some parts of Solomon's works are still preserved in Bensalem, which had been lost to the rest of the world: 'namely, that natural history which he wrote of all plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the moss that groweth out of the wall, and of all things that have life and motion.' Without entering into more details, it seems clear that what Bacon wished most to promote, in his theory of education, was the study of Natural Science. What projects he would have struck out, if he had finished his design, and made a political as well as educational Utopia, we can only conjecture. His treatment of this section, it must be admitted, is a little stiff and pedantic. In one place he evidently refers, though not by name, to his great predecessor. This is where his speaker finds fault with More's device for preventing disappointment after marriage, and proposes another in its stead. It does not seem worth while to pursue this analysis further. As we approach modern times, the field widens so immensely, that it would be impossible even to recount the names of those who have taken a lead in advocating socialist theories. In the 380 years that have passed since More wrote, the difficulties of the problem that occupied him have become, through the growth of population, at once more complex and more pressing. Some of the revolutionary forces, which he discerned to be even then in motion, have since that time gathered, and burst, and spent themselves; or at least transfused their energy into other movements. He saw the end of feudalism, the disbanding of the retainers of feudal lords, the clearing away of cottagers, that great sheep-farms, reminding us of the old latifundia, might bring in increased revenues. He saw the middle class rising into power, and the poor made still poorer by the dissolution of the religious houses. Later generations have seen the influence of the middle class reach its height, and in turn begin to decline; while the vast body of wage-earners, now strong by combination as well as numbers, is pressing forward to take their place. Meantime changes have taken place in the implements and modes of labour analogous to those which have arisen in the social and political condition of the labourer. The weaver working at his own loom in his own cottage, or his wife spinning at her own wheel, gave place first to the master employing as many workers as his dwelling would accommodate; and these in turn disappeared to make room for the factory, with its hundredhanded machines. And if in the political world, with its gradual change from absolutism to democracy, what are called the lower classes seem threatening to swamp the higher, they are themselves exposed to a like fate, as workers, from the very machinery they employ. No one can stand long hours each day tending a machine, or more probably some single part of a machine, without becoming dwarfed and stunted in his faculties as a man. Unlike the old weaver at his loom, he can have no interest in the machine he tends. The raw material it works upon has not been procured by any effort of his; he has no hand in the disposal of it when finished. He receives the wages necessary to ensure his working there regularly, just as the machine receives its share of the steam or other motive power. If any alleviations of another kind fall to his lot, they come, not from the strict conditions of business, but from motives exterior to business, in the employer or in fellowworkers. That discontent should arise among those whose lives are spent under such conditions is but natural. More had the discernment to perceive that, for men to remain happy and contented, they must have periodical change of occupation. And so in Utopia the dwellers in towns spend some time in rotation in agricultural labour. If any way could be found for such alternation in the crowded towns of our own day, who can doubt that it would be a blessing-a blessing not to one side. only? The sedentary student would be the better, physically and mentally, for working some time as a farm-labourer1; the ditcher and delver, whose hands have grown horny with the See, for an illustration of this, the Life of the Rev. Samuel Lewis, by Mrs. Lewis, 1892. spade and mattock, would have a chance of saving one-half of his nature from death by atrophy, if he could pass for a little while to a life of comparative leisure; the loutish boy, if taken possession of for public gymnastic training, during the hours when he would otherwise be hanging about the streets, might grow up into a soldier-like man, possessed of qualities which, if we had an army of such like, would make it a backbone of strength to the nation. That attempts made to bring about results of this kind should have failed, from time to time, is less to be wondered at than regretted. The societies of Robert Owen, the phalansteries of Fourier, the ateliers nationaux, which travestied rather than carried out the ideas of Louis Blanc, have all had their trial and failed. Selfishness, and the timidity begotten of selfishness, in those who opposed, and want of purity of motive in many of those who advocated, such schemes, have alike contributed to their failure. Above all, the appeal to violence, or the fear of it, has closed the ranks of those who might otherwise have been disposed to give new theories a trial. More, like Budé and Colet, had much to say in favour of an abstract communism. But if any one had tried to put into practice the maxim of Proudhon', 'la propriété c'est le vol,' he would have found scant indulgence if brought before Sir Thomas on the bench. So far as effecting any great or sudden changes in society at large was concerned, the Utopia was a failure. During the author's lifetime it remained, as it began, simply a philosophical romance. But its value should not, on that account, be now described as 'rather historic than prophetic,' or the author himself as 'the last of the old rather than the first of the new. Its influence has sunk deep into the minds of many generations. In his own practice, in the patriarchal life led under his rule by the combined households at Chelsea, we seem to see an 1 According to Woolsey, the saying should really be ascribed to Brissot de Warville, in 1782. See his Communism and Socialism, 1879, p 102. See the Foreword by Mr. William Morris to his edition of the Utopia, 1893, p. iii. approximation to the solution of the problem. There every one was busy, every one was happy. The servants varied their menial labour by cultivating allotments of garden ground, and, if they had any capacity for it, by the study of music. The daughters of the family were trained in learned pursuits as well as the sons; the Moricae became as famous as the Bilibaldicae. Works of charity were the delight of all. In the diffusion of such a spirit of Christian brotherhood as this we may hope to see a remedy for some of the crying evils of our time. A plutocracy, grasping far more than its share of the good things of this life; an unbridled competition in business, where the race is too keen for the weaker followers to get their due; the determination to amass a fortune at all costs, quocunque modo rem, till in the effort even our quiet country glades, and the national monuments of the capital, are made vehicles for advertisements of wares :- these things, which are our disgrace, may indeed be abolished by nihilism and anarchy. But those forces, however they might succeed in producing chaos, have no power to bring light and order out of it again. "There is nothing that conquers evil,' said Colet', 'but good'; and Colet's Master had said the same before him. § 5. EARLY EDITIONS OF THE UTOPIA. The first edition of the Utopia, in Latin, was printed by Thierry Martin, at Louvain, towards the end of 1516. The work of printing appears to have been very expeditious. On Nov. 12, Gerhard of Nimeguen writes to Erasmus that Martin will undertake the task. A week later, we hear of the work being in the printer's hands. By February 24, 1516-17, the book is out; as Erasmus, in a letter to Cope, begs him to send for a copy. Its title-page is as follows: 1 Lectures on Romans, 1873, p. 86. 2 Brewer: Letters and Papers, ii. no. 2540. 3 lb. no. 2558. Ib. no. 2962. These references are collected by Prof. Arber in the bibliographical Introduction to his reprint of the Utopia. Libellus vere Aureus nec MINUS SALUTARIS QUAM FESTI uus de optimo reip. statu, deq3 noua Insula Vtopia ciuitatis Londinensis ciue & vicecomiti cu ra M. Petri Aegidii Antuerpiesis, & arte Theodorici Martini Alustensis, Ty pographi almæ Louaniensium Academiæ nunc primum accuratissime edi tus. Cum Gratia z Priuilegio. There is no The book is in small 4to, 36 lines to a page. pagination. The first four leaves and the last two have no signatures. The rest are numbered a 1, a 2, &c., to m iv. The printed surface measures a little more than 63 inches by 31. On the reverse of the title is a rough woodcut sketch of Utopia, headed VTOPIAE INSVLAE FIGURA, representing a tract of land, shaped like a horse-shoe, the opening being at the bottom, washed on all sides by the sea. In the middle of the entrance a fort is erected, off which lies a ship. A river follows the inner line of the curve, its source on the left being labelled fons anydri, and its mouth on the right ostivm anydri. Temples, or public buildings, are dotted about at intervals, on the highest of which is the inscription civitas amabrotu. The second leaf has on the obverse the Utopian alphabet, represented below, with the Tetrastichon Vernacula Utopiensium e |