ariondas/full_text_dataset · Datasets at Hugging Face

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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.

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

"They have but few 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.

"They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of
people whose profession it is to disguise matters and to wrest the laws,
and, therefore, they think it is much better that every man should plead
his own cause, and trust it to the judge, as in other places the client
trusts it to a counsellor; by this means they both cut off many delays
and find out truth more certainly; for after the parties have laid open
the merits of the cause, without those artifices which lawyers are apt to
suggest, the judge examines the whole matter, and supports the simplicity
of such well-meaning persons, whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to
run down; and thus they avoid those evils which appear very remarkably
among all those nations that labour under a vast load of laws. Every one
of them is skilled in their law; for, as it is a very short study, so the
plainest meaning of which words are capable is always the sense of their
laws; and they argue thus: all laws are promulgated for this end, that
every man may know his duty; and, therefore, the plainest and most
obvious sense of the words is that which ought to be put upon them, since
a more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and would only
serve to make the laws become useless to the greater part of mankind, and
especially to those who need most the direction of them; for it is all
one not to make a law at all or to couch it in such terms that, without a
quick apprehension and much study, a man cannot find out the true meaning
of it, since the generality of mankind are both so dull, and so much
employed in their several trades, that they have neither the leisure nor
the capacity requisite for such an inquiry.

"Some of their 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.

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

"By this means it is that all sort of justice passes in the world for a
low-spirited and vulgar 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

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.

"If any man aspires to any office he is sure never to compass it. They

all live easily together, for none of the magistrates are either insolent

or cruel to the people; they affect rather to be called fathers, and, by

being really so, they well deserve the name; and the people pay them all

the marks of honour the more freely because none are exacted from them.

The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments or of a crown;

but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the

High Priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a

wax light.

"They have but few 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.

"They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of

people whose profession it is to disguise matters and to wrest the laws,

and, therefore, they think it is much better that every man should plead

his own cause, and trust it to the judge, as in other places the client

trusts it to a counsellor; by this means they both cut off many delays

and find out truth more certainly; for after the parties have laid open

the merits of the cause, without those artifices which lawyers are apt to

suggest, the judge examines the whole matter, and supports the simplicity

of such well-meaning persons, whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to

run down; and thus they avoid those evils which appear very remarkably

among all those nations that labour under a vast load of laws. Every one

of them is skilled in their law; for, as it is a very short study, so the

plainest meaning of which words are capable is always the sense of their

laws; and they argue thus: all laws are promulgated for this end, that

every man may know his duty; and, therefore, the plainest and most

obvious sense of the words is that which ought to be put upon them, since

a more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and would only

serve to make the laws become useless to the greater part of mankind, and

especially to those who need most the direction of them; for it is all

one not to make a law at all or to couch it in such terms that, without a

quick apprehension and much study, a man cannot find out the true meaning

of it, since the generality of mankind are both so dull, and so much

employed in their several trades, that they have neither the leisure nor

the capacity requisite for such an inquiry.

"Some of their 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.

"The Utopians call those nations that come and ask magistrates from them

Neighbours; but those to whom they have been of more particular service,

Friends; and as all other nations are perpetually either making leagues

or breaking them, they never enter into an alliance with any state. They

think leagues are useless things, and believe that if the common ties of

humanity do not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no

great effect; and they are the more confirmed in this by what they see

among the nations round about them, who are no strict observers of

leagues and treaties. We know how religiously they are observed in

Europe, more particularly where the Christian doctrine is received, among

whom they are sacred and inviolable! which is partly owing to the justice

and goodness of the princes themselves, and partly to the reverence they

pay to the popes, who, as they are the most religious observers of their

own promises, so they exhort all other princes to perform theirs, and,

when fainter methods do not prevail, they compel them to it by the

severity of the pastoral censure, and think that it would be the most

indecent thing possible if men who are particularly distinguished by the

title of 'The Faithful' should not religiously keep the faith of their

treaties. But in that new-found world, which is not more distant from us

in situation than the people are in their manners and course of life,

there is no trusting to leagues, even though they were made with all the

pomp of the most sacred ceremonies; on the contrary, they are on this

account the sooner broken, some slight pretence being found in the words

of the treaties, which are purposely couched in such ambiguous terms that

they can never be so strictly bound but they will always find some

loophole to escape at, and thus they break both their leagues and their

faith; and this is done with such impudence, that those very men who

value themselves on having suggested these expedients to their princes

would, with a haughty scorn, declaim against such craft; or, to speak

plainer, such fraud and deceit, if they found private men make use of it

in their bargains, and would readily say that they deserved to be hanged.

"By this means it is that all sort of justice passes in the world for a

low-spirited and vulgar 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