Utopia

PREFACE TO PETER GILLES

...that bridge at Amaurote original: "muroticum" [Amauroticum]. Amaurote is the capital of Utopia; its name is derived from the Greek amauros, meaning "dim" or "shadowy.", which spans the river Anydrus original: "Anydrus." From the Greek meaning "waterless," a classic example of More’s irony, as he uses the name for a major river., is five hundred paces long. My John says two hundred must be subtracted, for the width of the river there does not exceed three hundred. I ask you to recall the matter to your memory. For if you agree with him, I will also agree and believe I was mistaken. But if you do not remember it yourself, I will write, as I have done, what I seem to remember myself. For as I will take the greatest care that there be nothing false in the book, so if anything remains in doubt, I would rather tell a lie than be a liar original: "potius mendacium dicam, quàm mentiar." More is making a subtle distinction used by medieval theologians: telling a "mendacium" (a factual falsehood) is an accidental error, whereas "mentiri" (to lie) involves a deliberate intent to deceive. More prefers being "good" (honest) to being "prudent" (cleverly consistent in a lie)., because I would rather be honest than clever.

A theological note on the difference between telling a falsehood and being a liar.

Although it would be easy to cure this ailment if you were to ask Raphael Raphael Hythloday, the fictional traveler who discovered Utopia. himself, either in person or by letter. This you must do, also because of another concern that has occurred to us—I know not whether more by my fault, or yours, or Raphael’s own. For it did not occur to us to ask, nor to him to say, in what part of the New [World]...

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