ariondas/full_text_dataset · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 0 1.91k
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

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