leisure at Antwerp had probably been in his thoughts for years; may even have found partial expression in his Lectures on the Civitas Dei of Augustine. Its now taking definite form may have been hastened, as before suggested, by the life he saw about him in the Flemish towns, by the news from Spanish and other foreign merchants he would meet in the factory at Bruges, by the conversation he would have with Tunstall on the matters of State policy ever coming under that statesman's eye', by the letters that would reach him from home.

It only remained, when More had thus embodied his theories in the practice of an imaginary people, to give an air of vraisemblance to the whole; which he did by a fiction not unworthy of his favourite Lucian, of Rabelais or of Swift. He had met at Antwerp with a citizen of that town named Petrus Aegidius, or Giles. More's description of him might almost have served for one of himself. One day, after hearing mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, he espied his friend in conversation with a stranger, by his appearance a seafaring man. Being introduced to him. by Giles, More had some talk with the new-comer; whom he found so interesting a companion, that he took him, with Giles, to his own house. There, in a garden at the back, seated on a grassy bank, the conversation was resumed. The stranger's name was Raphael Hythloday; he was one of the twenty-four left by Vespucci, as above related, in the fort on the Brazil coast. Moreover he had sojourned in other days in England; he had sat at the table of More's friend and patron, Cardinal Morton, and had many anecdotes to tell of him. This led on the conversation to subjects dear to More's heart, the causes of destitution and crime, the administration of laws, the merits of various forms of civil government. In many of these respects, things were far better managed by the Utopians, whose institutions Hythloday had seen at work, than they were by the nations of Europe.

1 Much State correspondence was at this time constantly passing through Tunstall's hands. See Brewer: Letters and Papers, ii. pt. i. p. cclxix.

More pressed him to

2 The incident is told in a most life-like manner below, p. 25.

3 For the name, see the note below, p.27.

describe this strange country and its ways minutely to them; and to this Hythloday consented. But as it was now midday, they would adjourn to dinner, and after that the relation should begin.

This relation forms the Second Book, already written. The setting to it, just described, forms the First Book, probably composed by More, when back again in London, in the spring or summer of 1516. In the mystification which his Swift-like verisimilitude produced, More was well assisted by two or three friends. Chief of these was Giles, who, as he tells us himself', contributed, besides a commendatory letter to Busleyden, the Utopian alphabet, the 'meter of iiii. verses in the Utopian tongue,' and some of the marginal notes which appeared in the second edition. In fact, Giles's account of the accident which prevented him from catching what Hythloday said about the exact situation of Utopia, is conceived in the same spirit, though not so artistically worked up, as the masterly touches of More himself, where he professes to want settled a point in dispute with John Clement, as to the exact width of the bridge over the Anyder. Other helpers in the first edition were Gerhard of Nimeguen, and Cornelius Grapheus, or Schreiber, of Alst; an account of whom will be found in its proper place below3.

§ 4.-COMPARISON OF THE UTOPIA WITH OTHER IDEAL

SYSTEMS.

The constitution of the Utopians, according to the description given, dated back to the conquest of the country by Utopus, 1760 years before the time of Hythloday's visit. Its name was then Abraxa, and it was not an island but a peninsula. Utopus made it an island by cutting through an isthmus of fifteen miles. Since that time the prosperity of the community had steadily increased; so that instead of cottages with mud walls and roofs of thatch, and a people weakened by religious dissension, 3 Pp. 320, 322.

1
1 Infra, p. xcviii.

* Page xcix.

nothing was now to be seen but 'houses curiously builded, after a gorgeous and gallant sort,' with a happy and united population.

Their polity was a confederation of free states, each sending representatives to the general council of the central city, Amaurote, which thus ranked as the capital. There were in the island, including Amaurote, fifty-four of these states, each consisting of a city with its shire, or adjacent territory. No two cities were less than twenty-four miles apart, nor more than a day's journey on foot. In each were six thousand 'families,' besides an indefinite number of persons living in farmsteads out in the shire. The households in these farmsteads consisted of forty persons each, with two bondmen, under the rule of the goodman and his wife; the members coming in rotation from the number of the townspeople, in such a way that every one of them got two years of country life in turn. The city families were composed of members usually of the same kindred, but not all the children of two parents. Each family was to have not fewer than ten, nor more than sixteen, children of the age of fourteen or thereabouts allotted to it. Should the numbers in any one family become excessive, the superabundance was to be transferred to another that might be deficient. So with the total in one city as compared with another. If it should chance that the population in the whole island became excessive, unoccupied lands in adjacent countries were to be colonized; war being made on any people that resisted such an arrangement. 'For they count this the most just cause of war, when any people holdeth a piece of ground voyd and vacant, to no good nor profitable use.'

For their government, every thirty families are under a 'head bailiff,' anciently called a Syphograunt, but now a Phylarch. Every ten Syphograunts are under a superior officer, once called a Tranibore, but now in like manner a Chief Phylarch. All these are subject to annual election, but the Tranibores are not changed lightly. As there are six thousand families in each city, it follows that there will be in each two hundred

Syphograunts. These elect the Prince', anciently called Barzanes, now Ademus, out of four candidates sent up to them, one from each of the four quarters or wards, by the inhabitants at large. The election is secret, and the office is held for life, 'unless he be deposed or put down for suspicion of tyranny.' The municipal council of each city is formed of the Tranibores, with the 'Prince' or mayor; two Syphograunts (fresh ones at each meeting) being summoned to their deliberations. These municipal councils are held every third day, or oftener if need be. The national council of the island meets once a year at Amaurote, and consists of representatives, three in number, from each of the cities.

Hither, for

The great principle on which the life of the Utopians is based, is community of goods. There is no private property; no use of money, except as a means of commercial intercourse with other nations. In this, More seems to have taken his idea from what he had read of Solon or Lycurgus. At intervals along each street the traveller would come to a 'great hall,' in which dwelt the Syphograunt and his wife. the daily meals, would resort the members of the thirty families attached to each, as the members of the City Companies in London might have resorted to their Halls. More draws the picture of the social gathering, as it might often have presented itself to his eye in the Hall of his own Guild, or in that of Lincoln's Inn. There is the high table 'overthwart the over end of the hall.' At every table they sit 'four in a mess.' The Syphograunt and his wife-for there the women attend as well as the men-are in the place of honour, supported on either side by two of the 'auncientest and eldest.' Due provision is made for the young people, for children, for

The use of the word Prince by the translators, for the Latin princeps, seems to have led to the notion that the government in Utopia was monarchical; that there was a king over the whole island. Thus Morris speaks of there being 'bondslaves and a king' (Reprint of Robynson's Translation,

1893, pref., p. vi). But Utopia is expressly called a Republic. Its eponymic king, Utopus, vanished, like Lycurgus, after giving it a constitution, and left no successor. The princeps (mayor?) is the head of each city alone.

infants and their nurses. The food, which is plain but ample, has been fetched from the common market earlier in the day by stewards, but with a reservation of the very best for the hospitals, one of which, outside the walls, is provided for each of the four wards of the city.

To provide the necessary supplies for maintaining this course of life, but very moderate labour is needed. And this for two reasons. First, there is no object in hoarding, or in superfluous expense, when all eat and dress alike; and secondly, the number of those excused from active labour is very small. Scarce five hundred in each city with its shire, not counting the aged and impotent, are so exempt. These form the learned class, from which are to be chosen ambassadors, the various public officers, and the priests. The privilege of admission to it comes from the people, 'persuaded by the commendation of the priests, and secret election of the Syphograunts.' If any one so privileged grows idle, he is 'plucked back,' and put to manual labour again. Contrariwise, if any artisan, by good employment of his leisure hours, has made profit in learning, he may be admitted among the scholares; not to have an easier life, but to have the opportunity of cultivating better his own proper talent.

Under these conditions, six hours' work a day is found to be sufficient, or even more than sufficient. Three hours are so devoted before dinner; after that comes a rest of two hours; and then another short spell of three hours brings them to supper-time. At eight o'clock all go to bed, to rise (two hours later than More is said himself to have done) at four. Lectures, and music, and honest games fill up the intervals of the day. For in the institution of that weal public 'this end is only and chiefly pretended and minded, that what time may possibly be spared from the necessary occupations and affairs of the commonwealth, all that the citizens should withdraw from the bodily service to the free liberty of the mind, and garnishing of the same.'

In their foreign policy the Utopians are not chivalrous. War they detest. With them bellum, whatever philologists