so 'tis not seen,-societas erroris et dementiae pariter absurditatem et admirationem tollit.1 'Tis with us as it was of old (in Tully's censure at least) with C. Fimbria in Rome, a bold, hair-brain, mad fellow, and so esteemed of all, such only excepted, that were as mad as himself: now in such a case there is no notice taken of it.

2

Nimirum insanus paucis videatur; eo quod

Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem.3
When all are mad, when all are like opprest,
Who can discern one madman from the rest?

But put case they do perceive it, and some one be manifestly convict of madness, he now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture, speech, a vain humor he hath in building, bragging, jangling, spending, gaming, courting, scribbling, prating, for which he is ridiculous to others, on which he dotes; he doth acknowledge as much. Yet with all the rhetoric thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, but to the contrary notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. 'Tis amabilis insania, et mentis gratissimus error, so pleasing, so delicious, that he cannot leave it. He knows his error, but will not seek to decline it; tell him what the event will be, beggary, sorrow, sickness, disgrace, shame, loss, madness, yet "an angry man will prefer vengeance, a lascivious his whore, a thief his booty, a glutton his belly, before his welfare." 5 Tell an epicure, a covetous man, an ambitious man of his irregular course, wean him from it a little, pol me occidistis amici, he cries

1 The company is what takes away the absurdity from error and folly and the occasion for wonder as well.

2 CICERO, Pro Roscio, ch. 12.

HORACE, Satires II, iii, 120.

4 IDEM, Odes III, iv, 5, and Epistles, II, ii, 140. 5 CARDAN, De Consolatione, Bk. II.

anon, you have undone him, and as a "dog to his vomit," he returns to it again; no persuasion will take place, no counsel, say what thou canst,

Clames licet et mare coelo

Confundas, surdo narras.1

demonstrate as Ulysses did to Elpenor and Gryllus and the rest of his companions, those swinish men, he is irrefragable in his humor, he will be a hog still; bray him in a mortar, he will be the same. If he be in an heresy, or some perverse opinion, settled as some of our ignorant Papists are, convince his understanding, show him the several follies and absurd fopperies of that sect, force him to say, veris vincor,2 make it as clear as the sun, he will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is: and as he said, si in hoc erro, libenter erro, nec hunc errorem auferri mihi volo,3 will do as I have done, as my predecessors have done, and as my friends now do: I will dote for company. Say now, are these men mad or no? Heus age responde? * are they ridiculous? cedo quemvis arbitrum? 5 are they sanae mentis? sober, wise, and discreet? have they common sense? uter est insanior horum? I am of Democritus' opinion for my part, I hold them worthy to be laughed at; a company of brain-sick dizzards, as mad as Orestes and Athamas, that they may go "ride the ass," and all sail along to the Anticyræ, in the "ship of fools" for company together. I need not much labor to prove this which

6

4

1 Although you cry out and confound the sea and sky, you still address a deaf man.-JUVENAL, VI, 283; HORACE, Epistles, II, i, 199-200.

2 I am convinced by the truth.

3 If I err in this, I gladly err, and do not wish my error to be taken from me.-CICERO, De Senectute, § 85.

4 PERSIUS, II, 17.

I admit any one to judge.-TERENCE, Adelphoi, 123.

• Which of them is the madder?-HORACE, Satires, II, iii, 102.

I say otherwise than thus, make any solemn protestation or swear, I think you will believe me without an oath; say at a word, are they fools? I refer it to you, though you be likewise fools and madmen yourselves, and I as mad to ask the question; for what said our comical Mercury?

Justum ab injustis petere insipientia est.1

I'll stand to your censure yet, what think you?

[THE UTOPIA OF DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR]

I will yet, to satisfy and please myself, make an Utopia of mine own, a new Atlantis, a poetical commonwealth of mine own, in which I will freely domineer, build cities, make laws, statutes, as I list myself. And why may I not? Pictoribus atque poetis, etc.2 You know what liberty poets ever had, and besides, my predecessor Democritus was a politician, a recorder of Abdera, a law maker as some say; and why may not I presume so much as he did? Howsoever I will adventure. For the site, if you will needs urge me to it, I am not fully resolved, it may be in Terra Australi Incognita, there is room enough (for of my knowledge neither that hungry Spaniard, nor Mercurius Britannicus, have yet discovered half of it) or else one of those floating islands in Mare del Zur, which like the Cyanian isles in the Euxine sea, alter their place, and are accessible only at set times, and to some few persons; or one of the Fortunate Isles, for who knows yet where, or which they are? There is room enough in the inner parts of America, and northern coasts of Asia. But I will choose a site, whose latitude shall be 45 degrees 1 It is folly to seek justice from (the unjust.-PLAUTUS, Amphityro, 36.

2 HORACE, Ars Poetica, 9.

1

(I respect not minutes) in the midst of the temperate zone, or perhaps under the equator, that paradise of the world, ubi semper virens laurus, etc., where is a perpetual spring: the longitude for some reasons I will conceal. Yet be it known to all men by these presents, that if any honest gentleman will send in so much money, as Cardan allows an astrologer for casting a nativity, he shall be a sharer, I will acquaint him with my project, or if any worthy man will stand for any temporal or spiritual office or dignity, (for as he said of his archbishopric of Utopia, 'tis sanctus ambitus,2 and not amiss to be sought after,) it shall be freely given without all intercessions, bribes, letters, etc., his own worth shall be the best spokesman; and because we shall admit of no deputies or advowsons, if he be sufficiently qualified, and as able as willing to execute the place himself, he shall have present possession. It shall be divided into 12 or 13 provinces, and those by hills, rivers, road-ways, or some more eminent limits exactly bounded. Each province shall have a metropolis, which shall be so placed as a center almost in a circumference, and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian miles asunder, or thereabout, and in them shall be sold all things necessary for the use of man, statis horis et diebus; 3 no market towns, markets or fairs, for they do but beggar cities (no village shall stand above 6, 7, or 8 miles from a city) except those emporiums which are by the sea side, general staples, marts, as Antwerp, Venice, Bergen of old, London, etc. Cities most part shall be situate upon navigable rivers or lakes, creeks, havens; and for their form, regular, round, square, or long square, with fair, broad, and 1 Where the laurel is ever green.

2 A holy ambition.—SIR THOMAS MORE, Utopia, prefatory letter.

At stated hours and days.

straight streets, houses uniform, built of brick and stone, like Bruges, Brussels, Rhegium Lepidi, Berne in Switzerland, Milan, Mantua, Crema, Cambalu in Tartary, described by M. Polus, or that Venetian Palma. I will admit very few or no suburbs, and those of baser building, walls only to keep out man and horse, except it be in some frontier towns, or by the sea side, and those to be fortified after the latest manner of fortification, and sited upon convenient havens, or opportune places. In every so built city, I will have convenient churches, and separate places to bury the dead in, not in churchyards; a citadella (in some, not all) to command it, prisons for offenders, opportune market places of all sorts, for corn, meat, cattle, fuel, fish, etc., commodious courts of justice, public halls for all societies, bourses, meeting places, armories, in which shall be kept engines for quenching of fire, artillery gardens, public walks, theaters, and spacious fields allotted for all gymnics, sports, and honest recreations, hospitals of all kinds, for children, orphans, old folks, sick men, mad men, soldiers; pest-houses, etc., not built precariò, or by gouty benefactors, who, when by fraud and rapine they have extorted all their lives, oppressed whole provinces, societies, etc., give something to pious uses, build a satisfactory alms-house, school, or bridge, etc., at their last end, or before perhaps, which is no otherwise than to steal a goose, and stick down a feather, rob a thousand to relieve ten; and those hospitals so built and maintained, not by collections, benevolences, donaries, for a set number (as in ours), just so many and no more at such a rate, but for all those who stand in need, be they more or less, and that ex publico ærario,1 and so still maintained, non nobis solùm nati sumus, etc.2 1 From the public treasury.

2 We are not born for ourselves alone.-CICERO, De Officiis, I, vii, 22.