so hard on them, that it appears that 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 will 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; 149 for they reckon that a laid and studied design of committing any crime, is equal to the fact itself; since its not taking effect does not make the person that did all that in him lay in order to it, a whit the less guilty.

"They take great pleasure in fools,150 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 they think 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

149 We have far better authority for this: " whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

150 In this we follow closely in the footsteps of the Utopians, for I know of no class of men in whom the world takes so much pleasure as it does in fools. In all places they abound, and are well received. Every one makes a point of being civil to them; for though

"Les fous sont ici bas pour nos menus plaisirs," in appearance it is quite otherwise. In fact, being in a majority, they rule the roast, at least in what is called the "great world."

they can do to recommend themselves to others, it could not be expected that they would be so well looked to, nor so tenderly used as they must otherwise be. If any man should reproach another for his being misshapped or imperfect in any part of his body, it would not at all be thought a reflection on the person that was so treated, but it would be accounted a very unworthy thing for him that had upbraided another with that which 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 an infamous thing among them to use paint or fard.151 And 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 catched and held only by beauty, so all people are held by the other excellencies which charm all the word.

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As they fright men from committing crimes by punishment, so they invite them to the love of virtue by public honours. Therefore they erect statues in honour to the memories of such worthy

151 On this point we exhibit superior wisdom. We all paint at present, being persuaded that, if it be allowable to curl one's hair and wash one's feet, for the purpose of appearing more agreeable to others, the same patriotic motive requires that we should take one step more for their pleasure, and paint our cheeks, our lips, and our foreheads. And, instead of being blamed for this, we are entitled to very high praise; since, were we residing on some desert island, where our ugliness could offend no one, it is very certain we should take little trouble with ourselves. Our design is solely to give delight, by exhibiting a handsome mask to the gaze of persons who might perhaps be terrified at the reality it conceals.

men as have deserved well of their country, and set these in their market-places,152 both to perpetuate the remembrance of their actions, and to be an incitement to their posterity to follow their example.

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

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They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many. They do 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 that they cannot be read or understood by every one of the subjects. 153

152 The statues of the illustrious tyrannicides, Harmadios and Aristogeiton, were set up in the Athenian agora, and near them none others might be erected. At some distance in the square, however, other patriots, as Kimon, for example, had the honour of a statue, and to this Sir Thomas More alludes. When shall we see the statues of Ireton, Cromwell, and Bradshaw, in Covent Garden?

153 This is a home thrust. Our laws are so numerous that, toge

"They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters as well as to wrest laws; and, therefore, they think it is much better that every man should plead his own cause, and trust it to the judge, as well as in other places the client does it to a counsellor.145 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 their 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;155 and, therefore, the plainest and

ther with their commentaries, they would have furnished sufficient solid reading for Adam, if he had lived until now; and the best of it is, that he would probably have been as wise when he concluded as when he began. This is a proud boast which few nations can make; and we may add, that our constitution, like our laws, is unintelligible to all the world

154 This, if nothing else, will always recommend the " Utopia" to the thorough detestation of the men in wigs; the more so, as the author himself wore a wig, and ought to have possessed some knowledge of the profession.

155 This is a grievous mistake; for it would be easy to de

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

"Some of their 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 that they observe among them, have come to them, and desired that they would send magistrates among them to be their governors; 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

monstrate that laws are promulgated, at least in England, expressly to preserve men from the knowledge of their duty, in order that they may fall into the numerous gins and traps industriously set for them, and pay all the mulcts and penalties upon which the profession and all its hangers-on thrive and wax fat.