Utopia

by Thomas More

It may be helpful to think of the book in terms of three concentric circles: at the centre of the fiction is Raphael’s description of Utopia and its customs and institutions, but that is set within the frame of the conversation in the garden of More’s lodgings in Antwerp, and then that in its turn is enclosed within the prefatory materials – the Utopian alphabet and verses and the various letters. These mark three distinct phases in the composition of the work, and equally three stages in its imaginative conception.

One option, as Socrates makes clear, is to remain faithful to the ideal and keep out of practical politics. The other, implicitly, is to compromise, and risk moral pollution in consequence. It is this issue of political engagement that

One thing that the reader should be aware of from the outset is the distinction between the author himself, identified on the title-page as Undersheriff of London, and his fictional self, the ‘More’ who engages in dispute with Raphael.

Although the book is set in Antwerp, and for the most part in the garden of More’s lodgings, we are scarcely aware of this since for much of the time we are whisked off on imaginary journeys.

Simply, Raphael considers hanging for theft too extreme. As he protests, ‘nothing that’s subject to fortune can be weighed against the value of a human life’

the thief steals out of necessity since he must feed his starving family but has been deprived of any legitimate means of earning a livelihood because the rich have other plans for the countryside.

Raphael may rejoice that the Utopians have achieved their commonwealth and have somehow escaped from the common condition of humanity, but he seems less than hopeful that their example can be imitated: ‘pride is too deeply embedded in human nature to be easily torn out’

Raphael may offer the excitements, and indulgences, of a radical stance, but Morus’ pragmatic accommodation to things as they are, his modest ambition to make things a little less bad, has its own vindication.

It may seem a strange paradox that, after its initial reception, a book published in 1516 should have to wait so long for the kind of attentive reading it demands, but perhaps the really important point is that Utopia has been liberated from Utopianism. Instead of some imaginary blueprint for a fantastic society we can now recognize in it a searching meditation on the nature of politics.

the pedants scorn as vulgar whatever isn’t peppered with obsolete words.

For while Raphael was actually speaking about it, one of More’s servants slipped in to whisper something in his ear; and although I listened all the more attentively, one of the party, who I suspect had caught a cold while at sea, coughed so loudly that some of the speaker’s words were drowned.

“That’s nothing to be surprised about. For this manner of punishing thieves goes beyond justice, and brings no public benefit: as a penalty for theft it’s too severe, but as a deterrent it’s inadequate. Simple theft isn’t so great a crime that it merits death, and yet no other punishment is severe enough to keep from robbery those who have no alternative means of supporting themselves. In this respect you, along with a good part of the world, appear to imitate bad schoolmasters who prefer beating their pupils to teaching them. Harsh and blood-chilling punishments are imposed for theft when it would make a lot more sense to ensure that people have the means to live, so that no one would face the dreadful necessity first of stealing and then of dying for it.”

Suppose that the councillors of some king43 are deliberating with him and working out schemes by which they can amass more treasure for him: one of them urges him to raise the value of money whenever he has to pay out, and to depress it below the proper rate whenever it’s his turn to collect – in this way he can pay off a large debt with less money, and recover a lot on a small one;

ruling over beggars doesn’t befit the dignity of a king; he must have contented and prosperous subjects.

for some single person to indulge in pleasure and delights while surrounded by the weeping and lamentation of others is not to be the governor of a kingdom but of a gaol;

Ultra-equatorials

The island has fifty-four cities, all spacious and imposing, which share the same language, customs, institutions and laws; the similarity extends to their layout, and as far as the site allows, to their appearance.

No house is without doors opening both onto the street and into the garden; these double doors, which yield to a touch of the hand and close of themselves, permit anyone to enter.

Annually each group of thirty families elects an official, known in their ancient language as a syphogrant but now called a phylarch.

It’s also accepted practice in the senate that business is never discussed on the day that it is raised, but deferred to the following session.7 This is in case someone, after blurting out the first idea that enters his head, should then concentrate on bolstering his own proposals rather than those that might benefit the commonwealth, preferring to risk the general welfare rather than his own reputation, and all because of a perverse and stupid fear that he might have appeared too hasty at the outset.

Consider now how few of those who do work are engaged in essential tasks, for the simple reason that when money is the measure of all things, futile and unnecessary trades are bound to be practised, just to meet the demands of luxury and indulgence.

Naturally, there is no way to fix the number of young children. This optimum figure is easily maintained by transferring members from a household with too many to one with too few. But if the numbers in a city exceed the fixed level, the overflow is used to make up the shortfall in under-populated cities.

The hospitals are so well planned and equipped with everything necessary to restore health, the care provided is so gentle and attentive, and the presence of the most skilled medical specialists so constant that while no one is sent there against their will, scarcely a sick person in the entire city would not rather be nursed there than at home.

All meals, whether lunch or dinner, begin with some reading on a moral theme, but it’s kept short in case it wearies the listeners,

they use the gold and silver to manufacture chamber pots and other sordid receptacles for use not only in the public halls but also in private homes.15 What’s more, the chains and heavy fetters used to restrain slaves are made from the same metals.

For the Utopians are amazed that anyone can take delight in the transitory glitter of a tiny jewel or precious stone when he is free to gaze at a star, or even at the sun itself.

A woman does not marry before the age of eighteen, nor a man before he’s four years older than that. Anyone found guilty of illicit sexual relations prior to marriage is severely reprimanded and permanently banned from marriage,

For the most part, serious crimes are punished with servitude, since it is considered that this is no less daunting to the guilty and far more profitable to the community than hurrying to be rid of them by immediate execution.

Long experience has taught them that no physical charms can make a wife attractive to her husband as effectively as moral integrity and a respectful manner.

What’s the point of a treaty, they ask, if nature isn’t already a sufficient bond between man and man?

In Europe, of course, and most especially in those areas where the Christian faith and its observance prevail, the authority of treaties is everywhere regarded as sacred and inviolable.

As a consequence, although they devote themselves, women as well as men, to regular military training to ensure that they won’t be incapable of defending themselves when the need arises, they engage in hostilities with great reluctance.

But by far the greatest number, and the wisest, accept none of this but believe in a single divinity, unknown, eternal, infinite, inexplicable, diffused throughout the universe not materially but by his power in a manner that is beyond human understanding.

For what greater riches can a man hope for than to live free from care and with a joyful, tranquil mind, not worried about supporting himself or being harassed by his wife’s endless demands, nor apprehensive about his son’s poverty or anxious about his daughter’s dowry?