When Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things
occurred to me, both concerning the manners and laws of that people,
that seemed very absurd, as well in their way of making war, as in
their notions of religion and divine matters—together with several
other particulars, but chiefly what seemed the foundation of all the
rest, their living in common, without the use of money, by which all
nobility, magnificence, splendour, and majesty, which, according to the
common opinion, are the true ornaments of a nation, would be quite
taken away—yet since I perceived that Raphael was weary, and was not
sure whether he could easily bear contradiction, remembering that he
had taken notice of some, who seemed to think they were bound in honour
to support the credit of their own wisdom, by finding out something to
censure in all other men’s inventions, besides their own, I only
commended their Constitution, and the account he had given of it in
general; and so, taking him by the hand, carried him to supper, and
told him I would find out some other time for examining this subject
more particularly, and for discoursing more copiously upon it. And,
indeed, I shall be glad to embrace an opportunity of doing it. In the
meanwhile, though it must be confessed that he is both a very learned
man and a person who has obtained a great knowledge of the world, I
cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related. However, there are
many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than
hope, to see followed in our governments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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