Utopia

immortal, by what divine grace could the holiness of the Utopians have merited such blessedness, that avarice and greed could not break or creep into that one island for so many centuries, nor drive out justice from it, putting it to flight with their shameless impudence? If the good and great God had dealt as kindly with those provinces that retain and embrace the name from His most sacred one, surely avarice—which corrupts and ruins so many otherwise excellent and lofty minds—would have departed from here, and the golden, Saturnian the mythical age of peace and plenty age would return. Indeed, someone might argue that there is a danger that Aratus the Greek poet who wrote of Justice leaving the earth and the ancient poets were mistaken in their opinion when they placed Justice, as she departed from the earth, in the zodiac. For she must have remained on the island of Utopia, if we are to believe Hythloday the fictional traveler in More’s work, and not yet have reached heaven. But I have discovered by inquiry that Utopia is situated outside the bounds of the known world, an island truly fortunate, perhaps near the Elysian Fields the dwelling place of the blessed in the afterlife. For Hythloday has not yet provided its location with certain boundaries (as More himself testifies). It is indeed divided into many cities, but they join or conspire into one state, by the name of Hagnopolis City of Holiness, which rests in its own rites and good

BIBLIOTECA NAZ. ROMA
VITTORIO EMANUELE