,,colloquies ,,on ,,society4 ,,by ,,robert ,,southey4 ,,cassell ,,company1 ,limited3 ,,london1 ,,paris1 ,,new ,,york ,,melbourne4 #ahhg4 ,,introduction4 ,it was in #ahbd that ,robert ,southey1 then fifty years old1 published ,sir ,thomas ,more1 or ,colloquies on the ,progress and ,prospects of ,society1 a book in two octavo volumes with plates illustrating lake scenery4 ,there were later editions of the book in #ahbi1 and in #ahca1 and there was an edition in one volume in #ahcg1 at the beginning of the reign of ,queen ,victoria4 ,these dialogues with a meditative and patriotic ghost form separate dissertations upon various questions that concern the progress of society4 ,omitting a few dissertations that have lost the interest they had when the subjects they discussed were burning questions of the time1 this volume retains the whole machinery of ,southey's book4 ,it gives unabridged the ,colloquies that deal with the main principles of social life as ,southey saw them in his latter days2 and it includes1 of course1 the pleasant ,colloquy that presents to us ,southey himself1 happy in his library1 descanting on the course of time as illustrated by the bodies and the souls of books4 ,as this volume does not reproduce all the ,colloquies arranged by ,southey under the main title of ,sir ,thomas ,more1 it avoids use of the main title1 and ventures only to describe itself as ,colloquies on ,society1 by ,robert ,southey4 ,they are of great interest1 for they present to us the form and character of the conservative reaction in a mind that was in youth impatient for reform4 ,in ,southey1 as in ,wordsworth1 the reaction followed on experience of failure in the way taken by the revolutionists of ,france1 with whose aims for the regeneration of ,europe they had been in warmest accord4 ,neither ,wordsworth nor ,southey ever lowered the ideal of a higher life for man on earth4 ,southey retains it in these ,colloquies1 although he balances his own hope with the questionings of the ghost1 and if he does look for a crowning race1 regards it1 with ,tennyson1 as a far off divine event ,to which the whole ,creation moves4 ,the conviction brought to men like ,wordsworth and ,southey by the failure of the ,french ,revolution to attain its aim in the sudden elevation of society was not of vanity in the aim1 but of vanity in any hope of its immediate attainment by main force4 ,southey makes ,more say to himself upon this question 7page #cg71 ,i admit that such an improved condition of society as you contemplate is possible1 and that it ought always to be kept in view2 but the error of supposing it too near1 of fancying that there is a short road to it1 is1 of all the errors of these times1 the most pernicious1 because it seduces the young and generous1 and betrays them imperceptibly into an alliance with whatever is flagitious and detestable4 ,all strong reaction of mind tends towards excess in the opposite direction4 ,southey's detestation of the excesses of vile men that brought shame upon a revolutionary movement to which some of the purest hopes of earnest youth had given impulse1 drove him1 as it drove ,wordsworth1 into dread of everything that sought with passionate energy immediate change of evil into good4 ,but in his own way no man ever strove more patiently than ,southey to make evil good2 and in his own home and his own life he gave good reason to one to whom he was as a father1 and who knew his daily thoughts and deeds1 to speak of him as upon the whole the best man ,i have ever known4 ,in the days when this book was written1 ,southey lived at ,greta ,hall1 by ,keswick1 and had gathered a large library about him4 ,he was ,poet ,laureate4 ,he had a pension from the ,civil ,list1 worth less than #bjj pounds a year1 and he was living at peace upon a little income enlarged by his yearly earnings as a writer4 ,in #ahah his whole private fortune was #djj pounds in consols4 ,in #ahba he had added to that some savings1 and gave all to a ruined friend who had been good to him in former years4 ,yet in those days he refused an offer of #b1jjj pounds a year to come to ,london and write for the ,times4 ,he was happiest in his home by ,skiddaw1 with his books about him and his wife about him4 ,ten years after the publishing of these ,colloquies1 ,southey's wife1 who had been1 as ,southey said1 for forty years the life of his life1 had to be placed in a lunatic asylum4 ,she returned to him to die1 and then his gentleness became still gentler as his own mind failed4 ,he died in #ahdc4 ,three years before his death his friend ,wordsworth visited him at ,keswick1 and was not recognised4 ,but when ,southey was told who it was1 then1 ,wordsworth wrote1 his eyes flashed for a moment with their former brightness1 but he sank into the state in which ,i had found him1 patting with both his hands his books affectionately1 like a child4 ,sir ,thomas ,more1 whose ghost communicates with ,robert ,southey1 was born in #adgh1 and at the age of fifty-seven was beheaded for fidelity to conscience1 on the #fth of ,july1 #aece4 ,he was1 like ,southey1 a man of purest character1 and in #aeaf1 when his age was thirty-eight1 there was published at ,louvain his ,utopia1 which sketched wittily an ideal commonwealth that was based on practical and earnest thought upon what constitutes a state1 and in what direction to look for amendment of ills4 ,more also withdrew from his most advanced post of opinion4 ,when he wrote ,utopia he advocated absolute freedom of opinion in matters of religion2 in after years he believed it necessary to enforce conformity4 ,king ,henry ,,viii41 stiff in his own opinions1 had always believed that2 and because ,more would not say that he was of one mind with him in the matter of the divorce of ,katherine he sent him to the scaffold4 ,h4 ,m4 ,,colloquy ,i4--,,the ,,introduction4 ,posso aver certezza1 e non paura1 ,che raccontando quel che m' e accaduto1 ,il ver diro1 ne mi sara creduto4 ,orlando ,innamorato1 c4 #e4 st4 #ec4 ,it was during that melancholy ,november when the death of the ,princess ,charlotte had diffused throughout ,great ,britain a more general sorrow than had ever before been known in these kingdoms2 ,i was sitting alone at evening in my library1 and my thoughts had wandered from the book before me to the circumstances which made this national calamity be felt almost like a private affliction4 ,while ,i was thus musing the post-woman arrived4 ,my letters told me there was nothing exaggerated in the public accounts of the impression which this sudden loss had produced2 that wherever you went you found the women of the family weeping1 and that men could scarcely speak of the event without tears2 that in all the better parts of the metropolis there was a sort of palsied feeling which seemed to affect the whole current of active life2 and that for several days there prevailed in the streets a stillness like that of the ,sabbath1 but without its repose4 ,i opened the newspaper2 it was still bordered with broad mourning lines1 and was filled with details concerning the deceased ,princess4 ,her coffin and the ceremonies at her funeral were described as minutely as the order of her nuptials and her bridal dress had been1 in the same journal1 scarce eighteen months before4 ,man1 says ,sir ,thomas ,brown1 is a noble animal1 splendid in ashes1 and pompous in the grave2 solemnising nativities and deaths with equal lustre1 nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature4 ,these things led me in spirit to the vault1 and ,i thought of the memorable dead among whom her mortal remains were now deposited4 ,possessed with such imaginations ,i leaned back upon the sofa and closed my eyes4 ,ere long ,i was awakened from that conscious state of slumber in which the stream of fancy floweth as it listeth by the entrance of an elderly personage of grave and dignified appearance4 ,his countenance and manner were remarkably benign1 and announced a high degree of intellectual rank1 and he accosted me in a voice of uncommon sweetness1 saying1 ,montesinos1 a stranger from a distant country may intrude upon you without those credentials which in other cases you have a right to require4 ,from ,america6 ,i replied1 rising to salute him4 ,some of the most gratifying visits which ,i have ever received have been from that part of the world4 ,it gives me indeed more pleasure than ,i can express to welcome such travellers as have sometimes found their way from ,new ,england to those lakes and mountains2 men who have not forgotten what they owe to their ancient mother2 whose principles1 and talents1 and attainments would render them an ornament to any country1 and might almost lead me to hope that their republican constitution may be more permanent than all other considerations would induce me either to suppose or wish4 ,you judge of me1 he made answer1 by my speech4 ,i am1 however1 ,english by birth1 and come now from a more distant country than ,america1 wherein ,i have long been naturalised4 ,without explaining himself further1 or allowing me time to make the inquiry which would naturally have followed1 he asked me if ,i were not thinking of the ,princess ,charlotte when he disturbed me4 ,that1 said ,i1 may easily be divined4 ,all persons whose hearts are not filled with their own grief are thinking of her at this time4 ,it had just occurred to me that on two former occasions when the heir apparent of ,england was cut off in the prime of life the nation was on the eve of a religious revolution in the first instance1 and of a political one in the second4 ,prince ,arthur and ,prince ,henry1 he replied4 ,do you notice this as ominous1 or merely as remarkable8 ,merely as remarkable1 was my answer4 ,yet there are certain moods of mind in which we can scarcely help ascribing an ominous importance to any remarkable coincidence wherein things of moment are concerned4 ,are you superstitious8 said he4 ,understand me as using the word for want of a more appropriate one--not in its ordinary and contemptuous acceptation4 ,i smiled at the question1 and replied1 ,many persons would apply the epithet to me without qualifying it4 ,this1 you know1 is the age of reason1 and during the last hundred and fifty years men have been reasoning themselves out of everything that they ought to believe and feel4 ,among a certain miserable class1 who are more numerous than is commonly supposed1 he who believes in a ,first ,cause and a future state is regarded with contempt as a superstitionist4 ,the religious naturalist in his turn despises the feebler mind of the ,socinian2 and the ,socinian looks with astonishment or pity at the weakness of those who1 having by conscientious inquiry satisfied themselves of the authenticity of the ,scriptures1 are contented to believe what is written1 and acknowledge humility to be the foundation of wisdom as well as of virtue4 ,but for myself1 many1 if not most of those even who agree with me in all essential points1 would be inclined to think me superstitious1 because ,i am not ashamed to avow my persuasion that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy4 ,you believe1 then1 in apparitions1 said my visitor4 ,montesinos4--,even so1 sir4 ,that such things should be is probable a priori2 and ,i cannot refuse assent to the strong evidence that such things are1 nor to the common consent which has prevailed among all people1 everywhere1 in all ages a belief indeed which is truly catholic1 in the widest acceptation of the word4 ,i am1 by inquiry and conviction1 as well as by inclination and feeling1 a ,christian2 life would be intolerable to me if ,i were not so4 ,but1 says ,saint ,evremont1 the most devout cannot always command their belief1 nor the most impious their incredulity4 ,i acknowledge with ,sir ,thomas ,brown that1 as in philosophy1 so in divinity1 there are sturdy doubts and boisterous objections1 wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us2 and ,i confess with him that these are to be conquered1 not in a martial posture1 but on our knees4 ,if then there are moments wherein ,i1 who have satisfied my reason1 and possess a firm and assured faith1 feel that ,i have in this opinion a strong hold1 ,i cannot but perceive that they who have endeavoured to dispossess the people of their old instinctive belief in such things have done little service to individuals and much injury to the community4 ,stranger4--,do you extend this to a belief in witchcraft8 ,montesinos4--,the common stories of witchcraft confute themselves1 as may be seen in all the trials for that offence4 ,upon this subject ,i would say with my old friend ,charles ,lamb-- ,i do not love to credit tales of magic6 ,heaven's music1 which is order1 seems unstrung4 ,and this brave world 7,the mystery of ,god7 unbeautified1 ,disordered1 marred1 where such strange things are acted4 ,the only inference which can be drawn from the confession of some of the poor wretches who have suffered upon such charges is1 that they had attempted to commit the crime1 and thereby incurred the guilt and deserved the punishment4 ,of this indeed there have been recent instances2 and in one atrocious case the criminal escaped because the statute against the imaginary offence is obsolete1 and there exists no law which could reach the real one4 ,stranger4--,he who may wish to show with what absurd perversion the forms and technicalities of law are applied to obstruct the purposes of justice1 which they were designed to further1 may find excellent examples in ,england4 ,but leaving this allow me to ask whether you think all the stories which are related of an intercourse between men and beings of a superior order1 good or evil1 are to be disbelieved like the vulgar tales of witchcraft8 ,montesinos4--,if you happen1 sir1 to have read some of those ballads which ,i threw off in the high spirits of youth you may judge what my opinion then was of the grotesque demonology of the monks and middle ages by the use there made of it4 ,but in the scale of existences there may be as many orders above us as below4 ,we know there are creatures so minute that without the aid of our glasses they could never have been discovered2 and this fact1 if it were not notorious as well as certain1 would appear not less incredible to sceptical minds than that there should be beings which are invisible to us because of their subtlety4 ,that there are such ,i am as little able to doubt as ,i am to affirm anything concerning them2 but if there are such1 why not evil spirits1 as well as wicked men8 ,many travellers who have been conversant with savages have been fully persuaded that their jugglers actually possessed some means of communication with the invisible world1 and exercised a supernatural power which they derived from it4 ,and not missionaries only have believed this1 and old travellers who lived in ages of credulity1 but more recent observers1 such as ,carver and ,bruce1 whose testimony is of great weight1 and who were neither ignorant1 nor weak1 nor credulous men4 ,what ,i have read concerning ordeals also staggers me2 and ,i am sometimes inclined to think it more possible that when there has been full faith on all sides these appeals to divine justice may have been answered by ,him who sees the secrets of all hearts than that modes of trial should have prevailed so long and so generally1 from some of which no person could ever have escaped without an interposition of ,providence4 ,thus it has appeared to me in my calm and unbiassed judgment4 ,yet ,i confess ,i should want faith to make the trial4 ,may it not be1 that by such means in dark ages1 and among blind nations1 the purpose is effected of preserving conscience and the belief of our immortality1 without which the life of our life would be extinct8 ,and with regard to the conjurers of the ,african and ,american savages1 would it be unreasonable to suppose that1 as the most elevated devotion brings us into fellowship with the ,holy ,spirit1 a correspondent degree of wickedness may effect a communion with evil intelligences8 ,these are mere speculations which ,i advance for as little as they are worth4 ,my serious belief amounts to this1 that preternatural impressions are sometimes communicated to us for wise purposes3 and that departed spirits are sometimes permitted to manifest themselves4 ,stranger4--,if a ghost1 then1 were disposed to pay you a visit1 you would be in a proper state of mind for receiving such a visitor8 ,montesinos4--,i should not credit my senses lightly2 neither should ,i obstinately distrust them1 after ,i had put the reality of the appearance to the proof1 as far as that were possible4 ,stranger4--,should you like to have an opportunity afforded you8 ,montesinos4--,heaven forbid6 ,i have suffered so much in dreams from conversing with those whom even in sleep ,i knew to be departed1 that an actual presence might perhaps be more than ,i could bear4 ,stranger4--,but if it were the spirit of one with whom you had no near ties of relationship or love1 how then would it affect you8 ,montesinos4--,that would of course be according to the circumstances on both sides4 ,but ,i entreat you not to imagine that ,i am any way desirous of enduring the experiment4 ,stranger4--,suppose1 for example1 he were to present himself as ,i have done2 the purport of his coming friendly2 the place and opportunity suiting1 as at present2 the time also considerately chosen--after dinner2 and the spirit not more abrupt in his appearance nor more formidable in aspect than the being who now addresses you8 ,montesinos4--,why1 sir1 to so substantial a ghost1 and of such respectable appearance1 ,i might1 perhaps1 have courage enough to say with ,hamlet1 ,thou com'st in such a questionable shape1 ,that ,i will speak to thee6 ,stranger4--,then1 sir1 let me introduce myself in that character1 now that our conversation has conducted us so happily to the point4 ,i told you truly that ,i was ,english by birth1 but that ,i came from a more distant country than ,america1 and had long been naturalised there4 ,the country whence ,i come is not the ,new ,world1 but the other one3 and ,i now declare myself in sober earnest to be a ghost4 ,montesinos4--,a ghost6 ,stranger4--,a veritable ghost1 and an honest one1 who went out of the world with so good a character that he will hardly escape canonisation if ever you get a ,roman ,catholic king upon the throne4 ,and now what test do you require8 ,montesinos4--,i can detect no smell of brimstone2 and the candle burns as it did before1 without the slightest tinge of blue in its flame4 ,you look1 indeed1 like a spirit of health1 and ,i might be disposed to give entire belief to that countenance1 if it were not for the tongue that belongs to it4 ,but you are a queer spirit1 whether good or evil6 ,stranger4--,the headsman thought so1 when he made a ghost of me almost three hundred years ago4 ,i had a character through life of loving a jest1 and did not belie it at the last4 ,but ,i had also as general a reputation for sincerity1 and of that also conclusive proof was given at the same time4 ,in serious truth1 then1 ,i am a disembodied spirit1 and the form in which ,i now manifest myself is subject to none of the accidents of matter4 ,you are still incredulous6 ,feel1 then1 and be convinced6 ,my incomprehensible guest extended his hand toward me as he spoke4 ,i held forth mine to accept it1 not1 indeed1 believing him1 and yet not altogether without some apprehensive emotion1 as if ,i were about to receive an electrical shock4 ,the effect was more startling than electricity would have produced4 ,his hand had neither weight nor substance2 my fingers1 when they would have closed upon it1 found nothing that they could grasp3 it was intangible1 though it had all the reality of form4 ,in the name of ,god1 ,i exclaimed1 who are you1 and wherefore are you come8 ,be not alarmed1 he replied4 ,your reason1 which has shown you the possibility of such an appearance as you now witness1 must have convinced you also that it would never be permitted for an evil end4 ,examine my features well1 and see if you do not recognise them4 ,hans ,holbein was excellent at a likeness4 ,i had now for the first time in my life a distinct sense of that sort of porcupinish motion over the whole scalp which is so frequently described by the ,latin poets4 ,it was considerably allayed by the benignity of his countenance and the manner of his speech1 and after looking him steadily in the face ,i ventured to say1 for the likeness had previously struck me1 ,is it ,sir ,thomas ,more8 ,the same1 he made answer1 and lifting up his chin1 displayed a circle round the neck brighter in colour than the ruby4 ,the marks of martyrdom1 he continued1 are our insignia of honour4 ,fisher and ,i have the purple collar1 as ,friar ,forrest and ,cranmer have the robe of fire4 ,a mingled feeling of fear and veneration kept me silent1 till ,i perceived by his look that he expected and encouraged me to speak2 and collecting my spirits as well as ,i could1 ,i asked him wherefore he had thought proper to appear1 and why to me rather than to any other person8 ,he replied1 ,we reap as we have sown4 ,men bear with them from this world into the intermediate state their habits of mind and stores of knowledge1 their dispositions and affections and desires2 and these become a part of our punishment1 or of our reward1 according to their kind4 ,those persons1 therefore1 in whom the virtue of patriotism has predominated continue to regard with interest their native land1 unless it be so utterly sunk in degradation that the moral relationship between them is dissolved4 ,epaminondas can have no sympathy at this time with ,thebes1 nor ,cicero with ,rome1 nor ,belisarius with the imperial city of the ,east4 ,but the worthies of ,england retain their affection for their noble country1 behold its advancement with joy1 and when serious danger appears to threaten the goodly structure of its institutions they feel as much anxiety as is compatible with their state of beatitude4 ,montesinos4--,what1 then1 may doubt and anxiety consist with the happiness of heaven8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,heaven and hell may be said to begin on your side the grave4 ,in the intermediate state conscience anticipates with unerring certainty the result of judgment4 ,we1 therefore1 who have done well can have no fear for ourselves4 ,but inasmuch as the world has any hold upon our affections we are liable to that anxiety which is inseparable from terrestrial hopes4 ,and as parents who are in bliss regard still with parental love the children whom they have left on earth1 we1 in like manner1 though with a feeling different in kind and inferior in degree1 look with apprehension upon the perils of our country4 sub pectore forti ,vivit adhuc patriae pietas2 stimulatque sepultum ,libertatis amor3 pondus mortale necari ,si potuit1 veteres animo post funera vires ,mansere1 et prisci vivit non immemor aevi4 ,they are the words of old ,mantuan4 ,montesinos4--,i am to understand1 then1 that you cannot see into the ways of futurity8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,enlarged as our faculties are1 you must not suppose that we partake of prescience4 ,for human actions are free1 and we exist in time4 ,the future is to us therefore as uncertain as to you2 except only that having a clearer and more comprehensive knowledge of the past1 we are enabled to reason better from causes to consequences1 and by what has been to judge of what is likely to be4 ,we have this advantage also1 that we are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects and warp the understandings of men4 ,you are thinking1 ,i perceive1 how much you have to learn1 and what you should first inquire of me4 ,but expect no revelations6 ,enough was revealed when man was assured of judgment after death1 and the means of salvation were afforded him4 ,i neither come to discover secret things nor hidden treasures2 but to discourse with you concerning these portentous and monster-breeding times2 for it is your lot1 as it was mine1 to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world4 ,and ,i come to you1 rather than to any other person1 because you have been led to meditate upon the corresponding changes whereby your age and mine are distinguished2 and because1 notwithstanding many discrepancies and some dispathies between us 7speaking of myself as ,i was1 and as you know me71 there are certain points of sympathy and resemblance which bring us into contact1 and enable us at once to understand each other4 ,montesinos4--,et in ,utopia ego4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you apprehend me4 ,we have both speculated in the joys and freedom of our youth upon the possible improvement of society2 and both in like manner have lived to dread with reason the effects of that restless spirit which1 like the ,titaness ,mutability described by your immortal master1 insults heaven and disturbs the earth4 ,by comparing the great operating causes in the age of the ,reformation1 and in this age of revolutions1 going back to the former age1 looking at things as ,i then beheld them1 perceiving wherein ,i judged rightly1 and wherein ,i erred1 and tracing the progress of those causes which are now developing their whole tremendous power1 you will derive instruction1 which you are a fit person to receive and communicate2 for without being solicitous concerning present effect1 you are contented to cast your bread upon the waters4 ,you are now acquainted with me and my intention4 ,to-morrow you will see me again2 and ,i shall continue to visit you occasionally as opportunity may serve4 ,meantime say nothing of what has passed--not even to your wife4 ,she might not like the thoughts of a ghostly visitor3 and the reputation of conversing with the dead might be almost as inconvenient as that of dealing with the devil4 ,for the present1 then1 farewell6 ,i will never startle you with too sudden an apparition2 but you may learn to behold my disappearance without alarm4 ,i was not able to behold it without emotion1 although he had thus prepared me2 for the sentence was no sooner completed than he was gone4 ,instead of rising from the chair he vanished from it4 ,i know not to what the instantaneous disappearance can be likened4 ,not to the dissolution of a rainbow1 because the colours of the rainbow fade gradually till they are lost2 not to the flash of cannon1 or to lightning1 for these things are gone as soon as they are come1 and it is known that the instant of their appearance must be that of their departure2 not to a bubble upon the water1 for you see it burst2 not to the sudden extinction of a light1 for that is either succeeded by darkness or leaves a different hue upon the surrounding objects4 ,in the same indivisible point of time when ,i beheld the distinct1 individual1 and1 to all sense of sight1 substantial form--the living1 moving1 reasonable image--in that self-same instant it was gone1 as if exemplifying the difference between to be and not to be4 ,it was no dream1 of this ,i was well assured2 realities are never mistaken for dreams1 though dreams may be mistaken for realities4 ,moreover ,i had long been accustomed in sleep to question my perceptions with a wakeful faculty of reason1 and to detect their fallacy4 ,but1 as well may be supposed1 my thoughts that night1 sleeping as well as waking1 were filled with this extraordinary interview2 and when ,i arose the next morning it was not till ,i had called to mind every circumstance of time and place that ,i was convinced the apparition was real1 and that ,i might again expect it4 ,,colloquy ,,ii4--,,the ,,development ,,of ,,the ,,world4 ,on the following evening when my spiritual visitor entered the room1 that volume of ,dr4 ,wordsworth's ecclesiastical biography which contains his life was lying on the table beside me4 ,i perceive1 said he1 glancing at the book1 you have been gathering all you can concerning me from my good gossiping chronicler1 who tells you that ,i loved milk and fruit and eggs1 preferred beef to young meats1 and brown bread to white2 was fond of seeing strange birds and beasts1 and kept an ape1 a fox1 a weasel1 and a ferret4 ,i am not one of those fastidious readers1 ,i replied1 who quarrel with a writer for telling them too much4 ,but these things were worth telling3 they show that you retained a youthful palate as well as a youthful heart2 and ,i like you the better both for your diet and your menagerie4 ,the old biographer1 indeed1 with the best intentions1 has been far from understanding the character which he desired to honour4 ,he seems1 however1 to have been a faithful reporter1 and has done as well as his capacity permitted4 ,i observe that he gives you credit for 'a deep foresight and judgment of the times1' and for speaking in a prophetic spirit of the evils1 which soon afterwards were 'full heavily felt4' ,there could be little need for a spirit of prophecy1 ,sir ,thomas made answer1 to foresee troubles which were the sure effect of the causes then in operation1 and which were actually close at hand4 ,when the rain is gathering from the south or west1 and those flowers and herbs which serve as natural hygrometers close their leaves1 men have no occasion to consult the stars for what the clouds and the earth are telling them4 ,you were thinking of ,prince ,arthur when ,i introduced myself yesterday1 as if musing upon the great events which seem to have received their bias from the apparent accident of his premature death4 ,montesinos4--,i had fallen into one of those idle reveries in which we speculate upon what might have been4 ,lord ,bacon describes him as very studious1 and learned beyond his years1 and beyond the custom of great princes4 ,as this indicates a calm and thoughtful mind1 it seems to show that he inherited the ,tudor character4 ,his brother took after the ,plantagenets2 but it was not of their nobler qualities that he partook4 ,he had the popular manners of his grandfather1 ,edward ,,iv41 and1 like him1 was lustful1 cruel1 and unfeeling4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the blood of the ,plantagenets1 as your friends the ,spaniards would say1 was a strong blood4 ,that temper of mind which 7in some of his predecessors7 thought so little of fratricide might perhaps have involved him in the guilt of a parricidal war1 if his father had not been fortunate enough to escape such an affliction by a timely death4 ,we might otherwise be allowed to wish that the life of ,henry ,,vii4 had been prolonged to a good old age4 ,for if ever there was a prince who could so have directed the ,reformation as to have averted the evils wherewith that tremendous event was accompanied1 and yet to have secured its advantages1 he was the man4 ,cool1 wary1 far-sighted1 rapacious1 politic1 and religious1 or superstitious if you will 7for his religion had its root rather in fear than in hope71 he was peculiarly adapted for such a crisis both by his good and evil qualities4 ,for the sake of increasing his treasures and his power1 he would have promoted the ,reformation2 but his cautious temper1 his sagacity1 and his fear of ,divine justice would have taught him where to stop4 ,montesinos4--,a generation of politic sovereigns succeeded to the race of warlike ones1 just in that age of society when policy became of more importance in their station than military talents4 ,ferdinand of ,spain1 ,joam ,,ii4 whom the ,portuguese called the perfect prince1 ,louis ,,xi4 and ,henry ,,vii4 were all of this class4 ,their individual characters were sufficiently distinct2 but the circumstances of their situation stamped them with a marked resemblance1 and they were of a metal to take and retain the strong1 sharp impress of the age4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the age required such characters2 and it is worthy of notice how surely in the order of providence such men as are wanted are raised up4 ,one generation of these princes sufficed4 ,in ,spain1 indeed1 there was an exception2 for ,ferdinand had two successors who pursued the same course of conduct4 ,in the other kingdoms the character ceased with the necessity for it4 ,crimes enough were committed by succeeding sovereigns1 but they were no longer the acts of systematic and reflecting policy4 ,this1 too1 is worthy of remark1 that the sovereigns whom you have named1 and who scrupled at no means for securing themselves on the throne1 for enlarging their dominions and consolidating their power1 were each severally made to feel the vanity of human ambition1 being punished either in or by the children who were to reap the advantage of their crimes4 ,verily there is a ,god that judgeth the earth6 ,montesinos4--,an excellent friend of mine1 one of the wisest1 best1 and happiest men whom ,i have ever known1 delights in this manner to trace the moral order of ,providence through the revolutions of the world2 and in his historical writings keeps it in view as the pole-star of his course4 ,i wish he were present1 that he might have the satisfaction of hearing his favourite opinion confirmed by one from the dead4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,his opinion requires no other confirmation than what he finds for it in observation and ,scripture1 and in his own calm judgment4 ,i should differ little from that friend of yours concerning the past2 but his hopes for the future appear to me like early buds which are in danger of ,march winds4 ,he believes the world to be in a rapid state of sure improvement2 and in the ferment which exists everywhere he beholds only a purifying process2 not considering that there is an acetous as well as a vinous fermentation2 and that in the one case the liquor may be spilt1 in the other it must be spoilt4 ,montesinos4--,surely you would not rob us of our hopes for the human race6 ,if ,i apprehended that your discourse tended to this end ,i should suspect you1 notwithstanding your appearance1 and be ready to exclaim1 ,avaunt1 tempter6 ,for there is no opinion from which ,i should so hardly be driven1 and so reluctantly part1 as the belief that the world will continue to improve1 even as it has hitherto continually been improving2 and that the progress of knowledge and the diffusion of ,christianity will bring about at last1 when men become ,christians in reality as well as in name1 something like that ,utopian state of which philosophers have loved to dream--like that millennium in which saints as well as enthusiasts have trusted4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,do you hold that this consummation must of necessity come to pass2 or that it depends in any degree upon the course of events--that is to say1 upon human actions8 ,the former of these propositions you would be as unwilling to admit as your friend ,wesley1 or the old ,welshman ,pelagius himself4 ,the latter leaves you little other foundation for your opinion than a desire1 which1 from its very benevolence1 is the more likely to be delusive4 ,you are in a dilemma4 ,montesinos4--,not so1 ,sir ,thomas4 ,impossible as it may be for us to reconcile the free will of man with the foreknowledge of ,god1 ,i nevertheless believe in both with the most full conviction4 ,when the human mind plunges into time and space in its speculations1 it adventures beyond its sphere2 no wonder1 therefore1 that its powers fail1 and it is lost4 ,but that my will is free1 ,i know feelingly3 it is proved to me by my conscience4 ,and that ,god provideth all things ,i know by ,his own ,word1 and by that instinct which ,he hath implanted in me to assure me of ,his being4 ,my answer to your question1 then1 is this3 ,i believe that the happy consummation which ,i desire is appointed1 and must come to pass2 but that when it is to come depends upon the obedience of man to the will of ,god1 that is1 upon human actions4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you hold then that the human race will one day attain the utmost degree of general virtue1 and thereby general happiness1 of which humanity is capable4 ,upon what do you found this belief8 ,montesinos4--,the opinion is stated more broadly than ,i should choose to advance it4 ,but this is ever the manner of argumentative discourse3 the opponent endeavours to draw from you conclusions which you are not prepared to defend1 and which perhaps you have never before acknowledged even to yourself4 ,i will put the proposition in a less disputable form4 ,a happier condition of society is possible than that in which any nation is existing at this time1 or has at any time existed4 ,the sum both of moral and physical evil may be greatly diminished both by good laws1 good institutions1 and good governments4 ,moral evil cannot indeed be removed1 unless the nature of man were changed2 and that renovation is only to be effected in individuals1 and in them only by the special grace of ,god4 ,physical evil must always1 to a certain degree1 be inseparable from mortality4 ,but both are so much within the reach of human institutions that a state of society is conceivable almost as superior to that of ,england in these days1 as that itself is superior to the condition of the tattooed ,britons1 or of the northern pirates from whom we are descended4 ,surely this belief rests upon a reasonable foundation1 and is supported by that general improvement 7always going on if it be regarded upon the great scale7 to which all history bears witness4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,i dispute not this3 but to render it a reasonable ground of immediate hope1 the predominance of good principles must be supposed4 ,do you believe that good or evil principles predominate at this time8 ,montesinos4--,if ,i were to judge by that expression of popular opinion which the press pretends to convey1 ,i should reply without hesitation that never in any other known age of the world have such pernicious principles been so prevalent ,qua terra patet1 fera regnat ,erinnys2 ,in facinus jurasse putes4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,is there not a danger that these principles may bear down everything before them8 and is not that danger obvious1 palpable1 imminent8 ,is there a considerate man who can look at the signs of the times without apprehension1 or a scoundrel connected with what is called the public press1 who does not speculate upon them1 and join with the anarchists as the strongest party8 ,deceive not yourself by the fallacious notion that truth is mightier than falsehood1 and that good must prevail over evil6 ,good principles enable men to suffer1 rather than to act4 ,think how the dog1 fond and faithful creature as he is1 from being the most docile and obedient of all animals1 is made the most dangerous1 if he becomes mad2 so men acquire a frightful and not less monstrous power when they are in a state of moral insanity1 and break loose from their social and religious obligations4 ,remember too how rapidly the plague of diseased opinions is communicated1 and that if it once gain head1 it is as difficult to be stopped as a conflagration or a flood4 ,the prevailing opinions of this age go to the destruction of everything which has hitherto been held sacred4 ,they tend to arm the poor against the rich2 the many against the few3 worse than this1 for it will also be a war of hope and enterprise against timidity1 of youth against age4 ,montesinos4--,sir ,ghost1 you are almost as dreadful an alarmist as our ,cumberland cow1 who is believed to have lately uttered this prophecy1 delivering it with oracular propriety in verse3 ,two winters1 a wet spring1 ,a bloody summer1 and no king4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,that prophecy speaks the wishes of the man1 whoever he may have been1 by whom it was invented3 and you who talk of the progress of knowledge1 and the improvement of society1 and upon that improvement build your hope of its progressive melioration1 you know that even so gross and palpable an imposture as this is swallowed by many of the vulgar1 and contributes in its sphere to the mischief which it was designed to promote4 ,i admit that such an improved condition of society as you contemplate is possible1 and hath ought always to be kept in view3 but the error of supposing it too near1 of fancying that there is a short road to it1 is1 of all the errors of these times1 the most pernicious1 because it seduces the young and generous1 and betrays them imperceptibly into an alliance with whatever is flagitious and detestable4 ,the fact is undeniable that the worst principles in religion1 in morals1 and in politics1 are at this time more prevalent than they ever were known to be in any former age4 ,you need not be told in what manner revolutions in opinion bring about the fate of empires2 and upon this ground you ought to regard the state of the world1 both at home and abroad1 with fear1 rather than with hope4 ,montesinos4--,when ,i have followed such speculations as may allowably be indulged1 respecting what is hidden in the darkness of time and of eternity1 ,i have sometimes thought that the moral and physical order of the world may be so appointed as to coincide2 and that the revolutions of this planet may correspond with the condition of its inhabitants2 so that the convulsions and changes whereto it is destined should occur1 when the existing race of men had either become so corrupt as to be unworthy of the place which they hold in the universe1 or were so truly regenerate by the will and word of ,god1 as to be qualified for a higher station in it4 ,our globe may have gone through many such revolutions4 ,we know the history of the last2 the measure of its wickedness was then filled up4 ,for the future we are taught to expect a happier consummation4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it is important that you should distinctly understand the nature and extent of your expectations on that head4 ,is it upon the ,apocalypse that you rest them8 ,montesinos4--,if you had not forbidden me to expect from this intercourse any communication which might come with the authority of revealed knowledge1 ,i should ask in reply1 whether that dark book is indeed to be received for authentic ,scripture8 ,my hopes are derived from the prophets and the evangelists4 ,believing in them with a calm and settled faith1 with that consent of the will and heart and understanding which constitutes religious belief1 and in them the clear annunciation of that kingdom of ,god upon earth1 for the coming of which ,christ himself has taught and commanded us to pray4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,remember that the ,evangelists1 in predicting that kingdom1 announce a dreadful advent6 ,and that1 according to the received opinion of the ,church1 wars1 persecutions1 and calamities of every kind1 the triumph of evil1 and the coming of ,antichrist are to be looked for1 before the promises made by the prophets shall be fulfilled4 ,consider this also1 that the speedy fulfilment of those promises has been the ruling fancy of the most dangerous of all madmen1 from ,john of ,leyden and his frantic followers1 down to the saints of ,cromwell's army1 ,venner and his ,fifth-,monarchy men1 the fanatics of the ,cevennes1 and the blockheads of your own days1 who beheld with complacency the crimes of the ,french ,revolutionists1 and the progress of ,bonaparte towards the subjugation of ,europe1 as events tending to bring about the prophecies2 and1 under the same besotted persuasion1 are ready at this time to co-operate with the miscreants who trade in blasphemy and treason6 ,but you who neither seek to deceive others nor yourself1 you who are neither insane nor insincere1 you surely do not expect that the millennium is to be brought about by the triumph of what are called liberal opinions2 nor by enabling the whole of the lower classes to read the incentives to vice1 impiety1 and rebellion which are prepared for them by an unlicensed press2 nor by ,sunday schools1 and religious tract societies2 nor by the portentous bibliolatry of the age6 ,and if you adhere to the letter of the ,scriptures1 methinks the thought of that consummation for which you look1 might serve rather for consolation under the prospect of impending evils1 than for a hope upon which the mind can rest in security with a calm and contented delight4 ,montesinos4--,to this ,i must reply1 that the fulfilment of those calamitous events predicted in the ,gospels may safely be referred1 as it usually is1 and by the best ,biblical scholars1 to the destruction of ,jerusalem4 ,concerning the visions of the ,apocalypse1 sublime as they are1 ,i speak with less hesitation1 and dismiss them from my thoughts1 as more congenial to the fanatics of whom you have spoken than to me4 ,and for the coming of ,antichrist1 it is no longer a received opinion in these days1 whatever it may have been in yours4 ,your reasoning applies to the enthusiastic millenarians who discover the number of the beast1 and calculate the year when a vial is to be poured out1 with as much precision as the day and hour of an eclipse4 ,but it leaves my hope unshaken and untouched4 ,i know that the world has improved2 ,i see that it is improving2 and ,i believe that it will continue to improve in natural and certain progress4 ,good and evil principles are widely at work3 a crisis is evidently approaching2 it may be dreadful1 but ,i can have no doubts concerning the result4 ,black and ominous as the aspects may appear1 ,i regard them without dismay4 ,the common exclamation of the poor and helpless1 when they feel themselves oppressed1 conveys to my mind the sum of the surest and safest philosophy4 ,i say with them1 ,god is above1 and trust ,him for the event4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,god is above--but the devil is below4 ,evil principles are1 in their nature1 more active than good4 ,the harvest is precarious1 and must be prepared with labour1 and cost1 and care2 weeds spring up of themselves1 and flourish and seed whatever may be the season4 ,disease1 vice1 folly1 and madness are contagious2 while health and understanding are incommunicable1 and wisdom and virtue hardly to be communicated6 ,we have come1 however1 to some conclusion in our discourse4 ,your notion of the improvement of the world has appeared to be a mere speculation1 altogether inapplicable in practice2 and as dangerous to weak heads and heated imaginations as it is congenial to benevolent hearts4 ,perhaps that improvement is neither so general nor so certain as you suppose4 ,perhaps1 even in this country there may be more knowledge than there was in former times and less wisdom1 more wealth and less happiness1 more display and less virtue4 ,this must be the subject of future conversation4 ,i will only remind you now1 that the ,french had persuaded themselves this was the most enlightened age of the world1 and they the most enlightened people in it--the politest1 the most amiable1 and the most humane of nations--and that a new era of philosophy1 philanthropy1 and peace1 was about to commence under their auspices1 when they were upon the eve of a revolution which1 for its complicated monstrosities1 absurdities1 and horrors1 is more disgraceful to human nature than any other series of events in history4 ,chew the cud upon this1 and farewell ,,colloquy ,,iii4--,,the ,,druidical ,,stones4--,,visitations ,,of ,,pestilence4 ,inclination would lead me to hibernate during half the year in this uncomfortable climate of ,great ,britain1 where few men who have tasted the enjoyments of a better would willingly take up their abode1 if it were not for the habits1 and still more for the ties and duties which root us to our native soil4 ,i envy the ,turks for their sedentary constitutions1 which seem no more to require exercise than an oyster does or a toad in a stone4 ,in this respect1 ,i am by disposition as true a ,turk as the ,grand ,seignior himself2 and approach much nearer to one in the habit of inaction than any person of my acquaintance4 ,willing however1 as ,i should be to believe1 that anything which is habitually necessary for a sound body1 would be unerringly indicated by an habitual disposition for it1 and that if exercise were as needful as food for the preservation of the animal economy1 the desire of motion would recur not less regularly than hunger and thirst1 it is a theory which will not bear the test2 and this ,i know by experience4 ,on a grey sober day1 therefore1 and in a tone of mind quite accordant with the season1 ,i went out unwillingly to take the air1 though if taking physic would have answered the same purpose1 the dose would have been preferred as the shortest1 and for that reason the least unpleasant remedy4 ,even on such occasions as this1 it is desirable to propose to oneself some object for the satisfaction of accomplishing it1 and to set out with the intention of reaching some fixed point1 though it should be nothing better than a mile-stone1 or a directing post4 ,so ,i walked to the ,circle of ,stones on the ,penrith road1 because there is a long hill upon the way which would give the muscles some work to perform2 and because the sight of this rude monument which has stood during so many centuries1 and is likely1 if left to itself1 to outlast any edifice that man could have erected1 gives me always a feeling1 which1 however often it may be repeated1 loses nothing of its force4 ,the circle is of the rudest kind1 consisting of single stones1 unhewn and chosen without any regard to shape or magnitude1 being of all sizes1 from seven or eight feet in height1 to three or four4 ,the circle1 however1 is complete1 and is thirty-three paces in diameter4 ,concerning this1 like all similar monuments in ,great ,britain1 the popular superstition prevails1 that no two persons can number the stones alike1 and that no person will ever find a second counting confirm the first4 ,my children have often disappointed their natural inclination to believe this wonder1 by putting it to the test and disproving it4 ,the number of the stones which compose the circle1 is thirty-eight1 and besides these there are ten which form three sides of a little square within1 on the eastern side1 three stones of the circle itself forming the fourth2 this being evidently the place where the ,druids who presided had their station2 or where the more sacred and important part of the rites and ceremonies 7whatever they may have been7 were performed4 ,all this is as perfect at this day as when the ,cambrian bards1 according to the custom of their ancient order1 described by my old acquaintances1 the living members of the ,chair of ,glamorgan1 met there for the last time1 ,on the green turf and under the blue sky1 ,their heads in reverence bare1 and bare of foot4 ,the site also precisely accords with the description which ,edward ,williams and ,william ,owen give of the situation required for such meeting places3 --a high hill top1 ,nor bowered with trees1 nor broken by the plough3 ,remote from human dwellings and the stir ,of human life1 and open to the breath ,and to the eye of ,heaven4 ,the high hill is now enclosed and cultivated2 and a clump of larches has been planted within the circle1 for the purpose of protecting an oak in the centre1 the owner of the field having wished to rear one there with a commendable feeling1 because that tree was held sacred by the ,druids1 and therefore1 he supposed1 might be appropriately placed there4 ,the whole plantation1 however1 has been so miserably storm-stricken that the poor stunted trees are not even worth the trouble of cutting them down for fuel1 and so they continue to disfigure the spot4 ,in all other respects this impressive monument of former times is carefully preserved2 the soil within the enclosure is not broken1 a path from the road is left1 and in latter times a stepping-stile has been placed to accommodate ,lakers with an easier access than by striding over the gate beside it4 ,the spot itself is the most commanding which could be chosen in this part of the country1 without climbing a mountain4 ,derwentwater and the ,vale of ,keswick are not seen from it1 only the mountains which enclose them on the south and west4 ,lattrigg and the huge side of ,skiddaw are on the north2 to the east is the open country towards ,penrith expanding from the ,vale of ,st4 ,john's1 and extending for many miles1 with ,mellfell in the distance1 where it rises alone like a huge tumulus on the right1 and ,blencathra on the left1 rent into deep ravines4 ,on the south-east is the range of ,helvellyn1 from its termination at ,wanthwaite ,crags to its loftiest summits1 and to ,dunmailraise4 ,the lower range of ,nathdalefells lies nearer1 in a parallel line with ,helvellyn2 and the dale itself1 with its little streamlet1 immediately below4 ,the heights above ,leatheswater1 with the ,borrowdale mountains1 complete the panorama4 ,while ,i was musing upon the days of the ,bards and ,druids1 and thinking that ,llywarc ,hen himself had probably stood within this very circle at a time when its history was known1 and the rites for which it was erected still in use1 ,i saw a person approaching1 and started a little at perceiving that it was my new acquaintance from the world of spirits4 ,i am come1 said he1 to join company with you in your walk3 you may as well converse with a ghost as stand dreaming of the dead4 ,i dare say you have been wishing that these stones could speak and tell their tale1 or that some record were sculptured upon them1 though it were as unintelligible as the hieroglyphics1 or as an ,ogham inscription4 ,my ghostly friend1 ,i replied1 they tell me something to the purport of our last discourse4 ,here upon ground where the ,druids have certainly held their assemblies1 and where not improbably1 human sacrifices have been offered up1 you will find it difficult to maintain that the improvement of the world has not been unequivocal1 and very great4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,make the most of your vantage ground6 ,my position is1 that this improvement is not general2 that while some parts of the earth are progressive in civilisation1 others have been retrograde2 and that even where improvement appears the greatest1 it is partial4 ,for example2 with all the meliorations which have taken place in ,england since these stones were set up 7and you will not suppose that ,i who laid down my life for a religious principle1 would undervalue the most important of all advantages71 do you believe that they have extended to all classes8 ,look at the question well4 ,consider your fellow-countrymen1 both in their physical and intellectual relations1 and tell me whether a large portion of the community are in a happier or more hopeful condition at this time1 than their forefathers were when ,caesar set foot upon the island8 ,montesinos4--,if it be your aim to prove that the savage state is preferable to the social1 ,i am perhaps the very last person upon whom any arguments to that end could produce the slightest effect4 ,that notion never for a moment deluded me3 not even in the ignorance and presumptuousness of youth1 when first ,i perused ,rousseau1 and was unwilling to feel that a writer whose passionate eloquence ,i felt and admired so truly could be erroneous in any of his opinions4 ,but now1 in the evening of life1 when ,i know upon what foundation my principles rest1 and when the direction of one peculiar course of study has made it necessary for me to learn everything which books could teach concerning savage life1 the proposition appears to me one of the most untenable that ever was advanced by a perverse or a paradoxical intellect4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,i advanced no such paradox1 and you have answered me too hastily4 ,the ,britons were not savages when the ,romans invaded and improved them4 ,they were already far advanced in the barbarous stage of society1 having the use of metals1 domestic cattle1 wheeled carriages1 and money1 a settled government1 and a regular priesthood1 who were connected with their fellow-,druids on the ,continent1 and who were not ignorant of letters4 ,understand me6 ,i admit that improvements of the utmost value have been made1 in the most important concerns3 but ,i deny that the melioration has been general2 and insist1 on the contrary1 that a considerable portion of the people are in a state1 which1 as relates to their physical condition1 is greatly worsened1 and1 as touching their intellectual nature1 is assuredly not improved4 ,look1 for example1 at the great mass of your populace in town and country--a tremendous proportion of the whole community6 ,are their bodily wants better1 or more easily supplied8 ,are they subject to fewer calamities8 ,are they happier in childhood1 youth1 and manhood1 and more comfortably or carefully provided for in old age1 than when the land was unenclosed1 and half covered with woods8 ,with regard to their moral and intellectual capacity1 you well know how little of the light of knowledge and of revelation has reached them4 ,they are still in darkness1 and in the shadow of death6 ,montesinos4--,i perceive your drift3 and perceive also that when we understand each other there is likely to be little difference between us4 ,and ,i beseech you1 do not suppose that ,i am disputing for the sake of disputation2 with that pernicious habit ,i was never infected1 and ,i have seen too many mournful proofs of its perilous consequences4 ,towards any person it is injudicious and offensive2 towards you it would be irreverent4 ,your position is undeniable4 ,were society to be stationary at its present point1 the bulk of the people would1 on the whole1 have lost rather than gained by the alterations which have taken place during the last thousand years4 ,yet this must be remembered1 that in common with all ranks they are exempted from those dreadful visitations of war1 pestilence1 and famine by which these kingdoms were so frequently afflicted of old4 ,the countenance of my companion changed upon this1 to an expression of judicial severity which struck me with awe4 ,exempted from these visitations6 he exclaimed2 mortal man6 creature of a day1 what art thou1 that thou shouldst presume upon any such exemption6 ,is it from a trust in your own deserts1 or a reliance upon the forbearance and long- suffering of the ,almighty1 that this vain confidence arises8 ,i was silent4 ,my friend1 he resumed1 in a milder tone1 but with a melancholy manner1 your own individual health and happiness are scarcely more precarious than this fancied security4 ,by the mercy of ,god1 twice during the short space of your life1 ,england has been spared from the horrors of invasion1 which might with ease have been effected during the ,american war1 when the enemy's fleet swept the ,channel1 and insulted your very ports1 and which was more than once seriously intended during the late long contest4 ,the invaders would indeed have found their graves in that soil which they came to subdue3 but before they could have been overcome1 the atrocious threat of ,buonaparte's general might have been in great part realised1 that though he could not answer for effecting the conquest of ,england1 he would engage to destroy its prosperity for a century to come4 ,you have been spared from that chastisement4 ,you have escaped also from the imminent danger of peace with a military tyrant1 which would inevitably have led to invasion1 when he should have been ready to undertake and accomplish that great object of his ambition1 and you must have been least prepared and least able to resist him4 ,but if the seeds of civil war should at this time be quickening among you--if your soil is everywhere sown with the dragon's teeth1 and the fatal crop be at this hour ready to spring up--the impending evil will be a hundredfold more terrible than those which have been averted2 and you will have cause to perceive and acknowledge1 that the wrath has been suspended only that it may fall the heavier6 ,may ,god avert this also6 ,i exclaimed4 ,as for famine1 he pursued1 that curse will always follow in the train of war3 and even now the public tranquillity of ,england is fearfully dependent upon the seasons4 ,and touching pestilence1 you fancy yourselves secure1 because the plague has not appeared among you for the last hundred and fifty years3 a portion of time1 which long as it may seem when compared with the brief term of mortal existence1 is as nothing in the physical history of the globe4 ,the importation of that scourge is as possible now as it was in former times3 and were it once imported1 do you suppose it would rage with less violence among the crowded population of your metropolis1 than it did before the fire1 or that it would not reach parts of the country which were never infected in any former visitation8 ,on the contrary1 its ravages would be more general and more tremendous1 for it would inevitably be carried everywhere4 ,your provincial cities have doubled and trebled in size2 and in ,london itself1 great part of the population is as much crowded now as it was then1 and the space which is covered with houses is increased at least fourfold4 ,what if the sweating-sickness1 emphatically called the ,english disease1 were to show itself again8 ,can any cause be assigned why it is not as likely to break out in the nineteenth century as in the fifteenth8 ,what if your manufactures1 according to the ominous opinion which your greatest physiologist has expressed1 were to generate for you new physical plagues1 as they have already produced a moral pestilence unknown to all preceding ages8 ,what if the small-pox1 which you vainly believed to be subdued1 should have assumed a new and more formidable character2 and 7as there seems no trifling grounds for apprehending7 instead of being protected by vaccination from its danger1 you should ascertain that inoculation itself affords no certain security8 ,visitations of this kind are in the order of nature and of providence4 ,physically considered1 the likelihood of their recurrence becomes every year more probable than the last2 and looking to the moral government of the world1 was there ever a time when the sins of this kingdom called more cryingly for chastisement8 ,montesinos4--,greek text6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,i denounce no judgments4 ,but ,i am reminding you that there is as much cause for the prayer in your ,litany against plague1 pestilence1 and famine1 as for that which entreats ,god to deliver you all from sedition1 privy conspiracy1 and rebellion2 from all false doctrine1 heresy1 and schism4 ,in this1 as in all things1 it behoves the ,christian to live in a humble and grateful sense of his continual dependence upon the ,almighty3 not to rest in a presumptuous confidence upon the improved state of human knowledge1 or the altered course of natural visitations4 ,montesinos4--,oh1 how wholesome it is to receive instruction with a willing and a humble mind6 ,in attending to your discourse ,i feel myself in the healthy state of a pupil1 when without one hostile or contrarient prepossession1 he listens to a teacher in whom he has entire confidence4 ,and ,i feel also how much better it is that the authority of elder and wiser intellects should pass even for more than it is worth1 than that it should be undervalued as in these days1 and set at nought4 ,when any person boasts that he is-- ,nullias addictus jurare in verba magistri1 the reason of that boast may easily be perceived2 it is because he thinks1 like ,jupiter1 that it would be disparaging his own all-wiseness to swear by anything but himself4 ,but wisdom will as little enter into a proud or a conceited mind as into a malicious one4 ,in this sense also it may be said1 that he who humbleth himself shall be exalted4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it is not implicit assent that ,i require1 but reasonable conviction after calm and sufficient consideration4 ,david was permitted to choose between the three severest dispensations of ,god's displeasure1 and he made choice of pestilence as the least dreadful4 ,ought a reflecting and religious man to be surprised1 if some such punishment were dispensed to this country1 not less in mercy than in judgment1 as the means of averting a more terrible and abiding scourge8 ,an endemic malady1 as destructive as the plague1 has naturalised itself among your ,american brethren1 and in ,spain4 ,you have hitherto escaped it1 speaking with reference to secondary causes1 merely because it has not yet been imported4 ,but any season may bring it to your own shores2 or at any hour it may appear among you homebred4 ,montesinos4--,we should have little reason1 then1 to boast of our improvements in the science of medicine2 for our practitioners at ,gibraltar found themselves as unable to stop its progress1 or mitigate its symptoms1 as the most ignorant empirics in the peninsula4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you were at one time near enough that pestilence to feel as if you were within its reach8 ,montesinos4--,it was in #ahjj1 the year when it first appeared in ,andalusia4 ,that summer ,i fell in at ,cintra with a young ,german1 on the way from his own country to his brothers at ,cadiz1 where they were established as merchants4 ,many days had not elapsed after his arrival in that city when a ship which was consigned to their firm brought with it the infection2 and the first news which reached us of our poor acquaintance was that the yellow fever had broken out in his brother's house1 and that he1 they1 and the greater part of the household1 were dead4 ,there was every reason to fear that the pestilence would extend into ,portugal1 both governments being1 as usual1 slow in providing any measures of precaution1 and those measures being nugatory when taken4 ,i was at ,faro in the ensuing spring1 at the house of ,mr4 ,lempriere1 the ,british ,consul4 ,inquiring of him upon the subject1 the old man lifted up his hands1 and replied in a passionate manner1 which ,i shall never forget1 ,oh1 sir1 we escaped by the mercy of ,god2 only by the mercy of ,god6 ,the governor of ,algarve1 even when the danger was known and acknowledged1 would not venture to prohibit the communication with ,spain till he received orders from ,lisbon2 and then the prohibition was so enforced as to be useless4 ,the crew of a boat from the infected province were seized and marched through the country to ,tavira3 they were then sent to perform quarantine upon a little insulated ground1 and the guards who were set over them1 lived with them1 and were regularly relieved4 ,when such were the precautionary measures1 well indeed might it be said1 that ,portugal escaped only by the mercy of ,god6 ,i have often reflected upon the little effect which this imminent danger appeared to produce upon those persons with whom ,i associated4 ,the young1 with that hilarity which belongs to thoughtless youth1 used to converse about the places whither they should retire1 and the course of life and expedients to which they should be driven in case it were necessary for them to fly from ,lisbon4 ,a few elder and more considerate persons said little upon the subject1 but that little denoted a deep sense of the danger1 and more anxiety than they thought proper to express4 ,the great majority seemed to be altogether unconcerned2 neither their business nor their amusements were interrupted2 they feasted1 they danced1 they met at the card-table as usual2 and the plague 7for so it was called at that time1 before its nature was clearly understood7 was as regular a topic of conversation as the news brought by the last packet4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and what was your own state of mind8 ,montesinos4--,very much what it has long been with regard to the moral pestilence of this unhappy age1 and the condition of this country more especially4 ,i saw the danger in its whole extent and relied on the mercy of ,god4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,in all cases that is the surest reliance3 but when human means are available1 it becomes a ,mahommedan rather than a ,christian to rely upon ,providence or fate alone1 and make no effort for its own preservation4 ,individuals never fall into this error among you1 drink as deeply as they may of fatalism2 that narcotic will sometimes paralyse the moral sense1 but it leaves the faculty of worldly prudence unimpaired4 ,far otherwise is it with your government3 for such are the notions of liberty in ,england1 that evils of every kind--physical1 moral1 and political1 are allowed their free range4 ,as relates to infectious diseases1 for example1 this kingdom is now in a less civilised state than it was in my days1 three centuries ago1 when the leper was separated from general society2 and when1 although the science of medicine was at once barbarous and fantastical1 the existence of pesthouses showed at least some approaches towards a medical police4 ,montesinos4--,they order these things better in ,utopia4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,in this1 as well as in some other points upon which we shall touch hereafter1 the difference between you and the ,utopians is as great as between the existing generation and the race by whom yonder circle was set up4 ,with regard to diseases and remedies in general1 the real state of the case may be consolatory1 but it is not comfortable4 ,great and certain progress has been made in chirurgery2 and if the improvements in the other branch of medical science have not been so certain and so great1 it is because the physician works in the dark1 and has to deal with what is hidden and mysterious4 ,but the evils for which these sciences are the palliatives have increased in a proportion that heavily overweighs the benefit of improved therapeutics4 ,for as the intercourse between nations has become greater1 the evils of one have been communicated to another4 ,pigs1 ,spanish dollars1 and ,norway rats1 are not the only commodities and incommodities which have performed the circumnavigation1 and are to be found wherever ,european ships have touched4 ,diseases also find their way from one part of the inhabited globe to another1 wherever it is possible for them to exist4 ,the most formidable endemic or contagious maladies in your nosology are not indigenous2 and as far as regards health therefore1 the ancient ,britons1 with no other remedies than their fields and woods afforded them1 and no other medical practitioners than their deceitful priests1 were in a better condition than their descendants1 with all the instruction which is derived from ,sydenham and ,heberden1 and ,hunter1 and with all the powers which chemistry has put into their hands4 ,montesinos4--,you have well said that there is nothing comfortable in this view of the case3 but what is there consolatory in it8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the consolation is upon your principle of expectant hope4 ,whenever improved morals1 wiser habits1 more practical religion1 and more efficient institutions shall have diminished the moral and material causes of disease1 a thoroughly scientific practice1 the result of long experience and accumulated observations1 will then exist1 to remedy all that is within the power of human art1 and to alleviate what is irremediable4 ,to existing individuals this consolation is something like the satisfaction you might feel in learning that a fine estate was entailed upon your family at the expiration of a lease of ninety-nine years from the present time4 ,but ,i had forgotten to whom ,i am talking4 ,a poet always looks onward to some such distant inheritance4 ,his hopes are usually in nubibus1 and his expectations in the paulo post futurum tense4 ,montesinos4--,his state is the more gracious then because his enjoyment is always to come4 ,it is however a real satisfaction to me that there is some sunshine in your prospect4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,more in mine than in yours1 because ,i command a wider horizon3 but ,i see also the storms which are blackening1 and may close over the sky4 ,our discourse began concerning that portion of the community who form the base of the pyramid2 we have unawares taken a more general view1 but it has not led us out of the way4 ,returning to the most numerous class of society1 it is apparent that in the particular point of which we have been conversing1 their condition is greatly worsened3 they remain liable to the same indigenous diseases as their forefathers1 and are exposed moreover to all which have been imported4 ,nor will the estimate of their condition be improved upon farther inquiry4 ,they are worse fed than when they were hunters1 fishers1 and herdsmen2 their clothing and habitations are little better1 and1 in comparison with those of the higher classes1 immeasurably worse4 ,except in the immediate vicinity of the collieries1 they suffer more from cold than when the woods and turbaries were open4 ,they are less religious than in the days of the ,romish faith2 and if we consider them in relation to their immediate superiors1 we shall find reason to confess that the independence which has been gained since the total decay of the feudal system1 has been dearly purchased by the loss of kindly feelings and ennobling attachments4 ,they are less contented1 and in no respect more happy--that look implies hesitation of judgment1 and an unwillingness to be convinced4 ,consider the point2 go to your books and your thoughts2 and when next we meet1 you will feel little inclination to dispute the irrefragable statement4 ,,colloquy ,,iv4--,,feudal ,,slavery4--,,growth ,,of ,,pauperism4 ,the last conversation had left a weight upon me1 which was not lessened when ,i contemplated the question in solitude4 ,i called to mind the melancholy view which ,young has taken of the world in his unhappy poem3 ,a part how small of the terraqueous globe ,is tenanted by man6 the rest a waste1 ,rocks1 deserts1 frozen seas and burning sands1 ,wild haunts of monsters1 poisons1 stings1 and death4 ,such is earth's melancholy map6 ,but1 far ,more sad1 this earth is a true map of man4 ,sad as this representation is1 ,i could not but acknowledge that the moral and intellectual view is not more consolatory than the poet felt it to be2 and it was a less sorrowful consideration to think how large a portion of the habitable earth is possessed by savages1 or by nations whom inhuman despotisms and monstrous superstitions have degraded in some respects below the savage state1 than to observe how small a part of what is called the civilised world is truly civilised2 and in the most civilised parts to how small a portion of the inhabitants the real blessings of civilisation are confined4 ,in this mood how heartily should ,i have accorded with ,owen of ,lanark if ,i could have agreed with that happiest and most beneficent and most practical of all enthusiasts as well concerning the remedy as the disease6 ,well1 ,montesinos1 said the spirit1 when he visited me next1 have you recollected or found any solid arguments for maintaining that the labouring classes1 who form the great bulk of the population1 are in a happier condition1 physical1 moral1 or intellectual1 in these times1 than they were in mine8 ,montesinos4--,perhaps1 ,sir ,thomas1 their condition was better precisely during your age than it ever has been either before or since4 ,the feudal system had well-nigh lost all its inhuman parts1 and the worse inhumanity of the commercial system had not yet shown itself4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it was1 indeed1 a most important age in ,english history1 and1 till the ,reformation so fearfully disturbed it1 in many respects a happy and an enviable one4 ,but the process was then beginning which is not yet completed4 ,as the feudal system relaxed and tended to dissolution the condition of the multitude was changed4 ,let us trace it from earlier times6 ,in what state do you suppose the people of this island to have been when they were invaded by the ,romans8 ,montesinos4--,something worse than the ,greeks of the ,homeric age3 something better than the ,sandwich or ,tonga islanders when they were visited by ,captain ,cook4 ,inferior to the former in arts1 in polity1 and1 above all1 in their domestic institutions2 superior to the latter as having the use of cattle and being under a superstition in which1 amid many abominations1 some patriarchal truths were preserved4 ,less fortunate in physical circumstances than either1 because of the climate4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,a viler state of morals than their polyandrian system must have produced can scarcely be imagined2 and the ferocity of their manners1 little as is otherwise known of them1 is sufficiently shown by their scythed war-chariots1 and the fact that in the open country the path from one town to another was by a covered way4 ,but in what condition were the labouring classes8 ,montesinos4--,in slavery1 ,i suppose4 ,when the ,romans first attacked the island it was believed at ,rome that slaves were the only booty which ,britain could afford2 and slaves1 no doubt1 must have been the staple commodity for which its ports were visited4 ,different tribes had at different times established themselves here by conquest1 and wherever settlements are thus made slavery is the natural consequence4 ,it was a part of the ,roman economy2 and when the ,saxons carved out their kingdoms with the sword1 the slaves1 and their masters too1 if any survived1 became the property of the new lords of the land1 like the cattle who pastured upon it4 ,it is not likely even that the ,saxons should have brought artificers of any kind with them1 smiths perhaps alone excepted4 ,trades of every description must have been practised by the slaves whom they found4 ,the same sort of transfer ensued upon the ,norman conquest4 ,after that event there could have been no fresh supply of domestic slaves1 unless they were imported from ,ireland1 as well as carried thither for sale4 ,that trade did not continue long4 ,emancipation was promoted by the clergy1 and slavery was exchanged for vassalage1 which in like manner gradually disappeared as the condition of the people improved4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you are hurrying too fast to that conclusion4 ,hitherto more has been lost than gained in morals by the transition2 and you will not maintain that anything which is morally injurious can be politically advantageous4 ,vassalage ,i know is a word which bears no favourable acceptation in this liberal age2 and slavery is in worse repute4 ,but we must remember that slavery implies a very different state in different ages of the world1 and in different stages of society4 ,montesinos4--,in many parts of the ,east1 and of the ,mohammedan world1 as in the patriarchal times1 it is scarcely an evil4 ,among savages it is as little so4 ,in a luxurious state more vices are called into action1 the condition of the slave depends more upon the temper of the owner1 and the evil then predominates4 ,but slavery is nowhere so bad as in commercial colonies1 where the desire of gain hardens the heart--the basest appetites have free scope there2 and the worst passions are under little restraint from law1 less from religion1 and none from public opinion4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you have omitted in this enumeration that kind of slavery which existed in ,england4 ,montesinos4--,the slavery of the feudal ages may perhaps be classed midway between the best description of that state and the worst4 ,i suppose it to have been less humane than it generally is in ,turkey1 less severe than it generally was in ,rome and ,greece4 ,in too many respects the slaves were at the mercy of their lords4 ,they might be put in irons and punished with stripes2 they were sometimes branded2 and there is proof that it has been the custom to yoke them in teams like cattle4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,are you1 then1 ,montesinos1 so much the dupe of words as to account among their grievances a mere practice of convenience8 ,montesinos4--,the reproof was merited4 ,but ,i was about to say that there is no reason to think their treatment was generally rigorous4 ,we do not hear of any such office among them as that of the ,roman ,lorarii1 whose office appears by the dramatists to have been no sinecure4 ,and it is certain that they possessed in the laws1 in the religion1 and probably in the manners of the country1 a greater degree of protection than existed to alleviate the lot of the ,grecian and ,roman slaves4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the practical difference between the condition of the feudal slave1 and of the labouring husbandman who succeeded to the business of his station1 was mainly this1 that the former had neither the feeling nor the insecurity of independence4 ,he served one master as long as he lived2 and being at all times sure of the same sufficient subsistence1 if he belonged to the estate like the cattle1 and was accounted with them as part of the live stock1 he resembled them also in the exemption which he enjoyed from all cares concerning his own maintenance and that of his family4 ,the feudal slaves1 indeed1 were subject to none of those vicissitudes which brought so many of the proudest and most powerful barons to a disastrous end4 ,they had nothing to lose1 and they had liberty to hope for2 frequently as the reward of their own faithful services1 and not seldom from the piety or kindness of their lords4 ,this was a steady hope depending so little upon contingency that it excited no disquietude or restlessness4 ,they were therefore in general satisfied with the lot to which they were born1 as the ,greenlander is with his climate1 the ,bedouin with his deserts1 and the ,hottentot and the ,calmuck with their filthy and odious customs2 and going on in their regular and unvaried course of duty generation after generation1 they were content4 ,montesinos4--,fish1 fish1 are you in your duty8 said the young lady in the ,arabian tales1 who came out of the kitchen wall clad in flowered satin1 and with a rod in her hand4 ,the fish lifted up their heads and replied1 ,yes1 yes2 if you reckon1 we reckon2 if you pay your debts we pay ours2 if you fly we overcome1 and are content4 ,the fish who were thus content1 and in their duty1 had been gutted1 and were in the frying- pan4 ,i do not seek1 however1 to escape from the force of your argument by catching at the words4 ,on the other hand1 ,i am sure it is not your intention to represent slavery otherwise than as an evil1 under any modification4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,that which is a great evil in itself become relatively a good when it prevents or removes a greater evil2 for instance1 loss of a limb when life is preserved by the sacrifice1 or the acute pain of a remedy by which a chronic disease is cured4 ,such was slavery in its origin3 a commutation for death1 gladly accepted as mercy under the arm of a conqueror in battle1 or as the mitigation of a judicial sentence4 ,but it led immediately to nefarious abuses2 and the earliest records which tell us of its existence show us also that men were kidnapped for sale4 ,with the principles of ,christianity1 the principles of religious philosophy--the only true policy1 to which mankind must come at last1 by which alone all the remediable ills of humanity are to be remedied1 and for which you are taught to pray when you entreat that your ,father's kingdom may come--with those principles slavery is inconsistent1 and therefore not to be tolerated1 even in speculation4 ,montesinos4--,yet its fitness1 as a commutation for other punishments1 is admitted by ,michaelis 7though he decides against it7 to be one of the most difficult questions connected with the existing state of society4 ,and in the age of the ,revolution1 one of the sturdiest ,scotch republicans proposed the reestablishment of slavery1 as the best or only means for correcting the vices and removing the miseries of the poor4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the proposal of such a remedy must be admitted as full proof of the malignity of the disease4 ,and in further excuse of ,andrew ,fletcher1 it should be remembered that he belonged to a country where many of the feudal virtues 7as well as most of the feudal vices7 were at that time in full vigour4 ,but let us return to our historical view of the subject4 ,in feudal servitude there was no motive for cruelty1 scarcely any for oppression4 ,there were no needy slave-owners1 as there are in commercial colonies2 and though slaves might sometimes suffer from a wicked1 or even a passionate master1 there is no reason to believe that they were habitually over-tasked1 or subjected to systematic ill-treatment2 for that1 indeed1 can only arise from avarice1 and avarice is not the vice of feudal times4 ,still1 however1 slavery is intolerable upon ,christian principles2 and to the influence of those principles it yielded here in ,england4 ,it had ceased1 so as even to be forgotten in my youth2 and villenage was advancing fast towards its natural extinction4 ,the courts decided that a tenant having a lease could not be a villein during its term1 for if his labour were at the command of another how could he undertake to pay rent8 ,landholders had thus to choose between rent and villenage1 and scarcely wanted the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold at ,ardres to show them which they stood most in need of4 ,and as villenage disappeared1 free labourers of various descriptions multiplied2 of whom the more industrious and fortunate rose in society1 and became tradesmen and merchants2 the unlucky and the reprobate became vagabonds4 ,montesinos4--,the latter class appears to have been far more numerous in your age than in mine4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,waiving for the present the question whether they really were so1 they appear to have been so partly in consequence of the desperate wars between the houses of ,york and ,lancaster1 partly because of the great change in society which succeeded to that contest4 ,during those wars both parties exerted themselves to bring into the field all the force they could muster4 ,villeins in great numbers were then emancipated1 when they were embodied in arms2 and great numbers emancipated themselves1 flying to ,london and other cities for protection from the immediate evils of war1 or taking advantage of the frequent changes of property1 and the precarious tenure by which it was held1 to exchange their own servile condition for a station of freedom with all its hopes and chances4 ,this took place to a great extent1 and the probabilities of success were greatly in their favour2 for whatever may have been practised in earlier and ruder times1 in that age they certainly were not branded like cattle1 according to the usage of your sugar islands4 ,montesinos4--,a planter1 who notwithstanding this curious specimen of his taste and sensibility1 was a man of humane studies and humane feelings1 describes the refined and elegant manner in which the operation is performed1 by way of mitigating the indignation which such a usage ought to excite4 ,he assures us that the stamp is not a branding iron1 but a silver instrument2 and that it is heated not in the fire1 but over the flame of spirits of wine4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,excellent planter6 worthy to have been flogged at a gilt whipping-post with a scourge of gold thread6 ,the practice of marking slaves had fallen into disuse2 probably it was only used at first with captives1 or with those who were newly-purchased from a distant country1 never with those born upon the soil4 ,and there was no means of raising a hue and cry after a runaway slave so effectually as is done by your colonial gazettes1 the only productions of the ,british colonial press4 ,montesinos4--,include1 ,i pray you1 in the former part of your censure the journals of the ,united ,states1 the land of democracy and equal rights4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,how much more honourable was the tendency of our laws1 and of national feeling in those days1 which you perhaps as well as your trans-,atlantic brethren have been accustomed to think barbarous1 when compared with this your own age of reason and liberality6 ,the master who killed his slave was as liable to punishment as if he had killed a freeman4 ,instead of impeding enfranchisement1 the laws1 as well as the public feeling1 encouraged it4 ,if a villein who had fled from his lord remained a year and a day unclaimed upon the ,king's demesne lands1 or in any privileged town1 he became free4 ,all doubtful cases were decided in favorem libertatis4 ,even the established maxim in law1 partus sequitur ventrem1 was set aside in favour of liberty2 the child of a neif was free if the father were a freeman1 or if it were illegitimate1 in which case it was settled that the free condition of the father should always be presumed4 ,montesinos4--,such a principle must surely have tended to increase the illegitimate population4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,that inference is drawn from the morals of your own age1 and the pernicious effect of your poor laws as they are now thoroughly understood and deliberately acted upon by a race who are thinking always of their imaginary rights1 and never of their duties4 ,you forget the efficacy of ecclesiastical discipline2 and that the old ,church was more vigilant1 and therefore more efficient than that which rose upon its ruins4 ,and you suppose that personal liberty was more valued by persons in a state of servitude than was actually the case4 ,for if in earlier ages emancipation was an act of piety and benevolence1 afterwards1 when the great crisis of society came on1 it proceeded more frequently from avarice than from any worthier motive2 and the slave who was set free sometimes found himself much in the situation of a household dog that is turned into the streets4 ,montesinos4--,are you alluding to the progress of inclosures1 which from the accession of the ,tudors to the age of the ,stuarts were complained of as the great and crying evil of the times8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,that process originated as soon as rents began to be of more importance than personal services1 and money more convenient to the landlords than payments in kind4 ,montesinos4--,and this ,i suppose began to be the case under ,edward ,,iii4 ,the splendour of his court1 and the foreign wars in which he was engaged1 must have made money more necessary to the knights and nobles than it had ever been before1 except during the ,crusades4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the wars of ,york and ,lancaster retarded the process2 but immediately after the termination of that fierce struggle it was accelerated by the rapid growth of commerce1 and by the great influx of wealth from the new found world4 ,under a settled and strong and vigilant government men became of less value as vassals and retainers1 because the boldest barons no longer dared contemplate the possibility of trying their strength against the crown1 or attempting to disturb the succession4 ,four-legged animals therefore were wanted for slaughter more than two-legged ones2 and moreover1 sheep could be shorn1 whereas the art of fleecing the tenantry was in its infancy1 and could not always be practised with the same certain success4 ,a trading spirit thus gradually superseded the rude but kindlier principle of the feudal system3 profit and loss became the rule of conduct2 in came calculation1 and out went feeling4 ,montesinos4--,i remember your description 7for indeed who can forget it87 how sheep1 more destructive than the ,dragon of ,wantley in those days1 began to devour men and fields and houses4 ,the same process is at this day going on in the ,highlands1 though under different circumstances2 some which palliate the evil1 and some which aggravate the injustice4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the real nature of the evil was misunderstood by my contemporaries1 and for some generations afterward4 ,a decrease of population was the effect complained of1 whereas the greater grievance was that a different and worse population was produced4 ,montesinos4--,i comprehend you4 ,the same effect followed which has been caused in these days by the extinction of small farms4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the same in kind1 but greater in degree2 or at least if not greater1 or so general in extent1 it was more directly felt4 ,when that ruinous fashion prevailed in your age there were many resources for the class of people who were thus thrown out of their natural and proper place in the social system4 ,your fleets and armies at that time required as many hands as could be supplied2 and women and children were consumed with proportionate rapidity by your manufactures4 ,moreover1 there was the wholesome drain of emigration open ,facta est immensi copia mundi4 ,but under the ,tudors there existed no such means for disposing of the ejected population1 and except the few who could obtain places as domestic servants1 or employment as labourers and handicraftsmen 7classes1 it must be remembered1 for all which the employ was diminished by the very ejectment in question71 they who were turned adrift soon found themselves houseless and hopeless1 and were reduced to prey upon that society which had so unwisely as well as inhumanly discarded them4 ,montesinos4--,thus it is that men collectively as well as individually create for themselves so large a part of the evils they endure4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,enforce upon your contemporaries that truth which is as important in politics as in ethics1 and you will not have lived in vain6 ,scatter that seed upon the waters1 and doubt not of the harvest6 ,vindicate always the system of nature1 in other and sounder words1 the ways of ,god1 while you point out with all faithfulness what ills ,remediable and yet unremedied ,afflict man's wretched race1 and the approbation of your own heart will be sufficient reward on earth4 ,montesinos4--,the will has not been wanting4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,there are cases in which the will carries with it the power2 and this is of them4 ,no man was ever yet deeply convinced of any momentous truth without feeling in himself the power as well as the desire of communicating it4 ,montesinos4--,true1 ,sir ,thomas2 but the perilous abuse of that feeling by enthusiasts and fanatics leads to an error in the opposite extreme4 ,we sacrifice too much to prudence2 and1 in fear of incurring the danger or the reproach of enthusiasm1 too often we stifle the holiest impulses of the understanding and the heart4 ,our doubts are traitors1 ,and make us lose the good we oft might win1 ,by fearing to attempt4 --,but ,i pray you1 resume your discourse4 ,the monasteries were probably the chief palliatives of this great evil while they existed4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,their power of palliating it was not great1 for the expenditure of those establishments kept a just pace with their revenues4 ,they accumulated no treasures1 and never were any incomes more beneficially employed4 ,the great abbeys vied with each other in architectural magnificence1 in this more especially1 but likewise in every branch of liberal expenditure1 giving employment to great numbers1 which was better than giving unearned food4 ,they provided1 as it became them1 for the old and helpless also4 ,that they prevented the necessity of raising rates for the poor by the copious alms which they distributed1 and by indiscriminately feeding the indigent1 has been inferred1 because those rates became necessary immediately after the suppression of the religious houses4 ,but this is one of those hasty inferences which have no other foundation than a mere coincidence of time in the supposed cause and effect4 ,montesinos4--,for which you have furnished a proverbial illustration in your excellent story of ,tenterden ,steeple and ,goodwin ,sands4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,that illustration would have been buried in the dust if it had not been repeated by ,hugh ,latimer at ,st4 ,paul's ,cross4 ,it was the only thing in my writings by which he profited4 ,if he had learnt more from them he might have died in his bed1 with less satisfaction to himself and less honour from posterity4 ,we went different ways1 but we came to the same end1 and met where we had little expectation of meeting4 ,i must do him the justice to say that when he forwarded the work of destruction it was with the hope and intention of employing the materials in a better edifice2 and that no man opposed the sacrilegious temper of the age more bravely4 ,the monasteries1 in the dissolution of which he rejoiced as much as he regretted the infamous disposal of their spoils1 delayed the growth of pauperism1 by the corrodies with which they were charged2 the effect of these reservations on the part of the founders and benefactors being1 that a comfortable and respectable support was provided for those who grew old in the service of their respective families2 and there existed no great family1 and perhaps no wealthy one1 which had not entitled itself thus to dispose of some of its aged dependants4 ,and the extent of the depopulating system was limited while those houses endured3 because though some of the great abbots were not less rapacious than the lay lords1 and more criminal1 the heads in general could not be led1 like the nobles1 into a prodigal expenditure1 the burthen of which fell always upon the tenants2 and rents in kind were to them more convenient than in money1 their whole economy being founded upon that system1 and adapted to it4 ,montesinos4--,both facts and arguments were indeed strongly on your side when you wrote against the supplication of beggars2 but the form in which you embodied them gave the adversary an advantage1 for it was connected with one of the greatest abuses and absurdities of the ,romish ,church4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,montesinos1 ,i allow you to call it an abuse2 but if you think any of the abuses of that church were in their origin so unreasonable as to deserve the appellation of absurdities1 you must have studied its history with less consideration and a less equitable spirit than ,i have given you credit for4 ,both ,master ,fish and ,i had each our prejudices and errors4 ,we were both sincere2 ,master ,fish would undoubtedly have gone to the stake in defence of his opinions as cheerfully as ,i laid down my neck upon the block2 like his namesake in the tale which you have quoted1 he too when in ,nix's frying-pan would have said he was in his duty1 and content4 ,but withal he cannot be called an honest man1 unless in that sort of liberal signification by which1 in these days1 good words are so detorted from their original and genuine meaning as to express precisely the reverse of what was formerly intended by them4 ,more gross exaggerations and more rascally mis-statements could hardly be made by one of your own thorough-paced revolutionists than those upon which the whole argument of his supplication is built4 ,montesinos4--,if he had fallen into your hands you would have made a stock-fish of him4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,perhaps so4 ,i had not then ,i learnt that laying men by the heels is not the best way of curing them of an error in the head4 ,but the ,king protected him4 ,henry had too much sagacity not to perceive the consequences which such a book was likely to produce1 and he said1 after perusing it1 ,if a man should pull down an old stone wall1 and begin at the bottom1 the upper part thereof might chance to fall upon his head4 ,but he saw also that it tended to serve his immediate purpose4 ,montesinos4--,i marvel that good old ,john ,fox1 upright1 downright man as he was1 should have inserted in his ,acts and ,monuments a libel like this1 which contains no arguments except such as were adapted to ignorance1 cupidity1 and malice4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,old ,john ,fox ought to have known that1 however advantageous the dissolution of the monastic houses might be to the views of the ,reformers1 it was every way injurious to the labouring classes4 ,as far as they were concerned1 the transfer of property was always to worse hands4 ,the tenantry were deprived of their best landlords1 artificers of their best employers1 the poor and miserable of their best and surest friends4 ,there would have been no insurrections in behalf of the old religion if the zeal of the peasantry had not been inflamed by a sore feeling of the injury which they suffered in the change4 ,a great increase of the vagabond population was the direct and immediate consequence4 ,they who were ejected from their tenements or deprived of their accustomed employment were turned loose upon society2 and the greater number1 of course and of necessity1 ran wild4 ,montesinos4--,wild1 indeed6 ,the old chroniclers give a dreadful picture of their numbers and of their wickedness1 which called forth and deserved the utmost severity of the law4 ,they lived like savages in the woods and wastes1 committing the most atrocious actions1 stealing children1 and burning1 breaking1 or otherwise disfiguring their limbs for the purpose of exciting compassion1 and obtaining alms by this most flagitious of all imaginable crimes4 ,surely we have nothing so bad as this4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the crime of stealing children for such purposes is rendered exceedingly difficult by the ease and rapidity with which a hue and cry can now be raised throughout the land1 and the eagerness and detestation with which the criminal would be pursued2 still1 however1 it is sometimes practised4 ,in other respects the professional beggars of the nineteenth century are not a whit better than their predecessors of the sixteenth2 and your gipsies and travelling potters1 who1 gipsy-like1 pitch their tents upon the common1 or by the wayside1 retain with as much fidelity the manners and morals of the old vagabonds as they do the cant1 or pedlar's ,french1 which this class of people are said to have invented in the age whereof we are now speaking4 ,montesinos4--,but the number of our vagabonds has greatly diminished4 ,in your ,henry's reign it is affirmed that no fewer than #gb1jjj criminals were hanged2 you have yourself described them as strung up by scores upon a gibbet all over the country4 ,even in the golden days of good ,queen ,bess the executions were from three to four hundred annually4 ,a large allowance must be made for the increased humanity of the nation1 and the humaner temper with which the laws are administered3 but the new crimes which increased wealth and a system of credit on one hand1 and increased ingenuity1 and new means of mischief on the part of the depredators have produced1 must also be taken into the account4 ,and the result will show a diminution in the number of those who prey upon society either by open war or secret wiles4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,add your paupers to the list1 and you will then have added to it not less than an eighth of your whole population4 ,but looking at the depredators alone1 perhaps it will be found that the evil is at this time more widely extended1 more intimately connected with the constitution of society1 like a chronic and organic disease1 and therefore more difficult of cure4 ,like other vermin they are numerous in proportion as they find shelter2 and for this species of noxious beast large towns and manufacturing districts afford better cover than the forest or the waste4 ,the fault lies in your institutions1 which in the time of the ,saxons were better adapted to maintain security and order than they are now4 ,no man in those days could prey upon society unless he were at war with it as an outlaw1 a proclaimed and open enemy4 ,rude as the laws were1 the purposes of law had not then been perverted3 it had not been made a craft2 it served to deter men from committing crimes1 or to punish them for the commission2 never to shield notorious1 acknowledged1 impudent guilt from condign punishment4 ,and in the fabric of society1 imperfect as it was1 the outline and rudiments of what it ought to be were distinctly marked in some main parts1 where they are now well-nigh utterly effaced4 ,every person had his place4 ,there was a system of superintendence everywhere1 civil as well as religious4 ,they who were born in villenage were born to an inheritance of labour1 but not of inevitable depravity and wretchedness4 ,if one class were regarded in some respects as cattle they were at least taken care of2 they were trained1 fed1 sheltered and protected2 and there was an eye upon them when they strayed4 ,none were wild1 unless they ran wild wilfully1 and in defiance of control4 ,none were beneath the notice of the priest1 nor placed out of the possible reach of his instruction and his care4 ,but how large a part of your population are like the dogs at ,lisbon and ,constantinople1 unowned1 unbroken to any useful purpose1 subsisting by chance or by prey1 living in filth1 mischief1 and wretchedness1 a nuisance to the community while they live1 and dying miserably at last6 ,this evil had its beginning in my days2 it is now approaching fast to its consummation4 ,,colloquy ,v4--,,decay ,,of ,,the ,,feudal ,,system4--,,edward ,,vi4--,,alfred4 ,i had retired to my library as usual after dinner1 and while ,i was wishing for the appearance of my ghostly visitor he became visible4 ,behold me to your wish6 said he4 ,thank you1 ,i replied1 for those precious words4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,wherefore precious8 ,montesinos4--,because they show that spirits who are in bliss perceive our thoughts2--that that communion with the departed for which the heart yearns in its moods of intensest feeling is in reality attained when it is desired4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you deduce a large inference from scanty premises4 ,as if it were not easy to know without any super-human intuition that you would wish for the arrival of one whose company you like1 at a time when you were expecting it4 ,montesinos4--,and is this all8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,all that the words necessarily imply4 ,for the rest1 crede quod habeas et habes1 according to the scurvy tale which makes my friend ,erasmus a horse-stealer1 and fathers ,latin rhymes upon him4 ,but let us take up the thread of our discourse1 or1 as we used to say in old times1 begin it again and mend it1 for it is neither mass nor matins4 ,montesinos4--,you were saying that the evil of a vagrant and brutalised population began in your days1 and is approaching to its consummation at this time4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the decay of the feudal system produced it4 ,when armies were no longer raised upon that system soldiers were disbanded at the end of a war1 as they are now3 that is to say1 they were turned adrift to fare as they could--to work if they could find employment2 otherwise to beg1 starve1 live upon the alms of their neighbours1 or prey upon a wider community in a manner more congenial to the habits and temper of their old vocation4 ,in consequence of the gains which were to be obtained by inclosures and sheep-farming1 families were unhoused and driven loose upon the country4 ,these persons1 and they who were emancipated from villenage1 or who had in a more summary manner emancipated themselves1 multiplied in poverty and wretchedness4 ,lastly1 owing to the fashion for large households of retainers1 great numbers of men were trained up in an idle and dissolute way of life1 liable at any time to be cast off when age or accident invalided them1 or when the master of the family died2 and then if not ashamed to beg1 too lewd to work1 and ready for any kind of mischief4 ,owing to these co-operating causes1 a huge population of outcasts was produced1 numerous enough seriously to infest society1 yet not so large as to threaten its subversion4 ,montesinos4--,a derangement of the existing system produced them then2 they are a constituent part of the system now4 ,with you they were1 as you have called them1 outcasts3 with us1 to borrow an illustration from foreign institutions1 they have become a caste4 ,but during two centuries the evil appears to have decreased4 ,why was this8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,because it was perceived to be an evil1 and could never at any time be mistaken for a healthful symptom4 ,and because circumstances tended to suspend its progress4 ,the habits of these unhappy persons being at first wholly predatory1 the laws proclaimed a sort of crusade against them1 and great and inhuman riddance was made by the executioner4 ,foreign service opened a drain in the succeeding reigns3 many also were drawn off by the spirit of maritime adventure1 preferring the high seas to the high way1 as a safer course of plundering4 ,then came an age of civil war1 with its large demand for human life4 ,meanwhile as the old arrangements of society crumbled and decayed new ones were formed4 ,the ancient fabric was repaired in some parts and modernised in others4 ,and from the time of the ,restoration the people supposed their institutions to be stable because after long and violent convulsions they found themselves at rest1 and the transition which was then going on was slow1 silent1 and unperceived4 ,the process of converting slaves and villeins into servants and free peasantry had ended2 that of raising a manufacturing populace and converting peasantry into poor was but begun2 and it proceeded slowly for a full hundred years4 ,montesinos4--,those hundred years were the happiest which ,england has ever known4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,perhaps so3 ,greek text4 ,montesinos4--,with the exception of the efforts which were made for restoring the exiled family of the ,stuarts they were years of quiet uniform prosperity and advancement4 ,the morals of the country recovered from the contagion which ,charles ,,ii4 imported from ,france1 and for which ,puritanism had prepared the people4 ,visitations of pestilence were suspended4 ,sectarians enjoyed full toleration1 and were contented4 ,the ,church proved itself worthy of the victory which it had obtained4 ,the ,constitution1 after one great but short struggle1 was well balanced and defined2 and if the progress of art1 science1 and literature was not brilliant1 it was steady1 and the way for a brighter career was prepared4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the way was prepared meantime for evil as well as for good4 ,you were retrograde in sound policy1 sound philosophy and sound learning4 ,our business at present is wholly with the first4 ,because your policy1 defective as it was at the best1 had been retrograde1 discoveries in physics1 and advances in mechanical science which would have produced nothing but good in ,utopia1 became as injurious to the weal of the nation as they were instrumental to its wealth4 ,but such had your system imperceptibly become1 and such were your statesmen1 that the wealth of nations was considered as the sole measure of their prosperity4 ,montesinos4--,in feudal ages the object of those monarchs who had any determinate object in view was either to extend their dominions by conquest from their neighbours1 or to increase their authority at home by breaking the power of a turbulent nobility4 ,in commercial ages the great and sole object of government1 when not engaged in war1 was to augment its revenues1 for the purpose of supporting the charges which former wars had induced1 or which the apprehension of fresh ones rendered necessary4 ,and thus it has been1 that of the two main ends of government1 which are the security of the subjects and the improvement of the nation1 the latter has never been seriously attempted1 scarcely indeed taken into consideration2 and the former imperfectly attained4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,fail not1 however1 ,i entreat you1 to bear in mind that this has not been the fault of your rulers at any time4 ,it has been their misfortune--an original sin in the constitution of the society wherein they were born4 ,circumstances which they did not make and could not control have impelled them onward in ways which neither for themselves nor the nation were ways of pleasantness and peace4 ,montesinos4--,there is one beautiful exception--,edward ,,vi4 ,that blessed ,prince whose saintly name might move ,the understanding heart to tears of reverent love4 ,he would have struck into the right course4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you have a ,catholic feeling concerning saints1 ,montesinos1 though you look for them in the ,protestant calendar4 ,edward deserves to be remembered with that feeling4 ,but had his life been prolonged to the full age of man it would not have been in his power to remedy the evil which had been done in his father's reign and during his own minority4 ,to have effected that would have required a strength and obduracy of character incompatible with his meek and innocent nature4 ,in intellect and attainments he kept pace with his age1 a more stirring and intellectual one than any which had gone before it3 but in the wisdom of the heart he was far beyond that age1 or indeed any that has succeeded it4 ,it cannot be said of him as of ,henry of ,windsor1 that he was fitter for a cloister than a throne1 but he was fitter for a heavenly crown than a terrestrial one4 ,this country was not worthy of him6--scarcely this earth6 ,montesinos4--,there is a homely verse common in village churchyards1 the truth of which has been felt by many a heart1 as some consolation in its keenest afflictions3-- ,god calls them first whom ,he loves best4 ,but surely no prince ever more sedulously employed himself to learn his office4 ,his views in some respects were not in accord with the more enlarged principles of trade1 which experience has taught us4 ,but on the other hand he judged rightly what the medicines were by which the sores of the commonwealth might be healed4 ,his prescriptions are as applicable now as they were then1 and in most points as needful3 they were good education1 good example1 good laws1 and the just execution of those laws3 punishing the vagabond and idle1 encouraging the good1 ordering well the customers1 and engendering friendship in all parts of the commonwealth4 ,in these1 and more especially in the first of these1 he hoped and purposed to have shown his device4 ,but it was not permitted4 ,nevertheless1 he has his reward4 ,it has been more wittily than charitably said that ,hell is paved with good intentions3 they have their place in ,heaven also4 ,evil thoughts and desires are justly accounted to us for sin2 assuredly therefore the sincere goodwill will be accounted for the deed1 when means and opportunity have been wanting to bring it to effect4 ,there are feelings and purposes as well as thoughts1 --whose very sweetness yieldeth proof ,that they were born for immortality4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,those great legislative measures whereby the character of a nation is changed and stamped are more practicable in a barbarous age than in one so far advanced as that of the ,tudors2 under a despotic government1 than under a free one2 and among an ignorant1 rather than inquiring people4 ,obedience is then either yielded to a power which is too strong to be resisted1 or willingly given to the acknowledged superiority of some commanding mind1 carrying with it1 as in such ages it does1 an appearance of divinity4 ,our incomparable ,alfred was a prince in many respects favourably circumstanced for accomplishing a great work like this1 if his victory over the ,danes had been so complete as to have secured the country against any further evils from that tremendous enemy4 ,and had ,england remained free from the scourge of their invasion under his successors1 it is more than likely that his institutions would at this day have been the groundwork of your polity4 ,montesinos4--,if you allude to that part of the ,saxon law which required that all the people should be placed under borh1 ,i must observe that even those writers who regard the name of ,alfred with the greatest reverence always condemn this part of his system of government4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it is a question of degree4 ,the just medium between too much superintendence and too little3 the mystery whereby the free will of the subject is preserved1 while it is directed by the fore purpose of the ,state 7which is the secret of true polity71 is yet to be found out4 ,but this is certain1 that whatever be the origin of government1 its duties are patriarchal1 that is to say1 parental3 superintendence is one of those duties1 and is capable of being exercised to any extent by delegation and sub-delegation4 ,montesinos4--,the ,madras system1 my excellent friend ,dr4 ,bell would exclaim if he were here4 ,that which1 as he says1 gives in a school to the master1 the hundred eyes of ,argus1 and the hundred hands of ,briareus1 might in a state give omnipresence to law1 and omnipotence to order4 ,this is indeed the fair ideal of a commonwealth4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and it was this at which ,alfred aimed4 ,his means were violent1 because the age was barbarous4 ,experience would have shown wherein they required amendment1 and as manners improved the laws would have been softened with them4 ,but they disappeared altogether during the years of internal warfare and turbulence which ensued4 ,the feudal order which was established with the ,norman conquest1 or at least methodised after it1 was in this part of its scheme less complete3 still it had the same bearing4 ,when that also went to decay1 municipal police did not supply its place4 ,church discipline then fell into disuse2 clerical influence was lost2 and the consequence now is1 that in a country where one part of the community enjoys the highest advantages of civilisation with which any people upon this globe have ever in any age been favoured1 there is among the lower classes a mass of ignorance1 vice1 and wretchedness1 which no generous heart can contemplate without grief1 and which1 when the other signs of the times are considered1 may reasonably excite alarm for the fabric of society that rests upon such a base4 ,it resembles the tower in your own vision1 its beautiful summit elevated above all other buildings1 the foundations placed upon the sand1 and mouldering4 ,montesinos4 ,rising so high1 and built so insecure1 ,ill may such perishable work endure6 ,you will not1 ,i hope1 come to that conclusion6 ,you will not1 ,i hope1 say with the evil prophet-- ,the fabric of her power is undermined2 ,the ,earthquake underneath it will have way1 ,and all that glorious structure1 as the wind ,scatters a summer cloud1 be swept away6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,look at the populace of ,london1 and ask yourself what security there is that the same blind fury which broke out in your childhood against the ,roman ,catholics may not be excited against the government1 in one of those opportunities which accident is perpetually offering to the desperate villains whom your laws serve rather to protect than to punish6 ,montesinos4--,it is an observation of ,mercier's1 that despotism loves large cities4 ,the remark was made with reference to ,paris only a little while before the ,french ,revolution6 ,but even if he had looked no farther than the history of his own country and of that very metropolis1 he might have found sufficient proof that insubordination and anarchy like them quite as well4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,london is the heart of your commercial system1 but it is also the hot-bed of corruption4 ,it is at once the centre of wealth and the sink of misery2 the seat of intellect and empire3 and yet a wilderness wherein they1 who live like wild beasts upon their fellow-creatures1 find prey and cover4 ,other wild beasts have long since been extirpated3 even in the wilds of ,scotland1 and of barbarous1 or worse than barbarous ,ireland1 the wolf is no longer to be found2 a degree of civilisation this to which no other country has attained4 ,man1 and man alone1 is permitted to run wild4 ,you plough your fields and harrow them2 you have your scarifiers to make the ground clean2 and if after all this weeds should spring up1 the careful cultivator roots them out by hand4 ,but ignorance and misery and vice are allowed to grow1 and blossom1 and seed1 not on the waste alone1 but in the very garden and pleasure-ground of society and civilisation4 ,old ,thomas ,tusser's coarse remedy is the only one which legislators have yet thought of applying4 ,montesinos4--,what remedy is that8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--',twas the husbandman's practice in his days and mine3 ,where plots full of nettles annoyeth the eye1 ,sow hempseed among them1 and nettles will die4 ,montesinos4--,the use of hemp indeed has not been spared4 ,but with so little avail has it been used1 or rather to such ill effect1 that every public execution1 instead of deterring villains from guilt1 serves only to afford them opportunity for it4 ,perhaps the very risk of the gallows operates upon many a man among the inducements to commit the crime whereto he is tempted2 for with your true gamester the excitement seems to be in proportion to the value of the stake4 ,yet ,i hold as little with the humanity-mongers1 who deny the necessity and lawfulness of inflicting capital punishment in any case1 as with the shallow moralists1 who exclaim against vindictive justice1 when punishment would cease to be just1 if it were not vindictive4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and yet the inefficacious punishment of guilt is less to be deplored and less to be condemned than the total omission of all means for preventing it4 ,many thousands in your metropolis rise every morning without knowing how they are to subsist during the day1 or many of them where they are to lay their heads at night4 ,all men1 even the vicious themselves1 know that wickedness leads to misery2 but many1 even among the good and the wise1 have yet to learn that misery is almost as often the cause of wickedness4 ,montesinos4--,there are many who know this1 but believe that it is not in the power of human institutions to prevent this misery4 ,they see the effect1 but regard the causes as inseparable from the condition of human nature4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,as surely as ,god is good1 so surely there is no such thing as necessary evil4 ,for by the religious mind sickness and pain and death are not to be accounted evils4 ,moral evils are of your own making1 and undoubtedly the greater part of them may be prevented2 though it is only in ,paraguay 7the most imperfect of ,utopias7 that any attempt at prevention has been carried into effect4 ,deformities of mind1 as of body1 will sometimes occur4 ,some voluntary castaways there will always be1 whom no fostering kindness and no parental care can preserve from self-destruction2 but if any are lost for want of care and culture1 there is a sin of omission in the society to which they belong4 ,montesinos4--,the practicability of forming such a system of prevention may easily be allowed1 where1 as in ,paraguay1 institutions are fore-planned1 and not1 as everywhere in ,europe1 the slow and varying growth of circumstances4 ,but to introduce it into an old society1 hic labor1 hoc opus est6 ,the ,augean stable might have been kept clean by ordinary labour1 if from the first the filth had been removed every day2 when it had accumulated for years1 it became a task for ,hercules to cleanse it4 ,alas1 the age of heroes and demigods is over6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,there lies your error6 ,as no general will ever defeat an enemy whom he believes to be invincible1 so no difficulty can be overcome by those who fancy themselves unable to overcome it4 ,statesmen in this point are1 like physicians1 afraid1 lest their own reputation should suffer1 to try new remedies in cases where the old routine of practice is known and proved to be ineffectual4 ,ask yourself whether the wretched creatures of whom we are discoursing are not abandoned to their fate without the highest attempt to rescue them from it8 ,the utmost which your laws profess is1 that under their administration no human being shall perish for want3 this is all6 ,to effect this you draw from the wealthy1 the industrious1 and the frugal1 a revenue exceeding tenfold the whole expenses of government under ,charles ,i41 and yet even with this enormous expenditure upon the poor it is not effected4 ,i say nothing of those who perish for want of sufficient food and necessary comforts1 the victims of slow suffering and obscure disease2 nor of those who1 having crept to some brick-kiln at night1 in hope of preserving life by its warmth1 are found there dead in the morning4 ,not a winter passes in which some poor wretch does not actually die of cold and hunger in the streets of ,london6 ,with all your public and private eleemosynary establishments1 with your eight million of poor- rates1 with your numerous benevolent associations1 and with a spirit of charity in individuals which keeps pace with the wealth of the richest nation in the world1 these things happen1 to the disgrace of the age and country1 and to the opprobrium of humanity1 for want of police and order6 ,you are silent6 ,montesinos4--,some shocking examples occurred to me4 ,the one of a poor ,savoyard boy with his monkey starved to death in ,st4 ,james's ,park4 ,the other1 which is1 if that be possible1 a still more disgraceful case1 is recorded incidentally in ,rees's ,cyclopaedia under the word monster4 ,it is only in a huge overgrown city that such cases could possibly occur4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the extent of a metropolis ought to produce no such consequences4 ,whatever be the size of a bee-hive or an ant-hill1 the same perfect order is observed in it4 ,montesinos4--,that is because bees and ants act under the guidance of unerring instinct4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,as if instinct were a superior faculty to reason6 ,but the statesman1 as well as the sluggard1 may be told to go to the ant and the bee1 consider their ways and be wise6 ,it is for reason to observe and profit by the examples which instinct affords it4 ,montesinos4--,a country modelled upon ,apiarian laws would be a strange ,utopia6 the bowstring would be used there as unmercifully as it is in the seraglio1 to say nothing of the summary mode of bringing down the population to the means of subsistence4 ,but this is straying from the subject4 ,the consequences of defective order are indeed frightful1 whether we regard the physical or the moral evils which are produced4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and not less frightful when the political evils are contemplated4 ,to the dangers of an oppressive and iniquitous order1 such1 for example1 as exists where negro slavery is established1 you are fully awake in ,england2 but to those of defective order among yourselves1 though they are precisely of the same nature1 you are blind4 ,and yet you have spirits among you who are labouring day and night to stir up a bellum servile1 an insurrection like that of ,wat ,tyler1 of the ,jacquerie1 and of the peasants in ,germany4 ,there is no provocation for this1 as there was in all those dreadful convulsions of society3 but there are misery and ignorance and desperate wickedness to work upon1 which the want of order has produced4 ,think for a moment what ,london1 nay1 what the whole kingdom would be1 were your ,catilines to succeed in exciting as general an insurrection as that which was raised by one madman in your own childhood6 ,imagine the infatuated and infuriated wretches1 whom not ,spitalfields1 ,st4 ,giles's1 and ,pimlico alone1 but all the lanes and alleys and cellars of the metropolis would pour out--a frightful population1 whose multitudes1 when gathered together1 might almost exceed belief6 ,the streets of ,london would appear to teem with them1 like the land of ,egypt with its plague of frogs3 and the lava floods from a volcano would be less destructive than the hordes whom your great cities and manufacturing districts would vomit forth6 ,montesinos4--,such an insane rebellion would speedily be crushed4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,perhaps so4 ,but three days were enough for the ,fire of ,london4 ,and be assured this would not pass away without leaving in your records a memorial as durable and more dreadful4 ,montesinos4--,is such an event to be apprehended8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,its possibility at least ought always to be borne in mind4 ,the ,french ,revolution appeared much less possible when the ,assembly of ,notables was convoked2 and the people of ,france were much less prepared for the career of horrors into which they were presently hurried4 ,,colloquy ,,xiv4--,,the ,,library4 ,i was in my library1 making room upon the shelves for some books which had just arrived from ,new ,england1 removing to a less conspicuous station others which were of less value and in worse dress1 when ,sir ,thomas entered4 ,you are employed1 said he1 to your heart's content4 ,why1 ,montesinos1 with these books1 and the delight you take in their constant society1 what have you to covet or desire8 ,montesinos4--,nothing1 except more books4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4-- ,crescit1 indulgens sibi1 dirus hydrops4 ,montesinos4--,nay1 nay1 my ghostly monitor1 this at least is no diseased desire4 ,if ,i covet more1 it is for the want ,i feel and the use which ,i should make of them4 ,libraries1 says my good old friend ,george ,dyer1 a man as learned as he is benevolent1 libraries are the wardrobes of literature1 whence men1 properly informed1 might bring forth something for ornament1 much for curiosity1 and more for use4 ,these books of mine1 as you well know1 are not drawn up here for display1 however much the pride of the eye may be gratified in beholding them1 they are on actual service4 ,whenever they may be dispersed1 there is not one among them that will ever be more comfortably lodged1 or more highly prized by its possessor2 and generations may pass away before some of them will again find a reader4 ,it is well that we do not moralise too much upon such subjects4 ,for foresight is a melancholy gift1 ,which bares the bald1 and speeds the all-too-swift4 ,h4 ,t4 ,but the dispersion of a library1 whether in retrospect or in anticipation1 is always to me a melancholy thing4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,how many such dispersions must have taken place to have made it possible that these books should thus be brought together here among the ,cumberland mountains4 ,montesinos4--,many1 indeed2 and in many instances most disastrous ones4 ,not a few of these volumes have been cast up from the wreck of the family or convent libraries during the late ,revolution4 ,yonder ,acta ,sanctorum belonged to the ,capuchins1 at ,ghent4 ,this book of ,st4 ,bridget's ,revelations1 in which not only all the initial letters are illuminated1 but every capital throughout the volume was coloured1 came from the ,carmelite ,nunnery at ,bruges4 ,that copy of ,alain ,chartier1 from the ,jesuits' ,college at ,louvain2 that ,imago ,primi ,saeculi ,societatis1 from their college at ,ruremond4 ,here are books from ,colbert's library1 here others from the ,lamoignon one4 ,and here are two volumes of a work1 not more rare than valuable for its contents1 divorced1 unhappily1 and it is to be feared for ever1 from the one which should stand between them2 they were printed in a convent at ,manila1 and brought from thence when that city was taken by ,sir ,william ,draper2 they have given me1 perhaps1 as many pleasurable hours 7passed in acquiring information which ,i could not otherwise have obtained71 as ,sir ,william spent years of anxiety and vexation in vainly soliciting the reward of his conquest4 ,about a score of the more out-of-the-way works in my possession belonged to some unknown person1 who seems carefully to have gleaned the bookstalls a little before and after the year #agij4 ,he marked them with certain ciphers1 always at the end of the volume4 ,they are in various languages1 and ,i never found his mark in any book that was not worth buying1 or that ,i should not have bought without that indication to induce me4 ,all were in ragged condition1 and having been dispersed1 upon the owner's death probably1 as of no value1 to the stalls they had returned2 and there ,i found this portion of them just before my old haunts as a book-hunter in the metropolis were disforested1 to make room for the improvements between ,westminster and ,oxford ,road4 ,i have endeavoured without success to discover the name of their former possessor4 ,he must have been a remarkable man1 and the whole of his collection1 judging of it by that part which has come into my hands1 must have been singularly curious4 ,a book is the more valuable to me when ,i know to whom it has belonged1 and through what scenes and changes it has passed4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you would have its history recorded in the fly-leaf as carefully as the pedigree of a racehorse is preserved4 ,montesinos4--,i confess that ,i have much of that feeling in which the superstition concerning relics has originated1 and ,i am sorry when ,i see the name of a former owner obliterated in a book1 or the plate of his arms defaced4 ,poor memorials though they be1 yet they are something saved for a while from oblivion1 and ,i should be almost as unwilling to destroy them as to efface the ,hic jacet of a tombstone4 ,there may be sometimes a pleasure in recognising them1 sometimes a salutary sadness4 ,yonder ,chronicle of ,king ,d4 ,manoel1 by ,damiam de ,goes1 and yonder ,general ,history of ,spain1 by ,esteban de ,garibay1 are signed by their respective authors4 ,the minds of these laborious and useful scholars are in their works1 but you are brought into a more personal relation with them when you see the page upon which you know that their eyes have rested1 and the very characters which their hands have traced4 ,this copy of ,casaubon's ,epistles was sent to me from ,florence by ,walter ,landor4 ,he had perused it carefully1 and to that perusal we are indebted for one of the most pleasing of his ,conversations2 these letters had carried him in spirit to the age of their writer1 and shown ,james ,i4 to him in the light wherein ,james was regarded by contemporary scholars1 and under the impression thus produced ,landor has written of him in his happiest mood1 calmly1 philosophically1 feelingly1 and with no more of favourable leaning than justice will always manifest when justice is in good humour and in charity with all men4 ,the book came from the palace library at ,milan1 how or when abstracted ,i know not1 but this beautiful dialogue would never have been written had it remained there in its place upon the shelf1 for the worms to finish the work which they had begun4 ,isaac ,casaubon must be in your society1 ,sir ,thomas1 for where ,erasmus is you will be1 and there also ,casaubon will have his place among the wise and the good4 ,tell him1 ,i pray you1 that due honour has in these days been rendered to his name by one who as a scholar is qualified to appreciate his merits1 and whose writings will be more durable than monuments of brass or marble4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,is there no message to him from ,walter ,landor's friend8 ,montesinos4--,say to him1 since you encourage me to such boldness1 that his letters could scarcely have been perused with deeper interest by the persons to whom they were addressed than they have been by one1 at the foot of ,skiddaw1 who is never more contentedly employed than when learning from the living minds of other ages1 one who would gladly have this expression of respect and gratitude conveyed to him1 and who trusts that when his course is finished here he shall see him face to face4 ,here is a book with which ,lauderdale amused himself1 when ,cromwell kept him prisoner in ,windsor ,castle4 ,he has recorded his state of mind during that imprisonment by inscribing in it1 with his name1 and the dates of time and place1 the ,latin word ,durate1 and the ,greek ,greek text4 ,here is a memorial of a different kind inscribed in this ,rule of ,penance of ,st4 ,francis1 as it in ordered for religious women4 ,i beseech my deare mother humbly to accept of this exposition of our holy rule1 the better to conceive what your poor child ought to be1 who daly beges your blessing4 ,constantia ,francisco4 ,and here in the ,apophthegmata1 collected by ,conrad ,lycosthenes1 and published after drastic expurgation by the ,jesuits as a commonplace book1 some ,portuguese has entered a hearty vow that he would never part with the book1 nor lend it to any one4 ,very different was the disposition of my poor old ,lisbon acquaintance1 the ,abbe1 who1 after the old humaner form1 wrote in all his books 7and he had a rare collection7 ,ex libris ,francisci ,garnier1 et amicorum4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,how peaceably they stand together--,papists and ,protestants side by side4 ,montesinos4--,their very dust reposes not more quietly in the cemetery4 ,ancient and modern1 ,jew and ,gentile1 ,mahommedan and ,crusader1 ,french and ,english1 ,spaniards and ,portuguese1 ,dutch and ,brazilians1 fighting their own battles1 silently now1 upon the same shelf3 ,fernam ,lopez and ,pedro de ,ayala2 ,john de ,laet and ,barlaeus1 with the historians of ,joam ,fernandes ,vieira2 ,foxe's ,martyrs and the ,three ,conversions of ,father ,parsons2 ,cranmer and ,stephen ,gardiner2 ,dominican and ,franciscan2 ,jesuit and ,philosophe 7equally misnamed72 ,churchmen and ,sectarians2 ,round-heads and ,cavaliers ,here are ,god's conduits1 grave divines2 and here ,is ,nature's secretary1 the philosopher3 ,and wily statesmen1 which teach how to tie ,the sinews of a city's mystic body2 ,here gathering chroniclers2 and by them stand ,giddy fantastic poets of each land4--,,donne4 ,here ,i possess these gathered treasures of time1 the harvest of so many generations1 laid up in my garners3 and when ,i go to the window there is the lake1 and the circle of the mountains1 and the illimitable sky4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4-- ,felicemque voco pariter studiique locique6 ,montesinos4-- --meritoque probas artesque locumque4 ,the simile of the bees1 ,sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes1 has often been applied to men who have made literature their profession2 and they among them to whom worldly wealth and worldly honours are objects of ambition1 may have reason enough to acknowledge its applicability4 ,but it will bear a happier application and with equal fitness3 for1 for whom is the purest honey hoarded that the bees of this world elaborate1 if it be not for the man of letters8 ,the exploits of the kings and heroes of old1 serve now to fill story-books for his amusement and instruction4 ,it was to delight his leisure and call forth his admiration that ,homer sung and ,alexander conquered4 ,it is to gratify his curiosity that adventurers have traversed deserts and savage countries1 and navigators have explored the seas from pole to pole4 ,the revolutions of the planet which he inhabits are but matters for his speculation2 and the deluges and conflagrations which it has undergone1 problems to exercise his philosophy1 or fancy4 ,he is the inheritor of whatever has been discovered by persevering labour1 or created by inventive genius4 ,the wise of all ages have heaped up a treasure for him1 which rust doth not corrupt1 and which thieves cannot break through and steal4 ,i must leave out the moth1 for even in this climate care is required against its ravages4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,yet1 ,montesinos1 how often does the worm-eaten volume outlast the reputation of the worm-eaten author6 ,montesinos4--,of the living one also2 for many there are of whom it may be said1 in the words of ,vida1 that-- --ipsi ,saepe suis superant monumentis2 illaudatique ,extremum ante diem faetus flevere caducos1 ,viventesque suae viderunt funera famae4 ,some literary reputations die in the birth2 a few are nibbled to death by critics1 but they are weakly ones that perish thus1 such only as must otherwise soon have come to a natural death4 ,somewhat more numerous are those which are overfed with praise1 and die of the surfeit4 ,brisk reputations1 indeed1 are like bottled twopenny1 or pop they sparkle1 are exhaled1 and fly--not to heaven1 but to the ,limbo4 ,to live among books1 is in this respect like living among the tombs2 you have in them speaking remembrancers of mortality4 ,behold this also is vanity6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,has it proved to you vexation of spirit also8 ,montesinos4--,oh1 no6 for never can any man's life have been passed more in accord with his own inclinations1 nor more answerably to his own desires4 ,excepting that peace which1 through ,god's infinite mercy1 is derived from a higher source1 it is to literature1 humanly speaking1 that ,i am beholden1 not only for the means of subsistence1 but for every blessing which ,i enjoy2 health of mind and activity of mind1 contentment1 cheerfulness1 continual employment1 and therewith continual pleasure4 ,sua vissima vita indies1 sentire se fieri meliorem2 and this as ,bacon has said1 and ,clarendon repeated1 is the benefit that a studious man enjoys in retirement4 ,to the studies which ,i have faithfully pursued ,i am indebted for friends with whom1 hereafter1 it will be deemed an honour to have lived in friendship2 and as for the enemies which they have procured to me in sufficient numbers1 happily ,i am not of the thin-skinned race3 they might as well fire small-shot at a rhinoceros1 as direct their attacks upon me4 ,in omnibus requiem quaesivi1 said ,thomas a ,kempis1 sed non inveni nisi in angulis et libellis4 ,i too have found repose where he did1 in books and retirement1 but it was there alone ,i sought it3 to these my nature1 under the direction of a merciful ,providence1 led me betimes1 and the world can offer nothing which should tempt me from them4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,if wisdom were to be found in the multitude of books1 what a progress must this nation have made in it since my head was cut off6 ,a man in my days might offer to dispute de omni scibile1 and in accepting the challenge ,i1 as a young man1 was not guilty of any extraordinary presumption1 for all which books could teach was1 at that time1 within the compass of a diligent and ardent student4 ,even then we had difficulties to contend with which were unknown to the ancients4 ,the curse of ,babel fell lightly upon them4 ,the ,greeks despised other nations too much to think of acquiring their languages for the love of knowledge1 and the ,romans contented themselves with learning only the ,greek4 ,but tongues which1 in my lifetime1 were hardly formed1 have since been refined and cultivated1 and are become fertile in authors2 and others1 the very names of which were then unknown in ,europe1 have been discovered and mastered by ,european scholars1 and have been found rich in literature4 ,the circle of knowledge has thus widened in every generation2 and you cannot now touch the circumference of what might formerly have been clasped4 ,montesinos4--,we are fortunate1 methinks1 who live in an age when books are accessible and numerous1 and yet not so multiplied1 as to render a competent1 not to say thorough1 acquaintance with any one branch of literature1 impossible4 ,he has it yet in his power to know much1 who can be contented to remain in ignorance of more1 and to say with ,scaliger1 non sum ex illis gloriosulis qui nihil ignorant4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,if one of the most learned men whom the world has ever seen felt it becoming in him to say this two centuries ago1 how infinitely smaller in these days must the share of learning which the most indefatigable student can hope to attain1 be in proportion to what he must wish to learn6 ,the sciences are simplified as they are improved2 old rubbish and demolished fabrics serve there to make a foundation for new scaffolding1 and more enduring superstructures2 and every discoverer in physics bequeaths to those who follow him greater advantages than he possessed at the commencement of his labours4 ,the reverse of this is felt in all the higher branches of literature4 ,you have to acquire what the learned of the last age acquired1 and in addition to it1 what they themselves have added to the stock of learning4 ,thus the task is greater in every succeeding generation1 and in a very few more it must become manifestly impossible4 ,montesinos4 ,pope ,ganganelli is said to have expressed a whimsical opinion that all the books in the world might be reduced to six thousand volumes in folio--by epitomising1 expurgating1 and destroying whatever the chosen and plenipotential committee of literature should in their wisdom think proper to condemn4 ,it is some consolation to know that no ,pope1 or ,nero1 or ,bonaparte1 however great their power1 can ever think such a scheme sufficiently within the bounds of possibility for them to dream of attempting it2 otherwise the will would not be wanting4 ,the evil which you anticipate is already perceptible in its effects4 ,well would it be if men were as moderate in their desire of wealth1 as those who enter the ranks of literature1 and lay claim to distinction there1 are in their desire of knowledge6 ,a slender capital suffices to begin with1 upon the strength of which they claim credit1 and obtain it as readily as their fellow adventurers in trade4 ,if they succeed in setting up a present reputation1 their ambition extends no further4 ,the very vanity which finds its present food produces in them a practical contempt for any fame beyond what they can live to enjoy2 and this sense of its insignificance to themselves is what better minds hardly attain1 even in their saddest wisdom1 till this world darkens upon them1 and they feel that they are on the confines of eternity4 ,but every age has had its sciolists1 and will continue to have them2 and in every age literature has also had1 and will continue to have its sincere and devoted followers1 few in number1 but enough to trim the everlasting lamp4 ,it is when sciolists meddle with ,state affairs that they become the pests of a nation2 and this evil1 for the reason which you have assigned1 is more likely to increase than to be diminished4 ,in your days all extant history lay within compassable bounds3 it is a fearful thing to consider now what length of time would be required to make studious man as conversant with the history of ,europe since those days1 as he ought to be1 if he would be properly qualified for holding a place in the councils of a kingdom4 ,men who take the course of public life will not1 nor can they be expected to1 wait for this4 ,youth and ardour1 and ambition and impatience1 are here in accord with worldly prudence2 if they would reach the goal for which they start1 they must begin the career betimes2 and such among them as may be conscious that their stock of knowledge is less than it ought to be for such a profession1 would not hesitate on that account to take an active part in public affairs1 because they have a more comfortable consciousness that they are quite as well informed as the contemporaries1 with whom they shall have to act1 or to contend4 ,the quantulum at which ,oxenstern admired would be a large allowance now4 ,for any such person to suspect himself of deficiency would1 in this age of pretension1 be a hopeful symptom2 but should he endeavour to supply it1 he is like a mail-coach traveller1 who is to be conveyed over macadamised roads at the rate of nine miles an hour1 including stoppages1 and must therefore take at his minuted meals whatever food is readiest4 ,he must get information for immediate use1 and with the smallest cost of time2 and therefore it is sought in abstracts and epitomes1 which afford meagre food to the intellect1 though they take away the uneasy sense of inanition4 ,tout abrege sur un bon livre est un sot abrege1 says ,montaigne2 and of all abridgments there are none by which a reader is liable1 and so likely1 to be deceived as by epitomised histories4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,call to mind1 ,i pray you1 my foliophagous friend1 what was the extent of ,michael ,montaigne's library2 and that if you had passed a winter in his chateau you must1 with that appetite of yours1 have but yourself upon short allowance there4 ,historical knowledge is not the first thing needful for a statesman1 nor the second4 ,and yet do not hastily conclude that ,i am about to disparage its importance4 ,a sailor might as well put to sea without chart or compass as a minister venture to steer the ship of the ,state without it4 ,for as the strong and strange varieties in human nature are repeated in every age1 so the thing which hath been1 it is that which shall be4 ,is there anything whereof it may be said1 ,see1 this is new8 it hath been already of old time which was before us4 ,montesinos4-- ,for things forepast are precedents to us1 ,whereby we may things present now1 discuss1 as the old poet said who brought together a tragical collection of precedents in the mirror of magistrates4 ,this is what ,lord ,brooke calls the second light of government ,which stories yield1 and no time can disseason3 the common standard of man's reason1 he holds to be the first light which the founders of a new state1 or the governors of an old one1 ought to follow4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,rightly1 for though the most sagacious author that ever deduced maxims of policy from the experience of former ages has said that the misgovernment of ,states1 and the evils consequent thereon1 have arisen more from the neglect of that experience--that is1 from historical ignorance--than from any other cause1 the sum and substance of historical knowledge for practical purposes consists in certain general principles2 and he who understands those principles1 and has a due sense of their importance1 has always1 in the darkest circumstances1 a star in sight by which he may direct his course surely4 ,montesinos4--,the ,british ministers who began and conducted the first war against revolutionary ,france1 were once reminded1 in a memorable speech1 that if they had known1 or knowing had borne in mind1 three maxims of ,machiavelli1 they would not have committed the errors which cost this country so dearly4 ,they would not have relied upon bringing the war to a successful end by aid of a party among the ,french3 they would not have confided in the reports of emigrants2 and they would not have supposed that because the ,french finances were in confusion1 ,france was therefore incapable of carrying on war with vigour and ability2 men and not money being the sinews of war1 as ,machiavelli had taught1 and the revolutionary rulers and ,buonaparte after them had learnt4 ,each of these errors they committed1 though all were marked upon the chart6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,such maxims are like beacons on a dangerous shore1 not the less necessary1 because the seaman may sometimes be deceived by false lights1 and sometimes mistaken in his distances2 but the possibility of being so misled will be borne in mind by the cautious4 ,machiavelli is always sagacious1 but the tree of knowledge of which he had gathered grew not in ,paradise2 it had a bitter root1 and the fruit savours thereof1 even to deadliness4 ,he believed men to be so malignant by nature that they always act malevolently from choice1 and never well except by compulsion1 a devilish doctrine1 to be accounted for rather than excused by the circumstances of his age and country4 ,for he lived in a land where intellect was highly cultivated1 and morals thoroughly corrupted1 the ,papal ,church having by its doctrines1 its practices1 and its example1 made one part of the ,italians heathenism and superstitious1 the other impious1 and both wicked4 ,the rule of policy as well as of private morals is to be found in the ,gospel2 and a religious sense of duty towards ,god and man is the first thing needful in a statesman3 herein he has an unerring guide when knowledge fails him1 and experience affords no light4 ,this1 with a clear head and a single heart1 will carry him through all difficulties2 and the just confidence which1 having these1 he will then have in himself1 will obtain for him the confidence of the nation4 ,in every nation1 indeed1 which is conscious of its strength1 the minister who takes the highest tone will invariably be the most popular2 let him uphold1 even haughtily1 the character of his country1 and the heart and voice of the people will be with him4 ,but haughtiness implies always something that is hollow3 the tone of a wise minister will be firm but calm4 ,he will neither truckle to his enemies in the vain hope of conciliating them by a specious candour1 which they at the same time flatter and despise2 nor will he stand aloof from his friends1 lest he should be accused of regarding them with partiality2 and thus while he secures the attachment of the one he will command the respect of the other4 ,he will not1 like the ,lacedemonians1 think any measures honourable which accord with his inclinations1 and just if they promote his views2 but in all cases he will do that which is lawful and right1 holding this for a certain truth1 that in politics the straight path is the sure one6 ,such a minister will hope for the best1 and expect the best2 by acting openly1 steadily1 and bravely1 he will act always for the best3 and so acting1 be the issue what it may1 he will never dishonour himself or his country1 nor fall under the sharp judgment of which they that are in high places are in danger4 ,montesinos4--,i am pleased to hear you include hopefulness among the needful qualifications4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it was a ,jewish maxim that the spirit of prophecy rests only upon eminent1 happy1 and cheerful men4 ,montesinos4--,a wise woman1 by which ,i do not mean in vulgar parlance one who pretends to prophecy1 has a maxim to the same effect3 ,toma este aviso1 she says1 guardate de aquel que no tiene esperanza de bien6 take care of him who hath no hope of good6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,of whole heart cometh hope1 says old ,piers ,plowman4 ,and these maxims are warranted by philosophy1 divine and human2 by human wisdom1 because he who hopes little will attempt little--fear is a betrayal of the succours which reason offereth1 and in difficult times1 pericula magna non nisi periculis depelli solent2 by religion1 because the ways of providence are not so changed under the dispensation of ,grace from what they were under the old law but that he who means well1 and acts well1 and is not wanting to himself1 may rightfully look for a blessing upon the course which he pursues4 ,the upright individual may rest his heal in peace upon this hope2 the upright minister who conducts the affairs of a nation may trust in it2 for as national sins bring after them in sure consequence their merited punishment1 so national virtue1 which is national wisdom1 obtains in like manner its temporal and visible reward4 ,blessings and curses are before you1 and which are to be your portion depends upon the direction of public opinion4 ,the march of intellect is proceeding at quick time2 and if its progress be not accompanied by a corresponding improvement in morals and religion1 the faster it proceeds1 with the more violence will you be hurried down the road to ruin4 ,one of the first effects of printing was to make proud men look upon learning as disgraced by being thus brought within reach of the common people4 ,till that time learning1 such as it was1 had been confined to courts and convents1 the low birth of the clergy being overlooked because they were privileged by their order4 ,but when laymen in humble life were enabled to procure books the pride of aristocracy took an absurd course1 insomuch that at one time it was deemed derogatory for a nobleman if he could read or write4 ,even scholars themselves complained that the reputation of learning1 and the respect due to it1 and its rewards were lowered when it was thrown open to all men2 and it was seriously proposed to prohibit the printing of any book that could be afforded for sale below the price of three soldi4 ,this base and invidious feeling was perhaps never so directly avowed in other countries as in ,italy1 the land where literature was first restored2 and yet in this more liberal island ignorance was for some generations considered to be a mark of distinction1 by which a man of gentle birth chose1 not unfrequently1 to make it apparent that he was no more obliged to live by the toil of his brain1 than by the sweat of his brow4 ,the same changes in society which rendered it no longer possible for this class of men to pass their lives in idleness have completely put an end to this barbarous pride4 ,it is as obsolete as the fashion of long finger-nails1 which in some parts of the ,east are still the distinctive mark of those who labour not with their hands4 ,all classes are now brought within the reach of your current literature1 that literature which1 like a moral atmosphere1 is as it were the medium of intellectual life1 and on the quality of which1 according as it may be salubrious or noxious1 the health of the public mind depends4 ,there is1 if not a general desire for knowledge1 a general appearance of such a desire4 ,authors of all kinds have increased and are increasing among you4 ,romancers-- ,montesinos4--,some of whom attempt things which had hitherto been unattempted yet in prose or rhyme1 because among all the extravagant intellects with which the world has teemed none were ever before so utterly extravagant as to choose for themselves themes of such revolting monstrosity4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,poets-- ,montesinos4-- ,tanti ,rome non ha preti1 o dottori ,bologna4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,critics-- ,montesinos4--,more numerous yet2 for this is a corps in which many who are destined for better things engage1 till they are ashamed of the service2 and a much greater number who endeavour to distinguish themselves in higher walks of literature1 and fail1 take shelter in it2 as they cannot attain reputation themselves they endeavour to prevent others from being more successful1 and find in the gratification of envy some recompense for disappointed vanity4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,philosophers-- ,montesinos4--,true and false2 the philosophers and the philosophists2 some of the former so full1 that it would require1 as the rabbis say of a certain pedigree in the ,book of ,chronicles1 four hundred camel loads of commentaries to expound the difficulties in their text2 others so empty1 that nothing can approximate so nearly to the notion of an infinitesimal quantity as their meaning4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,with this multiplication of books1 which in its proportionate increase marvellously exceeds that of your growing population1 are you a wiser1 a more intellectual1 or more imaginative people than when1 as in my days1 the man of learning1 while he sat at his desk1 had his whole library within arm's-length8 ,montesinos4--,if we are not wiser1 it must be because the means of knowledge1 which are now both abundant and accessible1 are either neglected or misused4 ,the sciences are not here to be considered3 in these our progress has been so great1 that seeing the moral and religious improvement of the nation has in no degree kept pace with it1 you have reasonably questioned whether we have not advanced in certain branches1 farther and faster than is conducive to1 or perhaps consistent with1 the general good4 ,but there can be no question that great advancement has been made in many departments of literature conducive to innocent recreation 7which would be alone no trifling good1 even were it not1 as it is1 itself conducive to health both of body and of mind71 to sound knowledge1 and to moral and political improvement4 ,there are now few portions of the habitable earth which have not been explored1 and with a zeal and perseverance which had slept from the first age of maritime discovery till it was revived under ,george ,,iii4 in consequence of this revival1 and the awakened spirit of curiosity and enterprise1 every year adds to our ample store of books relating to the manners of other nations1 and the condition of men in states and stages of society different to our own4 ,and of such books we cannot have too many2 the idlest reader may find amusement in them of a more satisfactory kind than he can gather from the novel of the day or the criticism of the day2 and there are few among them so entirely worthless that the most studious man may not derive from them some information for which he ought to be thankful4 ,some memorable instances we have had in this generation of the absurdities and errors1 sometimes affecting seriously the public service and the national character1 which have arisen from the want of such knowledge as by means of such books is now generally diffused4 ,skates and warming-pans will not again be sent out as ventures to ,brazil4 ,the ,board of ,admiralty will never again attempt to ruin an enemy's port by sinking a stone-ship1 to the great amusement of that enemy1 in a tide harbour4 ,nor will a cabinet minister think it sufficient excuse for himself and his colleagues1 to confess that they were no better informed than other people1 and had everything to learn concerning the interior of a country into which they had sent an army4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,this is but a prospective benefit2 and of a humble kind1 if it extend no further than to save you from any future exposure of an ignorance which might deserve to be called disgraceful4 ,we profited more by our knowledge of other countries in the age when ,hops and turkeys1 carp and beer1 ,came into ,england all in one year4 ,montesinos4--,and yet in that age you profited slowly by the commodities which the eastern and western parts of the world afforded4 ,gold1 pearls1 and spices were your first imports4 ,for the honour of science and of humanity1 medicinal plants were soon sought for4 ,but two centuries elapsed before tea and potatoes--the most valuable products of the ,east and ,west--which have contributed far more to the general good than all their spices and gems and precious metals--came into common use2 nor have they yet been generally adopted on the ,continent1 while tobacco found its way to ,europe a hundred years earlier2 and its filthy abuse1 though here happily less than in former times1 prevails everywhere4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,pro pudor6 ,there is a snuff-box on the mantelpiece--and thou revilest tobacco6 ,montesinos4--,distinguish1 ,i pray you1 gentle ghost6 ,i condemn the abuse of tobacco as filthy1 implying in those words that it has its allowable and proper use4 ,to smoke1 is1 in certain circumstances1 a wholesome practice2 it may be regarded with a moral complacency as the poor man's luxury1 and with liking by any one who follows a lighted pipe in the open air4 ,but whatever may be pleaded for its soothing and intellectualising effects1 the odour within doors of a defunct pipe is such an abomination1 that ,i join in anathematising it with ,james1 the best-natured of kings1 and ,joshua ,sylvester1 the most voluble of poets4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,thou hast written verses praise of snuff6 ,montesinos4--,and if thy nose1 sir ,spirit1 were anything more than the ghost of an olfactor1 ,i would offer it a propitiatory pinch1 that you might the more feelingly understand the merit of the said verses1 and admire them accordingly4 ,but ,i am no more to be deemed a snuff-taker because ,i carry a snuff-box when travelling1 and keep one at hand for occasional use1 than ,i am to be reckoned a casuist or a pupil of the ,jesuits because the ,moral ,philosophy of ,escobar and the ,spiritual ,exercises of ,st4 ,ignatius ,loyola are on my shelves4 ,thank ,heaven1 ,i bear about with me no habits which ,i cannot lay aside as easily as my clothes4 ,the age is past in which travellers could add much to the improvement1 the comfort1 or the embellishment of this country by imparting anything which they have newly observed in foreign parts4 ,we have happily more to communicate now than to receive4 ,yet when ,i tell you that since the commencement of the present century there have been every year1 upon an average1 more than a hundred and fifty plants which were previously unknown here introduced into the nurseries and market-gardens about ,london1 you will acknowledge that in this branch at least1 a constant desire is shown of enriching ourselves with the produce of other hands4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,philosophers of old travelled to observe the manners of men and study their institutions4 ,i know not whether they found more pleasure in the study1 or derived more advantages from it1 than the adventurers reap who1 in these latter times1 have crossed the seas and exposed themselves to dangers of every kind1 for the purpose of extending the catalogue of plants4 ,montesinos4--,of all travels1 those of the mere botanist are the least instructive-- ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,to any but botanists--but for them alone they are written4 ,do not depreciate any pursuit which leads men to contemplate the works of their ,creator6 ,the ,linnean traveller who1 when you look over the pages of his journal1 seems to you a mere botanist1 has in his pursuit1 as you have in yours1 an object that occupies his time1 and fills his mind1 and satisfies his heart4 ,it is as innocent as yours1 and as disinterested--perhaps more so1 because it is not so ambitious4 ,nor is the pleasure which he partakes in investigating the structure of a plant less pure1 or less worthy1 than what you derive from perusing the noblest productions of human genius4 ,you look at me as if you thought this reprehension were undeserved6 ,montesinos4--,the eye1 then1 ,sir ,thomas1 is proditorious1 and ,i will not gainsay its honest testimony3 yet would ,i rather endeavour to profit by the reprehension than seek to show that it was uncalled for4 ,if ,i know myself ,i am never prone to undervalue either the advantages or acquirements which ,i do not possess4 ,that knowledge is said to be of all others the most difficult2 whether it be the most useful the ,greeks themselves differ1 for if one of their wise men left the words ,greek text as his maxim to posterity1 a poet1 who perhaps may have been not less deserving of the title1 has controverted it1 and told us that for the uses of the world it is more advantageous for us to understand the character of others than to know ourselves4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,here lies the truth2 he who best understands himself is least likely to be deceived in others2 you judge of others by yourselves1 and therefore measure them by an erroneous standard whenever your autometry is false4 ,this is one reason why the empty critic is usually contumelious and flippant1 the competent one as generally equitable and humane4 ,montesinos4--,this justice ,i would render to the ,linnean school1 that it produced our first devoted travellers2 the race to which they succeeded employed themselves chiefly in visiting museums and cataloguing pictures1 and now and then copying inscriptions2 even in their books notices are found for which they who follow them may be thankful2 and facts are sometimes1 as if by accident1 preserved1 for useful application4 ,they went abroad to accomplish or to amuse themselves--to improve their time1 or to get rid of it2 the botanists travelled for the sake of their favourite science1 and many of them1 in the prime of life1 fell victims to their ardour in the unwholesome climates to which they were led4 ,latterly we have seen this ardour united with the highest genius1 the most comprehensive knowledge1 and the rarest qualities of perseverance1 prudence1 and enduring patience4 ,this generation will not leave behind it two names more entitled to the admiration of after ages than ,burckhardt and ,humboldt4 ,the former purchased this pre-eminence at the cost of his life2 the latter lives1 and long may he live to enjoy it4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,this very important branch of literature can scarcely be said to have existed in my time2 the press was then too much occupied in preserving such precious remains of antiquity as could be rescued from destruction1 and in matters which inflamed the minds of men1 as indeed they concerned their dearest and most momentous interests4 ,moreover reviving literature took the natural course of imitation1 and the ancients had left nothing in this kind to be imitated4 ,nothing therefore appeared in it1 except the first inestimable relations of the discoveries in the ,east and ,west1 and these belong rather to the department of history4 ,as travels we had only the chance notices which occurred in the ,latin correspondence of learned men when their letters found their way to the public4 ,montesinos4--,precious remains these are1 but all too few4 ,the first travellers whose journals or memoirs have been preserved were ambassadors2 then came the adventurer of whom you speak2 and it is remarkable that two centuries afterwards we should find men of the same stamp among the buccaneers1 who recorded in like manner with faithful dilligence whatever they had opportunity of observing in their wild and nefarious course of life4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,you may deduce from thence two conclusions1 apparently contrarient1 yet both warranted by the fact which you have noticed4 ,it may be presumed that men who1 while engaged in such an occupation1 could thus meritoriously employ their leisure1 were rather compelled by disastrous circumstances to such a course than engaged in it by inclination3 that it was their misfortune rather than their fault if they were not the benefactors and ornaments of society1 instead of being its outlaws2 and that under a wise and parental government such persons never would be lost4 ,this is a charitable consideration1 nor will ,i attempt to impugn it2 the other may seem less so1 but is of more practical importance4 ,for these examples are proof1 if proof were needed1 that intellectual attainments and habits are no security for good conduct unless they are supported by religious principles2 without religion the highest endowments of intellect can only render the possessor more dangerous if he be ill disposed1 if well disposed only more unhappy4 ,the conquerors1 as they called themselves1 were followed by missionaries4 ,montesinos4--,our knowledge of the remoter parts of the world1 during the first part of the seventeenth century1 must chiefly be obtained from their recitals4 ,and there is no difficulty in separating what may be believed from their fables1 because their falsehoods being systematically devised and circulated in pursuance of what they regarded as part of their professional duty1 they told truth when they had no motive for deceiving the reader4 ,let any person compare the relations of our ,protestant missionaries with those of the ,jesuits1 ,dominicans1 ,franciscans1 or any other ,romish order1 and the difference which he cannot fail to perceive between the plain truth of the one and the audacious and elaborate mendacity of the other may lead him to a just inference concerning the two churches4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,their fables were designed1 by exciting admiration1 to call forth money for the support of missions1 which1 notwithstanding such false pretences1 were piously undertaken and heroically pursued4 ,they scrupled therefore as little at interlarding their chronicles and annual letters with such miracles1 as poets at the use of machinery in their verses4 ,think not that ,i am excusing them2 but thus it was that they justified their system of imposition to themselves1 and this part of it must not be condemned as if it proceeded from an evil intention4 ,montesinos4--,yet1 ,sir ,thomas1 the best of those missionaries are not more to be admired for their exemplary virtue1 and pitied for the superstition which debased their faith1 than others of their respective orders are to be abominated for the deliberate wickedness with which1 in pursuance of the same system1 they imposed the most blasphemous and atrocious legends upon the credulous1 and persecuted with fire and sword those who opposed their deceitful villainy4 ,one reason wherefore so few travels were written in the age of which we are speaking is1 that no ,englishman1 unless he were a ,papist1 could venture into ,italy1 or any other country where the ,romish religion was established in full power1 without the danger of being seized by the ,inquisition6 ,other dangers1 by sea and by land1 from corsairs and banditti1 including too the chances of war and of pestilence1 were so great in that age1 that it was not unusual for men when they set out upon their travels to put out a sum upon their own lives1 which if they died upon the journey was to be the underwriter's gain1 but to be repaid if they returned1 within such increase as might cover their intervening expenses4 ,the chances against them seem to have been considered as nearly three to one4 ,but danger1 within a certain degree1 is more likely to provoke adventurers than to deter them4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,there thou hast uttered a comprehensive truth4 ,no legislator has yet so graduated his scale of punishment as to ascertain that degree which shall neither encourage hope nor excite the audacity of desperate guilt4 ,it is certain that there are states of mind in which the consciousness that he is about to play for life or death stimulates a gamester to the throw4 ,this will apply to most of those crimes which are committed for cupidity1 and not attended with violence4 ,montesinos4--,well then may these hazards have acted as incentives where there was the desire of honour1 the spirit of generous enterprise1 or even the love of notoriety4 ,by the first of these motives ,pietro della ,valle 7the most romantic in his adventures of all true travellers7 was led abroad1 the latter spring set in motion my comical countryman1 ,tom ,coriat1 who by the engraver's help has represented himself at one time in full dress1 making a leg to a courtesan at ,venice1 and at another dropping from his rags the all-too lively proofs of prolific poverty4 ,perhaps literature has never been so directly benefited by the spirit of trade as it was in the seventeenth century1 when ,european jewellers found their most liberal customers in the courts of the ,east4 ,some of the best travels which we possess1 as well as the best materials for ,persian and ,indian history1 have been left us by persons engaged in that trade4 ,from that time travelling became less dangerous and more frequent in every generation1 except during the late years when ,englishmen were excluded from the ,continent by the military tyrant whom 7with ,god's blessing on a rightful cause7 we have beaten from his imperial throne4 ,and now it is more customary for females in the middle rank of life to visit ,italy than it was for them in your days to move twenty miles from home4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,is this a salutary or an injurious fashion8 ,montesinos4--,according to the subject1 and to the old school maxim quicquid recipitur1 recipitur in modum recipientis4 ,the wise come back wiser1 the well-informed with richer stores of knowledge1 the empty and the vain return as they went1 and there are some who bring home foreign vanities and vices in addition to their own4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and what has been imported by such travellers for the good of their country8 ,montesinos4--,coffee in the seventeenth century1 inoculation in that which followed2 since which we have had now and then a new dance and a new game at cards1 curry and mullagatawny soup from the ,east ,indies1 turtle from the ,west1 and that earthly nectar to which the ,east contributes its arrack1 and the ,west its limes and its rum4 ,in the language of men it is called ,punch2 ,i know not what may be its name in the ,olympian speech4 ,but tell not the ,englishmen of ,george the ,second's age1 lest they should be troubled for the degeneracy of their grandchildren1 that the punchbowl is now become a relic of antiquity1 and their beloved beverage almost as obsolete as metheglin1 hippocras1 chary1 or morat6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,it is well for thee that thou art not a young beagle instead of a grey-headed bookman1 or that rambling vein of thine would often bring thee under the lash of the whipper-in6 ,off thou art and away in pursuit of the smallest game that rises before thee4 ,montesinos4--,good ,ghost1 there was once a wise ,lord ,chancellor1 who in a dialogue upon weighty matters thought it not unbecoming to amuse himself with discursive merriment concerning ,st4 ,appollonia and ,st4 ,uncumber4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,good ,flesh and ,blood1 that was a nipping reply6 ,and happy man is his dole who retains in grave years1 and even to grey hairs1 enough of green youth's redundant spirits for such excursiveness6 ,he who never relaxes into sportiveness is a wearisome companion1 but beware of him who jests at everything6 ,such men disparage by some ludicrous association all objects which are presented to their thoughts1 and thereby render themselves incapable of any emotion which can either elevate or soften them1 they bring upon their moral being an influence more withering than the blast of the desert4 ,a countenance1 if it be wrinkled either with smiles or with frowns1 is to be shunned2 the furrows which the latter leave show that the soil is sour1 those of the former are symptomatic of a hollow heart4 ,none of your travellers have reached ,utopia1 and brought from thence a fuller account of its institutions8 ,montesinos4--,there was one1 methinks1 who must have had it in view when he walked over the world to discover the source of moral motion4 ,he was afflicted with a tympany of mind produced by metaphysics1 which was at that time a common complaint1 though attended in him with unusual symptoms1 but his heart was healthy and strong1 and might in former ages have enabled him to acquire a distinguished place among the saints of the ,thebais or the philosophers of ,greece4 ,but although we have now no travellers employed in seeking undiscoverable countries1 and although ,eldorado1 the city of the ,cesares1 and the ,sabbatical ,river1 are expunged even from the maps of credulity and imagination1 ,welshmen have gone in search of ,madoc's descendants1 and scarcely a year passes without adding to the melancholy list of those who have perished in exploring the interior of ,africa4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,whenever there shall exist a civilised and ,christian negro state ,providence will open that country to civilisation and ,christianity1 meantime to risk strength and enterprise and science against climate is contending against the course of nature4 ,have these travellers yet obtained for you the secret of the ,psylli8 ,montesinos4--,we have learnt from savages the mode of preparing their deadliest poisons4 ,the more useful knowledge by which they render the human body proof against the most venomous serpents has not been sought with equal diligence2 there are1 however1 scattered notices which may perhaps afford some clue to the discovery4 ,the writings of travellers are not more rich in materials for the poet and the historian than they are in useful notices1 deposited there like seeds which lie deep in the earth till some chance brings them within reach of air1 and then they germinate4 ,these are fields in which something may always be found by the gleaner1 and therefore those general collections in which the works are curtailed would be to be reprobated1 even if epitomisers did not seem to possess a certain instinct of generic doltishness which leads them curiously to omit whatever ought especially to be preserved4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,if ever there come a time1 ,montesinos1 when beneficence shall be as intelligent1 and wisdom as active1 as the spirit of trade1 you will then draw from foreign countries other things beside those which now pay duties at the custom-house1 or are cultivated in nurseries for the conservatories of the wealthy4 ,not that ,i regard with dissatisfaction these latter importations of luxury1 however far they may be brought1 or at whatever cost2 for of all mere pleasures those of a garden are the most salutary1 and approach nearest to a moral enjoyment4 ,but you will then 7should that time come7 seek and find in the laws1 usages and experience of other nations palliatives for some of those evils and diseases which have hitherto been inseparable from society and human nature1 and remedies1 perhaps1 for others4 ,montesinos4--,happy the travellers who shall be found instrumental to such good6 ,one advantage belongs to authors of this description2 because they contribute to the instruction of the learned1 their reputation suffers no diminution by the course of time3 age rather enhances their value4 ,in this respect they resemble historians1 to whom1 indeed1 their labours are in a great degree subsidiary4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,they have an advantage over them1 my friend1 in this1 that rarely can they leave evil works behind them1 which either from a mischievous persuasion1 or a malignant purpose1 may heap condemnation upon their own souls as long as such works survive them4 ,even if they should manifest pernicious opinions and a wicked will1 the venom is in a great degree sheathed by the vehicle in which it is administered4 ,and this is something2 for let me tell thee1 thou consumer of goose quills1 that of all the ,devil's laboratories there is none in which more poison is concocted for mankind than in the inkstand6 ,montesinos4--,my withers are unwrung6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,be thankful1 therefore1 in life1 as thou wilt in death4 ,a principle of compensation may be observed in literary pursuits as in other things4 ,reputations that never flame continue to glimmer for centuries after those which blaze highest have gone out4 ,and what is of more moment1 the humblest occupations are morally the safest4 ,rhadamanthus never puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence upon a dictionary-maker or the compiler of a county history4 ,montesinos4 ,i am to understand1 then1 that in the archangel's balance a little book may sink the scale toward the pit2 while all the tomes of ,thomas ,hearne and good old ,john ,nichols will be weighed among their good works6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,sport as thou wilt in allusions to allegory and fable2 but bear always in thy most serious mind this truth1 that men hold under an awful responsibility the talents with which they are entrusted4 ,kings have not so serious an account to render as they who exercise an intellectual influence over the minds of men6 ,montesinos4--,if evil works1 so long as they continue to produce evil1 heap up condemnation upon the authors1 it is well for some of the wickedest writers that their works do not survive them4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,such men1 my friend1 even by the most perishable of their wicked works1 lay up sufficient condemnation for themselves4 ,the maxim that malitia supplet aetatem is rightfully admitted in human laws3 should there not then1 by parity of justice1 be cases where1 when the secrets of the heart are seen1 the intention shall be regarded rather than the act8 ,the greatest portion of your literature1 at any given time1 is ephemeral2 indeed1 it has ever been so since the discovery of printing2 and this portion it is which is most influential1 consequently that by which most good or mischief is done4 ,montesinos4--,ephemeral it truly may be called2 it is now looked for by the public as regularly as their food2 and1 like food1 it affects the recipient surely and permanently1 even when its effect is slow1 according as it is wholesome or noxious4 ,but how great is the difference between the current literature of this and of any former time6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,from that complacent tone it may be presumed that you see in it proof both of moral and intellectual improvement4 ,montesinos1 ,i must disturb that comfortable opinion1 and call upon you to examine how much of this refinement which passes for improvement is superficial4 ,true it is that controversy is carried on with more decency than it was by ,martin ,lutherand a certain ,lord ,chancellor1 to whom you just now alluded2 but if more courtesy is to be found in polemical writers1 who are less sincere than either the one or the other1 there is as much acerbity of feeling and as much bitterness of heart4 ,you have a class of miscreants which had no existence in those days--the panders of the press1 who live by administering to the vilest passions of the people1 and encouraging their most dangerous errors1 practising upon their ignorance1 and inculcating whatever is most pernicious in principle and most dangerous to society4 ,this is their golden age2 for though such men would in any age have taken to some villainy or other1 never could they have found a course at once so gainful and so safe4 ,long impunity has taught them to despise the laws which they defy1 and the institutions which they are labouring to subvert2 any further responsibility enters not into their creed1 if that may be called a creed1 in which all the articles are negative4 ,i8 we turn from politics to what should be humaner literature1 and look at the self-constituted censors of whatever has passed the press1 there also we shall find that they who are the most incompetent assume the most authority1 and that the public favour such pretensions2 for in quackery of every kind1 whether medical1 political1 critical1 or hypocritical1 quo quis impudentior eo doctior habetur4 ,montesinos4--,the pleasure which men take in acting maliciously is properly called by ,barrow a rascally delight4 ,but this is no new form of malice4 ,avant nous1 says the sagacious but iron-hearted ,montluc--avant nous ces envies ont regne1 et regneront encore apres nous1 si ,dieu ne nous voulait tous refondre4 ,its worst effect is that which ,ben ,jonson remarked3 ,the gentle reader1 says he1 rests happy to hear the worthiest works misrepresented1 the clearest actions obscured1 the innocentest life traduced2 and in such a licence of lying1 a field so fruitful of slanders1 how can there be matter wanting to his laughter8 ,hence comes the epidemical infection3 for how can they escape the contagion of the writings whom the virulency of the calumnies hath not staved off from reading8 ,there is another mischief1 arising out of ephemeral literature1 which was noticed by the same great author4 ,wheresoever manners and fashions are corrupted1 says he1 language is4 ,it imitates the public riot4 ,the excess of feasts and apparel are the notes of a sick state2 and the wantonness of language of a sick mind4 ,this was the observation of a man well versed in the history of the ancients and in their literature4 ,the evil prevailed in his time to a considerable degree2 but it was not permanent1 because it proceeded rather from the affectation of a few individuals than from any general cause3 the great poets were free from it2 and our prose writers then1 and till the end of that century1 were preserved1 by their sound studies and logical habits of mind1 from any of those faults into which men fall who write loosely because they think loosely4 ,the pedantry of one class and the colloquial vulgarity of another had their day2 the faults of each were strongly contrasted1 and better writers kept the mean between them4 ,more lasting effect was produced by translators1 who in later times have corrupted our idiom as much as1 in early ones1 they enriched our vocabulary2 and to this injury the ,scotch have greatly contributed2 for composing in a language which is not their mother tongue1 they necessarily acquired an artificial and formal style1 which1 not so much through the merit of a few as owing to the perseverance of others1 who for half a century seated themselves on the bench of criticism1 has almost superseded the vernacular ,english of ,addison and ,swift4 ,our journals1 indeed1 have been the great corrupters of our style1 and continue to be so1 and not for this reason only4 ,men who write in newspapers1 and magazines1 and reviews1 write for present effect2 in most cases this is as much their natural and proper aim as it would be in public speaking2 but when it is so they consider1 like public speakers1 not so much what is accurate or just1 either in matter or manner1 as what will be acceptable to those whom they address4 ,writing also under the excitement of emulation and rivalry1 they seek1 by all the artifices and efforts of an ambitious style1 to dazzle their readers2 and they are wise in their generation1 experience having shown that common minds are taken by glittering faults1 both in prose and verse1 as larks are with looking-glasses4 ,in this school it is that most writers are now trained2 and after such training anything like an easy and natural movement is as little to be looked for in their compositions as in the step of a dancing master4 ,to the vices of style which are thus generated there must be added the inaccuracies inevitably arising from haste1 when a certain quantity of matter is to be supplied for a daily or weekly publication which allows of no delay--the slovenliness that confidence1 as well as fatigue and inattention1 will produce--and the barbarisms1 which are the effect of ignorance1 or that smattering of knowledge which serves only to render ignorance presumptuous4 ,these are the causes of corruption in our current style2 and when these are considered there would be ground for apprehending that the best writings of the last century might become as obsolete as yours in the like process of time1 if we had not in our ,liturgy and our ,bible a standard from which it will not be possible wholly to depart4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,will the ,liturgy and the ,bible keep the language at that standard in the colonies1 where little or no use is made of the one1 and not much1 it may be feared1 of the other8 ,montesinos4--,a sort of hybrid speech1 a ,lingua ,anglica1 more debased1 perhaps1 than the ,lingua ,franca of the ,levant1 or the ,portuguese of ,malabar1 is likely enough to grow up among the ,south ,sea ,islands2 like the mixture of ,spanish with some of the native languages in ,south ,america1 or the mingle-mangle which the negroes have made with ,french and ,english1 and probably with other ,european tongues in the colonies of their respective states4 ,the spirit of mercantile adventure may produce in this part of the new world a process analogous to what took place throughout ,europe on the breaking up of the ,western ,empire2 and in the next millennium these derivatives may become so many cultivated tongues1 having each its literature4 ,these will be like varieties in a flower- garden1 which the florist raises from seed2 but in the colonies1 as in our orchards1 the graft takes with it1 and will preserve1 the true characteristics of the stock4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,but the same causes of deterioration will be at work there also4 ,montesinos4--,not nearly in the same degree1 nor to an equal extent4 ,now and then a word with the ,american impress comes over to us which has not been struck in the mint of analogy4 ,but the ,americans are more likely to be infected by the corruption of our written language than we are to have it debased by any importations of this kind from them4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,there is a more important consideration belonging to this subject4 ,the cause which you have noticed as the principal one of this corruption must have a farther and more mischievous effect4 ,for it is not in the vices of an ambitious style that these ephemeral writers1 who live upon the breath of popular applause1 will rest4 ,great and lasting reputations1 both in ancient and modern times1 have been raised notwithstanding that defect1 when the ambition from which it proceeded was of a worthy kind1 and was sustained by great powers and adequate acquirements4 ,but this ambition1 which looks beyond the morrow1 has no place in the writers of a day4 ,present effect is their end and aim2 and too many of them1 especially the ablest1 who have wanted only moral worth to make them capable of better things1 are persons who can desire no other mercy from after ages than silence and oblivion4 ,even with the better part of the public that author will always obtain the most favourable reception1 who keeps most upon a level with them in intellectuals1 and puts them to the least trouble of thinking4 ,he who addresses himself with the whole endeavours of a powerful mind to the understanding faculty may find fit readers2 but they will be few4 ,he who labours for posterity in the fields of research1 must look to posterity for his reward4 ,nay1 even they whose business is with the feelings and the fancy1 catch most fish when they angle in shallow waters4 ,is it not so1 ,piscator8 ,montesinos4--,in such honest anglers1 ,sir ,thomas1 ,i should look for as many virtues1 as good old happy ,izaak ,walton found in his brethren of the rod and line4 ,nor will you1 ,i think1 disparage them2 for you were of the ,rhymers' ,company1 and at a time when things appear to us in their true colours and proportion 7if ever while we are yet in the body71 you remembered your verses with more satisfaction than your controversial writings1 even though you had no misgivings concerning the part which you had chosen4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,my verses1 friend1 had none of the athanasia in their composition4 ,though they have not yet perished1 they cannot be said to have a living existence2 even you1 ,i suspect1 have sought for them rather because of our personal acquaintance than for any other motive4 ,had ,i been only a poet1 those poems1 such as they were1 would have preserved my name2 but being remembered for other grounds1 better and worse1 the name which ,i have left has been one cause why they have passed into oblivion1 sooner than their perishable nature would have carried them thither4 ,if in the latter part of my mortal existence ,i had misgivings concerning any of my writings1 they were of the single one1 which is still a living work1 and which will continue so to be4 ,i feared that speculative opinions1 which had been intended for the possible but remote benefit of mankind1 might1 by unhappy circumstances1 be rendered instrumental to great and immediate evil2 an apprehension1 however1 which was altogether free from self-reproach4 ,but my verses will continue to exist in their mummy state1 long after the worms shall have consumed many of those poetical reputations which are at this time in the cherry-cheeked bloom of health and youth4 ,old poets will always retain their value for antiquaries and philologists1 modern ones are far too numerous ever to acquire an accidental usefulness of this kind1 even if the language were to undergo greater changes than any circumstances are likely to produce4 ,there will now be more poets in every generation than in that which preceded it2 they will increase faster than your population2 and as their number increases1 so must the proportion of those who will be remembered necessarily diminish4 ,tell the ,fitz-,muses this6 ,it is a consideration1 ,sir ,poet1 which may serve as a refrigerant for their ardour4 ,those of the tribe who may flourish hereafter 7as the flourishing phrase is7 in any particular age1 will be little more remembered in the next than the ,lord ,mayors and ,sheriffs who were their contemporaries4 ,montesinos4--,father in verse1 if you had not put off flesh and blood so long1 you would not imagine that this consideration will diminish their number4 ,i am sure it would not have affected me forty years ago1 had ,i seen this truth then as clearly as ,i perceive and feel it now4 ,though it were manifest to all men that not one poet in an age1 in a century1 a millennium1 could establish his claim to be for ever known1 every aspirant would persuade himself that he is the happy person for whom the inheritance of fame is reserved4 ,and when the dream of immortality is dispersed1 motives enough remain for reasonable ambition4 ,it is related of some good man 7,i forget who71 that upon his death-bed he recommended his son to employ himself in cultivating a garden1 and in composing verses1 thinking these to be at once the happiest and the most harmless of all pursuits4 ,poetry may be1 and too often has been1 wickedly perverted to evil purposes2 what indeed is there that may not1 when religion itself is not safe from such abuses6 but the good which it does inestimably exceeds the evil4 ,it is no trifling good to provide means of innocent and intellectual enjoyment for so many thousands in a state like ours2 an enjoyment1 heightened1 as in every instance it is within some little circle1 by personal considerations1 raising it to a degree which may deserve to be called happiness4 ,it is no trifling good to win the ear of children with verses which foster in them the seeds of humanity and tenderness and piety1 awaken their fancy1 and exercise pleasurably and wholesomely their imaginative and meditative powers4 ,it is no trifling benefit to provide a ready mirror for the young1 in which they may see their own best feelings reflected1 and wherein whatsoever things are honest1 whatsoever things are just1 whatsoever things are pure1 whatsoever things are lovely1 are presented to them in the most attractive form4 ,it is no trifling benefit to send abroad strains which may assist in preparing the heart for its trials1 and in supporting it under them4 ,but there is a greater good than this1 a farther benefit4 ,although it is in verse that the most consummate skill in composition is to be looked for1 and all the artifice of language displayed1 yet it is in verse only that we throw off the yoke of the world1 and are as it were privileged to utter our deepest and holiest feelings4 ,poetry in this respect may be called the salt of the earth2 we express in it1 and receive in it1 sentiments for which1 were it not for this permitted medium1 the usages of the world would neither allow utterance nor acceptance4 ,and who can tell in our heart-chilling and heart-hardening society1 how much more selfish1 how much more debased1 how much worse we should have been1 in all moral and intellectual respects1 had it not been for the unnoticed and unsuspected influence of this preservative8 ,even much of that poetry1 which is in its composition worthless1 or absolutely bad1 contributes to this good4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,such poetry1 then1 according to your view1 is to be regarded with indulgence4 ,montesinos4--,thank ,heaven1 ,sir ,thomas1 ,i am no farther critical than every author must necessarily be who makes a careful study of his own art4 ,to understand the principles of criticism is one thing2 to be what is called critical1 is another2 the first is like being versed in jurisprudence1 the other like being litigious4 ,even those poets who contribute to the mere amusement of their readers1 while that amusement is harmless1 are to be regarded with complacency1 if not respect4 ,they are the butterflies of literature1 who during the short season of their summer1 enliven the garden and the field4 ,it were pity to touch them even with a tender hand1 lest we should brush the down from their wings4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,these are they of whom ,i spake as angling in shallow waters4 ,you will not regard with the same complacency those who trouble the stream2 still less those who poison it4 ,montesinos4-- ,vesanum tetigisse timent1 fugiuntque poetam ,qui sapiunt2 agitant pueri1 incautique sequuntur4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,this brings us again to the point at which you bolted4 ,the desire of producing present effect1 the craving for immediate reputation1 have led to another vice1 analogous to and connected with that of the vicious style1 which the same causes are producing1 but of worse consequences4 ,the corruption extends from the manner to the matter2 and they who brew for the press1 like some of those who brew for the publicans1 care not1 if the potion has but its desired strength1 how deleterious may be the ingredients which they use4 ,horrors at which the innocent heart quails1 and the healthy stomachs heaves in loathing1 are among the least hurtful of their stimulants4 ,montesinos4--,this too1 ,sir ,thomas1 is no new evil4 ,an appetite for horrors is one of the diseased cravings of the human mind2 and in old times the tragedies which most abounded in them1 were for that reason the most popular4 ,the dramatists of our best age1 great ,ben and greater ,shakespeare excepted1 were guilty of a farther sin1 with which the writers whom you censure are also to be reproached2 they excited their auditors by the representation of monstrous crimes--crimes out of the course of nature4 ,such fables might lawfully be brought upon the ,grecian stage1 because the belief of the people divested them of their odious and dangerous character2 there they were well known stories1 regarded with a religious persuasion of their truth2 and the personages1 being represented as under the overruling influence of dreadful destiny1 were regarded therefore with solemn commiseration1 not as voluntary and guilty agents4 ,there is nothing of this to palliate or excuse the production of such stories in later times2 the choice1 and1 in a still greater degree1 the invention of any such1 implies in the author1 not merely a want of judgment1 but a defect in moral feeling4 ,here1 however1 the dramatists of that age stopped4 ,they desired to excite in their audience the pleasure of horror1 and this was an abuse of the poet's art3 but they never aimed at disturbing their moral perceptions1 at presenting wickedness in an attractive form1 exciting sympathy with guilt1 and admiration for villainy1 thereby confounding the distinctions between right and wrong4 ,this has been done in our days2 and it has accorded so well with the tendency of other things1 that the moral drift of a book is no longer regarded1 and the severest censure which can be passed upon it is to say that it is in bad taste2 such is the phrase--and the phrase is not confined to books alone4 ,anything may be written1 said1 or done1 in bad feeling and with a wicked intent2 and the public are so tolerant of these1 that he who should express a displeasure on that score would be censured for bad taste himself6 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,and yet you talked of the improvement of the age1 and of the current literature as exceeding in worth that of any former time ,montesinos4--,the portion of it which shall reach to future times will justify me2 for we have living minds who have done their duty to their own age and to posterity4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,has the age in return done its duty to them8 ,montesinos4--,they complain not of the age1 but they complain of an anomalous injustice in the laws4 ,they complain that authors are deprived of a perpetual property in the produce of their own labours1 when all other persons enjoy it as an indefeasible and acknowledged right4 ,and they ask upon what principle1 with what equity1 or under what pretence of public good they are subjected to this injurious enactment8 ,is it because their labour is so light1 the endowments which are required for it so common1 the attainments so cheaply and easily acquired1 and the present remuneration in all cases so adequate1 so ample1 and so certain8 ,the act whereby authors are deprived of that property in their own works which1 upon every principle of reason1 natural justice1 and common law1 they ought to enjoy1 is so curiously injurious in its operation1 that it bears with most hardship upon the best works4 ,for books of great immediate popularity have their run and come to a dead stop3 the hardship is upon those which win their way slowly and difficultly1 but keep the field at last4 ,and it will not appear surprising that this should generally have been the case with books of the highest merit1 if we consider what obstacles to the success of a work may be opposed by the circumstances and obscurity of the author1 when he presents himself as a candidate for fame1 by the humour or the fashion of the times2 the taste of the public1 more likely to be erroneous than right at any time2 and the incompetence1 or personal malevolence of some unprincipled critic1 who may take upon himself to guide the public opinion1 and who if he feels in his own heart that the fame of the man whom he hates is invulnerable1 lays in wait for that reason the more vigilantly to wound him in his fortunes4 ,in such cases1 when the copyright as by the existing law departs from the author's family at his death1 or at the end of twenty-eight years from the first publication of every work1 7if he dies before the expiration of that term17 his representatives are deprived of their property just as it would begin to prove a valuable inheritance4 ,the last descendants of ,milton died in poverty4 ,the descendants of ,shakespeare are living in poverty1 and in the lowest condition of life4 ,is this just to these individuals8 ,is it grateful to the memory of those who are the pride and boast of their country8 ,is it honourable1 or becoming to us as a nation1 holding--the better part of us assuredly1 and the majority affecting to hold--the names of ,shakespeare and ,milton in veneration8 ,to have placed the descendants of ,shakespeare and ,milton in respectability and comfort--in that sphere of life where1 with a full provision for our natural wants and social enjoyments1 free scope is given to the growth of our intellectual and immortal part1 simple justice was all that was required1 only that they should have possessed the perpetual copyright of their ancestors' works1 only that they should not have been deprived of their proper inheritance4 ,the decision which time pronounces upon the reputation of authors1 and upon the permanent rank which they are to hold in the estimation of posterity1 is unerring and final4 ,restore to them that perpetuity in the property of their works1 of which the law has deprived them1 and the reward of literary labour will ultimately be in just proportion to its deserts4 ,however slight may be the hope of obtaining any speedy redress1 there is some satisfaction in earnestly protesting against this injustice4 ,and believing as ,i do1 that if society continues to improve1 no injustice will long be permitted to continue after it has been fairly exposed1 and is clearly apprehended1 ,i cannot but believe that a time must come when the rights of literature will be acknowledged and its wrongs redressed2 and that those authors hereafter who shall deserve well of posterity1 will have no cause to reproach themselves for having sacrificed the interests of their children when they disregarded the pursuit of fortune for themselves4 ,,colloquy ,,xv4--,,the ,,conclusion4 ,montesinos4--,here ,sir ,thomas is the opinion which ,i have attempted to maintain concerning the progress and tendency of society1 placed in a proper position1 and inexpugnably entrenched here according to the rules of art1 by the ablest of all moral engineers4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,who may this political ,achilles be whom you have called in to your assistance8 ,montesinos4--,whom ,fortune rather has sent to my aid1 for my reading has never been in such authors4 ,i have endeavoured always to drink from the spring-head1 but never ventured out to fish in deep waters4 ,thor1 himself1 when he had hooked the ,great ,serpent1 was unable to draw him up from the abyss4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the waters in which you have now been angling have been shallow enough1 if the pamphlet in your hand is1 as it appears to be1 a magazine4 ,montesinos4--,ego sum is1 said ,scaliger1 qui ab omnibus discere volo2 neque tam malum librum esse puto1 ex quo non aliquem fructum colligere possum4 ,i think myself repaid1 in a monkish legend1 for examining a mass of inane fiction1 if ,i discover a single passage which elucidates the real history or manners of its age4 ,in old poets of the third and fourth order we are contented with a little ore1 and a great deal of dross4 ,and so in publications of this kind1 prejudicial as they are to taste and public feeling1 and the public before deeply injurious to the real interests of literature1 something may sometimes be found to compensate for the trash and tinsel and insolent flippancy1 which are now become the staple commodities of such journals4 ,this number contains ,kant's idea of a ,universal ,history on a ,cosmo-,political plan2 and that ,kant is as profound a philosopher as his disciples have proclaimed him to be1 this little treatise would fully convince me1 if ,i had not already believed it1 in reliance upon one of the very few men who are capable of forming a judgment upon such a writer4 ,the sum of his argument is this3 that as deaths1 births1 and marriages1 and the oscillations of the weather1 irregular as they seem to be in themselves1 are nevertheless reduceable upon the great scale to certain rules2 so there may be discovered in the course of human history a steady and continuous1 though slow development of certain great predispositions in human nature1 and that although men neither act under the law of instinct1 like brute animals1 nor under the law of a preconcerted plan1 like rational cosmopolites1 the great current of human actions flows in a regular stream of tendency toward this development2 individuals and nations1 while pursuing their own peculiar and often contradictory purposes1 following the guidance of a great natural purpose1 and thus promoting a process which1 even if they perceived it1 they would little regard4 ,what that process is he states in the following series of propositions3-- #ast4 ,all tendencies of any creature1 to which it is predisposed by nature1 are destined in the end to develop themselves perfectly and agreeably to their final purpose4 #bnd4 ,in man1 as the sole rational creature upon earth1 those tendencies which have the use of his reason for their object are destined to obtain their perfect development in the species only1 and not in the individual4 #crd4 ,it is the will of nature that man should owe to himself alone everything which transcends the mere mechanic constitution of his animal existence1 and that he should be susceptible of no other happiness or perfection than what he has created for himself1 instinct apart1 through his own reason4 #dth4 ,the means which nature employs to bring about the development of all the tendencies she has laid in man1 is the antagonism of those tendencies in the social state1 no farther1 however1 than to that point at which this antagonism becomes the cause of social arrangements founded in law4 #eth4 ,the highest problem for the human species1 to the solution of which it is irresistibly urged by natural impulses1 is the establishment of a universal civil society1 founded on the empire of political justice4 #fth4 ,this problem is1 at the same time1 the most difficult of all1 and the one which is latest solved by man4 #gth4 ,the problem of the establishment of a perfect constitution of society depends upon the problem of a system of international relations1 adjusted to law1 and apart from this latter problem cannot be solved4 #hth4 ,the history of the human race1 as a whole1 may be regarded as the unravelling of a hidden plan of nature for accomplishing a perfect state of civil constitution for society in its internal relations 7and as the condition of that1 by the last proposition1 in its external relations also71 as the sole state of society in which the tendencies of human nature can be all and fully developed4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,this is indeed a master of the sentences1 upon whose text it may be profitable to dwell4 ,let us look to his propositions4 ,from the first this conclusion must follow1 that as nature has given men all his faculties for use1 any system of society in which the moral and intellectual powers of any portion of the people are left undeveloped for want of cultivation1 or receive a perverse direction1 is plainly opposed to the system of nature1 in other words1 to the will of ,god4 ,is there any government upon earth that will bear this test8 ,montesinos4--,i should rather ask of you1 will there ever be one8 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,not till there be a system of government conducted in strict conformity to the precepts of the ,gospel4 ,montesinos4 ,offer these truths to ,power1 will she obey8 ,it prunes her pomp1 perchance ploughs up the root4 ,,lord ,,brooke4 ,yet1 in conformity to those principles alone1 it is that subjects can find their perfect welfare1 and ,states their full security4 ,christianity may be long in obtaining the victory over the powers of this world1 but when that consummation shall have taken place the converse of his second proposition will hold good1 for the species having obtained its perfect development1 the condition of society must then be such that individuals will obtain it also as a necessary consequence4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,here you and your philosopher part company4 ,for he asserts that man is left to deduce from his own unassisted reason everything which relates not to his mere material nature4 ,montesinos4--,there1 indeed1 ,i must diverge from him1 and what in his language is called the hidden plan of nature1 in mine will be the revealed will of ,god4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,the will is revealed2 but the plan is hidden4 ,let man dutifully obey that will1 and the perfection of society and of human nature will be the result of such obedience2 but upon obedience they depend4 ,blessings and curses are set before you--for nations as for individuals--yea1 for the human race4 ,flatter not yourself with delusive expectations6 ,the end may be according to your hope--whether it will be so 7which ,god grant67 is as inscrutable for angels as for men4 ,but to descry that great struggles are yet to come is within reach of human foresight--that great tribulations must needs accompany them--and that these may be--you know not how near at hand6 ,throughout what is called the ,christian world there will be a contest between ,impiety and ,religion2 the former everywhere is gathering strength1 and wherever it breaks loose the foundations of human society will be shaken4 ,do not suppose that you are safe from this danger because you are blest with a pure creed1 a reformed ritual1 and a tolerant ,church6 ,even here the standard of impiety has been set up2 and the drummers who beat the march of intellect through your streets1 lanes1 and market-places1 are enlisted under it4 ,the struggle between ,popery and ,protestanism is renewed4 ,and let no man deceive himself by a vain reliance upon the increased knowledge1 or improved humanity of the times6 ,wickedness is ever the same2 and you never were in so much danger from moral weakness4 ,co-existent with these struggles is that between the feudal system of society as variously modified throughout ,europe1 and the levelling principle of democracy4 ,that principle is actively and indefatigably at work in these kingdoms1 allying itself as occasion may serve with ,popery or with ,dissent1 with atheism or with fanaticism1 with profligacy or with hypocrisy1 ready confederates1 each having its own sinister views1 but all acting to one straightforward end4 ,your rulers meantime seem to be trying that experiment with the ,british ,constitution which ,mithridates is said to have tried upon his own2 they suffer poison to be administered in daily doses1 as if they expected that by such a course the public mind would at length be rendered poison-proof6 ,the first of these struggles will affect all ,christendom2 the third may once again shake the monarchies of ,europe4 ,the second will be felt widely2 but nowhere with more violence than in ,ireland1 that unhappy country1 wherein your government1 after the most impolitic measures into which weakness was ever deluded1 or pusillanimity intimidated1 seems to have abdicated its functions1 contenting itself with the semblance of an authority which it has wanted either wisdom or courage to exert4 ,there is a fourth danger1 the growth of your manufacturing system2 and this is peculiarly your own4 ,you have a great and increasing population1 exposed at all times by the fluctuations of trade to suffer the severest privations in the midst of a rich and luxurious society1 under little or no restraint from religious principle1 and if not absolutely disaffected to the institutions of the country1 certainly not attached to them3 a class of men aware of their numbers and of their strength2 experienced in all the details of combination2 improvident when they are in the receipt of good wages1 yet feeling themselves injured when those wages1 during some failure of demand1 are so lowered as no longer to afford the means of comfortable subsistence2 and directing against the government and the laws of the country their resentment and indignation for the evils which have been brought upon them by competition and the spirit of rivalry in trade4 ,they have among them intelligent heads and daring minds2 and you have already seen how perilously they may be wrought upon by seditious journalists and seditious orators in a time of distress4 ,on what do you rely for security against these dangers8 ,on public opinion8 ,you might as well calculate upon the constancy of wind and weather in this uncertain climate4 ,on the progress of knowledge8 it is such knowledge as serves only to facilitate the course of delusion4 ,on the laws8 the law which should be like a sword in a strong hand1 is weak as a bulrush if it be feebly administered in time of danger4 ,on the people8 they are divided4 ,on the ,parliament8 every faction will be fully and formidably represented there4 ,on the government8 it suffers itself to be insulted and defied at home1 and abroad it has shown itself incapable of maintaining the relations of peace and amity with its allies1 so far has it been divested of power by the usurpation of the press4 ,it is at peace with ,spain1 and it is at peace with ,turkey2 and although no government was ever more desirous of acting with good faith1 its subjects are openly assisting the ,greeks with men and money against the one1 and the ,spanish ,americans against the other4 ,athens1 in the most turbulent times of its democracy1 was not more effectually domineered over by its demagogues than you are by the press--a press which is not only without restraint1 but without responsibility2 and in the management of which those men will always have most power who have least probity1 and have most completely divested themselves of all sense of honour and all regard for truth4 ,the root of all your evils is in the sinfulness of the nation4 ,the principle of duty is weakened among you2 that of moral obligation is loosened2 that of religious obedience is destroyed4 ,look at the worldliness of all classes--the greediness of the rich1 the misery of the poor1 and the appalling depravity which is spreading among the lower classes through town and country2 a depravity which proceeds unchecked because of the total want of discipline1 and for which there is no other corrective than what may be supplied by fanaticism1 which is itself an evil4 ,if there be nothing exaggerated in this representation1 you must acknowledge that though the human race1 considered upon the great scale1 should be proceeding toward the perfectibility for which it may be designed1 the present aspects in these kingdoms are nevertheless rather for evil than for good4 ,sum you up now upon the hopeful side4 ,montesinos4--,first1 then4 ,i rest in a humble but firm reliance upon that ,providence which sometimes in its mercy educes from the errors of men a happier issue than could ever have been attained by their wisdom2--that ,providence which has delivered this nation from so many and such imminent dangers heretofore4 ,looking1 then1 to human causes1 there is hope to be derived from the humanising effects of ,literature1 which has now first begun to act upon all ranks4 ,good principles are indeed used as the stalking-horse under cover of which pernicious designs may be advanced2 but the better seeds are thus disseminated and fructify after the ill design has failed4 ,the cruelties of the old criminal law have been abrogated4 ,debtors are no longer indiscriminately punished by indefinite imprisonment4 ,the iniquity of the slave trade has been acknowledged1 and put an end to1 so far as the power of this country extends2 and although slavery is still tolerated1 and must be so for awhile1 measures have been taken for alleviating it while it continues1 and preparing the way for its gradual and safe removal4 ,these are good works of the government4 ,and when ,i look upon the conduct of that government in all its foreign relations1 though there may be some things to disapprove1 and some sins of omission to regret1 it has been1 on the whole1 so disinterested1 so magnanimous1 so just1 that this reflection gives me a reasonable and a religious ground of hope4 ,and the reliance is strengthened when ,i call to mind that missionaries from ,great ,britain are at this hour employed in spreading the glad tidings of the ,gospel far and wide among heathen nations4 ,descending from these wider views to the details of society1 there1 too1 ,i perceive ground1 if not for confidence1 at least for hope4 ,there is a general desire throughout the higher ranks for bettering the condition of the poor1 a subject to which the government also has directed its patient attention3 minute inquiries have been made into their existing state1 and the increase of pauperism and of crimes4 ,in no other country have the wounds of the commonwealth been so carefully probed4 ,by means of colonisation1 of an improved parochial order and of a more efficient police1 the further increase of these evils may be prevented2 while1 by education1 by providing means of religious instruction for all by savings banks1 and perhaps by the establishment of ,owenite communities among themselves1 the labouring classes will have their comforts enlarged1 and their well-being secured1 if they are not wanting to themselves in prudence and good conduct4 ,a beginning has been made--an impulse given3 it may be hoped--almost1 ,i will say1 it may be expected--that in a few generations this whole class will be placed within the reach of moral and intellectual gratifications1 whereby they may be rendered healthier1 happier1 better in all respects1 an improvement which will be not more beneficial to them as individuals1 than to the whole body of the commonweal4 ,the diffusion of literature1 though it has rendered the acquirement of general knowledge impossible1 and tends inevitably to diminish the number of sound scholars1 while it increases the multitude of sciolists1 carries with it a beneficial influence to the lower classes4 ,our booksellers already perceive that it is their interest to provide cheap publications for a wide public1 instead of looking to the rich alone as their customers4 ,there is reason to expect that1 in proportion as this is done--in proportion as the common people are supplied with wholesome entertainment 7and wholesome it is1 if it be only harmless7 they will be less liable to be acted upon by fanaticism and sedition4 ,you have not exaggerated the influence of the newspaper press1 nor the profligacy of some of those persons1 by whom this unrestrained and irresponsible power is exercised4 ,nevertheless it has done1 and is doing1 great and essential good4 ,the greatest evils in society proceed from the abuse of power2 and this1 though abundantly manifested in the newspapers themselves1 they prevent in other quarters4 ,no man engaged in public life could venture now upon such transactions as no one1 in their station half a century ago1 would have been ashamed of4 ,there is an end of that scandalous jobbing which at that time existed in every department of the ,state1 and in every branch of the public service2 and a check is imposed upon any scandalous and unfit promotion1 civil or ecclesiastical4 ,by whatever persons the government may be administered1 they are now well aware that they must do nothing which will not bear daylight and strict investigation4 ,the magistrates also are closely observed by this self- constituted censorship2 and the inferior officers cannot escape exposure for any perversion of justice1 or undue exercise of authority4 ,public nuisances are abated by the same means1 and public grievances which the ,legislature might else overlook1 are forced upon its attention4 ,thus1 in ordinary times1 the utility of this branch of the press is so great that one of the worst evils to be apprehended from the abuse of its power at all times1 and the wicked purposes to which it is directed in dangerous ones1 is the ultimate loss of a liberty1 which is essential to the public good1 but which when it passes into licentiousness1 and effects the overthrow of a ,state1 perishes in the ruin it has brought on4 ,in the fine arts1 as well as in literature1 a levelling principle is going on1 fatal1 perhaps1 to excellence1 but favourable to mediocrity4 ,such facilities are afforded to imitative talent1 that whatever is imitable will be imitated4 ,genius will often be suppressed by this1 and when it exerts itself1 will find it far more difficult to obtain notice than in former times4 ,there is the evil here that ingenious persons are seduced into a profession which is already crowded with unfortunate adventurers2 but1 on the other hand1 there is a great increase of individual and domestic enjoyment4 ,accomplishments which were almost exclusively professional in the last age1 are now to be found in every family within a certain rank of life4 ,wherever there is a disposition for the art of design1 it is cultivated1 and in consequence of the general proficiency in this most useful of the fine arts1 travellers represent to our view the manners and scenery of the countries which they visit1 as well by the pencil as the pen4 ,by means of two fortunate discoveries in the art of engraving1 these graphic representations are brought within the reach of whole classes who were formerly precluded by the expense of such things from these sources of gratification and instruction4 ,artists and engravers of great name are now1 like authors and booksellers1 induced to employ themselves for this lower and wider sphere of purchasers4 ,in all this ,i see the cause as well as the effect of a progressive refinement1 which must be beneficial in many ways4 ,this very diffusion of cheap books and cheap prints may1 in its natural consequences1 operate rather to diminish than to increase the number of adventurers in literature and in the arts4 ,for though at first it will create employment for greater numbers1 yet in another generation imitative talent will become so common1 that neither parents nor possessors will mistake it for an indication of extraordinary genius1 and many will thus be saved from a ruinous delusion4 ,more pictures will be painted but fewer exhibited1 more poetry written but less published1 and in both arts talents which might else have been carried to an overstocked and unprofitable market1 will be cultivated for their own sakes1 and for the gratification of private circles1 becoming thus a source of sure enjoyment and indirectly of moral good4 ,scientific pursuits will1 in like manner1 be extended1 and pursuits which partake of science1 and afford pleasures within the reach of humble life4 ,here1 then1 is good in progress which will hold on its course1 and the growth of which will only be suspended1 not destroyed1 during any of those political convulsions which may too probably be apprehended--too probably1 ,i say1 because when you call upon me to consider the sinfulness of this nation1 my heart fails4 ,there can be no health1 no soundness in the state1 till government shall regard the moral improvement of the people as its first great duty4 ,the same remedy is required for the rich and for the poor4 ,religion ought to be so blended with the whole course of instruction1 that its doctrines and precepts should indeed drop as the rain1 and distil as the dew1 as the small rain upon the tender herb1 and as the showers upon the grass--the young plants would then imbibe it1 and the heart and intellect assimilate it with their growth4 ,we are1 in a great degree1 what our institutions make us4 ,gracious ,god were those institutions adapted to ,thy will and word--were we but broken in from childhood to ,thy easy yoke--were we but carefully instructed to believe and obey--in that obedience and belief we should surely find our temporal welfare and our eternal happiness6 ,here1 indeed1 ,i tremble at the prospect6 ,could ,i look beyond the clouds and the darkness which close upon it1 ,i should then think that there may come a time when that scheme for a perpetual peace among the states of ,christendom which ,henri ,,iv4 formed1 and which has been so ably digested by the ,abbe ,st4 ,pierre1 will no longer be regarded as the speculation of a visionary4 ,the ,holy ,alliance1 imperfect and unstable as it is1 is in itself a recognition of the principle4 ,at this day it would be practicable1 if one part of ,europe were as well prepared for it as the other2 but this cannot be1 till good shall have triumphed over evil in the struggles which are brooding1 or shall have obtained such a predominance as to allay the conflict of opinions before it breaks into open war4 ,god in his mercy grant that it be so6 ,if ,i looked to secondary causes alone1 my fears would preponderate4 ,but ,i conclude as ,i began1 in firm reliance upon ,him who is the beginning and the end4 ,our sins are manifold1 our danger is great1 but ,his mercy is infinite4 ,sir ,thomas ,more4--,rest there in full faith4 ,i leave you to your dreams2 draw from them what comfort you can4 ,and now1 my friend1 farewell6 ,the look which he fixed on me1 as he disappeared1 was compassionate and thoughtful2 it impressed me with a sad feeling1 as if ,i were not to see him again till we should meet in the world of spirits4