diff options
Diffstat (limited to '2130-h/2130-h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | 2130-h/2130-h.htm | 4106 |
1 files changed, 4106 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/2130-h/2130-h.htm b/2130-h/2130-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed518f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/2130-h/2130-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4106 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Utopia, by Thomas More</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Utopia, by Thomas More</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Utopia</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Thomas More</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editor: Henry Morley</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April, 2000 [eBook #2130]<br /> +[Most recently updated: April 7, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Price</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UTOPIA ***</div> + +<h1>Utopia</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Thomas More</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">INTRODUCTION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">DISCOURSES OF RAPHAEL HYTHLODAY, OF THE BEST STATE OF A COMMONWEALTH</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">OF THEIR MAGISTRATES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">OF THEIR TRADES, AND MANNER OF LIFE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">OF THEIR TRAFFIC</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">OF THE TRAVELLING OF THE UTOPIANS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">OF THEIR SLAVES, AND OF THEIR MARRIAGES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">OF THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANS</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>UTOPIA</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<p> +Sir Thomas More, son of Sir John More, a justice of the King’s Bench, was +born in 1478, in Milk Street, in the city of London. After his earlier +education at St. Anthony’s School, in Threadneedle Street, he was placed, +as a boy, in the household of Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop 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 livery, and added to his state. The +patron used, afterwards, his 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 Canterbury, and 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.” +</p> + +<p> +At the age of about nineteen, Thomas More was sent to Canterbury College, +Oxford, by his patron, where he learnt Greek of the first men who brought Greek +studies from Italy to England—William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre. Linacre, +a physician, who afterwards took orders, was also the founder of the College of +Physicians. In 1499, More left Oxford to study law in London, at +Lincoln’s Inn, and in the next year Archbishop Morton died. +</p> + +<p> +More’s earnest character caused him while studying law to aim at the +subduing of the flesh, by wearing a hair shirt, taking a log for a pillow, and +whipping himself on Fridays. At the age of twenty-one he entered Parliament, +and 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 years, therefore, of Henry VII. More was under the displeasure +of the king, and had thoughts of leaving the country. +</p> + +<p> +Henry VII. died in April, 1509, when 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 courts, where it is said he refused to plead in cases which he thought +unjust, and took no fees from widows, orphans, or the poor. He would have +preferred marrying the second daughter of John Colt, of New Hall, in Essex, but +chose her elder sister, that he might not subject her to the discredit of being +passed over. +</p> + +<p> +In 1513 Thomas More, still Under-Sheriff of London, is said to have written his +“History of the Life and Death of King Edward V., and of the Usurpation +of Richard III.” The book, which seems to contain the knowledge and +opinions of More’s patron, Morton, was not printed until 1557, when its +writer had been twenty-two years dead. It was then printed from a MS. in +More’s handwriting. +</p> + +<p> +In the year 1515 Wolsey, Archbishop of York, was made Cardinal by Leo X.; Henry +VIII. made him Lord Chancellor, and from that year until 1523 the King and the +Cardinal ruled England with absolute authority, and 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 Austria, upon a renewal of +alliance. On that embassy More, aged about thirty-seven, was absent from +England for six months, and while at Antwerp he established friendship with +Peter Giles (Latinised Ægidius), a scholarly and courteous young man, who +was secretary to the municipality of Antwerp. +</p> + +<p> +Cuthbert Tunstal was a rising churchman, chancellor to the Archbishop of +Canterbury, who in that year (1515) was made Archdeacon of Chester, and in May +of the next year (1516) Master of the Rolls. In 1516 he was sent again to the +Low Countries, and More then went with him to Brussels, where they were in +close companionship with Erasmus. +</p> + +<p> +More’s “Utopia” was written in Latin, and is in two parts, of +which the second, describing the place ([Greek text]—or Nusquama, as he +called it sometimes in his letters—“Nowhere”), was probably +written towards the close of 1515; the first part, introductory, early in 1516. +The book was first printed at Louvain, late in 1516, under the editorship of +Erasmus, Peter Giles, and other of More’s friends in Flanders. It was +then revised by More, and printed by Frobenius at Basle in November, 1518. It +was reprinted at Paris and Vienna, but was not printed in England during +More’s lifetime. Its first publication in this country was in the English +translation, made in Edward’s VI.’s reign (1551) by Ralph Robinson. +It was translated with more literary skill by Gilbert Burnet, in 1684, soon +after he had conducted the defence of his friend Lord William Russell, attended +his execution, vindicated his memory, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +The name of the book has given an adjective to our language—we call an +impracticable scheme Utopian. Yet, under the veil of a playful fiction, the +talk is intensely earnest, and abounds in practical suggestion. It is the work +of a scholarly and witty Englishman, who attacks in his own way the chief +political and social evils of his time. Beginning with fact, More tells how he +was sent into Flanders with Cuthbert Tunstal, “whom 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 +Bruges, and presently returned to Brussels for instructions; and how More then +went to Antwerp, where he found a pleasure in the society of Peter Giles which +soothed his desire to see again his wife and children, from whom he had been +four months away. Then fact slides into fiction with the finding of Raphael +Hythloday (whose name, made 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 discovered, +of which the account had been first printed in 1507, only nine years before +Utopia was written. +</p> + +<p> +Designedly fantastic in suggestion of details, “Utopia” is 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 book, “A burgomaster of +Antwerp is so pleased with it that he knows it all by heart.” +</p> + +<p class="right"> +H. M. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>DISCOURSES OF RAPHAEL HYTHLODAY, OF THE BEST STATE OF A COMMONWEALTH</h2> + +<p> +Henry VIII., the unconquered King of England, a prince adorned with all the +virtues that become a great monarch, having some differences of no small +consequence with Charles the most serene Prince of Castile, sent me into +Flanders, as his ambassador, for treating and composing matters between them. I +was colleague and companion to that incomparable man Cuthbert Tonstal, whom the +King, with such universal applause, lately made Master of the Rolls; but of +whom I will say nothing; not because I fear that the testimony of a friend will +be suspected, but rather because his learning and virtues are too great for me +to do them justice, and so well known, that they need not my commendations, +unless I would, according to the proverb, “Show the sun with a +lantern.” Those that were appointed by the Prince to treat with us, met +us at Bruges, according to agreement; they were all worthy men. The Margrave of +Bruges was their head, and the chief man among them; but he that was esteemed +the wisest, and that spoke for the rest, was George Temse, the Provost of +Casselsee: both art and nature had concurred to make him eloquent: he was very +learned in the law; and, as he had a great capacity, so, by a long practice in +affairs, he was very dexterous at unravelling them. After we had several times +met, without coming to an agreement, they went to Brussels for some days, to +know the Prince’s pleasure; and, since our business would admit it, I +went to Antwerp. While I was there, among many that visited me, there was one +that was more acceptable to me than any other, Peter Giles, born at Antwerp, +who is a man of great honour, and of a good rank in his town, though 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 +person, so he is so civil to all men, so particularly kind to his friends, and +so full of candour and affection, that there is not, perhaps, above one or two +anywhere to be found, that is in all respects so perfect a friend: he is +extraordinarily modest, there is no artifice in him, and yet no man has more of +a prudent simplicity. His conversation was so pleasant and so innocently +cheerful, that his company in a great measure lessened any longings to go back +to my country, and to my wife and children, which an absence of four months had +quickened very much. One day, as I was returning home from mass at St. +Mary’s, which is the chief church, and the most frequented of any in +Antwerp, I saw him, by accident, talking with a stranger, who seemed past the +flower of his age; his face was tanned, he had a long beard, and his cloak was +hanging carelessly about him, so that, by his looks and habit, I concluded he +was a seaman. As soon as Peter saw me, he came and saluted me, and as I was +returning his civility, he took me aside, and pointing to him with whom he had +been discoursing, he said, “Do you see that man? I was just thinking to +bring him to you.” I answered, “He should have been very welcome on +your account.” “And on his own too,” replied he, “if +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 I, “I did not guess amiss, for at +first sight I took him for a seaman.” “But you are much +mistaken,” said he, “for 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 me, I 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 meeting, we all went to my +house, and entering into the garden, sat down on a green bank and entertained +one another in discourse. He told us that when Vesputius had sailed away, he, +and his companions that stayed behind in New Castile, by degrees insinuated +themselves into the affections of the people of the country, meeting often with +them and treating them gently; and at last they not only lived among them +without danger, but conversed familiarly with them, and got so far into the +heart of a prince, whose name and country I have forgot, that he both furnished +them plentifully with all things necessary, and also with the conveniences of +travelling, both boats when they went by water, and waggons when they travelled +over land: he sent with them a very faithful guide, who was to introduce and +recommend them to such other princes as they had a mind to see: and after many +days’ journey, they came to towns, and cities, and to commonwealths, that +were both happily governed and well peopled. Under the equator, and as far on +both sides of it as the sun moves, there lay vast deserts that were parched +with the perpetual heat of the sun; the soil was withered, all things looked +dismally, and all places were either quite uninhabited, or abounded with wild +beasts and serpents, and some few men, that were neither less wild nor less +cruel than the beasts themselves. But, as they went farther, a new scene +opened, all things grew milder, the air less burning, the soil more verdant, +and even the beasts were less wild: and, at last, there were nations, towns, +and cities, that had not only mutual commerce among themselves and with their +neighbours, but traded, both by sea and land, to very remote countries. There +they found the conveniencies of seeing many countries on all hands, for 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 wicker, woven close together, only some were of leather; but, afterwards, +they found ships made with round keels and canvas sails, and in all respects +like our ships, and the seamen understood both astronomy and navigation. He got +wonderfully into their favour by showing them the use of the needle, of which +till then they were utterly ignorant. They sailed before with great caution, +and only in summer time; but now they count all seasons alike, trusting wholly +to the loadstone, in which they are, perhaps, more secure than safe; so that +there is reason to fear that this discovery, which was thought would prove so +much to their advantage, may, by their imprudence, become 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 place, it 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 nations, may perhaps be related +by us on a more proper occasion. We asked him many questions concerning all +these things, to which he answered very willingly; we made no inquiries after +monsters, than which nothing is more common; for everywhere one may hear of +ravenous dogs and wolves, and cruel men-eaters, but it is not so easy to find +states that are well and wisely governed. +</p> + +<p> +As he told us of many things that were amiss in those new-discovered countries, +so he reckoned up not a few things, from which patterns might be taken for +correcting the errors of these nations among whom we live; of which an account +may be given, as I have already promised, at some other time; for, at present, +I intend only to relate those particulars that he told us, of 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 nations, had treated of the wise +institutions both here and there, and had spoken as distinctly of the customs +and government of every nation through which he had past, as if he had spent +his whole life in it, Peter, being struck with admiration, said, “I +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 king, but 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 useful, both in private to your friends and to the public, and by which +you can make your own condition happier.” “Happier?” answered +Raphael, “is 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 +this, said I, “I 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 he, “Mr. 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. “Yes, I was,” answered +he, “and stayed some months there, not long after the rebellion in the +West was suppressed, with a great slaughter of the poor people that were +engaged in it. +</p> + +<p> +“I was then much obliged to that reverend prelate, John Morton, +Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal, and Chancellor of England; a man,” +said he, “Peter (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 use, that 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, Carthaginians, and Syrians, and +many other nations and cities, which were both overturned and quite ruined by +those standing armies, should make others wiser; and the folly of this maxim of +the French appears plainly even from this, that their trained soldiers often +find your raw men prove too hard for them, of which I will not say much, lest +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 gentlemen, if 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 that, for +the prospect of a war, which you need never have but when you please, you +should maintain so many idle men, as will always disturb you in time of peace, +which 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 it, +more peculiar to England.’ ‘What is that?’ said the Cardinal: +‘The increase of pasture,’ said I, ‘by which your sheep, +which are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said now to devour +men and unpeople, not only villages, but towns; for wherever it is found that +the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the +nobility and gentry, and even those holy men, the abbots! not contented with +the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, +living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead +of good. They stop the course of agriculture, destroying houses and towns, +reserving only the churches, and enclose grounds that they may lodge their +sheep in them. As if forests and parks had swallowed up too little of the land, +those worthy countrymen turn the best inhabited places into solitudes; for when +an insatiable wretch, who is a plague to his country, resolves to enclose many +thousand acres of ground, the owners, as well as tenants, are turned out of +their possessions by trick or by main force, or, being wearied out by ill +usage, they are forced to sell them; by which means those miserable people, +both men and women, married and unmarried, old and young, with their poor but +numerous families (since country business requires many hands), are all forced +to change their seats, not knowing whither to go; and they must sell, almost +for nothing, their household stuff, which could not bring them much money, even +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 steal, and 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 vagabonds, while they would willingly work but +can find none that will hire them; for there is no more occasion for country +labour, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable ground left. One +shepherd can look after a flock, which will stock an extent of ground that +would require many hands if it were to be ploughed and reaped. This, likewise, +in many places raises the price of corn. The price of wool is also so risen +that the poor people, who were wont to make cloth, are no more able to buy it; +and this, likewise, makes many of them idle: for since the increase of pasture +God has punished the avarice of the owners by a rot among the sheep, which has +destroyed vast numbers of them—to us it might have seemed more just had +it fell on the owners themselves. But, suppose the sheep should increase ever +so much, their price is not likely to fall; since, though they cannot be called +a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person, yet they are in so +few hands, and these are so rich, that, as they are not pressed to sell them +sooner than they have a mind to it, so 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 dear, because many villages being pulled down, and all +country labour being much neglected, there are none who make it their business +to breed them. The rich do not breed cattle as they do sheep, but buy them lean +and at low prices; and, after they have fattened them on their grounds, sell +them again at high rates. And I do not think that all the inconveniences this +will produce are yet observed; for, as they sell the cattle dear, so, if they +are consumed faster than the breeding countries from which they are brought can +afford them, then the stock must decrease, and this must needs end in great +scarcity; and by these means, this your island, which seemed as to this +particular the happiest in the world, will suffer much by the cursed avarice of +a few persons: besides this, the 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 apparel, and +great cost in diet, and that not only in noblemen’s families, but even +among tradesmen, among the farmers themselves, and among all ranks of persons. +You have also many infamous houses, and, besides those that are known, the +taverns and ale-houses are no better; add to these dice, cards, tables, +football, tennis, and quoits, in which money runs fast away; and those that are +initiated into them must, in the conclusion, betake themselves to robbing for a +supply. Banish these plagues, and 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 rich, +that are as bad almost as monopolies; leave fewer occasions to idleness; let +agriculture be set up again, and the manufacture of the wool be regulated, that +so there may be work found for those companies of idle people whom want forces +to be thieves, or who now, being idle vagabonds or useless servants, will +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 theft, which, though it +may have the appearance of justice, yet in itself is neither just nor +convenient; for if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners +to be corrupted from their infancy, and 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?’ +</p> + +<p> +“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 suffers, but 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 Romans, who understood so well the arts of government, was very +proper for their punishment? They condemned such as they found guilty of great +crimes to work their whole lives in quarries, or to dig in mines with chains +about them. But the method that I liked best was that which I observed in my +travels in Persia, among the Polylerits, who are a considerable and +well-governed people: they pay a yearly tribute to the King of Persia, but in +all other respects they are a free nation, and governed by their own laws: they +lie far from the sea, and are environed with hills; and, being contented with +the productions of their own country, which is very fruitful, they have little +commerce with any other nation; and as they, according to the genius of their +country, have no inclination to enlarge their borders, so their mountains and +the pension they pay to the Persian, secure them from all invasions. Thus they +have no wars among them; they live rather conveniently than with splendour, and +may be rather called a happy nation than either eminent or famous; for I do not +think that they are known, so much as by name, to any but their next +neighbours. Those that are found guilty of theft among them are bound to make +restitution to the owner, and not, as it is in other places, to the prince, for +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 being, then the goods of the +thieves are estimated, and restitution being made out of them, the remainder is +given to their wives and children; and they themselves are condemned to serve +in the public works, but are neither imprisoned nor chained, unless there +happens to be some extraordinary circumstance in their crimes. They go about +loose and free, working for the public: if they are idle or backward to work +they are whipped, but if they work hard they are well used and treated without +any mark of reproach; only the lists of them are called always at night, and +then they are shut up. They suffer no other uneasiness but this of constant +labour; for, as they work for the public, so 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; and, +though this way may seem uncertain, yet so merciful are the inclinations of +that people, that they are plentifully supplied by it; but in other places +public revenues are set aside for them, or there is a constant tax or +poll-money raised for their maintenance. In some places they are set to no +public work, but every private man that has occasion to hire workmen goes to +the market-places and hires them of the public, a 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; and, besides their livelihood, they earn somewhat still to the public. +They all wear a peculiar habit, of one certain colour, and their hair is +cropped a little above their ears, and a piece of one of their ears is cut off. +Their friends are allowed to give them either meat, drink, or clothes, so they +are of their proper colour; but it is death, both to the giver and taker, if +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 mark, which it is capital for them to lay aside, to +go out of their bounds, or to talk with a slave of another jurisdiction, and +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 +freemen, in money; and if slaves, with liberty, together 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know whether it be worth while to tell what followed, for it +was very ridiculous; but I shall venture at it, for as it is not foreign to +this matter, so some good use may be made of it. There was a Jester standing +by, that 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 them, yet sometimes he said, as it were by chance, things that were not +unpleasant, so as to justify the old proverb, ‘That he who throws the +dice often, will sometimes have a lucky hit.’ When one of the company had +said that I had taken care of the thieves, and the Cardinal had taken care of +the vagabonds, so 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 +them, for there is no sort of people whose sight I abhor more, having been so +often vexed with them and with their sad complaints; but as dolefully soever as +they have told their tale, they could never prevail so far as to draw one penny +from me; for either I had no mind to give them anything, or, when I had a mind +to do it, I had nothing to give them; and they now know me so well that they +will not lose their labour, but let me pass without giving me any trouble, +because they hope for nothing—no more, in faith, than if I were a priest; +but I would have a law made for sending all these beggars to monasteries, the +men to the Benedictines, to be made lay-brothers, and the women to be +nuns.’ The Cardinal smiled, and approved of it in jest, but the rest +liked it in earnest. There was a divine present, who, though he was a grave +morose man, yet he was so pleased with this reflection that was made on the +priests and the monks that he began to play with the Fool, and said to him, +‘This will not deliver you from all beggars, except 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 work, for I know no vagabonds like +you.’ This was well entertained by the whole company, who, looking at the +Cardinal, perceived that he was not ill-pleased at it; only the Friar himself +was vexed, as may be easily imagined, and fell into such a passion that he +could not forbear railing at the Fool, and calling him knave, slanderer, +backbiter, and son of perdition, and then cited some dreadful threatenings out +of the Scriptures against him. Now the Jester thought he was in his element, +and laid about him freely. ‘Good Friar,’ said he, ‘be not +angry, for it is written, “In patience possess your soul.”’ +The Friar answered (for I shall give you his own words), ‘I am not angry, +you hangman; at least, I do not sin in it, for the Psalmist says, “Be ye +angry and sin not.”’ Upon this the Cardinal admonished him gently, +and wished him to govern his passions. ‘No, my lord,’ said he, +‘I speak not but from a good zeal, which I ought to have, for holy men +have had a good zeal, as it is said, “The 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 zeal, which that mocker, that +rogue, that scoundrel, will perhaps feel.’ ‘You do this, perhaps, +with a good intention,’ said the Cardinal, ‘but, in my opinion, it +were wiser in you, and perhaps better for you, not to engage in so ridiculous a +contest with a Fool.’ ‘No, my lord,’ answered he, ‘that +were not wisely done, for Solomon, the wisest of men, said, “Answer a +Fool according to his folly,” which I now do, and show him the ditch into +which he will fall, if he is not aware of it; for if the many mockers of +Elisha, who was but one bald man, felt the effect of his zeal, what will become +of the mocker of so many Friars, among whom there are so many bald men? We +have, likewise, a bull, by 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 withdraw, turned the discourse another way, and soon after rose +from the table, and, dismissing us, went to hear causes. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +To this I answered, “You 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 he, “but 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not you think that if I were about any king, proposing good laws to +him, and endeavouring to root out all the cursed seeds of evil that I found in +him, I should either be turned out of his court, or, at least, be laughed at +for my pains? For instance, what could I signify if I were about the King of +France, and were called into his cabinet council, where several wise men, in +his hearing, were proposing many expedients; as, by what arts and practices +Milan may be kept, and Naples, that has so often slipped out of their hands, +recovered; how the Venetians, and after them the rest of Italy, may be subdued; +and then how Flanders, Brabant, and all Burgundy, and some other kingdoms which +he has swallowed already in his designs, may be added to his empire? One +proposes a league with the Venetians, to be kept as long as he finds his +account in it, and 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 less, +and 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 money, which is omnipotent with him; another +proposes a peace with the King of Arragon, and, in order to cement it, the +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 alliance, and that some +of his courtiers are to be gained to the French faction by pensions. The +hardest point of all is, what to do with England; a treaty of peace is to be +set on foot, and, if their alliance is not to be depended on, yet it is to be +made as firm as possible, and they are to be called friends, but 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 crown, by which means that suspected prince may be kept in awe. Now when +things are in so great a fermentation, and so many gallant men are joining +counsels how to carry on the war, if so mean a man as I should stand up and +wish them to change all their counsels—to let Italy alone and stay at +home, since 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 if, after this, I should propose to them the resolutions of the +Achorians, a people that lie on the south-east of Utopia, who 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 conquered, but +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 +invasions, while they were obliged to be incessantly at war, either for or +against them, and consequently could never disband their army; that in the +meantime they were oppressed with taxes, their money went out of the kingdom, +their blood was spilt for the glory of their king without procuring the least +advantage to the people, who received not the smallest benefit from it even in +time of peace; and that, their manners being corrupted by a long war, robbery +and murders everywhere abounded, and their laws fell into contempt; while their +king, distracted with the care of two kingdoms, was 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 evils, they by joint counsels made an humble address to their +king, desiring 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 king, since 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 attempts, the vast confusions, and the consumption both +of treasure and of people that must follow them, perhaps 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 could, and +make it flourish as much as possible; that he should love his people, and be +beloved of them; that he should live among them, govern them gently and let +other kingdoms alone, since that which had fallen to his share was big enough, +if not too big, for him:—pray, how do you think would such a speech as +this be heard?” +</p> + +<p> +“I confess,” said I, “I think not very well.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what,” said he, “if 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 means 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. +</p> + +<p> +“If, I say, I should talk of these or such-like things to men that had +taken their bias another way, how deaf would they be to all I could say!” +“No doubt, very deaf,” answered I; “and no wonder, for 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 anything, nor +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 princes, where 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.” “Yes, there is,” said I, “but not +for this speculative philosophy, that makes everything to be alike fitting at +all times; but there is another philosophy that is more pliable, that knows its +proper scene, accommodates itself to it, and 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 stage, and a company of servants are acting +their parts, you should come out in the garb of a philosopher, and repeat, out +of <i>Octavia</i>, a discourse of Seneca’s to Nero, would 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 nature, even though they are +much better. Therefore go through with the play that is acting the best you +can, and 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 out, and you cannot cure some received vice +according to your wishes, you must not, therefore, abandon the commonwealth, +for 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 road, when 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 power, so that, if you are not +able to make them go well, they may be as little ill as possible; for, except +all men were good, everything cannot be right, and 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; for, if I +speak truth, I must repeat what I have said to you; and as for lying, whether 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 them, I do not see why +they should seem foolish or extravagant; indeed, if I should either propose +such things as Plato has contrived in his ‘Commonwealth,’ or as the +Utopians practise in theirs, though they might seem better, as certainly they +are, yet they are so different from our establishment, which 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 mine, which only call +past evils to mind and give warning of what may follow, leave nothing in them +that is so absurd that they may not be used at any time, for 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—which, by reason of +the wicked lives of many, may seem uncouth—we must, even among +Christians, give over pressing the greatest part of those things that Christ +hath taught us, though He has commanded us not to conceal them, but 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 been, but the preachers seem to have learned that craft to +which you advise me: for they, observing that the world would not willingly +suit their lives to the rules that Christ has given, have fitted His doctrine, +as if it had been a leaden rule, to their lives, that so, some way or other, +they 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 court, for I must always differ from the +rest, and then I shall signify nothing; or, if I agree with them, I 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 that, if they go not well, they 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 designs: so that he would pass for a +spy, or, possibly, for a traitor, that did but coldly approve of such wicked +practices; and therefore when a man is engaged in such a society, he will be so +far from being able to mend matters by his ‘casting about,’ as you +call it, that he will find no occasions of doing any good—the ill company +will sooner corrupt him than be the better for him; or if, notwithstanding all +their ill company, he still remains steady and innocent, yet their follies and +knavery will be imputed to him; and, by mixing counsels with them, he must bear +his share of all the blame that belongs wholly to others. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Though, to speak plainly my real sentiments, I must freely own that as +long as there is any property, and while money is the standard of all other +things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily: +not justly, because 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. +Therefore, when I reflect on the wise and good constitution of the Utopians, +among whom all things are so well governed and with so few laws, where 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 laws, and yet can never bring their constitution to a right +regulation; where, notwithstanding every one has his property, yet all the laws +that they can invent have not the power either to obtain or preserve it, or +even to enable men certainly to distinguish what is their own from what is +another’s, of which the many lawsuits that every day break out, and are +eternally depending, give too plain a demonstration—when, I say, I +balance all these things in my thoughts, I 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 property, for when every man draws +to himself all that he can compass, by one title or another, it must needs +follow that, how plentiful soever a nation may be, yet a few dividing the +wealth of it among themselves, the rest must fall into indigence. So that there +will be two sorts of people among them, who deserve that their fortunes should +be interchanged—the former useless, but wicked and ravenous; and the +latter, who by their constant industry serve the public more than themselves, +sincere and modest men—from whence I am persuaded that till property is +taken away, there can be no equitable or just distribution of things, nor can +the world be happily governed; for as long as that is maintained, the greatest +and the far best part of mankind, will be still oppressed with a load of cares +and anxieties. I confess, without taking it quite away, those pressures that +lie on a great part of mankind may be made lighter, but they can never be quite +removed; for if laws were made to determine at how great an extent in soil, and +at how much money, every man must stop—to limit the prince, that he might +not grow too great; and to restrain the people, that they might not become too +insolent—and that none might factiously aspire to public employments, +which ought neither to be sold nor made burdensome by a great expense, since +otherwise those that serve in them would be tempted to reimburse themselves by +cheats and violence, and it would become necessary to find out rich men for +undergoing those employments, which ought rather to be trusted to the wise. +These laws, I say, might have such effect as good diet and care might have on a +sick man whose recovery is desperate; they might allay and mitigate the +disease, but it could never be quite healed, nor the body politic be brought +again to a good habit as long as property remains; and it will fall out, as in +a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore you will +provoke another, and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others, +while 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 him, so the confidence that he has in other men’s industry may +make him slothful. If people come to be pinched with want, and yet cannot +dispose of anything as their own, what can follow upon this but perpetual +sedition and bloodshed, especially 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 you, since you have no +notion, or at least no right one, of such a constitution; but if you had been +in Utopia with me, and had seen their laws and rules, as I did, for the space +of five years, in which I lived among them, and 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 Europeans, you 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 theirs, so our government (if I mistake not) +being more ancient, a 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; for, if +they are to be believed, they 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 men, these might have happened there as well as +here. I do not deny but we are more ingenious than they are, but 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 ago, and that some +Romans and Egyptians that were in the ship, getting safe ashore, spent 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 guests, +and acquired all the useful arts that were then among the Romans, and 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 +explain, so 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 Europe, we have been so far from improving it that we do not so +much as remember it, as, in aftertimes perhaps, it will be forgot by our people +that I was ever there; for though they, from one such accident, made themselves +masters of all the good inventions that were among us, yet 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 we, though we come not short of them in point of +understanding or outward advantages.” Upon this I said to him, “I +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 he, “for +I have digested the whole matter carefully, but it will take up some +time.” “Let us go, then,” said I, “first and dine, and +then we shall have leisure enough.” He consented; we went in and dined, +and after dinner came back and sat down in the same place. I ordered my +servants to take care that none might come and interrupt us, and 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 himself, and began in this +manner:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“There are fifty-four cities in the island, all large and well built, the +manners, customs, and laws of which are the same, and 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 another, and +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 Amaurot, to consult about their common concerns; for +that is the chief town of the island, being situated near the centre of it, so +that it is the most convenient place for their assemblies. The jurisdiction of +every city extends at least twenty miles, and, where the towns lie wider, they +have much more ground. No town desires to enlarge its bounds, for the people +consider themselves rather as tenants than landlords. They have built, over all +the country, farmhouses for husbandmen, which are well contrived, and furnished +with all things necessary for country labour. Inhabitants are sent, by turns, +from the cities to dwell in them; no country family has fewer than forty men +and women in it, besides two slaves. There is a master and a mistress set over +every family, and 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 +country, and in their room there are other twenty sent from the town, that they +may learn country work from those that have been already one year in the +country, as 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 +agriculture, and 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 long, yet many among them take such pleasure in it +that they desire leave to continue in it many years. These husbandmen till the +ground, breed cattle, hew wood, and convey it to the towns either by land or +water, as is most convenient. They breed an infinite multitude of chickens in a +very curious manner; for the hens do not sit and hatch them, but a vast number +of eggs are laid in a gentle and equal heat in order to be hatched, and they +are no sooner out of the shell, and able to stir about, but they seem to +consider those that feed them as their mothers, and follow them as other +chickens do the hen that hatched them. They breed very few horses, but those +they have are full of mettle, and are kept only for exercising their youth in +the art of sitting and riding them; for they do not put them to any work, +either 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 diseases, so 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 +labour, they are good meat at last. They sow no corn but that which is to be +their bread; for they drink either wine, cider or perry, and often water, +sometimes boiled with honey or liquorice, with which they abound; and though +they know exactly how much corn will serve every town and all that tract of +country which belongs to it, yet they sow much more and breed more cattle than +are necessary for their consumption, and they give that overplus of which they +make no use to their neighbours. When they want anything in the country which +it does not produce, they fetch that from the town, without 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 month, upon a festival day. +When the time of harvest comes, the 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 them, they commonly +despatch it all in one day. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROT</h2> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“It lies upon the side of a hill, or, rather, a rising ground. Its figure +is almost square, for from the one side of it, which shoots up almost to the +top of the hill, it runs down, in a descent for two miles, to 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 Amaurot, in a small spring at +first. But other brooks falling into it, of which two are more considerable +than the rest, as it runs by Amaurot it is grown half a mile broad; but, it +still grows larger and larger, till, after sixty miles’ course below it, +it is lost in the ocean. Between the town and the sea, and for some miles above +the town, it 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 +river, the fresh water being driven back with its force; and above that, for +some miles, the water is brackish; but a little higher, as it runs by the town, +it is quite fresh; and when the tide ebbs, it continues fresh all along to the +sea. There is a bridge cast over the river, not of timber, but of fair stone, +consisting of many stately arches; it lies at that part of the town which is +farthest from the sea, so that the ships, without any hindrance, lie all along +the side of the town. There is, likewise, another river that runs by it, which, +though it is not great, yet it runs pleasantly, for it rises out of the same +hill on which the town stands, and 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 so, if they should happen to be +besieged, the enemy might not be able to stop or divert the course of the +water, nor poison it; from thence it is carried, in earthen pipes, to the lower +streets. And for those places of the town to which the water of that small +river cannot be conveyed, they have great cisterns for receiving the +rain-water, which supplies the want of the other. The town is compassed with a +high and thick wall, in which there are many towers and forts; there is also a +broad and deep dry ditch, set thick with thorns, cast round three sides of the +town, and the river is instead of a ditch on the fourth side. The streets are +very convenient for all carriage, and are well sheltered from the winds. Their +buildings are good, and 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 large, but enclosed with buildings, that on all hands +face the streets, so that every house has both a door to the street and a back +door to the garden. Their doors have all two leaves, which, as they are easily +opened, so they shut of their own accord; and, there being no property among +them, every 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 care, so that they have both vines, fruits, herbs, and 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 it, but also by an emulation between the inhabitants of the several streets, +who vie with each other. And there is, indeed, nothing 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 Utopus, but 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 records, that contain the history of their town and State, +are preserved with an exact care, and run backwards seventeen hundred and sixty +years. From these it appears that their houses were at first low and mean, like +cottages, made of any sort of timber, and were built with mud walls and +thatched with straw. But now their houses are three storeys high, the fronts of +them are faced either with stone, plastering, or brick, and between the facings +of their walls they throw in their rubbish. Their roofs are flat, and on them +they lay a sort of plaster, which costs very little, and yet is so tempered +that it is not apt to take fire, and yet resists the weather more than lead. +They have great quantities of glass among them, with which they glaze their +windows; they use also in their windows a thin linen cloth, that is so oiled or +gummed that it both keeps out the wind and gives free admission to the light. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>OF THEIR MAGISTRATES</h2> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 foot, it is +sent to the Syphogrants, who, after they have communicated it to the families +that belong to their divisions, and have considered it among themselves, make +report to the senate; and, upon great occasions, the matter is referred to the +council of the whole island. One rule observed in their council is, never to +debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is +always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly and in the heat +of discourse engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much that, +instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to +support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame +hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the +being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first +proposed; and therefore, to prevent this, they take care that they may rather +be deliberate than sudden in their motions. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>OF THEIR TRADES, AND MANNER OF LIFE</h2> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“And thus from the great numbers among them that are neither suffered to +be idle nor to be employed in any fruitless labour, you may easily make the +estimate how much may be done in those few hours in which they are obliged to +labour. But, besides all that has been already said, it 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 decay, so that his successor must, at a great cost, repair 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 another, who +thinks he has a more delicate sense of the beauties of architecture, and he, +suffering it to fall to ruin, builds another at no less charge. But among the +Utopians all things are so regulated that men very seldom build upon a new +piece of ground, and are not only very quick in repairing their houses, but +show their foresight in preventing their decay, so that their buildings are +preserved very long with but very little labour, and thus the builders, to whom +that care belongs, are often without employment, except the hewing of timber +and the squaring of stones, that the materials may be in readiness for raising +a building very suddenly when there is any occasion for it. As to their +clothes, observe how little work is spent in them; while they are at labour +they are clothed with leather and skins, cut carelessly about them, which will +last seven years, and when they appear in public they put on an upper garment +which hides the other; and these are all of one colour, and that is the natural +colour of the wool. As they need less woollen cloth than is used anywhere else, +so that which they make use of is much less costly; they use linen cloth more, +but that is prepared with less labour, and they value cloth only by the +whiteness of the linen or the cleanness of the wool, without much regard to the +fineness of the thread. While in other places four or five upper garments of +woollen cloth of different colours, and as many vests of silk, will scarce +serve one man, and while those that are nicer think ten too few, every man +there is content with one, which very often serves him two years; nor is there +anything that can tempt a man to desire more, for if he had them he would +neither be the, warmer nor would he make one jot the better appearance for it. +And thus, since they are all employed in some useful labour, and since they +content themselves with fewer things, it falls out that there is a great +abundance of all things among them; so that it frequently happens that, for +want of other work, vast numbers are sent out to mend the highways; but when no +public undertaking is to be performed, the hours of working are lessened. The +magistrates never engage the people in unnecessary labour, since the chief end +of the constitution is to regulate labour by the necessities of the public, and +to allow the people as much time as is necessary for the improvement of their +minds, in which they think the happiness of life consists. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>OF THEIR TRAFFIC</h2> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“As their cities are composed of families, so their families are made up +of those that are nearly related to one another. Their women, when they grow +up, are married out, but all the males, both children and grand-children, live +still in the same house, in great obedience to their common parent, unless age +has weakened his understanding, and in that case he that is next to him in age +comes in his room; but lest any city should become either too great, or by any +accident be dispeopled, provision is made that none of their cities may contain +above six thousand families, besides those of the country around it. No family +may have less than ten and more than sixteen persons in it, but 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 island, then they draw out a number of their citizens +out of the several towns and send them over to the neighbouring continent, +where, if they find that the inhabitants have more soil than they can well +cultivate, they fix a colony, taking the inhabitants into their society if they +are willing to live with them; and where they do that of their own accord, they +quickly enter into their method of life and conform to their rules, and this +proves a happiness to both nations; for, according to their constitution, such +care is taken of the soil that it becomes fruitful enough for both, though 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 resist, for +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 use, but which is suffered +to lie idle and uncultivated, since every man has, by the law of nature, a +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 people, when great numbers were carried off by the plague), +the loss is then supplied by recalling as many as are wanted from their +colonies, for they will abandon these rather than suffer the towns in the +island to sink too low. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“After the steward of the hospitals has taken for the sick whatsoever the +physician prescribes, then the best things that are left in the market are +distributed equally among the halls in proportion to their numbers; only, in +the first place, they serve the Prince, the Chief Priest, the Tranibors, the +Ambassadors, and strangers, if there are any, which, indeed, falls out but +seldom, and for whom there are houses, well furnished, particularly 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 trumpet, they +meet and eat together, except only such as are in the hospitals or lie sick at +home. Yet, after the halls are served, no man is hindered to carry provisions +home from the market-place, for they know that none does that but for some good +reason; for though any that will may eat at home, yet none does it willingly, +since 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 meat, +and the ordering their tables, belong only to the women, all those of every +family taking it by turns. They sit at three or more tables, according to their +number; the men sit towards the wall, and the women sit on the other side, that +if any of them should be taken suddenly ill, which is no uncommon case amongst +women with child, she may, without disturbing the rest, rise and go to the +nurses’ room (who are there with the sucking children), where there is +always clean water at hand and cradles, in which they may lay the young +children if there is occasion for it, and a fire, that 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 matter, for 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 +sexes, till they are fit for marriage, either serve those that sit at table, +or, if they are not strong enough for that, stand 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 table, which stands across the upper end of the hall, sit +the Syphogrant and his wife, for 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 Syphogranty, the 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 others, so they are mixed with +the more ancient; which, they say, was appointed on this account: that the +gravity of the old people, and the reverence that is due to them, might +restrain the younger from all indecent words and gestures. Dishes are not +served up to the whole table at first, but the best are first set before the +old, whose seats are distinguished from the young, and, after them, all the +rest are served alike. The old men distribute to the younger any curious meats +that happen to be set before them, if there is not such an abundance of them +that the whole company may be served alike. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>OF THE TRAVELLING OF THE UTOPIANS</h2> + +<p> +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 ale-houses, 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. +</p> + +<p> +“In their great council at Amaurot, to which there are three sent from +every town once a year, they examine what towns abound in provisions and what +are under any scarcity, that so the one may be furnished from the other; and +this is done freely, without any sort of exchange; for, according to their +plenty or scarcity, they supply or are supplied from one another, so that +indeed the whole island is, as it were, one family. When they have thus taken +care of their whole country, and laid up stores for two years (which they do to +prevent the ill consequences of an unfavourable season), they order an +exportation of the overplus, both of corn, honey, wool, flax, wood, wax, +tallow, leather, and cattle, which they send out, commonly in great quantities, +to 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 them, and sell the rest +at moderate rates; and by this exchange they not only bring back those few +things that they need at home (for, indeed, they scarce need anything but +iron), but likewise a great deal of gold and silver; and by their driving this +trade so long, it is not to be imagined how vast a treasure they have got among +them, so 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 bound, but 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 chamber, or +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 hands, who 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 it, then they call it in and lend it to them. Whenever +they are engaged in war, which 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 troops, whom they more +willingly expose to danger than their own people; they give them great pay, +knowing well that this will work even on their enemies; that it will engage +them either to betray their own side, or, at least, to 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 treasure, but in such +a manner as I am almost afraid to tell, lest you think it so extravagant as to +be hardly credible. This I have the more reason to apprehend because, if I had +not seen it myself, I could not have been easily persuaded to have believed it +upon any man’s report. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“If these metals were laid up in any tower in the kingdom it would raise +a jealousy of the Prince and Senate, and 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 vessels, or any sort of plate, they fear that the people +might grow too fond of it, and so be unwilling to let the plate be run down, if +a war made it necessary, to employ it in paying their soldiers. To prevent all +these inconveniences they have fallen upon an expedient which, as it agrees +with their other policy, so is it very different from ours, and 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 glass, which make an agreeable +appearance, though formed of brittle materials; while they make their +chamber-pots and close-stools of gold and silver, and that not only in their +public halls but in their private houses. Of the same metals they likewise make +chains and fetters for their slaves, to some of which, as a badge of infamy, +they hang an earring of gold, and 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 bowels, those 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 trifle, or as we would +esteem the loss of a penny! They find pearls on their coasts, and diamonds and +carbuncles on their rocks; they do not look after them, but, if they find them +by chance, they polish them, and with them they adorn their children, who are +delighted with them, and glory in them during their childhood; but when they +grow to years, and see that none but children use such baubles, they of their +own accord, without being bid by their parents, lay them aside, and would be as +much ashamed to use them afterwards as children among us, when they come to +years, are of their puppets and other toys. +</p> + +<p> +“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 them, and 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 to, their +plumes fell, and they were ashamed of all that glory for which they had formed +valued themselves, and accordingly laid it aside—a resolution that they +immediately took when, on their engaging in some free discourse with the +Utopians, they 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; for, how fine soever that thread may be, it was once no better than the +fleece of a sheep, and that sheep, was a sheep still, for all its wearing it. +They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, +should be everywhere so much esteemed that even man, for whom it was made, and +by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than this metal; +that a man of lead, who has no more sense than a log of wood, and is as bad as +he is foolish, should have many wise and good men to serve him, only because he +has a great heap of that metal; and that if it should happen that by some +accident or trick of law (which, sometimes produces as great changes as chance +itself) all this wealth should pass from the master to the meanest varlet of +his whole family, he himself would very soon become one of his servants, as if +he were a thing that belonged to his wealth, and so were bound to follow its +fortune! But they much more admire and detest the folly of those who, when they +see a rich man, though they neither owe him anything, nor are in any sort +dependent on his bounty, yet, merely because he is rich, give him little less +than divine honours, even though they know him to be so covetous and +base-minded that, notwithstanding all his wealth, he will not part with one +farthing of it to them as long as he lives! +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“As to moral philosophy, they have the same disputes among them as we +have here. They examine what are properly good, both for the body and the mind; +and whether any outward thing can be called truly <i>good</i>, or if that term +belong only to the endowments of the soul. They inquire, likewise, into the +nature of virtue and pleasure. But their chief dispute is concerning the +happiness of a man, and wherein it consists—whether in some one thing or +in a great many. They seem, indeed, more inclinable to that opinion that +places, if not the whole, yet the chief part, of a man’s happiness in +pleasure; and, what may seem more strange, they make use of arguments even from +religion, notwithstanding its severity and roughness, for 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 reason, since without the former they reckon that all our inquiries +after happiness must be but conjectural and defective. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“They think it is an evidence of true wisdom for a man to pursue his own +advantage as far as the laws allow it, they account it piety to prefer the +public good to one’s private concerns, but they think it unjust for a man +to seek for pleasure by snatching another man’s pleasures from him; and, +on the contrary, they think it a sign of a gentle and good soul for a man to +dispense with his own advantage for the good of others, and 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 it, so, if that should +fail him, yet the sense of a good action, and the reflections that he makes on +the love and gratitude of those whom he has so obliged, gives 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 joy, of which religion easily convinces a +good soul. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“There are many things that in themselves have nothing that is truly +delightful; on the contrary, they have a good deal of bitterness in them; and +yet, from our perverse appetites after forbidden objects, are not only ranked +among the pleasures, but are made even the greatest designs, of life. Among +those who pursue these sophisticated pleasures they reckon such as I mentioned +before, who think themselves really the better for having fine clothes; in +which they think they are doubly mistaken, both in the opinion they have of +their clothes, and in that they have of themselves. For if you consider the use +of clothes, why should a fine thread be thought better than a coarse one? And +yet these men, as if they had some real advantages beyond others, and did not +owe them wholly to their mistakes, look big, seem to fancy themselves to be +more valuable, and imagine that a respect is due to them for the sake of a rich +garment, to which they would not have pretended if they had been more meanly +clothed, and 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 respect, which 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 nobility, and are +pleased with this conceit—that they are descended from ancestors who have +been held for some successions rich, and who have had great possessions; for +this is all that makes nobility at present. Yet they do not think themselves a +whit the less noble, though their immediate parents have left none of this +wealth to them, or though they themselves have squandered it away. The Utopians +have no better opinion of those who are much taken with gems and precious +stones, and who account it a degree of happiness next to a divine one if they +can purchase one that is very extraordinary, especially if it be of that sort +of stones that is then in greatest request, for the same sort is not at all +times universally of the same value, nor will men buy it unless it be +dismounted and taken out of the gold. The jeweller is then made to give good +security, and required solemnly to swear that the stone is true, that, by such +an exact caution, a false one might not be bought instead of a true; though, if +you were to examine it, your eye could find no difference between the +counterfeit and that which is true; so that they are all one to you, as much as +if you were blind. Or can it be thought that they who heap up a useless mass of +wealth, not for any use that it is to bring them, but merely to please +themselves with the contemplation of it, enjoy 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 former, and who hide it out of their fear +of losing it; for what other name can fit the hiding it in the earth, or, +rather, the restoring it to it again, it being thus cut off from being useful +either to its owner or to the rest of mankind? And yet the owner, having hid it +carefully, is glad, because he thinks he is now sure of it. If it should be +stole, the owner, though he might live perhaps ten years after the theft, of +which he knew nothing, would find no difference between his having or losing +it, for both ways it was equally useless to him. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Thus though the rabble of mankind look upon these, and on innumerable +other things of the same nature, as pleasures, the Utopians, on the contrary, +observing that there is nothing in them truly pleasant, conclude 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 itself, but from a depraved +custom, which may so vitiate a man’s taste that bitter things may pass +for sweet, as women with child think pitch or tallow taste sweeter than honey; +but as a man’s sense, when corrupted either by a disease or some ill +habit, does not change the nature of other things, so neither can it change the +nature of pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +“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? +</p> + +<p> +“But, of all pleasures, they esteem those to be most valuable that lie in +the mind, the 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 drinking, and all the other +delights of sense, are 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 physic, and to be freed +from pain rather than to find ease by remedies, so 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 enjoyments, he must then +confess that he would be the happiest of all men if he were to lead his life in +perpetual hunger, thirst, and itching, and, by consequence, in perpetual +eating, drinking, and scratching himself; which any one may easily see would be +not only a base, but a miserable, state of a life. These are, indeed, the +lowest of pleasures, and the least pure, for we can never relish them but when +they are mixed with the contrary pains. The pain of hunger must give us the +pleasure of eating, and here the pain out-balances the pleasure. And as the +pain is more vehement, so it lasts much longer; for as it begins before the +pleasure, so it does not cease but with the pleasure that extinguishes it, and +both expire together. They think, therefore, none of those pleasures are to be +valued any further than as they are necessary; yet they rejoice in them, and +with due gratitude acknowledge the tenderness of the great Author of Nature, +who has planted in us appetites, by 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 pleasant, as well as proper, gifts of Nature maintain +the strength and the sprightliness of our bodies. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. I have not now the +leisure to examine whether they think right or wrong in this matter; nor do I +judge it necessary, for I have only undertaken to give you an account of their +constitution, but not to defend all their principles. I am sure that whatever +may be said of their notions, there 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 stature, and have neither the fruitfullest soil +nor the purest air in the world; yet they fortify themselves so well, by their +temperate course of life, against the unhealthiness of their air, and by their +industry they so cultivate their soil, that there is nowhere to be seen a +greater increase, both of corn and cattle, nor 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 soil, but +whole woods plucked up by the roots, and in other places new ones planted, +where there were none before. Their principal motive for this is the +convenience of carriage, that their timber may be either near their towns or +growing on the banks of the sea, or of some rivers, so 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 industrious, apt to learn, as well as cheerful and +pleasant, and none can endure more labour when it is necessary; but, except in +that case, they love their ease. They are unwearied pursuers of knowledge; for +when we had given them some hints of the learning and discipline of the Greeks, +concerning whom we only instructed them (for we know that there was nothing +among the Romans, except their historians and their poets, that 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 them, rather in compliance with +their importunity than out of any hopes of their reaping from it any great +advantage: but, after a very short trial, we 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 exactly, had so quick an apprehension, they remembered it so +faithfully, and became so ready and correct in the use of it, that 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 +were, for the greatest part, chosen from among their learned men by their chief +council, though some studied it of their own accord. In three years’ time +they became masters of the whole language, so that they read the best of the +Greek authors very exactly. I am, indeed, apt 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 Persian, yet they retain many names, both for their towns and magistrates, +that are of Greek derivation. I happened to carry a great many books with me, +instead of merchandise, when I sailed my fourth voyage; for I was so far from +thinking of soon coming back, that I rather thought never to have returned at +all, and I gave them all my books, among which were many of Plato’s and +some of Aristotle’s works: I had also Theophrastus on Plants, which, to +my great regret, was imperfect; for having laid it carelessly by, while we were +at sea, a monkey had seized upon it, and in many places torn out the leaves. +They have no books of grammar but Lascares, for I did not carry Theodorus with +me; nor have they any dictionaries but Hesichius and Dioscerides. They esteem +Plutarch highly, and were much taken with Lucian’s wit and with his +pleasant way of writing. As for the poets, they have Aristophanes, Homer, +Euripides, and Sophocles of Aldus’s edition; and for historians, +Thucydides, Herodotus, and Herodian. One of my companions, Thricius Apinatus, +happened to carry with him some of Hippocrates’s works and Galen’s +Microtechne, which they hold in great estimation; for though there is no nation +in the world that needs physic so little as they do, yet there is not any that +honours it so much; they reckon the knowledge of it one of the pleasantest and +most profitable parts of philosophy, by which, as they search into the secrets +of nature, so they not only find this study highly agreeable, but think that +such inquiries are very acceptable to the Author of nature; and imagine, that +as He, like the inventors of curious engines amongst mankind, has exposed this +great machine of the universe to the view of the only creatures capable of +contemplating it, so an exact and curious observer, who admires His +workmanship, is much more acceptable to Him than one of the herd, who, like a +beast incapable of reason, looks on this glorious scene with the eyes of a dull +and unconcerned spectator. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>OF THEIR SLAVES, AND OF THEIR MARRIAGES</h2> + +<p> +“They do not make slaves of prisoners of war, except those that are taken +in battle, nor of the sons of their slaves, nor 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, or, which is more common, such as their merchants +find condemned to die in those parts to which they trade, whom they sometimes +redeem at low rates, and in other places have them for nothing. They are kept +at perpetual labour, and are always chained, but with this difference, that +their own natives are treated much worse than others: they are considered as +more profligate than the rest, and since they could not be restrained by the +advantages of so excellent an education, are judged worthy of harder usage. +Another sort of slaves are the poor of the neighbouring countries, who offer of +their own accord to come and serve them: they treat these better, and use them +in all other respects as well as their own countrymen, except their imposing +more labour upon them, which 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 country, which, +indeed, falls out but seldom, as they do not force them to stay, so they do not +send them away empty-handed. +</p> + +<p> +“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 ease 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Their women are not married before eighteen nor their men before +two-and-twenty, and if any of them run into forbidden embraces before marriage +they are severely punished, and 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 happen, for +it is supposed that they have failed in their duty. The reason of punishing +this so severely is, because they think that if they were not strictly +restrained from all vagrant appetites, very few would engage in a state in +which they venture the quiet of their whole lives, by being confined to one +person, and 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 ridiculous, but it is constantly observed among them, and is +accounted perfectly consistent with wisdom. Before marriage some grave matron +presents the bride, naked, whether she is a virgin or a widow, to the +bridegroom, and after that some grave man presents the bridegroom, naked, to +the bride. We, indeed, both laughed at this, and condemned it as very indecent. +But they, on the other hand, wondered at the folly of the men of all other +nations, who, if they are but to buy a horse of a small value, are so cautious +that they will see every part of him, and take off both his saddle and all his +other tackle, that there may be no secret ulcer hid under any of them, and that +yet in the choice of a wife, on which depends the happiness or unhappiness of +the rest of his life, a man should venture upon trust, and only see about a +handsbreadth of the face, all the rest of the body being covered, under 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 qualities, and even wise men +consider the body as that which adds not a little to the mind, and it is +certain there may be some such deformity covered with clothes as may totally +alienate a man from his wife, when it is too late to part with her; if such a +thing is discovered after marriage a man has no remedy but patience; they, +therefore, think it is reasonable that there should be good provision made +against such mischievous frauds. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Their law does not determine the punishment for other crimes, but that +is left to the Senate, to temper it according to the circumstances of the fact. +Husbands have power to correct their wives and parents to chastise their +children, unless 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 crimes, for as that is no less terrible to the +criminals themselves than death, so they think the preserving them in a state +of servitude is more for the interest of the commonwealth than killing them, +since, as their labour is a greater benefit to the public than their death +could be, so 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 rebel, and 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 chains, and are at last put to death. But those who bear their punishment +patiently, and are so much wrought on by that pressure that lies so hard on +them, that it appears they are really more troubled for the crimes they have +committed than for the miseries they suffer, are not out of hope, but that, at +last, either the Prince will, by his prerogative, or the people, by their +intercession, restore them again to their liberty, or, at least, very much +mitigate their slavery. He that tempts a married woman to adultery is no less +severely punished than he that commits it, for they believe that a deliberate +design to commit a crime is equal to the fact itself, since its not taking +effect does not make the person that miscarried in his attempt at all the less +guilty. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“As they fright men from committing crimes by punishments, so 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 country, and set +these in their market-places, both to perpetuate the remembrance of their +actions and to be an incitement to their posterity to follow their example. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need +not many. They very much condemn other nations whose laws, together with the +commentaries on them, swell 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 +bulk, and so dark as not to be read and understood by every one of the +subjects. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Some of their neighbours, who are masters of their own liberties (having +long ago, by the assistance of the Utopians, shaken off the yoke of tyranny, +and being much taken with those virtues which they observe among them), have +come to desire that they would send magistrates to govern them, some changing +them every year, and others every five years; at the end of their government +they bring them back to Utopia, with 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 magistrates, +they could not have made a better choice than by pitching on men whom no +advantages can bias; for wealth is of no use to them, since they must so soon +go back to their own country, and they, being strangers among them, are not +engaged in any of their heats or animosities; and it is certain that when +public judicatories are swayed, either by avarice or partial affections, there +must follow a dissolution of justice, the chief sinew of society. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“By this means it is that all sort of justice passes in the world for a +low-spirited and vulgar virtue, far 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 ground, and, therefore, becomes none but the lower part +of mankind, and so must be kept in severely by many restraints, that it may not +break out beyond the bounds that are set to it; the other is the peculiar +virtue of princes, which, as it is more majestic than that which becomes the +rabble, so takes a freer compass, and thus lawful and unlawful are only +measured by pleasure and interest. These practices of the princes that lie +about Utopia, who 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 yet, though treaties were more +religiously observed, they would still dislike the custom of making them, since +the world has taken up a false maxim upon it, as if there were no tie of nature +uniting one nation to another, only separated perhaps by a mountain or a river, +and that all were born in a state of hostility, and 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 other, if, by the unskilfulness of +wording them, there are not effectual provisoes made against them; they, on the +other hand, judge that no man is to be esteemed our enemy that has never +injured us, and 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 whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of +men’s hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>OF THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE</h2> + +<p> +They detest war as a very brutal thing, and which, to the reproach of human +nature, is more practised by men than by any sort of beasts. They, in +opposition to the sentiments of almost all other nations, think that there is +nothing more inglorious than that glory that is gained by war; and therefore, +though they accustom themselves daily to military exercises and the discipline +of war, in which not only their men, but their women likewise, are trained up, +that, in cases of necessity, they may not be quite useless, yet they do not +rashly engage in war, unless it be either to defend themselves or their friends +from any unjust aggressors, or, out of good nature or in compassion, assist an +oppressed nation in shaking off the yoke of tyranny. They, indeed, help 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 made, and, being +satisfied with the grounds on which they went, they had found that all demands +of reparation were rejected, so that a war was unavoidable. This they think to +be not only just when one neighbour makes an inroad on another by public order, +and carries away the spoils, but when the merchants of one country are +oppressed in another, either under pretence of some unjust laws, or by the +perverse wresting of good ones. This they count a juster cause of war than the +other, because 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 +Aleopolitanes, a little before our time; for the merchants of the former +having, as they thought, met with great injustice among the latter, which +(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 it, it not only shook some very +flourishing states and very much afflicted others, but, after a series of much +mischief ended in the entire conquest and slavery of the Aleopolitanes, who, +though before the war they were in all respects much superior to the +Nephelogetes, were yet subdued; but, though the Utopians had assisted them in +the war, yet they pretended to no share of the spoil. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 triumphs, and erect trophies to the honour of +those who have succeeded; for then do they reckon that a man acts suitably to +his nature, when he conquers his enemy in such a way as that no other creature +but a man could be capable of, and that is by the strength of his +understanding. Bears, lions, boars, wolves, and dogs, and all other animals, +employ their bodily force one against another, in which, as many of them are +superior to men, both in strength and fierceness, so they are all subdued by +his reason and understanding. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“As soon as they declare war, they take care to have a great many +schedules, that are sealed with their common seal, affixed in the most +conspicuous places of their enemies’ country. This is carried secretly, +and done in many places all at once. In these they promise great rewards to +such as shall kill the prince, and lesser in proportion to such as shall kill +any other persons who are those on whom, next to the prince himself, they cast +the chief balance of the war. And they double the sum to him that, instead of +killing the person so marked out, shall take him alive, and put him in their +hands. They offer not only indemnity, but rewards, to such of the persons +themselves that are so marked, if they will act against their countrymen. By +this means those that are named in their schedules become not only distrustful +of their fellow-citizens, but are jealous of one another, and are much +distracted by fear and danger; for it has often fallen out that many of them, +and even the prince himself, have been betrayed, by those in whom they have +trusted most; for the rewards that the Utopians offer are so immeasurably +great, that there is no sort of crime to which men cannot be drawn by them. +They consider the risk that those run who undertake such services, and offer a +recompense proportioned to the danger—not only a vast deal of gold, but +great revenues in lands, that lie among other nations that are their friends, +where 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 enemies, though it appears to others to be base and cruel; but +they look on it as a wise course, to make an end of what would be otherwise a +long war, without 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 enemies, by the death of a few that are most +guilty; and that in so doing they are kind even to their enemies, and 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 accord, but are driven into it by the passions +of their prince. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“But as they keep their gold and silver only for such an occasion, so, +when that offers itself, they easily part with it; since it would be no +convenience to them, though they should reserve nothing of it to themselves. +For besides the wealth that they have among them at home, they 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 Zapolets, who live five hundred miles east of Utopia. They are a rude, +wild, and fierce nation, who delight in the woods and rocks, among which they +were born and bred up. They are hardened both against heat, cold, and labour, +and know nothing of the delicacies of life. They do not apply themselves to +agriculture, nor 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 made, as it were, only for war. They watch all +opportunities of engaging in it, and very readily embrace such as are offered +them. Great numbers of them will frequently go out, and offer themselves for a +very low pay, to serve any that will employ them: they know none of the arts of +life, but those that lead to the taking it away; they serve those that hire +them, both with much courage and great fidelity; but will not engage to serve +for any determined time, and agree upon such terms, that the next day they may +go over to the enemies of those whom they serve if they offer them a greater +encouragement; and will, perhaps, return 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 related, and were hired in the same country, and so have lived long and +familiarly together, forgetting both their relations and former friendship, +kill 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 +money, which they value so highly, is of little use to them; for what they +purchase thus with their blood they quickly waste on luxury, which among them +is but of a poor and miserable form. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 ground, they do it so that it is very hard to find out +their design. If they see they are ill posted, or are like to be overpowered by +numbers, they then either march off in the night with great silence, or 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 this, but the whole army works at it, except those that are then upon +the guard; so that when so many hands are at work, a great line and a strong +fortification is finished in so short a time that it is scarce credible. Their +armour is very strong for defence, and 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 arrows, and are +very expert. They have no swords, but fight with a pole-axe that is both sharp +and heavy, by which they thrust or strike down an enemy. They are very good at +finding out warlike machines, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“When a war is ended, they do not oblige their friends to reimburse their +expenses; but they obtain them of the conquered, either in money, which they +keep for the next occasion, or in lands, out 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 700,000 ducats a year. They +send some of their own people to receive these revenues, who have orders to +live magnificently and like princes, by 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 do, unless some great +occasion, which falls out but very seldom, should 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 country, they prevent him, +and 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 happen, they would only +defend themselves by their own people; but would not call for auxiliary troops +to their assistance. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANS</h2> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“By degrees they fall off from the various superstitions that are among +them, and grow up to that one religion that is the best and most in request; +and there is no doubt to be made, but that all the others had vanished long +ago, if some of those who advised them to lay aside their superstitions had not +met with some unhappy accidents, which, being considered as inflicted by +heaven, made them afraid that the god whose worship had like to have been +abandoned had interposed and revenged themselves on those who despised their +authority. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any +from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was +there one man was only punished on this occasion. He being newly baptised did, +notwithstanding all that we could say to the contrary, dispute publicly +concerning the Christian religion, with more zeal than discretion, and with so +much heat, that he not only preferred our worship to theirs, but condemned all +their rites as profane, and cried out against all that adhered to them as +impious and sacrilegious persons, that were to be damned to everlasting +burnings. Upon his having frequently preached in this manner he was seized, and +after trial he was condemned to banishment, not for having disparaged their +religion, but for his inflaming the people to sedition; for this is one of +their most ancient laws, that no man ought to be punished for his religion. At +the first constitution of their government, Utopus having understood that +before his coming among them the old inhabitants had been engaged in great +quarrels concerning religion, by which they were so divided among themselves, +that he found it an easy thing to conquer them, since, instead of uniting their +forces against him, every 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 pleased, and might endeavour to draw others to it by the force of +argument and by amicable and modest ways, but without bitterness against those +of other opinions; but that he ought to use no other force but that of +persuasion, and was neither to mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as +did otherwise were to be condemned to banishment or slavery. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“They despise and laugh at auguries, and the other vain and superstitious +ways of divination, so much observed among other nations; but have great +reverence for such miracles as cannot flow from any of the powers of nature, +and look on them as effects and indications of the presence of the Supreme +Being, of which they say many instances have occurred among them; and that +sometimes their public prayers, which upon great and dangerous occasions they +have solemnly put up to God, with assured confidence of being heard, have been +answered in a miraculous manner. +</p> + +<p> +“They think the contemplating God in His works, and the adoring Him for +them, is a very acceptable piece of worship to Him. +</p> + +<p> +“There are many among them that upon a motive of religion neglect +learning, and apply themselves to no sort of study; nor do they allow +themselves any leisure time, but 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 highways, cleanse +ditches, repair bridges, or dig turf, gravel, or stone. Others fell and cleave +timber, and bring wood, corn, and other necessaries, on carts, into their +towns; nor do these only serve the public, but they serve even private men, +more than the slaves themselves do: for if there is anywhere a rough, hard, and +sordid piece of work to be done, from which many are frightened by the labour +and loathsomeness of it, if not the despair of accomplishing it, they +cheerfully, and of their own accord, take that to their share; and by that +means, as they ease others very much, so they afflict themselves, and spend +their whole life in hard labour: and yet they do not value themselves upon +this, nor lessen other people’s credit to raise their own; but by their +stooping to such servile employments they are so far from being despised, that +they are so much the more esteemed by the whole nation. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Their priests are men of eminent piety, and therefore they are but few, +for there are only thirteen in every town, one for every temple; but when they +go to war, seven of these go out with their forces, and 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 absence, attend +upon the high priest, till 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 secret, for preventing of factions: and when they are +chosen, they are consecrated by the college of priests. The care of all sacred +things, the worship of God, and an inspection into the manners of the people, +are committed to them. It is a reproach to a man to be sent for by any of them, +or for them to speak to him in secret, for 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 Prince, and +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 this, for as it +loads them with infamy, so it fills them with secret horrors, such 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 repentance, they are seized on by the Senate, and punished for +their impiety. The education of youth belongs to the priests, yet they do not +take so much care of instructing them in letters, as in forming their minds and +manners aright; they use all possible methods to infuse, very early, into the +tender and flexible minds of children, such opinions as are both good in +themselves and will be useful to their country, for when deep impressions of +these things are made at that age, they follow men through the whole course of +their lives, and conduce much to preserve the peace of the government, which +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 +seldom, nor are any but ancient widows chosen into that order. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“They have, indeed, very few of them, lest greater numbers sharing in the +same honour might make the dignity of that order, which they esteem so highly, +to 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 dignity, which demands +the exercise of more than ordinary virtues. Nor are the priests in greater +veneration among them than they are among their neighbouring nations, as you +may imagine by that which I think gives occasion for it. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“The first and the last day of the month, and of the year, is a festival; +they measure their months by the course of the moon, and their years by the +course of the sun: the first days are called in their language the Cynemernes, +and the last the Trapemernes, which answers in our language, to the festival +that begins or ends the season. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“They meet in their temples on the evening of the festival that concludes +a season, and not having yet broke their fast, they thank God for their good +success during that year or month which is then at an end; and the next day, +being that which begins the new season, they meet early in their temples, to +pray for the happy progress of all their affairs during that period upon which +they then enter. In the festival which concludes the period, before they go to +the temple, both 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 duty, and beg pardon for it. Thus all little discontents in families are +removed, that 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 +hearts, and reconciling all their differences. In the temples the two sexes are +separated, the men go to the right hand, and 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 belong, so that those who have the government of +them at home may see their deportment in public. And they intermingle them so, +that the younger and the older may be set by one another; for if the younger +sort were all set together, they would, perhaps, trifle 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“All the people appear in the temples in white garments; but the +priest’s vestments are parti-coloured, and both the work and colours are +wonderful. They are made of no rich materials, for they are neither embroidered +nor set with precious stones; but are composed of the plumes of several birds, +laid together with so much art, and so neatly, that the true value of them is +far beyond the costliest materials. They say, that in the ordering and placing +those plumes some dark mysteries are represented, which pass down among their +priests in a secret tradition concerning them; and that they are as +hieroglyphics, putting them in mind of the blessing that they have received +from God, and of their duties, both to Him and to their neighbours. As soon as +the priest appears in those ornaments, they all fall prostrate on the ground, +with so much reverence and so deep a silence, that such as look on cannot but +be struck with it, as if it were the effect of the appearance of a deity. After +they have been for some time in this posture, they all stand up, upon a sign +given by the priest, and sing hymns to the honour of God, some musical +instruments playing all the while. These are quite of another form than those +used among us; but, as many of them are much sweeter than ours, so others are +made use of by us. Yet in one thing they very much exceed us: all their music, +both vocal and instrumental, is adapted to imitate and express the passions, +and is so happily suited to every occasion, that, whether the subject of the +hymn be cheerful, or formed to soothe or trouble the mind, or to express grief +or remorse, the music takes the impression of whatever is represented, affects +and kindles the passions, and works the sentiments deep into the hearts of the +hearers. When this is done, both priests and people offer up very solemn +prayers to God in a set form of words; and these are so composed, that +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 world, and the fountain of all the good they +receive, and therefore offer up to him their thanksgiving; and, in particular, +bless him for His goodness in ordering it so, that they are born under the +happiest government in the world, and are of a religion which they hope is the +truest of all others; but, if they are mistaken, and if there is either a +better government, or a religion more acceptable to God, they implore His +goodness to let them know it, vowing that they resolve to follow him +whithersoever he leads them; but if their government is the best, and their +religion the truest, then they pray that He may fortify them in it, and bring +all the world both to the same rules of life, and to the same opinions +concerning Himself, unless, according to the unsearchableness of His mind, He +is pleased with a variety of religions. Then they pray that God may give them +an easy passage at last to Himself, not presuming to set limits to Him, how +early or late it should be; but, if it may be wished for without derogating +from His supreme authority, they desire to be quickly delivered, and to be +taken to Himself, though by the most terrible kind of death, rather 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; and, after a little +while, they rise up, go home to dinner, and spend the rest of the day in +diversion or military exercises. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Is not that government both unjust and ungrateful, that is so prodigal +of its favours to those that are called gentlemen, or goldsmiths, or such +others who are idle, or live either by flattery or by contriving the arts of +vain pleasure, and, on the other hand, takes no care of those of a meaner sort, +such as ploughmen, colliers, and smiths, without whom it could not subsist? But +after the public has reaped all the advantage of their service, and they come +to be oppressed with age, sickness, and want, all their labours and the good +they have done is forgotten, and 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 lower, not only by their fraudulent practices, but by the +laws which they procure to be made to that effect, so that though it is a thing +most unjust in itself to give such small rewards to those who deserve so well +of the public, yet they have given those hardships the name and colour of +justice, by procuring laws to be made for regulating them. +</p> + +<p> +“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 severities 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:— +</p> + +<p> +“Consider any year, that has been so unfruitful that many thousands have +died of hunger; and yet if, at the end of that year, a survey was made of the +granaries of all the rich men that have hoarded up the corn, it would be found +that there was enough among them to have prevented all that consumption of men +that perished in misery; and that, if it had been distributed among them, none +would have felt the terrible effects of that scarcity: so easy a thing would it +be to supply all the necessities of life, if that blessed thing called money, +which is pretended to be invented for procuring them was not really the only +thing that obstructed their being procured! +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +When Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to +me, both concerning the manners and laws of that people, that seemed very +absurd, as well in their way of making war, as in their notions of religion and +divine matters—together with several other particulars, but chiefly what +seemed the foundation of all the rest, their living in common, without the use +of money, by which all nobility, magnificence, splendour, and majesty, which, +according to the common opinion, are the true ornaments of a nation, would be +quite taken away—yet since I perceived that Raphael was weary, and was +not sure whether he could easily bear contradiction, remembering that he had +taken notice of some, who seemed to think they were bound in honour to support +the credit of their own wisdom, by finding out something to censure in all +other men’s inventions, besides their own, I only commended their +Constitution, and the account he had given of it in general; and so, taking him +by the hand, carried him to supper, and told him I would find out some other +time for examining this subject more particularly, and for discoursing more +copiously upon it. And, indeed, I shall be glad to embrace an opportunity of +doing it. In the meanwhile, though it must be confessed that he is both a very +learned man and a person who has obtained a great knowledge of the world, I +cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related. However, there are many +things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see +followed in our governments. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UTOPIA ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 2130-h.htm or 2130-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/3/2130/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</body> + +</html> + + |