswhere virtue hath its due reward
and yet there is such an equality that every man lives in plenty-when
I compare with them so many other nations that are still
making new lawsand yet can never bring their constitution to a
right regulation; wherenotwithstanding every one has his
propertyyet all the laws that they can invent have not the power
either to obtain or preserve itor even to enable men certainly to
distinguish what is their own from what is another'sof which the
many lawsuits that every day break outand are eternally
dependinggive too plain a demonstration--whenI sayI balance
all these things in my thoughtsI grow more favourable to Plato
and do not wonder that he resolved not to make any laws for such as
would not submit to a community of all things; for so wise a man
could not but foresee that the setting all upon a level was the
only way to make a nation happy; which cannot be obtained so long
as there is propertyfor when every man draws to himself all that
he can compassby one title or anotherit must needs follow that
how plentiful soever a nation may beyet a few dividing the wealth
of it among themselvesthe rest must fall into indigence. So that
there will be two sorts of people among themwho deserve that
their fortunes should be interchanged--the former uselessbut
wicked and ravenous; and the latterwho by their constant industry
serve the public more than themselvessincere and modest men--from
whence I am persuaded that till property is taken awaythere can
be no equitable or just distribution of thingsnor can the world
be happily governed; for as long as that is maintainedthe
greatest and the far best part of mankindwill be still oppressed
with a load of cares and anxieties. I confesswithout taking it
quite awaythose pressures that lie on a great part of mankind may
be made lighterbut they can never be quite removed; for if laws
were made to determine at how great an extent in soiland at how
much moneyevery man must stop--to limit the princethat he might
not grow too great; and to restrain the peoplethat they might not
become too insolent--and that none might factiously aspire to
public employmentswhich ought neither to be sold nor made
burdensome by a great expensesince otherwise those that serve in
them would be tempted to reimburse themselves by cheats and
violenceand it would become necessary to find out rich men for
undergoing those employmentswhich ought rather to be trusted to
the wise. These lawsI saymight have such effect as good diet
and care might have on a sick man whose recovery is desperate; they


might allay and mitigate the diseasebut it could never be quite
healednor the body politic be brought again to a good habit as
long as property remains; and it will fall outas in a
complication of diseasesthat by applying a remedy to one sore you
will provoke anotherand that which removes the one ill symptom
produces otherswhile the strengthening one part of the body
weakens the rest." "On the contrary answered I, it seems to me
that men cannot live conveniently where all things are common. How
can there be any plenty where every man will excuse himself from
labour? for as the hope of gain doth not excite himso the
confidence that he has in other men's industry may make him
slothful. If people come to be pinched with wantand yet cannot
dispose of anything as their ownwhat can follow upon this but
perpetual sedition and bloodshedespecially when the reverence and
authority due to magistrates falls to the ground? for I cannot
imagine how that can be kept up among those that are in all things
equal to one another." "I do not wonder said he, that it
appears so to yousince you have no notionor at least no right
oneof such a constitution; but if you had been in Utopia with me
and had seen their laws and rulesas I didfor the space of five
yearsin which I lived among themand during which time I was so
delighted with them that indeed I should never have left them if it
had not been to make the discovery of that new world to the
Europeansyou would then confess that you had never seen a people
so well constituted as they." "You will not easily persuade me
said Peter, that any nation in that new world is better governed
than those among us; for as our understandings are not worse than
theirsso our government (if I mistake not) being more ancienta
long practice has helped us to find out many conveniences of life
and some happy chances have discovered other things to us which no
man's understanding could ever have invented." "As for the
antiquity either of their government or of ours said he, you
cannot pass a true judgment of it unless you had read their
histories; forif they are to be believedthey had towns among
them before these parts were so much as inhabited; and as for those
discoveries that have been either hit on by chance or made by
ingenious menthese might have happened there as well as here.
do not deny but we are more ingenious than they arebut they
exceed us much in industry and application. They knew little
concerning us before our arrival among them. They call us all by a
general name of 'The nations that lie beyond the equinoctial line;'
for their chronicle mentions a shipwreck that was made on their
coast twelve hundred years agoand that some Romans and Egyptians
that were in the shipgetting safe ashorespent the rest of their
days amongst them; and such was their ingenuity that from this
single opportunity they drew the advantage of learning from those
unlooked-for guestsand acquired all the useful arts that were
then among the Romansand which were known to these shipwrecked
men; and by the hints that they gave them they themselves found out
even some of those arts which they could not fully explainso
happily did they improve that accident of having some of our people
cast upon their shore. But if such an accident has at any time
brought any from thence into Europewe have been so far from
improving it that we do not so much as remember itasin
aftertimes perhapsit will be forgot by our people that I was ever
there; for though theyfrom one such accidentmade themselves
masters of all the good inventions that were among usyet I
believe it would be long before we should learn or put in practice
any of the good institutions that are among them. And this is the
true cause of their being better governed and living happier than
wethough we come not short of them in point of understanding or
outward advantages." Upon this I said to himI earnestly beg you
would describe that island very particularly to us; be not too
short, but set out in order all things relating to their soil,


their rivers, their towns, their people, their manners,
constitution, laws, and, in a word, all that you imagine we desire
to know; and you may well imagine that we desire to know everything
concerning them of which we are hitherto ignorant.I will do it
very willingly,said hefor I have digested the whole matter
carefully, but it will take up some time.Let us go, then,said
Ifirst and dine, and then we shall have leisure enough.He
consented; we went in and dinedand after dinner came back and sat
down in the same place. I ordered my servants to take care that
none might come and interrupt usand both Peter and I desired
Raphael to be as good as his word. When he saw that we were very
intent upon it he paused a little to recollect himselfand began
in this manner:


The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and
holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it
grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a
crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad,
and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land
to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured
from winds. In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast
is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in
the island great convenience for mutual commerce. But the entry
into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on
the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one
single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily
be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a
garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very
dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if
any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots
he would run great danger of shipwreck. For even they themselves
could not pass it safe if some marks that are on the coast did not
direct their way; and if these should be but a little shifted, any
fleet that might come against them, how great soever it were, would
be certainly lost. On the other side of the island there are
likewise many harbours; and the coast is so fortified, both by
nature and art, that a small number of men can hinder the descent
of a great army. But they report (and there remains good marks of
it to make it credible) that this was no island at first, but a
part of the continent. Utopus, that conquered it (whose name it
still carries, for Abraxa was its first name), brought the rude and
uncivilised inhabitants into such a good government, and to that
measure of politeness, that they now far excel all the rest of
mankind. Having soon subdued them, he designed to separate them
from the continent, and to bring the sea quite round them. To
accomplish this he ordered a deep channel to be dug, fifteen miles
long; and that the natives might not think he treated them like
slaves, he not only forced the inhabitants, but also his own
soldiers, to labour in carrying it on. As he set a vast number of
men to work, he, beyond all men's expectations, brought it to a
speedy conclusion. And his neighbours, who at first laughed at the
folly of the undertaking, no sooner saw it brought to perfection
than they were struck with admiration and terror.

There are fifty-four cities in the islandall large and well
builtthe mannerscustomsand laws of which are the sameand
they are all contrived as near in the same manner as the ground on
which they stand will allow. The nearest lie at least twenty-four
miles' distance from one anotherand the most remote are not so
far distant but that a man can go on foot in one day from it to
that which lies next it. Every city sends three of their wisest
senators once a year to Amaurotto consult about their common
concerns; for that is the chief town of the islandbeing situated
near the centre of itso that it is the most convenient place for


their assemblies. The jurisdiction of every city extends at least
twenty milesandwhere the towns lie widerthey have much more
ground. No town desires to enlarge its boundsfor the people
consider themselves rather as tenants than landlords. They have
builtover all the countryfarmhouses for husbandmenwhich are
well contrivedand furnished with all things necessary for country
labour. Inhabitants are sentby turnsfrom the cities to dwell
in them; no country family has fewer than forty men and women in
itbesides two slaves. There is a master and a mistress set over
every familyand over thirty families there is a magistrate.
Every year twenty of this family come back to the town after they
have stayed two years in the countryand in their room there are
other twenty sent from the townthat they may learn country work
from those that have been already one year in the countryas they
must teach those that come to them the next from the town. By this
means such as dwell in those country farms are never ignorant of
agricultureand so commit no errors which might otherwise be fatal
and bring them under a scarcity of corn. But though there is every
year such a shifting of the husbandmen to prevent any man being
forced against his will to follow that hard course of life too
longyet many among them take such pleasure in it that they desire
leave to continue in it many years. These husbandmen till the
groundbreed cattlehew woodand convey it to the towns either
by land or wateras is most convenient. They breed an infinite
multitude of chickens in a very curious manner; for the hens do not
sit and hatch thembut a vast number of eggs are laid in a gentle
and equal heat in order to be hatchedand they are no sooner out
of the shelland able to stir aboutbut they seem to consider
those that feed them as their mothersand follow them as other
chickens do the hen that hatched them. They breed very few horses
but those they have are full of mettleand are kept only for
exercising their youth in the art of sitting and riding them; for
they do not put them to any workeither of ploughing or carriage
in which they employ oxen. For though their horses are stronger
yet they find oxen can hold out longer; and as they are not subject
to so many diseasesso they are kept upon a less charge and with
less trouble. And even when they are so worn out that they are no
more fit for labourthey are good meat at last. They sow no corn
but that which is to be their bread; for they drink either wine
cider or perryand often watersometimes boiled with honey or
liquoricewith which they abound; and though they know exactly how
much corn will serve every town and all that tract of country which
belongs to ityet they sow much more and breed more cattle than
are necessary for their consumptionand they give that overplus of
which they make no use to their neighbours. When they want
anything in the country which it does not producethey fetch that
from the townwithout carrying anything in exchange for it. And
the magistrates of the town take care to see it given them; for
they meet generally in the town once a monthupon a festival day.
When the time of harvest comesthe magistrates in the country send
to those in the towns and let them know how many hands they will
need for reaping the harvest; and the number they call for being
sent to themthey commonly despatch it all in one day.

OF THEIR TOWNSPARTICULARLY OF AMAUROT

He that knows one of their towns knows them all--they are so like
one another, except where the situation makes some difference. I
shall therefore describe one of them, and none is so proper as
Amaurot; for as none is more eminent (all the rest yielding in
precedence to this, because it is the seat of their supreme
council), so there was none of them better known to me, I having


lived five years all together in it.

It lies upon the side of a hillorrathera rising ground. Its
figure is almost squarefor from the one side of itwhich shoots
up almost to the top of the hillit runs downin a descent for
two milesto the river Anider; but it is a little broader the
other way that runs along by the bank of that river. The Anider
rises about eighty miles above Amaurotin a small spring at first.
But other brooks falling into itof which two are more
considerable than the restas it runs by Amaurot it is grown half
a mile broad; butit still grows larger and largertillafter
sixty miles' course below itit is lost in the ocean. Between the
town and the seaand for some miles above the townit ebbs and
flows every six hours with a strong current. The tide comes up
about thirty miles so full that there is nothing but salt water in
the riverthe fresh water being driven back with its force; and
above thatfor some milesthe water is brackish; but a little
higheras it runs by the townit is quite fresh; and when the
tide ebbsit continues fresh all along to the sea. There is a
bridge cast over the rivernot of timberbut of fair stone
consisting of many stately arches; it lies at that part of the town
which is farthest from the seaso that the shipswithout any
hindrancelie all along the side of the town. There islikewise
another river that runs by itwhichthough it is not greatyet
it runs pleasantlyfor it rises out of the same hill on which the
town standsand so runs down through it and falls into the Anider.
The inhabitants have fortified the fountain-head of this river
which springs a little without the towns; that soif they should
happen to be besiegedthe enemy might not be able to stop or
divert the course of the waternor poison it; from thence it is
carriedin earthen pipesto the lower streets. And for those
places of the town to which the water of that small river cannot be
conveyedthey have great cisterns for receiving the rain-water
which supplies the want of the other. The town is compassed with a
high and thick wallin which there are many towers and forts;
there is also a broad and deep dry ditchset thick with thorns
cast round three sides of the townand the river is instead of a
ditch on the fourth side. The streets are very convenient for all
carriageand are well sheltered from the winds. Their buildings
are goodand are so uniform that a whole side of a street looks
like one house. The streets are twenty feet broad; there lie
gardens behind all their houses. These are largebut enclosed
with buildingsthat on all hands face the streetsso that every
house has both a door to the street and a back door to the garden.
Their doors have all two leaveswhichas they are easily opened
so they shut of their own accord; andthere being no property
among themevery man may freely enter into any house whatsoever.
At every ten years' end they shift their houses by lots. They
cultivate their gardens with great careso that they have both
vinesfruitsherbsand flowers in them; and all is so well
ordered and so finely kept that I never saw gardens anywhere that
were both so fruitful and so beautiful as theirs. And this humour
of ordering their gardens so well is not only kept up by the
pleasure they find in itbut also by an emulation between the
inhabitants of the several streetswho vie with each other. And
there isindeednothing belonging to the whole town that is both
more useful and more pleasant. So that he who founded the town
seems to have taken care of nothing more than of their gardens; for
they say the whole scheme of the town was designed at first by
Utopusbut he left all that belonged to the ornament and
improvement of it to be added by those that should come after him
that being too much for one man to bring to perfection. Their
recordsthat contain the history of their town and Stateare
preserved with an exact careand run backwards seventeen hundred


and sixty years. From these it appears that their houses were at
first low and meanlike cottagesmade of any sort of timberand
were built with mud walls and thatched with straw. But now their
houses are three storeys highthe fronts of them are faced either
with stoneplasteringor brickand between the facings of their
walls they throw in their rubbish. Their roofs are flatand on
them they lay a sort of plasterwhich costs very littleand yet
is so tempered that it is not apt to take fireand yet resists the
weather more than lead. They have great quantities of glass among
themwith which they glaze their windows; they use also in their
windows a thin linen cloththat is so oiled or gummed that it both
keeps out the wind and gives free admission to the light.

OF THEIR MAGISTRATES

Thirty families choose every year a magistrate, who was anciently
called the Syphogrant, but is now called the Philarch; and over
every ten Syphogrants, with the families subject to them, there is
another magistrate, who was anciently called the Tranibore, but of
late the Archphilarch. All the Syphogrants, who are in number two
hundred, choose the Prince out of a list of four who are named by
the people of the four divisions of the city; but they take an
oath, before they proceed to an election, that they will choose him
whom they think most fit for the office: they give him their
voices secretly, so that it is not known for whom every one gives
his suffrage. The Prince is for life, unless he is removed upon
suspicion of some design to enslave the people. The Tranibors are
new chosen every year, but yet they are, for the most part,
continued; all their other magistrates are only annual. The
Tranibors meet every third day, and oftener if necessary, and
consult with the Prince either concerning the affairs of the State
in general, or such private differences as may arise sometimes
among the people, though that falls out but seldom. There are
always two Syphogrants called into the council chamber, and these
are changed every day. It is a fundamental rule of their
government, that no conclusion can be made in anything that relates
to the public till it has been first debated three several days in
their council. It is death for any to meet and consult concerning
the State, unless it be either in their ordinary council, or in the
assembly of the whole body of the people.

These things have been so provided among them that the Prince and
the Tranibors may not conspire together to change the government
and enslave the people; and therefore when anything of great
importance is set on footit is sent to the Syphograntswho
after they have communicated it to the families that belong to
their divisionsand have considered it among themselvesmake
report to the senate; andupon great occasionsthe matter is
referred to the council of the whole island. One rule observed in
their council isnever to debate a thing on the same day in which
it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next
meetingthat so men may not rashly and in the heat of discourse
engage themselves too soonwhich might bias them so much that
instead of consulting the good of the publicthey might rather
study to support their first opinionsand by a perverse and
preposterous sort of shame hazard their country rather than
endanger their own reputationor venture the being suspected to
have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first
proposed; and thereforeto prevent thisthey take care that they
may rather be deliberate than sudden in their motions.


OF THEIR TRADESAND MANNER OF LIFE

Agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them
that no person, either man or woman, is ignorant of it; they are
instructed in it from their childhood, partly by what they learn at
school, and partly by practice, they being led out often into the
fields about the town, where they not only see others at work but
are likewise exercised in it themselves. Besides agriculture,
which is so common to them all, every man has some peculiar trade
to which he applies himself; such as the manufacture of wool or
flax, masonry, smith's work, or carpenter's work; for there is no
sort of trade that is in great esteem among them. Throughout the
island they wear the same sort of clothes, without any other
distinction except what is necessary to distinguish the two sexes
and the married and unmarried. The fashion never alters, and as it
is neither disagreeable nor uneasy, so it is suited to the climate,
and calculated both for their summers and winters. Every family
makes their own clothes; but all among them, women as well as men,
learn one or other of the trades formerly mentioned. Women, for
the most part, deal in wool and flax, which suit best with their
weakness, leaving the ruder trades to the men. The same trade
generally passes down from father to son, inclinations often
following descent: but if any man's genius lies another way he is,
by adoption, translated into a family that deals in the trade to
which he is inclined; and when that is to be done, care is taken,
not only by his father, but by the magistrate, that he may be put
to a discreet and good man: and if, after a person has learned one
trade, he desires to acquire another, that is also allowed, and is
managed in the same manner as the former. When he has learned
both, he follows that which he likes best, unless the public has
more occasion for the other.

The chief, and almost the only, business of the Syphogrants is to
take care that no man may live idle, but that every one may follow
his trade diligently; yet they do not wear themselves out with
perpetual toil from morning to night, as if they were beasts of
burden, which as it is indeed a heavy slavery, so it is everywhere
the common course of life amongst all mechanics except the
Utopians: but they, dividing the day and night into twenty-four
hours, appoint six of these for work, three of which are before
dinner and three after; they then sup, and at eight o'clock,
counting from noon, go to bed and sleep eight hours: the rest of
their time, besides that taken up in work, eating, and sleeping, is
left to every man's discretion; yet they are not to abuse that
interval to luxury and idleness, but must employ it in some proper
exercise, according to their various inclinations, which is, for
the most part, reading. It is ordinary to have public lectures
every morning before daybreak, at which none are obliged to appear
but those who are marked out for literature; yet a great many, both
men and women, of all ranks, go to hear lectures of one sort or
other, according to their inclinations: but if others that are not
made for contemplation, choose rather to employ themselves at that
time in their trades, as many of them do, they are not hindered,
but are rather commended, as men that take care to serve their
country. After supper they spend an hour in some diversion, in
summer in their gardens, and in winter in the halls where they eat,
where they entertain each other either with music or discourse.
They do not so much as know dice, or any such foolish and
mischievous games. They have, however, two sorts of games not
unlike our chess; the one is between several numbers, in which one
number, as it were, consumes another; the other resembles a battle
between the virtues and the vices, in which the enmity in the vices
among themselves, and their agreement against virtue, is not


unpleasantly represented; together with the special opposition
between the particular virtues and vices; as also the methods by
which vice either openly assaults or secretly undermines virtue;
and virtue, on the other hand, resists it. But the time appointed
for labour is to be narrowly examined, otherwise you may imagine
that since there are only six hours appointed for work, they may
fall under a scarcity of necessary provisions: but it is so far
from being true that this time is not sufficient for supplying them
with plenty of all things, either necessary or convenient, that it
is rather too much; and this you will easily apprehend if you
consider how great a part of all other nations is quite idle.
First, women generally do little, who are the half of mankind; and
if some few women are diligent, their husbands are idle: then
consider the great company of idle priests, and of those that are
called religious men; add to these all rich men, chiefly those that
have estates in land, who are called noblemen and gentlemen,
together with their families, made up of idle persons, that are
kept more for show than use; add to these all those strong and
lusty beggars that go about pretending some disease in excuse for
their begging; and upon the whole account you will find that the
number of those by whose labours mankind is supplied is much less
than you perhaps imagined: then consider how few of those that
work are employed in labours that are of real service, for we, who
measure all things by money, give rise to many trades that are both
vain and superfluous, and serve only to support riot and luxury:
for if those who work were employed only in such things as the
conveniences of life require, there would be such an abundance of
them that the prices of them would so sink that tradesmen could not
be maintained by their gains; if all those who labour about useless
things were set to more profitable employments, and if all they
that languish out their lives in sloth and idleness (every one of
whom consumes as much as any two of the men that are at work) were
forced to labour, you may easily imagine that a small proportion of
time would serve for doing all that is either necessary,
profitable, or pleasant to mankind, especially while pleasure is
kept within its due bounds: this appears very plainly in Utopia;
for there, in a great city, and in all the territory that lies
round it, you can scarce find five hundred, either men or women, by
their age and strength capable of labour, that are not engaged in
it. Even the Syphogrants, though excused by the law, yet do not
excuse themselves, but work, that by their examples they may excite
the industry of the rest of the people; the like exemption is
allowed to those who, being recommended to the people by the
priests, are, by the secret suffrages of the Syphogrants,
privileged from labour, that they may apply themselves wholly to
study; and if any of these fall short of those hopes that they
seemed at first to give, they are obliged to return to work; and
sometimes a mechanic that so employs his leisure hours as to make a
considerable advancement in learning is eased from being a
tradesman and ranked among their learned men. Out of these they
choose their ambassadors, their priests, their Tranibors, and the
Prince himself, anciently called their Barzenes, but is called of
late their Ademus.

And thus from the great numbers among them that are neither
suffered to be idle nor to be employed in any fruitless labouryou
may easily make the estimate how much may be done in those few
hours in which they are obliged to labour. Butbesides all that
has been already saidit is to be considered that the needful arts
among them are managed with less labour than anywhere else. The
building or the repairing of houses among us employ many hands
because often a thriftless heir suffers a house that his father
built to fall into decayso that his successor mustat a great
costrepair that which he might have kept up with a small charge;


it frequently happens that the same house which one person built at
a vast expense is neglected by anotherwho thinks he has a more
delicate sense of the beauties of architectureand hesuffering
it to fall to ruinbuilds another at no less charge. But among
the Utopians all things are so regulated that men very seldom build
upon a new piece of groundand are not only very quick in
repairing their housesbut show their foresight in preventing
their decayso that their buildings are preserved very long with
but very little labourand thus the buildersto whom that care
belongsare often without employmentexcept the hewing of timber
and the squaring of stonesthat the materials may be in readiness
for raising a building very suddenly when there is any occasion for
it. As to their clothesobserve how little work is spent in them;
while they are at labour they are clothed with leather and skins
cut carelessly about themwhich will last seven yearsand when
they appear in public they put on an upper garment which hides the
other; and these are all of one colourand that is the natural
colour of the wool. As they need less woollen cloth than is used
anywhere elseso that which they make use of is much less costly;
they use linen cloth morebut that is prepared with less labour
and they value cloth only by the whiteness of the linen or the
cleanness of the woolwithout much regard to the fineness of the
thread. While in other places four or five upper garments of
woollen cloth of different coloursand as many vests of silkwill
scarce serve one manand while those that are nicer think ten too
fewevery man there is content with onewhich very often serves
him two years; nor is there anything that can tempt a man to desire
morefor if he had them he would neither be thewarmer nor would
he make one jot the better appearance for it. And thussince they
are all employed in some useful labourand since they content
themselves with fewer thingsit falls out that there is a great
abundance of all things among them; so that it frequently happens
thatfor want of other workvast numbers are sent out to mend the
highways; but when no public undertaking is to be performedthe
hours of working are lessened. The magistrates never engage the
people in unnecessary laboursince the chief end of the
constitution is to regulate labour by the necessities of the
publicand to allow the people as much time as is necessary for
the improvement of their mindsin which they think the happiness
of life consists.

OF THEIR TRAFFIC

But it is now time to explain to you the mutual intercourse of
this people, their commerce, and the rules by which all things are
distributed among them.

As their cities are composed of familiesso their families are
made up of those that are nearly related to one another. Their
womenwhen they grow upare married outbut all the malesboth
children and grandchildrenlive still in the same housein great
obedience to their common parentunless age has weakened his
understandingand in that case he that is next to him in age comes
in his room; but lest any city should become either too greator
by any accident be dispeopledprovision is made that none of their
cities may contain above six thousand familiesbesides those of
the country around it. No family may have less than ten and more
than sixteen persons in itbut there can be no determined number
for the children under age; this rule is easily observed by
removing some of the children of a more fruitful couple to any
other family that does not abound so much in them. By the same
rule they supply cities that do not increase so fast from others


that breed faster; and if there is any increase over the whole
islandthen they draw out a number of their citizens out of the
several towns and send them over to the neighbouring continent
whereif they find that the inhabitants have more soil than they
can well cultivatethey fix a colonytaking the inhabitants into
their society if they are willing to live with them; and where they
do that of their own accordthey quickly enter into their method
of life and conform to their rulesand this proves a happiness to
both nations; foraccording to their constitutionsuch care is
taken of the soil that it becomes fruitful enough for boththough
it might be otherwise too narrow and barren for any one of them.
But if the natives refuse to conform themselves to their laws they
drive them out of those bounds which they mark out for themselves
and use force if they resistfor they account it a very just cause
of war for a nation to hinder others from possessing a part of that
soil of which they make no usebut which is suffered to lie idle
and uncultivatedsince every man hasby the law of naturea
right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his
subsistence. If an accident has so lessened the number of the
inhabitants of any of their towns that it cannot be made up from
the other towns of the island without diminishing them too much
(which is said to have fallen out but twice since they were first a
peoplewhen great numbers were carried off by the plague)the
loss is then supplied by recalling as many as are wanted from their
coloniesfor they will abandon these rather than suffer the towns
in the island to sink too low.

But to return to their manner of living in society: the oldest
man of every family, as has been already said, is its governor;
wives serve their husbands, and children their parents, and always
the younger serves the elder. Every city is divided into four
equal parts, and in the middle of each there is a market-place.
What is brought thither, and manufactured by the several families,
is carried from thence to houses appointed for that purpose, in
which all things of a sort are laid by themselves; and thither
every father goes, and takes whatsoever he or his family stand in
need of, without either paying for it or leaving anything in
exchange. There is no reason for giving a denial to any person,
since there is such plenty of everything among them; and there is
no danger of a man's asking for more than he needs; they have no
inducements to do this, since they are sure they shall always be
supplied: it is the fear of want that makes any of the whole race
of animals either greedy or ravenous; but, besides fear, there is
in man a pride that makes him fancy it a particular glory to excel
others in pomp and excess; but by the laws of the Utopians, there
is no room for this. Near these markets there are others for all
sorts of provisions, where there are not only herbs, fruits, and
bread, but also fish, fowl, and cattle. There are also, without
their towns, places appointed near some running water for killing
their beasts and for washing away their filth, which is done by
their slaves; for they suffer none of their citizens to kill their
cattle, because they think that pity and good-nature, which are
among the best of those affections that are born with us, are much
impaired by the butchering of animals; nor do they suffer anything
that is foul or unclean to be brought within their towns, lest the
air should be infected by ill-smells, which might prejudice their
health. In every street there are great halls, that lie at an
equal distance from each other, distinguished by particular names.
The Syphogrants dwell in those that are set over thirty families,
fifteen lying on one side of it, and as many on the other. In
these halls they all meet and have their repasts; the stewards of
every one of them come to the market-place at an appointed hour,
and according to the number of those that belong to the hall they
carry home provisions. But they take more care of their sick than


of any others; these are lodged and provided for in public
hospitals. They have belonging to every town four hospitals, that
are built without their walls, and are so large that they may pass
for little towns; by this means, if they had ever such a number of
sick persons, they could lodge them conveniently, and at such a
distance that such of them as are sick of infectious diseases may
be kept so far from the rest that there can be no danger of
contagion. The hospitals are furnished and stored with all things
that are convenient for the ease and recovery of the sick; and
those that are put in them are looked after with such tender and
watchful care, and are so constantly attended by their skilful
physicians, that as none is sent to them against their will, so
there is scarce one in a whole town that, if he should fall ill,
would not choose rather to go thither than lie sick at home.

After the steward of the hospitals has taken for the sick
whatsoever the physician prescribesthen the best things that are
left in the market are distributed equally among the halls in
proportion to their numbers; onlyin the first placethey serve
the Princethe Chief Priestthe Traniborsthe Ambassadorsand
strangersif there are anywhichindeedfalls out but seldom
and for whom there are houseswell furnishedparticularly
appointed for their reception when they come among them. At the
hours of dinner and supper the whole Syphogranty being called
together by sound of trumpetthey meet and eat togetherexcept
only such as are in the hospitals or lie sick at home. Yetafter
the halls are servedno man is hindered to carry provisions home
from the marketplacefor they know that none does that but for
some good reason; for though any that will may eat at homeyet
none does it willinglysince it is both ridiculous and foolish for
any to give themselves the trouble to make ready an ill dinner at
home when there is a much more plentiful one made ready for him so
near hand. All the uneasy and sordid services about these halls
are performed by their slaves; but the dressing and cooking their
meatand the ordering their tablesbelong only to the womenall
those of every family taking it by turns. They sit at three or
more tablesaccording to their number; the men sit towards the
walland the women sit on the other sidethat if any of them
should be taken suddenly illwhich is no uncommon case amongst
women with childshe maywithout disturbing the restrise and go
to the nurses' room (who are there with the sucking children)
where there is always clean water at hand and cradlesin which
they may lay the young children if there is occasion for itand a
firethat they may shift and dress them before it. Every child is
nursed by its own mother if death or sickness does not intervene;
and in that case the Syphogrants' wives find out a nurse quickly
which is no hard matterfor any one that can do it offers herself
cheerfully; for as they are much inclined to that piece of mercy
so the child whom they nurse considers the nurse as its mother.
All the children under five years old sit among the nurses; the
rest of the younger sort of both sexestill they are fit for
marriageeither serve those that sit at tableorif they are not
strong enough for thatstand by them in great silence and eat what
is given them; nor have they any other formality of dining. In the
middle of the first tablewhich stands across the upper end of the
hallsit the Syphogrant and his wifefor that is the chief and
most conspicuous place; next to him sit two of the most ancient
for there go always four to a mess. If there is a temple within
the Syphograntythe Priest and his wife sit with the Syphogrant
above all the rest; next them there is a mixture of old and young
who are so placed that as the young are set near othersso they
are mixed with the more ancient; whichthey saywas appointed on
this account: that the gravity of the old peopleand the
reverence that is due to themmight restrain the younger from all


indecent words and gestures. Dishes are not served up to the whole
table at firstbut the best are first set before the oldwhose
seats are distinguished from the youngandafter themall the
rest are served alike. The old men distribute to the younger any
curious meats that happen to be set before themif there is not
such an abundance of them that the whole company may be served
alike.

Thus old men are honoured with a particular respect, yet all the
rest fare as well as they. Both dinner and supper are begun with
some lecture of morality that is read to them; but it is so short
that it is not tedious nor uneasy to them to hear it. From hence
the old men take occasion to entertain those about them with some
useful and pleasant enlargements; but they do not engross the whole
discourse so to themselves during their meals that the younger may
not put in for a share; on the contrary, they engage them to talk,
that so they may, in that free way of conversation, find out the
force of every one's spirit and observe his temper. They despatch
their dinners quickly, but sit long at supper, because they go to
work after the one, and are to sleep after the other, during which
they think the stomach carries on the concoction more vigorously.
They never sup without music, and there is always fruit served up
after meat; while they are at table some burn perfumes and sprinkle
about fragrant ointments and sweet waters--in short, they want
nothing that may cheer up their spirits; they give themselves a
large allowance that way, and indulge themselves in all such
pleasures as are attended with no inconvenience. Thus do those
that are in the towns live together; but in the country, where they
live at a great distance, every one eats at home, and no family
wants any necessary sort of provision, for it is from them that
provisions are sent unto those that live in the towns.

OF THE TRAVELLING OF THE UTOPIANS

If any man has a mind to visit his friends that live in some other
town, or desires to travel and see the rest of the country, he
obtains leave very easily from the Syphogrant and Tranibors, when
there is no particular occasion for him at home. Such as travel
carry with them a passport from the Prince, which both certifies
the licence that is granted for travelling, and limits the time of
their return. They are furnished with a waggon and a slave, who
drives the oxen and looks after them; but, unless there are women
in the company, the waggon is sent back at the end of the journey
as a needless encumbrance. While they are on the road they carry
no provisions with them, yet they want for nothing, but are
everywhere treated as if they were at home. If they stay in any
place longer than a night, every one follows his proper occupation,
and is very well used by those of his own trade; but if any man
goes out of the city to which he belongs without leave, and is
found rambling without a passport, he is severely treated, he is
punished as a fugitive, and sent home disgracefully; and, if he
falls again into the like fault, is condemned to slavery. If any
man has a mind to travel only over the precinct of his own city, he
may freely do it, with his father's permission and his wife's
consent; but when he comes into any of the country houses, if he
expects to be entertained by them, he must labour with them and
conform to their rules; and if he does this, he may freely go over
the whole precinct, being then as useful to the city to which he
belongs as if he were still within it. Thus you see that there are
no idle persons among them, nor pretences of excusing any from
labour. There are no taverns, no alehouses, nor stews among them,
nor any other occasions of corrupting each other, of getting into


corners, or forming themselves into parties; all men live in full
view, so that all are obliged both to perform their ordinary task
and to employ themselves well in their spare hours; and it is
certain that a people thus ordered must live in great abundance of
all things, and these being equally distributed among them, no man
can want or be obliged to beg.

In their great council at Amaurotto which there are three sent
from every town once a yearthey examine what towns abound in
provisions and what are under any scarcitythat so the one may be
furnished from the other; and this is done freelywithout any sort
of exchange; foraccording to their plenty or scarcitythey
supply or are supplied from one anotherso that indeed the whole
island isas it wereone family. When they have thus taken care
of their whole countryand laid up stores for two years (which
they do to prevent the ill consequences of an unfavourable season)
they order an exportation of the overplusboth of cornhoney
woolflaxwoodwaxtallowleatherand cattlewhich they send
outcommonly in great quantitiesto other nations. They order a
seventh part of all these goods to be freely given to the poor of
the countries to which they send themand sell the rest at
moderate rates; and by this exchange they not only bring back those
few things that they need at home (forindeedthey scarce need
anything but iron)but likewise a great deal of gold and silver;
and by their driving this trade so longit is not to be imagined
how vast a treasure they have got among themso that now they do
not much care whether they sell off their merchandise for money in
hand or upon trust. A great part of their treasure is now in
bonds; but in all their contracts no private man stands boundbut
the writing runs in the name of the town; and the towns that owe
them money raise it from those private hands that owe it to them
lay it up in their public chamberor enjoy the profit of it till
the Utopians call for it; and they choose rather to let the
greatest part of it lie in their handswho make advantage by it
than to call for it themselves; but if they see that any of their
other neighbours stand more in need of itthen they call it in and
lend it to them. Whenever they are engaged in warwhich is the
only occasion in which their treasure can be usefully employed
they make use of it themselves; in great extremities or sudden
accidents they employ it in hiring foreign troopswhom they more
willingly expose to danger than their own people; they give them
great payknowing well that this will work even on their enemies;
that it will engage them either to betray their own sideorat
leastto desert it; and that it is the best means of raising
mutual jealousies among them. For this end they have an incredible
treasure; but they do not keep it as a treasurebut in such a
manner as I am almost afraid to telllest you think it so
extravagant as to be hardly credible. This I have the more reason
to apprehend becauseif I had not seen it myselfI could not have
been easily persuaded to have believed it upon any man's report.

It is certain that all things appear incredible to us in
proportion as they differ from known customs; but one who can judge
aright will not wonder to find that, since their constitution
differs so much from ours, their value of gold and silver should be
measured by a very different standard; for since they have no use
for money among themselves, but keep it as a provision against
events which seldom happen, and between which there are generally
long intervening intervals, they value it no farther than it
deserves--that is, in proportion to its use. So that it is plain
they must prefer iron either to gold or silver, for men can no more
live without iron than without fire or water; but Nature has marked
out no use for the other metals so essential as not easily to be
dispensed with. The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold


and silver because of their scarcity; whereas, on the contrary, it
is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely
given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and
earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and
useless.

If these metals were laid up in any tower in the kingdom it would
raise a jealousy of the Prince and Senateand give birth to that
foolish mistrust into which the people are apt to fall--a jealousy
of their intending to sacrifice the interest of the public to their
own private advantage. If they should work it into vesselsor any
sort of platethey fear that the people might grow too fond of it
and so be unwilling to let the plate be run downif a war made it
necessaryto employ it in paying their soldiers. To prevent all
these inconveniences they have fallen upon an expedient whichas
it agrees with their other policyso is it very different from
oursand will scarce gain belief among us who value gold so much
and lay it up so carefully. They eat and drink out of vessels of
earth or glasswhich make an agreeable appearancethough formed
of brittle materials; while they make their chamber-pots and closestools
of gold and silverand that not only in their public halls
but in their private houses. Of the same metals they likewise make
chains and fetters for their slavesto some of whichas a badge
of infamythey hang an earring of goldand make others wear a
chain or a coronet of the same metal; and thus they take care by
all possible means to render gold and silver of no esteem; and from
hence it is that while other nations part with their gold and
silver as unwillingly as if one tore out their bowelsthose of
Utopia would look on their giving in all they possess of those
metals (when there were any use for them) but as the parting with a
trifleor as we would esteem the loss of a penny! They find
pearls on their coastsand diamonds and carbuncles on their rocks;
they do not look after thembutif they find them by chancethey
polish themand with them they adorn their childrenwho are
delighted with themand glory in them during their childhood; but
when they grow to yearsand see that none but children use such
baublesthey of their own accordwithout being bid by their
parentslay them asideand would be as much ashamed to use them
afterwards as children among uswhen they come to yearsare of
their puppets and other toys.

I never saw a clearer instance of the opposite impressions that
different customs make on people than I observed in the ambassadors
of the Anemolians, who came to Amaurot when I was there. As they
came to treat of affairs of great consequence, the deputies from
several towns met together to wait for their coming. The
ambassadors of the nations that lie near Utopia, knowing their
customs, and that fine clothes are in no esteem among them, that
silk is despised, and gold is a badge of infamy, used to come very
modestly clothed; but the Anemolians, lying more remote, and having
had little commerce with them, understanding that they were
coarsely clothed, and all in the same manner, took it for granted
that they had none of those fine things among them of which they
made no use; and they, being a vainglorious rather than a wise
people, resolved to set themselves out with so much pomp that they
should look like gods, and strike the eyes of the poor Utopians
with their splendour. Thus three ambassadors made their entry with
a hundred attendants, all clad in garments of different colours,
and the greater part in silk; the ambassadors themselves, who were
of the nobility of their country, were in cloth-of-gold, and
adorned with massy chains, earrings and rings of gold; their caps
were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other gems--in a
word, they were set out with all those things that among the
Utopians were either the badges of slavery, the marks of infamy, or


the playthings of children. It was not unpleasant to see, on the
one side, how they looked big, when they compared their rich habits
with the plain clothes of the Utopians, who were come out in great
numbers to see them make their entry; and, on the other, to observe
how much they were mistaken in the impression which they hoped this
pomp would have made on them. It appeared so ridiculous a show to
all that had never stirred out of their country, and had not seen
the customs of other nations, that though they paid some reverence
to those that were the most meanly clad, as if they had been the
ambassadors, yet when they saw the ambassadors themselves so full
of gold and chains, they looked upon them as slaves, and forbore to
treat them with reverence. You might have seen the children who
were grown big enough to despise their playthings, and who had
thrown away their jewels, call to their mothers, push them gently,
and cry out, 'See that great fool, that wears pearls and gems as if
he were yet a child!' while their mothers very innocently replied,
'Hold your peace! this, I believe, is one of the ambassadors'
fools.' Others censured the fashion of their chains, and observed,
'That they were of no use, for they were too slight to bind their
slaves, who could easily break them; and, besides, hung so loose
about them that they thought it easy to throw their away, and so
get from them.But after the ambassadors had stayed a day among
themand saw so vast a quantity of gold in their houses (which was
as much despised by them as it was esteemed in other nations)and
beheld more gold and silver in the chains and fetters of one slave
than all their ornaments amounted totheir plumes felland they
were ashamed of all that glory for which they had formed valued
themselvesand accordingly laid it aside--a resolution that they
immediately took whenon their engaging in some free discourse
with the Utopiansthey discovered their sense of such things and
their other customs. The Utopians wonder how any man should be so
much taken with the glaring doubtful lustre of a jewel or a stone
that can look up to a star or to the sun himself; or how any should
value himself because his cloth is made of a finer thread; forhow
fine soever that thread may beit was once no better than the
fleece of a sheepand that sheepwas a sheep stillfor all its
wearing it. They wonder much to hear that goldwhich in itself is
so useless a thingshould be everywhere so much esteemed that even
manfor whom it was madeand by whom it has its valueshould yet
be thought of less value than this metal; that a man of leadwho
has no more sense than a log of woodand is as bad as he is
foolishshould have many wise and good men to serve himonly
because he has a great heap of that metal; and that if it should
happen that by some accident or trick of law (whichsometimes
produces as great changes as chance itself) all this wealth should
pass from the master to the meanest varlet of his whole familyhe
himself would very soon become one of his servantsas if he were a
thing that belonged to his wealthand so were bound to follow its
fortune! But they much more admire and detest the folly of those
whowhen they see a rich manthough they neither owe him
anythingnor are in any sort dependent on his bountyyetmerely
because he is richgive him little less than divine honourseven
though they know him to be so covetous and base-minded that
notwithstanding all his wealthhe will not part with one farthing
of it to them as long as he lives!

These and such like notions have that people imbibed, partly from
their education, being bred in a country whose customs and laws are
opposite to all such foolish maxims, and partly from their learning
and studies--for though there are but few in any town that are so
wholly excused from labour as to give themselves entirely up to
their studies (these being only such persons as discover from their
childhood an extraordinary capacity and disposition for letters),
yet their children and a great part of the nation, both men and


women, are taught to spend those hours in which they are not
obliged to work in reading; and this they do through the whole
progress of life. They have all their learning in their own
tongue, which is both a copious and pleasant language, and in which
a man can fully express his mind; it runs over a great tract of
many countries, but it is not equally pure in all places. They had
never so much as heard of the names of any of those philosophers
that are so famous in these parts of the world, before we went
among them; and yet they had made the same discoveries as the
Greeks, both in music, logic, arithmetic, and geometry. But as
they are almost in everything equal to the ancient philosophers, so
they far exceed our modern logicians for they have never yet fallen
upon the barbarous niceties that our youth are forced to learn in
those trifling logical schools that are among us. They are so far
from minding chimeras and fantastical images made in the mind that
none of them could comprehend what we meant when we talked to them
of a man in the abstract as common to all men in particular (so
that though we spoke of him as a thing that we could point at with
our fingers, yet none of them could perceive him) and yet distinct
from every one, as if he were some monstrous Colossus or giant;
yet, for all this ignorance of these empty notions, they knew
astronomy, and were perfectly acquainted with the motions of the
heavenly bodies; and have many instruments, well contrived and
divided, by which they very accurately compute the course and
positions of the sun, moon, and stars. But for the cheat of
divining by the stars, by their oppositions or conjunctions, it has
not so much as entered into their thoughts. They have a particular
sagacity, founded upon much observation, in judging of the weather,
by which they know when they may look for rain, wind, or other
alterations in the air; but as to the philosophy of these things,
the cause of the saltness of the sea, of its ebbing and flowing,
and of the original and nature both of the heavens and the earth,
they dispute of them partly as our ancient philosophers have done,
and partly upon some new hypothesis, in which, as they differ from
them, so they do not in all things agree among themselves.

As to moral philosophythey have the same disputes among them as
we have here. They examine what are properly goodboth for the
body and the mind; and whether any outward thing can be called
truly GOODor if that term belong only to the endowments of the
soul. They inquirelikewiseinto the nature of virtue and
pleasure. But their chief dispute is concerning the happiness of a
manand wherein it consists--whether in some one thing or in a
great many. They seemindeedmore inclinable to that opinion
that placesif not the wholeyet the chief partof a man's
happiness in pleasure; andwhat may seem more strangethey make
use of arguments even from religionnotwithstanding its severity
and roughnessfor the support of that opinion so indulgent to
pleasure; for they never dispute concerning happiness without
fetching some arguments from the principles of religion as well as
from natural reasonsince without the former they reckon that all
our inquiries after happiness must be but conjectural and
defective.

These are their religious principles:- That the soul of man is
immortal, and that God of His goodness has designed that it should
be happy; and that He has, therefore, appointed rewards for good
and virtuous actions, and punishments for vice, to be distributed
after this life. Though these principles of religion are conveyed
down among them by tradition, they think that even reason itself
determines a man to believe and acknowledge them; and freely
confess that if these were taken away, no man would be so
insensible as not to seek after pleasure by all possible means,
lawful or unlawful, using only this caution--that a lesser pleasure


might not stand in the way of a greater, and that no pleasure ought
to be pursued that should draw a great deal of pain after it; for
they think it the maddest thing in the world to pursue virtue, that
is a sour and difficult thing, and not only to renounce the
pleasures of life, but willingly to undergo much pain and trouble,
if a man has no prospect of a reward. And what reward can there be
for one that has passed his whole life, not only without pleasure,
but in pain, if there is nothing to be expected after death? Yet
they do not place happiness in all sorts of pleasures, but only in
those that in themselves are good and honest. There is a party
among them who place happiness in bare virtue; others think that
our natures are conducted by virtue to happiness, as that which is
the chief good of man. They define virtue thus--that it is a
living according to Nature, and think that we are made by God for
that end; they believe that a man then follows the dictates of
Nature when he pursues or avoids things according to the direction
of reason. They say that the first dictate of reason is the
kindling in us a love and reverence for the Divine Majesty, to whom
we owe both all that we have and, all that we can ever hope for.
In the next place, reason directs us to keep our minds as free from
passion and as cheerful as we can, and that we should consider
ourselves as bound by the ties of good-nature and humanity to use
our utmost endeavours to help forward the happiness of all other
persons; for there never was any man such a morose and severe
pursuer of virtue, such an enemy to pleasure, that though he set
hard rules for men to undergo, much pain, many watchings, and other
rigors, yet did not at the same time advise them to do all they
could in order to relieve and ease the miserable, and who did not
represent gentleness and good-nature as amiable dispositions. And
from thence they infer that if a man ought to advance the welfare
and comfort of the rest of mankind (there being no virtue more
proper and peculiar to our nature than to ease the miseries of
others, to free from trouble and anxiety, in furnishing them with
the comforts of life, in which pleasure consists) Nature much more
vigorously leads them to do all this for himself. A life of
pleasure is either a real evil, and in that case we ought not to
assist others in their pursuit of it, but, on the contrary, to keep
them from it all we can, as from that which is most hurtful and
deadly; or if it is a good thing, so that we not only may but ought
to help others to it, why, then, ought not a man to begin with
himself? since no man can be more bound to look after the good of
another than after his own; for Nature cannot direct us to be good
and kind to others, and yet at the same time to be unmerciful and
cruel to ourselves. Thus as they define virtue to be living
according to Nature, so they imagine that Nature prompts all people
on to seek after pleasure as the end of all they do. They also
observe that in order to our supporting the pleasures of life,
Nature inclines us to enter into society; for there is no man so
much raised above the rest of mankind as to be the only favourite
of Nature, who, on the contrary, seems to have placed on a level
all those that belong to the same species. Upon this they infer
that no man ought to seek his own conveniences so eagerly as to
prejudice others; and therefore they think that not only all
agreements between private persons ought to be observed, but
likewise that all those laws ought to be kept which either a good
prince has published in due form, or to which a people that is
neither oppressed with tyranny nor circumvented by fraud has
consented, for distributing those conveniences of life which afford
us all our pleasures.

They think it is an evidence of true wisdom for a man to pursue
his own advantage as far as the laws allow itthey account it
piety to prefer the public good to one's private concernsbut they
think it unjust for a man to seek for pleasure by snatching another


man's pleasures from him; andon the contrarythey think it a
sign of a gentle and good soul for a man to dispense with his own
advantage for the good of othersand that by this means a good man
finds as much pleasure one way as he parts with another; for as he
may expect the like from others when he may come to need itsoif
that should fail himyet the sense of a good actionand the
reflections that he makes on the love and gratitude of those whom
he has so obligedgives the mind more pleasure than the body could
have found in that from which it had restrained itself. They are
also persuaded that God will make up the loss of those small
pleasures with a vast and endless joyof which religion easily
convinces a good soul.

Thus, upon an inquiry into the whole matter, they reckon that all
our actions, and even all our virtues, terminate in pleasure, as in
our chief end and greatest happiness; and they call every motion or
state, either of body or mind, in which Nature teaches us to
delight, a pleasure. Thus they cautiously limit pleasure only to
those appetites to which Nature leads us; for they say that Nature
leads us only to those delights to which reason, as well as sense,
carries us, and by which we neither injure any other person nor
lose the possession of greater pleasures, and of such as draw no
troubles after them. But they look upon those delights which men
by a foolish, though common, mistake call pleasure, as if they
could change as easily the nature of things as the use of words, as
things that greatly obstruct their real happiness, instead of
advancing it, because they so entirely possess the minds of those
that are once captivated by them with a false notion of pleasure
that there is no room left for pleasures of a truer or purer kind.

There are many things that in themselves have nothing that is
truly delightful; on the contrarythey have a good deal of
bitterness in them; and yetfrom our perverse appetites after
forbidden objectsare not only ranked among the pleasuresbut are
made even the greatest designsof life. Among those who pursue
these sophisticated pleasures they reckon such as I mentioned
beforewho think themselves really the better for having fine
clothes; in which they think they are doubly mistakenboth in the
opinion they have of their clothesand in that they have of
themselves. For if you consider the use of clotheswhy should a
fine thread be thought better than a coarse one? And yet these
menas if they had some real advantages beyond othersand did not
owe them wholly to their mistakeslook bigseem to fancy
themselves to be more valuableand imagine that a respect is due
to them for the sake of a rich garmentto which they would not
have pretended if they had been more meanly clothedand even
resent it as an affront if that respect is not paid them. It is
also a great folly to be taken with outward marks of respectwhich
signify nothing; for what true or real pleasure can one man find in
another's standing bare or making legs to him? Will the bending
another man's knees give ease to yours? and will the head's being
bare cure the madness of yours? And yet it is wonderful to see how
this false notion of pleasure bewitches many who delight themselves
with the fancy of their nobilityand are pleased with this
conceit--that they are descended from ancestors who have been held
for some successions richand who have had great possessions; for
this is all that makes nobility at present. Yet they do not think
themselves a whit the less noblethough their immediate parents
have left none of this wealth to themor though they themselves
have squandered it away. The Utopians have no better opinion of
those who are much taken with gems and precious stonesand who
account it a degree of happiness next to a divine one if they can
purchase one that is very extraordinaryespecially if it be of
that sort of stones that is then in greatest requestfor the same


sort is not at all times universally of the same valuenor will
men buy it unless it be dismounted and taken out of the gold. The
jeweller is then made to give good securityand required solemnly
to swear that the stone is truethatby such an exact cautiona
false one might not be bought instead of a true; thoughif you
were to examine ityour eye could find no difference between the
counterfeit and that which is true; so that they are all one to
youas much as if you were blind. Or can it be thought that they
who heap up a useless mass of wealthnot for any use that it is to
bring thembut merely to please themselves with the contemplation
of itenjoy any true pleasure in it? The delight they find is
only a false shadow of joy. Those are no better whose error is
somewhat different from the formerand who hide it out of their
fear of losing it; for what other name can fit the hiding it in the
earthorratherthe restoring it to it againit being thus cut
off from being useful either to its owner or to the rest of
mankind? And yet the ownerhaving hid it carefullyis glad
because he thinks he is now sure of it. If it should be stolethe
ownerthough he might live perhaps ten years after the theftof
which he knew nothingwould find no difference between his having
or losing itfor both ways it was equally useless to him.

Among those foolish pursuers of pleasure they reckon all that
delight in hunting, in fowling, or gaming, of whose madness they
have only heard, for they have no such things among them. But they
have asked us, 'What sort of pleasure is it that men can find in
throwing the dice?' (for if there were any pleasure in it, they
think the doing it so often should give one a surfeit of it); 'and
what pleasure can one find in hearing the barking and howling of
dogs, which seem rather odious than pleasant sounds?' Nor can they
comprehend the pleasure of seeing dogs run after a hare, more than
of seeing one dog run after another; for if the seeing them run is
that which gives the pleasure, you have the same entertainment to
the eye on both these occasions, since that is the same in both
cases. But if the pleasure lies in seeing the hare killed and torn
by the dogs, this ought rather to stir pity, that a weak, harmless,
and fearful hare should be devoured by strong, fierce, and cruel
dogs. Therefore all this business of hunting is, among the
Utopians, turned over to their butchers, and those, as has been
already said, are all slaves, and they look on hunting as one of
the basest parts of a butcher's work, for they account it both more
profitable and more decent to kill those beasts that are more
necessary and useful to mankind, whereas the killing and tearing of
so small and miserable an animal can only attract the huntsman with
a false show of pleasure, from which he can reap but small
advantage. They look on the desire of the bloodshed, even of
beasts, as a mark of a mind that is already corrupted with cruelty,
or that at least, by too frequent returns of so brutal a pleasure,
must degenerate into it.

Thus though the rabble of mankind look upon theseand on
innumerable other things of the same natureas pleasuresthe
Utopianson the contraryobserving that there is nothing in them
truly pleasantconclude that they are not to be reckoned among
pleasures; for though these things may create some tickling in the
senses (which seems to be a true notion of pleasure)yet they
imagine that this does not arise from the thing itselfbut from a
depraved customwhich may so vitiate a man's taste that bitter
things may pass for sweetas women with child think pitch or
tallow taste sweeter than honey; but as a man's sensewhen
corrupted either by a disease or some ill habit.does not change
the nature of other thingsso neither can it change the nature of
pleasure.


They reckon up several sorts of pleasures, which they call true
ones; some belong to the body, and others to the mind. The
pleasures of the mind lie in knowledge, and in that delight which
the contemplation of truth carries with it; to which they add the
joyful reflections on a well-spent life, and the assured hopes of a
future happiness. They divide the pleasures of the body into two
sorts--the one is that which gives our senses some real delight,
and is performed either by recruiting Nature and supplying those
parts which feed the internal heat of life by eating and drinking,
or when Nature is eased of any surcharge that oppresses it, when we
are relieved from sudden pain, or that which arises from satisfying
the appetite which Nature has wisely given to lead us to the
propagation of the species. There is another kind of pleasure that
arises neither from our receiving what the body requires, nor its
being relieved when overcharged, and yet, by a secret unseen
virtue, affects the senses, raises the passions, and strikes the
mind with generous impressions--this is, the pleasure that arises
from music. Another kind of bodily pleasure is that which results
from an undisturbed and vigorous constitution of body, when life
and active spirits seem to actuate every part. This lively health,
when entirely free from all mixture of pain, of itself gives an
inward pleasure, independent of all external objects of delight;
and though this pleasure does not so powerfully affect us, nor act
so strongly on the senses as some of the others, yet it may be
esteemed as the greatest of all pleasures; and almost all the
Utopians reckon it the foundation and basis of all the other joys
of life, since this alone makes the state of life easy and
desirable, and when this is wanting, a man is really capable of no
other pleasure. They look upon freedom from pain, if it does not
rise from perfect health, to be a state of stupidity rather than of
pleasure. This subject has been very narrowly canvassed among
them, and it has been debated whether a firm and entire health
could be called a pleasure or not. Some have thought that there
was no pleasure but what was 'excited' by some sensible motion in
the body. But this opinion has been long ago excluded from among
them; so that now they almost universally agree that health is the
greatest of all bodily pleasures; and that as there is a pain in
sickness which is as opposite in its nature to pleasure as sickness
itself is to health, so they hold that health is accompanied with
pleasure. And if any should say that sickness is not really pain,
but that it only carries pain along with it, they look upon that as
a fetch of subtlety that does not much alter the matter. It is all
one, in their opinion, whether it be said that health is in itself
a pleasure, or that it begets a pleasure, as fire gives heat, so it
be granted that all those whose health is entire have a true
pleasure in the enjoyment of it. And they reason thus:- 'What is
the pleasure of eating, but that a man's health, which had been
weakened, does, with the assistance of food, drive away hunger, and
so recruiting itself, recovers its former vigour? And being thus
refreshed it finds a pleasure in that conflict; and if the conflict
is pleasure, the victory must yet breed a greater pleasure, except
we fancy that it becomes stupid as soon as it has obtained that
which it pursued, and so neither knows nor rejoices in its own
welfare.' If it is said that health cannot be felt, they
absolutely deny it; for what man is in health, that does not
perceive it when he is awake? Is there any man that is so dull and
stupid as not to acknowledge that he feels a delight in health?
And what is delight but another name for pleasure?

Butof all pleasuresthey esteem those to be most valuable that
lie in the mindthe chief of which arise out of true virtue and
the witness of a good conscience. They account health the chief
pleasure that belongs to the body; for they think that the pleasure
of eating and drinkingand all the other delights of senseare


only so far desirable as they give or maintain health; but they are
not pleasant in themselves otherwise than as they resist those
impressions that our natural infirmities are still making upon us.
For as a wise man desires rather to avoid diseases than to take
physicand to be freed from pain rather than to find ease by
remediesso it is more desirable not to need this sort of pleasure
than to be obliged to indulge it. If any man imagines that there
is a real happiness in these enjoymentshe must then confess that
he would be the happiest of all men if he were to lead his life in
perpetual hungerthirstand itchingandby consequencein
perpetual eatingdrinkingand scratching himself; which any one
may easily see would be not only a basebut a miserablestate of
a life. These areindeedthe lowest of pleasuresand the least
purefor we can never relish them but when they are mixed with the
contrary pains. The pain of hunger must give us the pleasure of
eatingand here the pain out-balances the pleasure. And as the
pain is more vehementso it lasts much longer; for as it begins
before the pleasureso it does not cease but with the pleasure
that extinguishes itand both expire together. They think
thereforenone of those pleasures are to be valued any further
than as they are necessary; yet they rejoice in themand with due
gratitude acknowledge the tenderness of the great Author of Nature
who has planted in us appetitesby which those things that are
necessary for our preservation are likewise made pleasant to us.
For how miserable a thing would life be if those daily diseases of
hunger and thirst were to be carried off by such bitter drugs as we
must use for those diseases that return seldomer upon us! And thus
these pleasantas well as propergifts of Nature maintain the
strength and the sprightliness of our bodies.

They also entertain themselves with the other delights let in at
their eyes, their ears, and their nostrils as the pleasant relishes
and seasoning of life, which Nature seems to have marked out
peculiarly for man, since no other sort of animals contemplates the
figure and beauty of the universe, nor is delighted with smells any
further than as they distinguish meats by them; nor do they
apprehend the concords or discords of sound. Yet, in all pleasures
whatsoever, they take care that a lesser joy does not hinder a
greater, and that pleasure may never breed pain, which they think
always follows dishonest pleasures. But they think it madness for
a man to wear out the beauty of his face or the force of his
natural strength, to corrupt the sprightliness of his body by sloth
and laziness, or to waste it by fasting; that it is madness to
weaken the strength of his constitution and reject the other
delights of life, unless by renouncing his own satisfaction he can
either serve the public or promote the happiness of others, for
which he expects a greater recompense from God. So that they look
on such a course of life as the mark of a mind that is both cruel
to itself and ungrateful to the Author of Nature, as if we would
not be beholden to Him for His favours, and therefore rejects all
His blessings; as one who should afflict himself for the empty
shadow of virtue, or for no better end than to render himself
capable of bearing those misfortunes which possibly will never
happen.

This is their notion of virtue and of pleasure: they think that
no man's reason can carry him to a truer idea of them unless some
discovery from heaven should inspire him with sublimer notions.
have not now the leisure to examine whether they think right or
wrong in this matter; nor do I judge it necessaryfor I have only
undertaken to give you an account of their constitutionbut not to
defend all their principles. I am sure that whatever may be said
of their notionsthere is not in the whole world either a better
people or a happier government. Their bodies are vigorous and


lively; and though they are but of a middle statureand have
neither the fruitfullest soil nor the purest air in the world; yet
they fortify themselves so wellby their temperate course of life
against the unhealthiness of their airand by their industry they
so cultivate their soilthat there is nowhere to be seen a greater
increaseboth of corn and cattlenor are there anywhere healthier
men and freer from diseases; for one may there see reduced to
practice not only all the art that the husbandman employs in
manuring and improving an ill soilbut whole woods plucked up by
the rootsand in other places new ones plantedwhere there were
none before. Their principal motive for this is the convenience of
carriagethat their timber may be either near their towns or
growing on the banks of the seaor of some riversso as to be
floated to them; for it is a harder work to carry wood at any
distance over land than corn. The people are industriousapt to
learnas well as cheerful and pleasantand none can endure more
labour when it is necessary; butexcept in that casethey love
their ease. They are unwearied pursuers of knowledge; for when we
had given them some hints of the learning and discipline of the
Greeksconcerning whom we only instructed them (for we know that
there was nothing among the Romansexcept their historians and
their poetsthat they would value much)it was strange to see how
eagerly they were set on learning that language: we began to read
a little of it to themrather in compliance with their importunity
than out of any hopes of their reaping from it any great advantage:
butafter a very short trialwe found they made such progress
that we saw our labour was like to be more successful than we could
have expected: they learned to write their characters and to
pronounce their language so exactlyhad so quick an apprehension
they remembered it so faithfullyand became so ready and correct
in the use of itthat it would have looked like a miracle if the
greater part of those whom we taught had not been men both of
extraordinary capacity and of a fit age for instruction: they
werefor the greatest partchosen from among their learned men by
their chief councilthough some studied it of their own accord.
In three years' time they became masters of the whole languageso
that they read the best of the Greek authors very exactly. I am
indeedapt to think that they learned that language the more
easily from its having some relation to their own. I believe that
they were a colony of the Greeks; for though their language comes
nearer the Persianyet they retain many namesboth for their
towns and magistratesthat are of Greek derivation. I happened to
carry a great many books with meinstead of merchandisewhen I
sailed my fourth voyage; for I was so far from thinking of soon
coming backthat I rather thought never to have returned at all
and I gave them all my booksamong which were many of Plato's and
some of Aristotle's works: I had also Theophrastus on Plants
whichto my great regretwas imperfect; for having laid it
carelessly bywhile we were at seaa monkey had seized upon it
and in many places torn out the leaves. They have no books of
grammar but Lascaresfor I did not carry Theodorus with me; nor
have they any dictionaries but Hesichius and Dioscerides. They
esteem Plutarch highlyand were much taken with Lucian's wit and
with his pleasant way of writing. As for the poetsthey have
AristophanesHomerEuripidesand Sophocles of Aldus's edition;
and for historiansThucydidesHerodotusand Herodian. One of my
companionsThricius Apinatushappened to carry with him some of
Hippocrates's works and Galen's Microtechnewhich they hold in
great estimation; for though there is no nation in the world that
needs physic so little as they doyet there is not any that
honours it so much; they reckon the knowledge of it one of the
pleasantest and most profitable parts of philosophyby whichas
they search into the secrets of natureso they not only find this
study highly agreeablebut think that such inquiries are very


acceptable to the Author of nature; and imaginethat as Helike
the inventors of curious engines amongst mankindhas exposed this
great machine of the universe to the view of the only creatures
capable of contemplating itso an exact and curious observerwho
admires His workmanshipis much more acceptable to Him than one of
the herdwholike a beast incapable of reasonlooks on this
glorious scene with the eyes of a dull and unconcerned spectator.

The minds of the Utopians, when fenced with a love for learning,
are very ingenious in discovering all such arts as are necessary to
carry it to perfection. Two things they owe to us, the manufacture
of paper and the art of printing; yet they are not so entirely
indebted to us for these discoveries but that a great part of the
invention was their own. We showed them some books printed by
Aldus, we explained to them the way of making paper and the mystery
of printing; but, as we had never practised these arts, we
described them in a crude and superficial manner. They seized the
hints we gave them; and though at first they could not arrive at
perfection, yet by making many essays they at last found out and
corrected all their errors and conquered every difficulty. Before
this they only wrote on parchment, on reeds, or on the barks of
trees; but now they have established the manufactures of paper and
set up printing presses, so that, if they had but a good number of
Greek authors, they would be quickly supplied with many copies of
them: at present, though they have no more than those I have
mentioned, yet, by several impressions, they have multiplied them
into many thousands. If any man was to go among them that had some
extraordinary talent, or that by much travelling had observed the
customs of many nations (which made us to be so well received), he
would receive a hearty welcome, for they are very desirous to know
the state of the whole world. Very few go among them on the
account of traffic; for what can a man carry to them but iron, or
gold, or silver? which merchants desire rather to export than
import to a strange country: and as for their exportation, they
think it better to manage that themselves than to leave it to
foreigners, for by this means, as they understand the state of the
neighbouring countries better, so they keep up the art of
navigation which cannot be maintained but by much practice.

OF THEIR SLAVES, AND OF THEIR MARRIAGES

They do not make slaves of prisoners of warexcept those that are
taken in battlenor of the sons of their slavesnor of those of
other nations: the slaves among them are only such as are
condemned to that state of life for the commission of some crime
orwhich is more commonsuch as their merchants find condemned to
die in those parts to which they tradewhom they sometimes redeem
at low ratesand in other places have them for nothing. They are
kept at perpetual labourand are always chainedbut with this
differencethat their own natives are treated much worse than
others: they are considered as more profligate than the restand
since they could not be restrained by the advantages of so
excellent an educationare judged worthy of harder usage. Another
sort of slaves are the poor of the neighbouring countrieswho
offer of their own accord to come and serve them: they treat these
betterand use them in all other respects as well as their own
countrymenexcept their imposing more labour upon themwhich is
no hard task to those that have been accustomed to it; and if any
of these have a mind to go back to their own countrywhich
indeedfalls out but seldomas they do not force them to stayso
they do not send them away empty-handed.


I have already told you with what care they look after their sick,
so that nothing is left undone that can contribute either to their
case or health; and for those who are taken with fixed and
incurable diseases, they use all possible ways to cherish them and
to make their lives as comfortable as possible. They visit them
often and take great pains to make their time pass off easily; but
when any is taken with a torturing and lingering pain, so that
there is no hope either of recovery or ease, the priests and
magistrates come and exhort them, that, since they are now unable
to go on with the business of life, are become a burden to
themselves and to all about them, and they have really out-lived
themselves, they should no longer nourish such a rooted distemper,
but choose rather to die since they cannot live but in much misery;
being assured that if they thus deliver themselves from torture, or
are willing that others should do it, they shall be happy after
death: since, by their acting thus, they lose none of the
pleasures, but only the troubles of life, they think they behave
not only reasonably but in a manner consistent with religion and
piety; because they follow the advice given them by their priests,
who are the expounders of the will of God. Such as are wrought on
by these persuasions either starve themselves of their own accord,
or take opium, and by that means die without pain. But no man is
forced on this way of ending his life; and if they cannot be
persuaded to it, this does not induce them to fail in their
attendance and care of them: but as they believe that a voluntary
death, when it is chosen upon such an authority, is very
honourable, so if any man takes away his own life without the
approbation of the priests and the senate, they give him none of
the honours of a decent funeral, but throw his body into a ditch.

Their women are not married before eighteen nor their men before
two-and-twentyand if any of them run into forbidden embraces
before marriage they are severely punishedand the privilege of
marriage is denied them unless they can obtain a special warrant
from the Prince. Such disorders cast a great reproach upon the
master and mistress of the family in which they happenfor it is
supposed that they have failed in their duty. The reason of
punishing this so severely isbecause they think that if they were
not strictly restrained from all vagrant appetitesvery few would
engage in a state in which they venture the quiet of their whole
livesby being confined to one personand are obliged to endure
all the inconveniences with which it is accompanied. In choosing
their wives they use a method that would appear to us very absurd
and ridiculousbut it is constantly observed among themand is
accounted perfectly consistent with wisdom. Before marriage some
grave matron presents the bridenakedwhether she is a virgin or
a widowto the bridegroomand after that some grave man presents
the bridegroomnakedto the bride. Weindeedboth laughed at
thisand condemned it as very indecent. But theyon the other
handwondered at the folly of the men of all other nationswho
if they are but to buy a horse of a small valueare so cautious
that they will see every part of himand take off both his saddle
and all his other tacklethat there may be no secret ulcer hid
under any of themand that yet in the choice of a wifeon which
depends the happiness or unhappiness of the rest of his lifea man
should venture upon trustand only see about a handsbreadth of the
faceall the rest of the body being coveredunder which may lie
hid what may be contagious as well as loathsome. All men are not
so wise as to choose a woman only for her good qualitiesand even
wise men consider the body as that which adds not a little to the
mindand it is certain there may be some such deformity covered
with clothes as may totally alienate a man from his wifewhen it
is too late to part with her; if such a thing is discovered after
marriage a man has no remedy but patience; theythereforethink


it is reasonable that there should be good provision made against
such mischievous frauds.

There was so much the more reason for them to make a regulation in
this matter, because they are the only people of those parts that
neither allow of polygamy nor of divorces, except in the case of
adultery or insufferable perverseness, for in these cases the
Senate dissolves the marriage and grants the injured person leave
to marry again; but the guilty are made infamous and are never
allowed the privilege of a second marriage. None are suffered to
put away their wives against their wills, from any great calamity
that may have fallen on their persons, for they look on it as the
height of cruelty and treachery to abandon either of the married
persons when they need most the tender care of their consort, and
that chiefly in the case of old age, which, as it carries many
diseases along with it, so it is a disease of itself. But it
frequently falls out that when a married couple do not well agree,
they, by mutual consent, separate, and find out other persons with
whom they hope they may live more happily; yet this is not done
without obtaining leave of the Senate, which never admits of a
divorce but upon a strict inquiry made, both by the senators and
their wives, into the grounds upon which it is desired, and even
when they are satisfied concerning the reasons of it they go on but
slowly, for they imagine that too great easiness in granting leave
for new marriages would very much shake the kindness of married
people. They punish severely those that defile the marriage bed;
if both parties are married they are divorced, and the injured
persons may marry one another, or whom they please, but the
adulterer and the adulteress are condemned to slavery, yet if
either of the injured persons cannot shake off the love of the
married person they may live with them still in that state, but
they must follow them to that labour to which the slaves are
condemned, and sometimes the repentance of the condemned, together
with the unshaken kindness of the innocent and injured person, has
prevailed so far with the Prince that he has taken off the
sentence; but those that relapse after they are once pardoned are
punished with death.

Their law does not determine the punishment for other crimesbut
that is left to the Senateto temper it according to the
circumstances of the fact. Husbands have power to correct their
wives and parents to chastise their childrenunless the fault is
so great that a public punishment is thought necessary for striking
terror into others. For the most part slavery is the punishment
even of the greatest crimesfor as that is no less terrible to the
criminals themselves than deathso they think the preserving them
in a state of servitude is more for the interest of the
commonwealth than killing themsinceas their labour is a greater
benefit to the public than their death could beso the sight of
their misery is a more lasting terror to other men than that which
would be given by their death. If their slaves rebeland will not
bear their yoke and submit to the labour that is enjoined them
they are treated as wild beasts that cannot be kept in order
neither by a prison nor by their chainsand are at last put to
death. But those who bear their punishment patientlyand are so
much wrought on by that pressure that lies so hard on themthat it
appears they are really more troubled for the crimes they have
committed than for the miseries they sufferare not out of hope
but thatat lasteither the Prince willby his prerogativeor
the peopleby their intercessionrestore them again to their
libertyorat leastvery much mitigate their slavery. He that
tempts a married woman to adultery is no less severely punished
than he that commits itfor they believe that a deliberate design
to commit a crime is equal to the fact itselfsince its not taking


effect does not make the person that miscarried in his attempt at
all the less guilty.

They take great pleasure in fools, and as it is thought a base and
unbecoming thing to use them ill, so they do not think it amiss for
people to divert themselves with their folly; and, in their
opinion, this is a great advantage to the fools themselves; for if
men were so sullen and severe as not at all to please themselves
with their ridiculous behaviour and foolish sayings, which is all
that they can do to recommend themselves to others, it could not be
expected that they would be so well provided for nor so tenderly
used as they must otherwise be. If any man should reproach another
for his being misshaped or imperfect in any part of his body, it
would not at all be thought a reflection on the person so treated,
but it would be accounted scandalous in him that had upbraided
another with what he could not help. It is thought a sign of a
sluggish and sordid mind not to preserve carefully one's natural
beauty; but it is likewise infamous among them to use paint. They
all see that no beauty recommends a wife so much to her husband as
the probity of her life and her obedience; for as some few are
caught and held only by beauty, so all are attracted by the other
excellences which charm all the world.

As they fright men from committing crimes by punishmentsso they
invite them to the love of virtue by public honours; therefore they
erect statues to the memories of such worthy men as have deserved
well of their countryand set these in their market-placesboth
to perpetuate the remembrance of their actions and to be an
incitement to their posterity to follow their example.

If any man aspires to any office he is sure never to compass it.
They all live easily together, for none of the magistrates are
either insolent or cruel to the people; they affect rather to be
called fathers, and, by being really so, they well deserve the
name; and the people pay them all the marks of honour the more
freely because none are exacted from them. The Prince himself has
no distinction, either of garments or of a crown; but is only
distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the High
Priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a
wax light.

They have but few lawsand such is their constitution that they
need not many. They very much condemn other nations whose laws
together with the commentaries on themswell up to so many
volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to
obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulkand so dark as
not to be read and understood by every one of the subjects.

They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort
of people whose profession it is to disguise matters and to wrest
the laws, and, therefore, they think it is much better that every
man should plead his own cause, and trust it to the judge, as in
other places the client trusts it to a counsellor; by this means
they both cut off many delays and find out truth more certainly;
for after the parties have laid open the merits of the cause,
without those artifices which lawyers are apt to suggest, the judge
examines the whole matter, and supports the simplicity of such
well-meaning persons, whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to
run down; and thus they avoid those evils which appear very
remarkably among all those nations that labour under a vast load of
laws. Every one of them is skilled in their law; for, as it is a
very short study, so the plainest meaning of which words are
capable is always the sense of their laws; and they argue thus:
all laws are promulgated for this end, that every man may know his


duty; and, therefore, the plainest and most obvious sense of the
words is that which ought to be put upon them, since a more refined
exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and would only serve to
make the laws become useless to the greater part of mankind, and
especially to those who need most the direction of them; for it is
all one not to make a law at all or to couch it in such terms that,
without a quick apprehension and much study, a man cannot find out
the true meaning of it, since the generality of mankind are both so
dull, and so much employed in their several trades, that they have
neither the leisure nor the capacity requisite for such an inquiry.

Some of their neighbourswho are masters of their own liberties
(having long agoby the assistance of the Utopiansshaken off the
yoke of tyrannyand being much taken with those virtues which they
observe among them)have come to desire that they would send
magistrates to govern themsome changing them every yearand
others every five years; at the end of their government they bring
them back to Utopiawith great expressions of honour and esteem
and carry away others to govern in their stead. In this they seem
to have fallen upon a very good expedient for their own happiness
and safety; for since the good or ill condition of a nation depends
so much upon their magistratesthey could not have made a better
choice than by pitching on men whom no advantages can bias; for
wealth is of no use to themsince they must so soon go back to
their own countryand theybeing strangers among themare not
engaged in any of their heats or animosities; and it is certain
that when public judicatories are swayedeither by avarice or
partial affectionsthere must follow a dissolution of justicethe
chief sinew of society.

The Utopians call those nations that come and ask magistrates from
them Neighbours; but those to whom they have been of more
particular service, Friends; and as all other nations are
perpetually either making leagues or breaking them, they never
enter into an alliance with any state. They think leagues are
useless things, and believe that if the common ties of humanity do
not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no great
effect; and they are the more confirmed in this by what they see
among the nations round about them, who are no strict observers of
leagues and treaties. We know how religiously they are observed in
Europe, more particularly where the Christian doctrine is received,
among whom they are sacred and inviolable! which is partly owing to
the justice and goodness of the princes themselves, and partly to
the reverence they pay to the popes, who, as they are the most
religious observers of their own promises, so they exhort all other
princes to perform theirs, and, when fainter methods do not
prevail, they compel them to it by the severity of the pastoral
censure, and think that it would be the most indecent thing
possible if men who are particularly distinguished by the title of
'The Faithful' should not religiously keep the faith of their
treaties. But in that new-found world, which is not more distant
from us in situation than the people are in their manners and
course of life, there is no trusting to leagues, even though they
were made with all the pomp of the most sacred ceremonies; on the
contrary, they are on this account the sooner broken, some slight
pretence being found in the words of the treaties, which are
purposely couched in such ambiguous terms that they can never be so
strictly bound but they will always find some loophole to escape
at, and thus they break both their leagues and their faith; and
this is done with such impudence, that those very men who value
themselves on having suggested these expedients to their princes
would, with a haughty scorn, declaim against such craft; or, to
speak plainer, such fraud and deceit, if they found private men
make use of it in their bargains, and would readily say that they


deserved to be hanged.

By this means it is that all sort of justice passes in the world
for a low-spirited and vulgar virtuefar below the dignity of
royal greatness--or at least there are set up two sorts of justice;
the one is mean and creeps on the groundandthereforebecomes
none but the lower part of mankindand so must be kept in severely
by many restraintsthat it may not break out beyond the bounds
that are set to it; the other is the peculiar virtue of princes
whichas it is more majestic than that which becomes the rabble
so takes a freer compassand thus lawful and unlawful are only
measured by pleasure and interest. These practices of the princes
that lie about Utopiawho make so little account of their faith
seem to be the reasons that determine them to engage in no
confederacy. Perhaps they would change their mind if they lived
among us; but yetthough treaties were more religiously observed
they would still dislike the custom of making themsince the world
has taken up a false maxim upon itas if there were no tie of
nature uniting one nation to anotheronly separated perhaps by a
mountain or a riverand that all were born in a state of
hostilityand so might lawfully do all that mischief to their
neighbours against which there is no provision made by treaties;
and that when treaties are made they do not cut off the enmity or
restrain the licence of preying upon each otherifby the
unskilfulness of wording themthere are not effectual provisoes
made against them; theyon the other handjudge that no man is to
be esteemed our enemy that has never injured usand that the
partnership of human nature is instead of a league; and that
kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with
greater strength than any agreements whatsoeversince thereby the
engagements of men's hearts become stronger than the bond and
obligation of words.

OF THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE

They detest war as a very brutal thingand whichto the reproach
of human natureis more practised by men than by any sort of
beasts. Theyin opposition to the sentiments of almost all other
nationsthink that there is nothing more inglorious than that
glory that is gained by war; and thereforethough they accustom
themselves daily to military exercises and the discipline of war
in which not only their menbut their women likewiseare trained
upthatin cases of necessitythey may not be quite uselessyet
they do not rashly engage in warunless it be either to defend
themselves or their friends from any unjust aggressorsorout of
good nature or in compassionassist an oppressed nation in shaking
off the yoke of tyranny. Theyindeedhelp their friends not only
in defensive but also in offensive wars; but they never do that
unless they had been consulted before the breach was madeand
being satisfied with the grounds on which they wentthey had found
that all demands of reparation were rejectedso that a war was
unavoidable. This they think to be not only just when one
neighbour makes an inroad on another by public orderand carries
away the spoilsbut when the merchants of one country are
oppressed in anothereither under pretence of some unjust lawsor
by the perverse wresting of good ones. This they count a juster
cause of war than the otherbecause those injuries are done under
some colour of laws. This was the only ground of that war in which
they engaged with the Nephelogetes against the Aleopolitanesa
little before our time; for the merchants of the former havingas
they thoughtmet with great injustice among the latterwhich
(whether it was in itself right or wrong) drew on a terrible war


in which many of their neighbours were engaged; and their keenness
in carrying it on being supported by their strength in maintaining
itit not only shook some very flourishing states and very much
afflicted othersbutafter a series of much mischief ended in the
entire conquest and slavery of the Aleopolitaneswhothough
before the war they were in all respects much superior to the
Nephelogeteswere yet subdued; butthough the Utopians had
assisted them in the waryet they pretended to no share of the
spoil

But, though they so vigorously assist their friends in obtaining
reparation for the injuries they have received in affairs of this
nature, yet, if any such frauds were committed against themselves,
provided no violence was done to their persons, they would only, on
their being refused satisfaction, forbear trading with such a
people. This is not because they consider their neighbours more
than their own citizens; but, since their neighbours trade every
one upon his own stock, fraud is a more sensible injury to them
than it is to the Utopians, among whom the public, in such a case,
only suffers, as they expect no thing in return for the merchandise
they export but that in which they so much abound, and is of little
use to them, the loss does not much affect them. They think,
therefore, it would be too severe to revenge a loss attended with
so little inconvenience, either to their lives or their
subsistence, with the death of many persons; but if any of their
people are either killed or wounded wrongfully, whether it be done
by public authority, or only by private men, as soon as they hear
of it they send ambassadors, and demand that the guilty persons may
be delivered up to them, and if that is denied, they declare war;
but if it be complied with, the offenders are condemned either to
death or slavery.

They would be both troubled and ashamed of a bloody victory over
their enemies; and think it would be as foolish a purchase as to
buy the most valuable goods at too high a rate. And in no victory
do they glory so much as in that which is gained by dexterity and
good conduct without bloodshed. In such cases they appoint public
triumphsand erect trophies to the honour of those who have
succeeded; for then do they reckon that a man acts suitably to his
naturewhen he conquers his enemy in such a way as that no other
creature but a man could be capable ofand that is by the strength
of his understanding. Bearslionsboarswolvesand dogsand
all other animalsemploy their bodily force one against another
in whichas many of them are superior to menboth in strength and
fiercenessso they are all subdued by his reason and
understanding.

The only design of the Utopians in war is to obtain that by force
which, if it had been granted them in time, would have prevented
the war; or, if that cannot be done, to take so severe a revenge on
those that have injured them that they may be terrified from doing
the like for the time to come. By these ends they measure all
their designs, and manage them so, that it is visible that the
appetite of fame or vainglory does not work so much on there as a
just care of their own security.

As soon as they declare warthey take care to have a great many
schedulesthat are sealed with their common sealaffixed in the
most conspicuous places of their enemies' country. This is carried
secretlyand done in many places all at once. In these they
promise great rewards to such as shall kill the princeand lesser
in proportion to such as shall kill any other persons who are those
on whomnext to the prince himselfthey cast the chief balance of
the war. And they double the sum to him thatinstead of killing


the person so marked outshall take him aliveand put him in
their hands. They offer not only indemnitybut rewardsto such
of the persons themselves that are so markedif they will act
against their countrymen. By this means those that are named in
their schedules become not only distrustful of their fellowcitizens
but are jealous of one anotherand are much distracted
by fear and danger; for it has often fallen out that many of them
and even the prince himselfhave been betrayedby those in whom
they have trusted most; for the rewards that the Utopians offer are
so immeasurably greatthat there is no sort of crime to which men
cannot be drawn by them. They consider the risk that those run who
undertake such servicesand offer a recompense proportioned to the
danger--not only a vast deal of goldbut great revenues in lands
that lie among other nations that are their friendswhere they may
go and enjoy them very securely; and they observe the promises they
make of their kind most religiously. They very much approve of
this way of corrupting their enemiesthough it appears to others
to be base and cruel; but they look on it as a wise courseto make
an end of what would be otherwise a long warwithout so much as
hazarding one battle to decide it. They think it likewise an act
of mercy and love to mankind to prevent the great slaughter of
those that must otherwise be killed in the progress of the war
both on their own side and on that of their enemiesby the death
of a few that are most guilty; and that in so doing they are kind
even to their enemiesand pity them no less than their own people
as knowing that the greater part of them do not engage in the war
of their own accordbut are driven into it by the passions of
their prince.

If this method does not succeed with them, then they sow seeds of
contention among their enemies, and animate the prince's brother,
or some of the nobility, to aspire to the crown. If they cannot
disunite them by domestic broils, then they engage their neighbours
against them, and make them set on foot some old pretensions, which
are never wanting to princes when they have occasion for them.
These they plentifully supply with money, though but very sparingly
with any auxiliary troops; for they are so tender of their own
people that they would not willingly exchange one of them, even
with the prince of their enemies' country.

But as they keep their gold and silver only for such an occasion
sowhen that offers itselfthey easily part with it; since it
would be no convenience to themthough they should reserve nothing
of it to themselves. For besides the wealth that they have among
them at homethey have a vast treasure abroad; many nations round
about them being deep in their debt: so that they hire soldiers
from all places for carrying on their wars; but chiefly from the
Zapoletswho live five hundred miles east of Utopia. They are a
rudewildand fierce nationwho delight in the woods and rocks
among which they were born and bred up. They are hardened both
against heatcoldand labourand know nothing of the delicacies
of life. They do not apply themselves to agriculturenor do they
care either for their houses or their clothes: cattle is all that
they look after; and for the greatest part they live either by
hunting or upon rapine; and are madeas it wereonly for war.
They watch all opportunities of engaging in itand very readily
embrace such as are offered them. Great numbers of them will
frequently go outand offer themselves for a very low payto
serve any that will employ them: they know none of the arts of
lifebut those that lead to the taking it away; they serve those
that hire themboth with much courage and great fidelity; but will
not engage to serve for any determined timeand agree upon such
termsthat the next day they may go over to the enemies of those
whom they serve if they offer them a greater encouragement; and


willperhapsreturn to them the day after that upon a higher
advance of their pay. There are few wars in which they make not a
considerable part of the armies of both sides: so it often falls
out that they who are relatedand were hired in the same country
and so have lived long and familiarly togetherforgetting both
their relations and former friendshipkill one another upon no
other consideration than that of being hired to it for a little
money by princes of different interests; and such a regard have
they for money that they are easily wrought on by the difference of
one penny a day to change sides. So entirely does their avarice
influence them; and yet this moneywhich they value so highlyis
of little use to them; for what they purchase thus with their blood
they quickly waste on luxurywhich among them is but of a poor and
miserable form.

This nation serves the Utopians against all people whatsoever, for
they pay higher than any other. The Utopians hold this for a
maxim, that as they seek out the best sort of men for their own use
at home, so they make use of this worst sort of men for the
consumption of war; and therefore they hire them with the offers of
vast rewards to expose themselves to all sorts of hazards, out of
which the greater part never returns to claim their promises; yet
they make them good most religiously to such as escape. This
animates them to adventure again, whenever there is occasion for
it; for the Utopians are not at all troubled how many of these
happen to be killed, and reckon it a service done to mankind if
they could be a means to deliver the world from such a lewd and
vicious sort of people, that seem to have run together, as to the
drain of human nature. Next to these, they are served in their
wars with those upon whose account they undertake them, and with
the auxiliary troops of their other friends, to whom they join a
few of their own people, and send some man of eminent and approved
virtue to command in chief. There are two sent with him, who,
during his command, are but private men, but the first is to
succeed him if he should happen to be either killed or taken; and,
in case of the like misfortune to him, the third comes in his
place; and thus they provide against all events, that such
accidents as may befall their generals may not endanger their
armies. When they draw out troops of their own people, they take
such out of every city as freely offer themselves, for none are
forced to go against their wills, since they think that if any man
is pressed that wants courage, he will not only act faintly, but by
his cowardice dishearten others. But if an invasion is made on
their country, they make use of such men, if they have good bodies,
though they are not brave; and either put them aboard their ships,
or place them on the walls of their towns, that being so posted,
they may find no opportunity of flying away; and thus either shame,
the heat of action, or the impossibility of flying, bears down
their cowardice; they often make a virtue of necessity, and behave
themselves well, because nothing else is left them. But as they
force no man to go into any foreign war against his will, so they
do not hinder those women who are willing to go along with their
husbands; on the contrary, they encourage and praise them, and they
stand often next their husbands in the front of the army. They
also place together those who are related, parents, and children,
kindred, and those that are mutually allied, near one another; that
those whom nature has inspired with the greatest zeal for assisting
one another may be the nearest and readiest to do it; and it is
matter of great reproach if husband or wife survive one another, or
if a child survives his parent, and therefore when they come to be
engaged in action, they continue to fight to the last man, if their
enemies stand before them: and as they use all prudent methods to
avoid the endangering their own men, and if it is possible let all
the action and danger fall upon the troops that they hire, so if it


becomes necessary for themselves to engage, they then charge with
as much courage as they avoided it before with prudence: nor is it
a fierce charge at first, but it increases by degrees; and as they
continue in action, they grow more obstinate, and press harder upon
the enemy, insomuch that they will much sooner die than give
ground; for the certainty that their children will be well looked
after when they are dead frees them from all that anxiety
concerning them which often masters men of great courage; and thus
they are animated by a noble and invincible resolution. Their
skill in military affairs increases their courage: and the wise
sentiments which, according to the laws of their country, are
instilled into them in their education, give additional vigour to
their minds: for as they do not undervalue life so as prodigally
to throw it away, they are not so indecently fond of it as to
preserve it by base and unbecoming methods. In the greatest heat
of action the bravest of their youth, who have devoted themselves
to that service, single out the general of their enemies, set on
him either openly or by ambuscade; pursue him everywhere, and when
spent and wearied out, are relieved by others, who never give over
the pursuit, either attacking him with close weapons when they can
get near him, or with those which wound at a distance, when others
get in between them. So that, unless he secures himself by flight,
they seldom fail at last to kill or to take him prisoner. When
they have obtained a victory, they kill as few as possible, and are
much more bent on taking many prisoners than on killing those that
fly before them. Nor do they ever let their men so loose in the
pursuit of their enemies as not to retain an entire body still in
order; so that if they have been forced to engage the last of their
battalions before they could gain the day, they will rather let
their enemies all escape than pursue them when their own army is in
disorder; remembering well what has often fallen out to themselves,
that when the main body of their army has been quite defeated and
broken, when their enemies, imagining the victory obtained, have
let themselves loose into an irregular pursuit, a few of them that
lay for a reserve, waiting a fit opportunity, have fallen on them
in their chase, and when straggling in disorder, and apprehensive
of no danger, but counting the day their own, have turned the whole
action, and, wresting out of their hands a victory that seemed
certain and undoubted, while the vanquished have suddenly become
victorious.

It is hard to tell whether they are more dexterous in laying or
avoiding ambushes. They sometimes seem to fly when it is far from
their thoughts; and when they intend to give groundthey do it so
that it is very hard to find out their design. If they see they
are ill postedor are like to be overpowered by numbersthey then
either march off in the night with great silenceor by some
stratagem delude their enemies. If they retire in the day-time
they do it in such order that it is no less dangerous to fall upon
them in a retreat than in a march. They fortify their camps with a
deep and large trench; and throw up the earth that is dug out of it
for a wall; nor do they employ only their slaves in thisbut the
whole army works at itexcept those that are then upon the guard;
so that when so many hands are at worka great line and a strong
fortification is finished in so short a time that it is scarce
credible. Their armour is very strong for defenceand yet is not
so heavy as to make them uneasy in their marches; they can even
swim with it. All that are trained up to war practise swimming.
Both horse and foot make great use of arrowsand are very expert.
They have no swordsbut fight with a pole-axe that is both sharp
and heavyby which they thrust or strike down an enemy. They are
very good at finding out warlike machinesand disguise them so
well that the enemy does not perceive them till he feels the use of
them; so that he cannot prepare such a defence as would render them


useless; the chief consideration had in the making them is that
they may be easily carried and managed.

If they agree to a truce, they observe it so religiously that no
provocations will make them break it. They never lay their
enemies' country waste nor burn their corn, and even in their
marches they take all possible care that neither horse nor foot may
tread it down, for they do not know but that they may have use for
it themselves. They hurt no man whom they find disarmed, unless he
is a spy. When a town is surrendered to them, they take it into
their protection; and when they carry a place by storm they never
plunder it, but put those only to the sword that oppose the
rendering of it up, and make the rest of the garrison slaves, but
for the other inhabitants, they do them no hurt; and if any of them
had advised a surrender, they give them good rewards out of the
estates of those that they condemn, and distribute the rest among
their auxiliary troops, but they themselves take no share of the
spoil.

When a war is endedthey do not oblige their friends to reimburse
their expenses; but they obtain them of the conqueredeither in
moneywhich they keep for the next occasionor in landsout of
which a constant revenue is to be paid them; by many increases the
revenue which they draw out from several countries on such
occasions is now risen to above 700000 ducats a year. They send
some of their own people to receive these revenueswho have orders
to live magnificently and like princesby which means they consume
much of it upon the place; and either bring over the rest to Utopia
or lend it to that nation in which it lies. This they most
commonly dounless some great occasionwhich falls out but very
seldomshould oblige them to call for it all. It is out of these
lands that they assign rewards to such as they encourage to
adventure on desperate attempts. If any prince that engages in war
with them is making preparations for invading their countrythey
prevent himand make his country the seat of the war; for they do
not willingly suffer any war to break in upon their island; and if
that should happenthey would only defend themselves by their own
people; but would not call for auxiliary troops to their
assistance.

OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANS

There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts
of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun,
others the moon or one of the planets. Some worship such men as
have been eminent in former times for virtue or glory, not only as
ordinary deities, but as the supreme god. Yet the greater and
wiser sort of them worship none of these, but adore one eternal,
invisible, infinite, and incomprehensible Deity; as a Being that is
far above all our apprehensions, that is spread over the whole
universe, not by His bulk, but by His power and virtue; Him they
call the Father of All, and acknowledge that the beginnings, the
increase, the progress, the vicissitudes, and the end of all things
come only from Him; nor do they offer divine honours to any but to
Him alone. And, indeed, though they differ concerning other
things, yet all agree in this: that they think there is one
Supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call, in
the language of their country, Mithras. They differ in this: that
one thinks the god whom he worships is this Supreme Being, and
another thinks that his idol is that god; but they all agree in one
principle, that whoever is this Supreme Being, He is also that
great essence to whose glory and majesty all honours are ascribed


by the consent of all nations.

By degrees they fall off from the various superstitions that are
among themand grow up to that one religion that is the best and
most in request; and there is no doubt to be madebut that all the
others had vanished long agoif some of those who advised them to
lay aside their superstitions had not met with some unhappy
accidentswhichbeing considered as inflicted by heavenmade
them afraid that the god whose worship had like to have been
abandoned had interposed and revenged themselves on those who
despised their authority.

After they had heard from us an account of the doctrine, the
course of life, and the miracles of Christ, and of the wonderful
constancy of so many martyrs, whose blood, so willingly offered up
by them, was the chief occasion of spreading their religion over a
vast number of nations, it is not to be imagined how inclined they
were to receive it. I shall not determine whether this proceeded
from any secret inspiration of God, or whether it was because it
seemed so favourable to that community of goods, which is an
opinion so particular as well as so dear to them; since they
perceived that Christ and His followers lived by that rule, and
that it was still kept up in some communities among the sincerest
sort of Christians. From whichsoever of these motives it might be,
true it is, that many of them came over to our religion, and were
initiated into it by baptism. But as two of our number were dead,
so none of the four that survived were in priests' orders, we,
therefore, could only baptise them, so that, to our great regret,
they could not partake of the other sacraments, that can only be
administered by priests, but they are instructed concerning them
and long most vehemently for them. They have had great disputes
among themselves, whether one chosen by them to be a priest would
not be thereby qualified to do all the things that belong to that
character, even though he had no authority derived from the Pope,
and they seemed to be resolved to choose some for that employment,
but they had not done it when I left them.

Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright
any from itand use none ill that goes over to itso that all the
while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion. He
being newly baptised didnotwithstanding all that we could say to
the contrarydispute publicly concerning the Christian religion
with more zeal than discretionand with so much heatthat he not
only preferred our worship to theirsbut condemned all their rites
as profaneand cried out against all that adhered to them as
impious and sacrilegious personsthat were to be damned to
everlasting burnings. Upon his having frequently preached in this
manner he was seizedand after trial he was condemned to
banishmentnot for having disparaged their religionbut for his
inflaming the people to sedition; for this is one of their most
ancient lawsthat no man ought to be punished for his religion.
At the first constitution of their governmentUtopus having
understood that before his coming among them the old inhabitants
had been engaged in great quarrels concerning religionby which
they were so divided among themselvesthat he found it an easy
thing to conquer themsinceinstead of uniting their forces
against himevery different party in religion fought by
themselves. After he had subdued them he made a law that every man
might be of what religion he pleasedand might endeavour to draw
others to it by the force of argument and by amicable and modest
waysbut without bitterness against those of other opinions; but
that he ought to use no other force but that of persuasionand was
neither to mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as did
otherwise were to be condemned to banishment or slavery.


This law was made by Utopus, not only for preserving the public
peace, which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and
irreconcilable heats, but because he thought the interest of
religion itself required it. He judged it not fit to determine
anything rashly; and seemed to doubt whether those different forms
of religion might not all come from God, who might inspire man in a
different manner, and be pleased with this variety; he therefore
thought it indecent and foolish for any man to threaten and terrify
another to make him believe what did not appear to him to be true.
And supposing that only one religion was really true, and the rest
false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at last
break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the strength of
argument, and attended to with a gentle and unprejudiced mind;
while, on the other hand, if such debates were carried on with
violence and tumults, as the most wicked are always the most
obstinate, so the best and most holy religion might be choked with
superstition, as corn is with briars and thorns; he therefore left
men wholly to their liberty, that they might be free to believe as
they should see cause; only he made a solemn and severe law against
such as should so far degenerate from the dignity of human nature,
as to think that our souls died with our bodies, or that the world
was governed by chance, without a wise overruling Providence: for
they all formerly believed that there was a state of rewards and
punishments to the good and bad after this life; and they now look
on those that think otherwise as scarce fit to be counted men,
since they degrade so noble a being as the soul, and reckon it no
better than a beast's: thus they are far from looking on such men
as fit for human society, or to be citizens of a well-ordered
commonwealth; since a man of such principles must needs, as oft as
he dares do it, despise all their laws and customs: for there is
no doubt to be made, that a man who is afraid of nothing but the
law, and apprehends nothing after death, will not scruple to break
through all the laws of his country, either by fraud or force, when
by this means he may satisfy his appetites. They never raise any
that hold these maxims, either to honours or offices, nor employ
them in any public trust, but despise them, as men of base and
sordid minds. Yet they do not punish them, because they lay this
down as a maxim, that a man cannot make himself believe anything he
pleases; nor do they drive any to dissemble their thoughts by
threatenings, so that men are not tempted to lie or disguise their
opinions; which being a sort of fraud, is abhorred by the Utopians:
they take care indeed to prevent their disputing in defence of
these opinions, especially before the common people: but they
suffer, and even encourage them to dispute concerning them in
private with their priest, and other grave men, being confident
that they will be cured of those mad opinions by having reason laid
before them. There are many among them that run far to the other
extreme, though it is neither thought an ill nor unreasonable
opinion, and therefore is not at all discouraged. They think that
the souls of beasts are immortal, though far inferior to the
dignity of the human soul, and not capable of so great a happiness.
They are almost all of them very firmly persuaded that good men
will be infinitely happy in another state: so that though they are
compassionate to all that are sick, yet they lament no man's death,
except they see him loath to part with life; for they look on this
as a very ill presage, as if the soul, conscious to itself of
guilt, and quite hopeless, was afraid to leave the body, from some
secret hints of approaching misery. They think that such a man's
appearance before God cannot be acceptable to Him, who being called
on, does not go out cheerfully, but is backward and unwilling, and
is as it were dragged to it. They are struck with horror when they
see any die in this manner, and carry them out in silence and with
sorrow, and praying God that He would be merciful to the errors of


the departed soul, they lay the body in the ground: but when any
die cheerfully, and full of hope, they do not mourn for them, but
sing hymns when they carry out their bodies, and commending their
souls very earnestly to God: their whole behaviour is then rather
grave than sad, they burn the body, and set up a pillar where the
pile was made, with an inscription to the honour of the deceased.
When they come from the funeral, they discourse of his good life,
and worthy actions, but speak of nothing oftener and with more
pleasure than of his serenity at the hour of death. They think
such respect paid to the memory of good men is both the greatest
incitement to engage others to follow their example, and the most
acceptable worship that can be offered them; for they believe that
though by the imperfection of human sight they are invisible to us,
yet they are present among us, and hear those discourses that pass
concerning themselves. They believe it inconsistent with the
happiness of departed souls not to be at liberty to be where they
will: and do not imagine them capable of the ingratitude of not
desiring to see those friends with whom they lived on earth in the
strictest bonds of love and kindness: besides, they are persuaded
that good men, after death, have these affections; and all other
good dispositions increased rather than diminished, and therefore
conclude that they are still among the living, and observe all they
say or do. From hence they engage in all their affairs with the
greater confidence of success, as trusting to their protection;
while this opinion of the presence of their ancestors is a
restraint that prevents their engaging in ill designs.

They despise and laugh at auguriesand the other vain and
superstitious ways of divinationso much observed among other
nations; but have great reverence for such miracles as cannot flow
from any of the powers of natureand look on them as effects and
indications of the presence of the Supreme Beingof which they say
many instances have occurred among them; and that sometimes their
public prayerswhich upon great and dangerous occasions they have
solemnly put up to Godwith assured confidence of being heard
have been answered in a miraculous manner.

They think the contemplating God in His works, and the adoring Him
for them, is a very acceptable piece of worship to Him.

There are many among them that upon a motive of religion neglect
learningand apply themselves to no sort of study; nor do they
allow themselves any leisure timebut are perpetually employed
believing that by the good things that a man does he secures to
himself that happiness that comes after death. Some of these visit
the sick; others mend highwayscleanse ditchesrepair bridgesor
dig turfgravelor stone. Others fell and cleave timberand
bring woodcornand other necessarieson cartsinto their
towns; nor do these only serve the publicbut they serve even
private menmore than the slaves themselves do: for if there is
anywhere a roughhardand sordid piece of work to be donefrom
which many are frightened by the labour and loathsomeness of itif
not the despair of accomplishing itthey cheerfullyand of their
own accordtake that to their share; and by that meansas they
ease others very muchso they afflict themselvesand spend their
whole life in hard labour: and yet they do not value themselves
upon thisnor lessen other people's credit to raise their own; but
by their stooping to such servile employments they are so far from
being despisedthat they are so much the more esteemed by the
whole nation.

Of these there are two sorts: some live unmarried and chaste, and
abstain from eating any sort of flesh; and thus weaning themselves
from all the pleasures of the present life, which they account


hurtful, they pursue, even by the hardest and painfullest methods
possible, that blessedness which they hope for hereafter; and the
nearer they approach to it, they are the more cheerful and earnest
in their endeavours after it. Another sort of them is less willing
to put themselves to much toil, and therefore prefer a married
state to a single one; and as they do not deny themselves the
pleasure of it, so they think the begetting of children is a debt
which they owe to human nature, and to their country; nor do they
avoid any pleasure that does not hinder labour; and therefore eat
flesh so much the more willingly, as they find that by this means
they are the more able to work: the Utopians look upon these as
the wiser sect, but they esteem the others as the most holy. They
would indeed laugh at any man who, from the principles of reason,
would prefer an unmarried state to a married, or a life of labour
to an easy life: but they reverence and admire such as do it from
the motives of religion. There is nothing in which they are more
cautious than in giving their opinion positively concerning any
sort of religion. The men that lead those severe lives are called
in the language of their country Brutheskas, which answers to those
we call Religious Orders.

Their priests are men of eminent pietyand therefore they are but
fewfor there are only thirteen in every townone for every
temple; but when they go to warseven of these go out with their
forcesand seven others are chosen to supply their room in their
absence; but these enter again upon their employments when they
return; and those who served in their absenceattend upon the high
priesttill vacancies fall by death; for there is one set over the
rest. They are chosen by the people as the other magistrates are
by suffrages given in secretfor preventing of factions: and when
they are chosenthey are consecrated by the college of priests.
The care of all sacred thingsthe worship of Godand an
inspection into the manners of the peopleare committed to them.
It is a reproach to a man to be sent for by any of themor for
them to speak to him in secretfor that always gives some
suspicion: all that is incumbent on them is only to exhort and
admonish the people; for the power of correcting and punishing ill
men belongs wholly to the Princeand to the other magistrates:
the severest thing that the priest does is the excluding those that
are desperately wicked from joining in their worship: there is not
any sort of punishment more dreaded by them than thisfor as it
loads them with infamyso it fills them with secret horrorssuch
is their reverence to their religion; nor will their bodies be long
exempted from their share of trouble; for if they do not very
quickly satisfy the priests of the truth of their repentancethey
are seized on by the Senateand punished for their impiety. The
education of youth belongs to the priestsyet they do not take so
much care of instructing them in lettersas in forming their minds
and manners aright; they use all possible methods to infusevery
earlyinto the tender and flexible minds of childrensuch
opinions as are both good in themselves and will be useful to their
countryfor when deep impressions of these things are made at that
agethey follow men through the whole course of their livesand
conduce much to preserve the peace of the governmentwhich suffers
by nothing more than by vices that rise out of ill opinions. The
wives of their priests are the most extraordinary women of the
whole country; sometimes the women themselves are made priests
though that falls out but seldomnor are any but ancient widows
chosen into that order.

None of the magistrates have greater honour paid them than is paid
the priests; and if they should happen to commit any crime, they
would not be questioned for it; their punishment is left to God,
and to their own consciences; for they do not think it lawful to


lay hands on any man, how wicked soever he is, that has been in a
peculiar manner dedicated to God; nor do they find any great
inconvenience in this, both because they have so few priests, and
because these are chosen with much caution, so that it must be a
very unusual thing to find one who, merely out of regard to his
virtue, and for his being esteemed a singularly good man, was
raised up to so great a dignity, degenerate into corruption and
vice; and if such a thing should fall out, for man is a changeable
creature, yet, there being few priests, and these having no
authority but what rises out of the respect that is paid them,
nothing of great consequence to the public can proceed from the
indemnity that the priests enjoy.

They haveindeedvery few of themlest greater numbers sharing
in the same honour might make the dignity of that orderwhich they
esteem so highlyto sink in its reputation; they also think it
difficult to find out many of such an exalted pitch of goodness as
to be equal to that dignitywhich demands the exercise of more
than ordinary virtues. Nor are the priests in greater veneration
among them than they are among their neighbouring nationsas you
may imagine by that which I think gives occasion for it.

When the Utopians engage in battle, the priests who accompany them
to the war, apparelled in their sacred vestments, kneel down during
the action (in a place not far from the field), and, lifting up
their hands to heaven, pray, first for peace, and then for victory
to their own side, and particularly that it may be gained without
the effusion of much blood on either side; and when the victory
turns to their side, they run in among their own men to restrain
their fury; and if any of their enemies see them or call to them,
they are preserved by that means; and such as can come so near them
as to touch their garments have not only their lives, but their
fortunes secured to them; it is upon this account that all the
nations round about consider them so much, and treat them with such
reverence, that they have been often no less able to preserve their
own people from the fury of their enemies than to save their
enemies from their rage; for it has sometimes fallen out, that when
their armies have been in disorder and forced to fly, so that their
enemies were running upon the slaughter and spoil, the priests by
interposing have separated them from one another, and stopped the
effusion of more blood; so that, by their mediation, a peace has
been concluded on very reasonable terms; nor is there any nation
about them so fierce, cruel, or barbarous, as not to look upon
their persons as sacred and inviolable.

The first and the last day of the monthand of the yearis a
festival; they measure their months by the course of the moonand
their years by the course of the sun: the first days are called in
their language the Cynemernesand the last the Trapemerneswhich
answers in our languageto the festival that begins or ends the
season.

They have magnificent temples, that are not only nobly built, but
extremely spacious, which is the more necessary as they have so few
of them; they are a little dark within, which proceeds not from any
error in the architecture, but is done with design; for their
priests think that too much light dissipates the thoughts, and that
a more moderate degree of it both recollects the mind and raises
devotion. Though there are many different forms of religion among
them, yet all these, how various soever, agree in the main point,
which is the worshipping the Divine Essence; and, therefore, there
is nothing to be seen or heard in their temples in which the
several persuasions among them may not agree; for every sect
performs those rites that are peculiar to it in their private


houses, nor is there anything in the public worship that
contradicts the particular ways of those different sects. There
are no images for God in their temples, so that every one may
represent Him to his thoughts according to the way of his religion;
nor do they call this one God by any other name but that of
Mithras, which is the common name by which they all express the
Divine Essence, whatsoever otherwise they think it to be; nor are
there any prayers among them but such as every one of them may use
without prejudice to his own opinion.

They meet in their temples on the evening of the festival that
concludes a seasonand not having yet broke their fastthey thank
God for their good success during that year or month which is then
at an end; and the next daybeing that which begins the new
seasonthey meet early in their templesto pray for the happy
progress of all their affairs during that period upon which they
then enter. In the festival which concludes the periodbefore
they go to the templeboth wives and children fall on their knees
before their husbands or parents and confess everything in which
they have either erred or failed in their dutyand beg pardon for
it. Thus all little discontents in families are removedthat they
may offer up their devotions with a pure and serene mind; for they
hold it a great impiety to enter upon them with disturbed thoughts
or with a consciousness of their bearing hatred or anger in their
hearts to any person whatsoever; and think that they should become
liable to severe punishments if they presumed to offer sacrifices
without cleansing their heartsand reconciling all their
differences. In the temples the two sexes are separatedthe men
go to the right handand the women to the left; and the males and
females all place themselves before the head and master or mistress
of the family to which they belongso that those who have the
government of them at home may see their deportment in public. And
they intermingle them sothat the younger and the older may be set
by one another; for if the younger sort were all set togetherthey
wouldperhapstrifle away that time too much in which they ought
to beget in themselves that religious dread of the Supreme Being
which is the greatest and almost the only incitement to virtue.

They offer up no living creature in sacrifice, nor do they think
it suitable to the Divine Being, from whose bounty it is that these
creatures have derived their lives, to take pleasure in their
deaths, or the offering up their blood. They burn incense and
other sweet odours, and have a great number of wax lights during
their worship, not out of any imagination that such oblations can
add anything to the divine nature (which even prayers cannot do),
but as it is a harmless and pure way of worshipping God; so they
think those sweet savours and lights, together with some other
ceremonies, by a secret and unaccountable virtue, elevate men's
souls, and inflame them with greater energy and cheerfulness during
the divine worship.

All the people appear in the temples in white garments; but the
priest's vestments are parti-colouredand both the work and
colours are wonderful. They are made of no rich materialsfor
they are neither embroidered nor set with precious stones; but are
composed of the plumes of several birdslaid together with so much
artand so neatlythat the true value of them is far beyond the
costliest materials. They saythat in the ordering and placing
those plumes some dark mysteries are representedwhich pass down
among their priests in a secret tradition concerning them; and that
they are as hieroglyphicsputting them in mind of the blessing
that they have received from Godand of their dutiesboth to Him
and to their neighbours. As soon as the priest appears in those
ornamentsthey all fall prostrate on the groundwith so much


reverence and so deep a silencethat such as look on cannot but be
struck with itas if it were the effect of the appearance of a
deity. After they have been for some time in this posturethey
all stand upupon a sign given by the priestand sing hymns to
the honour of Godsome musical instruments playing all the while.
These are quite of another form than those used among us; butas
many of them are much sweeter than oursso others are made use of
by us. Yet in one thing they very much exceed us: all their
musicboth vocal and instrumentalis adapted to imitate and
express the passionsand is so happily suited to every occasion
thatwhether the subject of the hymn be cheerfulor formed to
soothe or trouble the mindor to express grief or remorsethe
music takes the impression of whatever is representedaffects and
kindles the passionsand works the sentiments deep into the hearts
of the hearers. When this is doneboth priests and people offer
up very solemn prayers to God in a set form of words; and these are
so composedthat whatsoever is pronounced by the whole assembly
may be likewise applied by every man in particular to his own
condition. In these they acknowledge God to be the author and
governor of the worldand the fountain of all the good they
receiveand therefore offer up to him their thanksgiving; andin
particularbless him for His goodness in ordering it sothat they
are born under the happiest government in the worldand are of a
religion which they hope is the truest of all others; butif they
are mistakenand if there is either a better governmentor a
religion more acceptable to Godthey implore His goodness to let
them know itvowing that they resolve to follow him whithersoever
he leads them; but if their government is the bestand their
religion the truestthen they pray that He may fortify them in it
and bring all the world both to the same rules of lifeand to the
same opinions concerning Himselfunlessaccording to the
unsearchableness of His mindHe is pleased with a variety of
religions. Then they pray that God may give them an easy passage
at last to Himselfnot presuming to set limits to Himhow early
or late it should be; butif it may be wished for without
derogating from His supreme authoritythey desire to be quickly
deliveredand to be taken to Himselfthough by the most terrible
kind of deathrather than to be detained long from seeing Him by
the most prosperous course of life. When this prayer is ended
they all fall down again upon the ground; andafter a little
whilethey rise upgo home to dinnerand spend the rest of the
day in diversion or military exercises.

Thus have I described to you, as particularly as I could, the
Constitution of that commonwealth, which I do not only think the
best in the world, but indeed the only commonwealth that truly
deserves that name. In all other places it is visible that, while
people talk of a commonwealth, every man only seeks his own wealth;
but there, where no man has any property, all men zealously pursue
the good of the public, and, indeed, it is no wonder to see men act
so differently, for in other commonwealths every man knows that,
unless he provides for himself, how flourishing soever the
commonwealth may be, he must die of hunger, so that he sees the
necessity of preferring his own concerns to the public; but in
Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know
that if care is taken to keep the public stores full no private man
can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution,
so that no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has
anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as
to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties; neither
apprehending want himself, nor vexed with the endless complaints of
his wife? He is not afraid of the misery of his children, nor is
he contriving how to raise a portion for his daughters; but is
secure in this, that both he and his wife, his children and grand



children, to as many generations as he can fancy, will all live
both plentifully and happily; since, among them, there is no less
care taken of those who were once engaged in labour, but grow
afterwards unable to follow it, than there is, elsewhere, of these
that continue still employed. I would gladly hear any man compare
the justice that is among them with that of all other nations;
among whom, may I perish, if I see anything that looks either like
justice or equity; for what justice is there in this: that a
nobleman, a goldsmith, a banker, or any other man, that either does
nothing at all, or, at best, is employed in things that are of no
use to the public, should live in great luxury and splendour upon
what is so ill acquired, and a mean man, a carter, a smith, or a
ploughman, that works harder even than the beasts themselves, and
is employed in labours so necessary, that no commonwealth could
hold out a year without them, can only earn so poor a livelihood
and must lead so miserable a life, that the condition of the beasts
is much better than theirs? For as the beasts do not work so
constantly, so they feed almost as well, and with more pleasure,
and have no anxiety about what is to come, whilst these men are
depressed by a barren and fruitless employment, and tormented with
the apprehensions of want in their old age; since that which they
get by their daily labour does but maintain them at present, and is
consumed as fast as it comes in, there is no overplus left to lay
up for old age.

Is not that government both unjust and ungratefulthat is so
prodigal of its favours to those that are called gentlemenor
goldsmithsor such others who are idleor live either by flattery
or by contriving the arts of vain pleasureandon the other hand
takes no care of those of a meaner sortsuch as ploughmen
colliersand smithswithout whom it could not subsist? But after
the public has reaped all the advantage of their serviceand they
come to be oppressed with agesicknessand wantall their
labours and the good they have done is forgottenand all the
recompense given them is that they are left to die in great misery.
The richer sort are often endeavouring to bring the hire of
labourers lowernot only by their fraudulent practicesbut by the
laws which they procure to be made to that effectso that though
it is a thing most unjust in itself to give such small rewards to
those who deserve so well of the publicyet they have given those
hardships the name and colour of justiceby procuring laws to be
made for regulating them.

Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no
other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than
that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of
managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all
the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without
danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that
they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low
rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and if
they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the
show of public authority, which is considered as the representative
of the whole people, then they are accounted laws; yet these wicked
men, after they have, by a most insatiable covetousness, divided
that among themselves with which all the rest might have been well
supplied, are far from that happiness that is enjoyed among the
Utopians; for the use as well as the desire of money being
extinguished, much anxiety and great occasions of mischief is cut
off with it, and who does not see that the frauds, thefts,
robberies, quarrels, tumults, contentions, seditions, murders,
treacheries, and witchcrafts, which are, indeed, rather punished
than restrained by the seventies of law, would all fall off, if
money were not any more valued by the world? Men's fears,


solicitudes, cares, labours, and watchings would all perish in the
same moment with the value of money; even poverty itself, for the
relief of which money seems most necessary, would fall. But, in
order to the apprehending this aright, take one instance:


Consider any yearthat has been so unfruitful that many thousands
have died of hunger; and yet ifat the end of that yeara survey
was made of the granaries of all the rich men that have hoarded up
the cornit would be found that there was enough among them to
have prevented all that consumption of men that perished in misery;
and thatif it had been distributed among themnone would have
felt the terrible effects of that scarcity: so easy a thing would
it be to supply all the necessities of lifeif that blessed thing
called moneywhich is pretended to be invented for procuring them
was not really the only thing that obstructed their being procured!

I do not doubt but rich men are sensible of this, and that they
well know how much a greater happiness it is to want nothing
necessary, than to abound in many superfluities; and to be rescued
out of so much misery, than to abound with so much wealth: and I
cannot think but the sense of every man's interest, added to the
authority of Christ's commands, who, as He was infinitely wise,
knew what was best, and was not less good in discovering it to us,
would have drawn all the world over to the laws of the Utopians, if
pride, that plague of human nature, that source of so much misery,
did not hinder it; for this vice does not measure happiness so much
by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others; and would
not be satisfied with being thought a goddess, if none were left
that were miserable, over whom she might insult. Pride thinks its
own happiness shines the brighter, by comparing it with the
misfortunes of other persons; that by displaying its own wealth
they may feel their poverty the more sensibly. This is that
infernal serpent that creeps into the breasts of mortals, and
possesses them too much to be easily drawn out; and, therefore, I
am glad that the Utopians have fallen upon this form of government,
in which I wish that all the world could be so wise as to imitate
them; for they have, indeed, laid down such a scheme and foundation
of policy, that as men live happily under it, so it is like to be
of great continuance; for they having rooted out of the minds of
their people all the seeds, both of ambition and faction, there is
no danger of any commotions at home; which alone has been the ruin
of many states that seemed otherwise to be well secured; but as
long as they live in peace at home, and are governed by such good
laws, the envy of all their neighbouring princes, who have often,
though in vain, attempted their ruin, will never be able to put
their state into any commotion or disorder.

When Raphael had thus made an end of speakingthough many things
occurred to meboth concerning the manners and laws of that
peoplethat seemed very absurdas well in their way of making
waras in their notions of religion and divine matters--together
with several other particularsbut chiefly what seemed the
foundation of all the resttheir living in commonwithout the use
of moneyby which all nobilitymagnificencesplendourand
majestywhichaccording to the common opinionare the true
ornaments of a nationwould be quite taken away--yet since I
perceived that Raphael was wearyand was not sure whether he could
easily bear contradictionremembering that he had taken notice of
somewho seemed to think they were bound in honour to support the
credit of their own wisdomby finding out something to censure in
all other men's inventionsbesides their ownI only commended
their Constitutionand the account he had given of it in general;
and sotaking him by the handcarried him to supperand told him
I would find out some other time for examining this subject more


particularlyand for discoursing more copiously upon it. And
indeedI shall be glad to embrace an opportunity of doing it. In
the meanwhilethough it must be confessed that he is both a very
learned man and a person who has obtained a great knowledge of the
worldI cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related.
Howeverthere are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I
rather wishthan hopeto see followed in our governments.