will have something to alledge and object or that he is ashamed to say that which is said already or else to picke a thanke with his Prince will not finde some hole open to set a snare in wherewith to take the contrary part in a trip Thus whiles the Iudges cannot agree amongst themselves reasoning and arguing of that which is plaine enough bringing the manifest truth in doubt in the meane season the King may take a fit occasion to understand the Law as shall most make for his advantage whereunto all other for shame or for feare will agree Then the Iudges may bee bold to pronounce on the Kings side for hee that giveth sentence for the King cannot be without a good excuse For it shall be sufficient for him to have equity on his part or the bare words of the Law a wrythen and wrested understanding of the same or else which with good and just Iudges is of greater force then all lawes be the Kings indisputable Prerogative To conclude all the Counsellers agree and consent together with the rich Crassus That no abundance of gold can be sufficient for a Prince which must keepe and maintaine an Army further more that a King though he would can doe nothing vnjustly For all that men have yea also the men themselves be all his And that every man hath so much of his owne as the Kings gentlenesse hath not taken from him And that it shall be most for the Kings advantage that his subjects have very little or nothing in their possession as whose safeguard doth herein consist that his people doe not waxe wanton and wealthy through riches and liberty because where these things be there men be not wont patiently to obey hard vnjust and vnlawfull commandements Whereas on the other part need and poverty doth hold downe and keepe vnder stout courages and maketh them patient perforce taking from them bold and rebelling stomackes Here againe if I should rise vp and boldly affirme that all these counsels be to the King dishonour and reproach whose honour and safety is more and rather supported and vpholden by the wealth and riches of his people then by his owne Treasures and if I should declare that the communalty chooseth their king for their owne sake and not for his sake to the intent that through his labour and study they might all live wealthy safe from wrongs and injuries and that therefore the King ought to take more care for the wealth of his people then for his owne wealth even as the office and duty of a shepheard is in that he is a shepheard to feed his sheepe rather then himselfe For as touching this that they thinke the defence and maintenance of peace to consist in poverty of the people the thing it self sheweth that they be farre out of the way For where shall a man find more wrangling quarrelling brawling and chiding then among Beggers Who bee more desirous of new mutations and alterations then they that be not content with the present state of that life Or finally who be bolder stomacked to bring all in a burly-burly thereby trusting to get some wind-fall then they that have now nothing to leese And if any King were so smally regarded so lightly esteemed yea so be-hated of his Subjects that other wayes hee could not keepe them in awe but onely by open wrongs by polling and shaving and by bringing them to beggerie surely it were better for him to forsake his Kingdome then to hold it by that meanes whereby though the name of a King be kept yet the Majesty is lost For it is against the dignity of a King to have rule over Beggers but rather over rich and wealthy men Of this mind was the hardy and couragious Fabrice when he said that He had rather be a Ruler of rich men then be rich himselfe And verily one man to live in pleasure and wealth whiles all all other weepe and smart for it that is the part not of a King but a jaylour To be short as he is a foolish Physitian that cannot cure his patients disease vnlesse he cast him in another sicknesse so he that cannot amend the liues of his subjects but by taking from them the wealth and commodity of life he must needs grant that he knoweth not the wealth and commodity of life he must needs grant that he knoweth not the feate how to gouerne men But let him rather amend his owne life renounce vnhonest pleasures and forsake pride for these be the chiefe vices that cause him to runne in the contempt or hatred of his people Let him liue of his owne â—urting no man Lee him do cost not aboue his power Let him restraine wickednesse Let him prevent vices and take away the occasions of offences by well-ordering his subjects and not by suffering wickednes to encrease afterward to be punished Let him not be too hastie in calling againe lawes which a custome hath abrogated especially such as have been â—ong forgotten and never lacked nor needed And let him neuer under the cloake and â—â—â—tence of transgression take such fines and forfeits as no Iudge will suffer a private person to take as unjust and full of guile Here if I should bring forth before them the Law of the Macarieâ—s which be not farre distant from Vtopâ—a whose King the day of his Coronatioâ— is bound by a solemne Oath that he shall never at any time have in his Treasure above a thousand pound of Gold or Silver They say that a very good King which tooke farre more care for the wealth and commodity of his Countrie then for the enriching of himselfe made this law to be a stop and barre to kings from heaping and whording vp so much money as might impoverish their people For he fore-saw that this sum of treasure would suffice to support the king in battaile against his owne people if they should chance to rebell also to maintaine his warres against the invasions of his forraine enemies Againe he perceived the same stocke of money to be too little and vnsufficient to encourage and enable him wrongfully to take away other mens goods which was the chiefe cause why yâ— law was made Another cause was this He thought yâ— by this provision his people should not lack mony wherewith to maintaine their daily occupying chaffer And seeing the King could not choose but lay out and bestow all that came in at oue the prescript summe of his stocke he thought he would seeke no occasions to doe his subjects injury Such a King shall be feared of evill men and loved of good men These and such other informations it I should vse among men wholly inclined and given to the contrary part how deafe eares thinke you shall I haue Deafe hearers doubtlesse quoth I. And in good faith no mervaile And to be plaine with you truly I cannot allow that such communication shall be vsed or such counsell given as
Religion and began to waxe so hot in this matter that he did not onely preferre our Religion before all other but also did vtterly despise and condemne all other calling them prophane and the followers of them wicked and devilish and the children of everlasting damnation When he had thus long reasoned the matter they laid hold on him accused him and condemned him into exile not as a dispiser of religion but as a sedicious person and a rayser vp of dissention among the people For this is one of the ancientest lawes among them that no man shall be blamed for reasoning in the maintenance of his owne religion For King Vtopus even at the first beginning hearing that the inhabitants of the land were before his comming thither at continuall dissention and strife among them selves for their religions perceiving also that this common dissention whiles every severall Sect tooke severall parts in fighting for their Country was the onely occasion of his Conquest over them all as soone as he had gotten the victory First of all he made a decree that it should be lawfull for every man to favour and follow what religion he would and that he might doe the best he could to bring other to his opinion so that he did it peaceably gently quietly and soberly without hasty and contentious rebuking and inveying against other If he could not by faire and gentle speech induce them vnto his opinion yet he should vse no kind of violence and refraine from displeasant and sedicious words To him that would vehemently and fervently in this cause strife and contend was decreed banishment or bondage This law did King Vtopus make not onely for the maintenance of peace which hee saw through continual contentation and mortall hatred vtterly extinguished but also because he thought this decree should make for the furtherance of religion Whereof he durst define and determine nothing vnadvisedly as doubting whither God desiring manifold and divers sorts of honour would inspire sundry men with sundry kinds of religion And this surely he thought a very vnmeet and foolish thing a point of arrogant presumption to compell all other by violence and threatnings to agree to the same that thou beleevest to be true Furthermore though there be one religion which a lone is true and all other vaine and superstitions yet did he well foresee so that the matter were handdled with reason and sober modesty that the truth of the owne power would at the last issue out and come to light But if contention and debate in that behalfe should continually be vsed as the worst men be most obstinate and stubborne and in their evill opinion most constant he perceived that theâ— the best and honest religion would be â—roden vnder foote and destroyed by most vaine superstitions even as good corne is by thornes and weeds over grown and choaked Therefore all this matter he left vndiscussed and gaue to every man free liberty and choice to beleeue what he would Saving that he earnestly and straitly charged them that no man should conceiue so vile and base an 〈◊〉 â—◠〈◊〉 of mans nature as to thinke that the soules doe die and perish with the body or that the world runneth at all adventures governed by no divine providence And therefore they beleeue that after this life vices be extreamely punished and vertues bountifully rewarded He that is of a contrary opinion they count not in the number of men as one that hath availed the high nature of his soule to the vilenesse of brute beasts bodies much lesse in the number of the Citizens whose lawes and ordinances if it were not for feare he would nothing at all esteeme For you may be sure that he will study either with craft privily to mocke or else violently to breake the common lawes of his countrey in whom remaineth no further feare then of the lawes nor no further hope then of the body Wherefore he that is thus minded is deprived of all honors excluded from all offices and reject from all common administrations in the weale-publique And thus he is of all sorts despised as of an vnprofitable and of a base and vile nature Howbeit they put him to no punishment because they be perswaded that it is in no mans power to beleeue what he list No nor they constraine him not with threatnings to dissemble his mind and shew countenance contrary to his thought For deceit and falshood and all manner of lies as next vnto fraud they doe marveilously deject and abhorre But they suffer him not to dispute in his opinion and that onely among the common people For else apart among the Priests and men of grauity they doe not onely suffer but also exhort him to dispute and argue hoping that at the last that midâ—eâ—se will giue place to reason There bee also other and of them no small number which be not bidden to speake their minds as grounding their opinion vpon some reason being in their living neither evill nor vicious Their hereâ—ie is much contrary to the other For they beleeue that the soules of the brute beasts be immorall and everlasting But nothing to be compared with others in dignity neither ordained and predestinate to like felicity For all they beleeue certainly and surely that mans blisse shall be so great that they doe mourne and lament euery mans sicknesse but no mans death vnlesse it be on whom they see depart from his life carefully and against his will For this they take for a very evill token as though the soule being in dispaire and vexed in conscience through some privy and secret forefeeling of the punishment now at hand were affraid to depart And theâ— they thinke he shall not be welcome to GOD which when he is called runneth not to him gladly but is drawne by force and sore against his will They therefore that see this kind of death doc abhorre it and them that so die they bury with sorrow and silence And when they haue prayed to GOD to be mercifull to the soule and mercifull to pardon the infirmities thereof they cover the dead corse with earth Contrariwise all that depart merily and full of good hope for then no man mourneth but followeth the hearse with joyfull singing commending the soules to GOD with great affection And at the last not with mourning sorrow but with a great reverence they burne the bodies And in the same place they set vp a pillar of stone with the dead mens titles therein graved When they be come home they rehearse his vertuous manners and his good deeds But no part of his life is so oft or gladly talked of as his mery death They thinke that this remembrance of the vertue and goodnesse of the dead doth vehemently provoke and enforce the liuing to vertue And that nothing can be more pleasant and acceptable to the dead Whom they suppose to bee present among them when they talke of them
then why may not this extreame and rigorous justice well be called plaine injury For so cruell governance so straight rules and unmercifull lawes be not allowable that if a small offence be committed by and by the sword should be drawne Nor so stoicall ordinances are to be borne withall as to count all offences of such equality that the killing of a man or the taking of his money from him were both a matter and the one no more heinous offence then the other betweene the which two if we haue any respect to equity no similitude or equality consisteth God commandeth vs that we shall not kill And be we then so hasty to kill a man for taking a little money And if a man would understand killing by this commandement of God to be forbidden after no larger wise then mans constitutions define killing to be lawfull then why may it not likewise by mans constitutions be determined after what sort whoredome fornication and perjury may be lawfull For whereas by the permission of God no man neither hath power to kill neither himselfe noâ— yet any other man then if a law made by the consent of men concerning slaughter of men ought to be of such strength force and vertue that they which contrary to the commandement of God haue killed those whom this constitution of man commanded to be killed be cleane quit exempt out of the bonds danger of Gods coÌ„mandement shall it not then by this reason follow that the power of Gods commandement shall extend no further then mans law doth define and permit And so shall it come to passe that in like manner mans constitutions in all things shall determine how farre the observation of all Gods commandements shall extend To be short Moses Law though it were ungentle and sharpe as a law that was given to bondmen yea and them very obstinate stubborne and stiffe-necked yet it punished theft by the purse and not with death And let vs not thinke that God in the new law of clemency and mercy under the which he ruleth vs with fatherly gentlenesse as his deare children hath given vs greater scope and licence to the execution of cruelty one vpon another Now you haue heard the reasons whereby I am perswaded that this punishment is unlawfull Furthermore I thinke that there is no body that knoweth not how unreasonable yea how pernitious a thing it is to the Weale publike that a theefe and an homicide or murtherer should suffer equall and like punishment For the theefe seeing that man that is condemned for theft in no lesse â—eopardy nor judged to no lesse punishment then him that is convict of manslaughter through this cogitation onely he is strongly and forcibly provoked and in a manner constrained to kill him whom else he would haue but robbed For the murder being once done he is in leâ—â—â—â—eare and in more hope that the â—â—â—â— shall not be bewrayed or knowne seeing the party is now dead and â—id out of the way which onely might haue vttâ—â—â—â— and disclosed it But if he 〈…〉 and dâ—sâ—â—iâ—◠〈…〉 more danger and jeopardie then if he had committed but single fellony Therefore while we goe about with such cruelty to make theeues afraid we provoke them to kill good men Now as touching this question what punishment were more commodious and better that truly in my judgement is easier to be found then what punishment might be worse For why should we doubt that to be a good and a profitable way for the punishment of offendors which we know did in times past so long please the Romanes men in the administration of a Weale publike most expert politique and cunning Such as among them were convict of great and heynous trespasses them they condemne into stone quarries and into mines to digge mettall there to be kept in chaines all the daye of their life But as concerning this matter I allow the ordinance of nation so well as that which I saw whiles I travelled abroad about the world vsed in Persia among the people that commonly be called the Polylerites whose land is both large and ample and also well and wittily governed and the people in all conditions free and ruled by their owne lawes saving that they pay a yearely tribute to the great King of Persia But because they be farre from the Sea compassed and inclosed almost round about with high mountaines and doe content themselues with the fruits of their owne land which is of it selfe very fertill and fruitfull for this cause neither they goe to other Countries nor other come to them And according to the old custome of the Land they desire not to enlarge the bounds of their Dominions and those that they haue by reason of the high hills be easily defended and the tribute which they pay to their chiefe Lord and King setteth them quit and free from warfare Thus their life is commodious rather then gallant and may better be called happy or wealthy then notable and famous For they be not knowne as much as by name I suppose saving onely to their next neighbour and borders They that in this Land be attained and convict of Fellony make restitution of that which they stole to the right owner and not as they doe in other lands to the King whom they thinke to haue no more right to the theefe-stollen thing then the theefe himselfe hath But if the thing be lost or made away then the value of it is paid of the goods of such offenders which else remaineth all whole to their wiues and children And they themselues be coÌ„demned to be coÌ„mon labourers and unlesse the theft be very hainous they be neither locked in prison nor fettered in gyues but be vnited and goe at large labouring in the common workes They that refuse labour or goe slowly or slacke to their worke be not only tyed in chaines but also pricked forward with stripes But being diligent about their worke they liue without checke or rebuke Every night they be called in by name and be locked in their chambers Beside their daily labour their life is nothing hard or incommodious their fare is indifferent good borne at the charges of the Weale publike because they be common servants to the Common-wealth But their charges in all places of the land is not borne alike For in some parts that which is bestowed vpon them is gathered of almes And though that way be vncertaine yet the people be so full of mercy and pitty that none is found more profitable or plentifull In some places certaine Ladies be appointed hereunto of the revenues whereof they be maintained And in some places every man giveth a certaine tribute for the same vse and purpose Againe in some part of the land these Servingmen for so be these damned persons called doe not common worke but as every private man needeth labours so he commeth into the market-place and there
hireth some of them for meat and drinke and a certaine limited wages by the day somewhat cheaper then he should hire a free-man It is also lawfull for them to chastice the slouth of these servingmen with stripes By this meanes they never lacke worke and besides the gaining of their meat and drink every one of them bringeth daily something into the common Treasury All and every one of them be apparelled in one colour Their heads be not poled or shaven but rounded a little aboue the eares And the tip of the one eare is cut off Every one of them may take meate and drinke of their friends and also a coat of their owne colour but to receiue money is death aswell to the giver as to the receiver And no lesse jeopardy it is for a freeman to receiue money of a servingman for any manner of cause and likewise for serving-men to touch weapons The servingmen of every severall shiere be distinct and knowne from other by their severall and distinct badges which to cast away is death as it is also to be seene out of the precinct of their owne shiere or to talke with a servingman of another shiere And it is no lesse danger to them for to intend to runne away then to doe it indeed Yea and to conceale such an enterprise in a servingman it is death in a free man seruitude Of the contrary part to him that openeth and vttereth such counsels be decreed large gifts to a Freeman a great summe of money to a Serving-man freedome and to them both forgivenesse and pardon of that they were of counsell in that pretence So that it can never be so good for them to goe forward in their evill purpose as by repentance to turne backe This is the Law and order in this behalfe as I haue shewed you Wherein what humanity is vsed how farre it is from cruelty and how commodious it is you doe plainly perceiue For as much as the end of their wrath and punishment intendeth nothing else but the destruction of vices and saving of men with so vsing and ordering them that they cannot chuse but be good and what harme soever they did before in the residue of their life to make amends for the same Moreover it is so little feared that they should turne againe to their vicious conditions that way-faring men will for their safeguard choose them to their guides before any other in every shiere changing and taking new For if they would commit robbery they haue nothing about them meete for that purpose They may touch no weapons money found about them should betray the robbery They should be no sooner taken with the manner but forthwith they should be punished Neither can they haue any hope at all to scape away by flying For how should a man that in no part of his apparell is like other men flye privily and vnknowne vnlesse he would runne away naked Howbeit so also flying he should be descriâ—d by the rounding of his head and his câ—re-marke But it is a thing to be doubted that they will lay their heads together and conspire against the Weale publike No no I warrant you For the Servingmen of one shiere alone could never hope to bring to passe such an enterprise without solyciting entising and alluring the Servingmen of many other shâ—eres to take their parts Which thing is to them so impossible that they may not as much as speake or talke together or salute one another No it â—â— not to be thought that they would make their owne Countrymen and companions of their counsell in such a matter which they know well should be jeopardy to the concealor thereof and great commodity and goodnesse to the opener and detector of the same Whereas on the other part there is none of them all hopelesse or in despaire to recover againe his former estate of freedome by humble obedience by patient suffering and by giving good tokens and likelihood of himselfe that he will ever after that liue like a true and an honest man For every yeare divers of them be restored to their freedome through the commendation of patience When I had thus spoken saying moreover that I could see no cause why this order might not be had in England with much more profit then the Iustice with the Lawyer so highly praised Nay quoth the Lawyer this could never be â—o stablished in England but that it must needs bring the Weale publike into great jeopardy and hazard And as he was thus saying he shaked his head and made a wry mouth and so he held his peace And all that were present with one assent agreed to his saying Well quoth the Cardinall yet it were hard to judge with out a proofe whether this order would doe well here or no. But when the sentence of death is given if then the King should command execution to be referred and spared and would prove this order and fashion taking away the priviledge of Sanctuaries if then the proofe should declare the thing to be good and profitable then it were well done that it were stablished Else then condemned and reprived persons may as well be put to death after this proofe as when they were first cast Neither any jeopardy can in the meane space grow hereof Yea and me thinketh that these Vagabonds may very well be ordered after the same fashion against whom we have hitherto made so many lawes and so little prevailed When the Cardinall had thus said then every man gaue great praise to my sayings which a little before they had disallowed But most of all was esteemed that which was spoken of Vagabonds because it was the Cardinals addition I cannot tell whether it were best to rehearse the communication that followed for it was not very sad But yet you shall heare it for there was no evill in it and partly it pertained to the matter before-said There chanced to stand by a certaine jeasting Parasite or scoffer which would seeme to resemble and counterfeit the foole But he did in such wise counterfet that he was almost the very same indeed that he laboured to present he so studied with words and sayings brought forth so out of time and place to make sport and more laughter that he himselfe was oftner laughed at then his jeasts were Yet the foolish fellow brought out now and then such indifferent and reasonable stuffeâ— that he made the Proverbe true which saith He that shooteth oft at the last shall hâ—â— the marke So that when one of the company said that through my communication a good order was found for Theeues and that the Cardinall also had well provided for Vagabonds so that onely remained some good provision to be made for them that through sicknesse and age were fallen into poverty and were become so impotent and vnweldy that they were not able to worke for their living Tush quoth he let me alone with them you shall see me doe
well enough with them For I had rather then any good that this kind of people were driven somewhere out of my sight they haue so sore troubled me many times and oft when they haue with their lamentable reares begged money of me and yet they could never to my mind so tune their song that thereby they ever got of me one farthing For evermore the one of these chanced either that I would not or else that I could not because I had it not Therfore now they be waxed wife For wheÌ„ they see me goe by because they will not leese their labour they let me passe and say not one word to me So they looke for nothing of me no in good sooth no more then if I were a Priest or a Monk But I will make a Law that all these beggers shall be distributed and bestowed into houses of religion The men shall be made Lay brethren as they call them and the women Nunnes Hereat the Cardinall smiled and allowed it in jeast yea and all the residue in good earnest But a certaine Fryar graduate in divinity tooke such pleasure and delight in this jeasts of Priests and Monkes that he also being else a man of grâ—sly and sterne gravity began merily and wantonly to jest and taunt Nay quoth he you shall not be so rid and dispatched of beggers unlesse you make some provision also for vs Fryars Why quoth the â—easter that is done already for my Lord himselfe set a very good order for you when he decreed that Vagabonds should be kept straight and set to worke for you be the greatest and veriest Vagabonds that be This jeast also when they saw the Cardinall not disproue it every man tooke it gladly saving onely the Fryar For he and that no mervaile being thus touched on the quicke and hit on the gaule so fretted so fumed and chaâ—ed at it and was in such a rage that he could not refraine himselfe from châ—ding scolding raising and reviling He called the fellow Ribbald villaine javell backbiter slaunderer and the child of perdiâ—ion citing therewith terrible threarnings out of holy Scripture Then the jeasting scoâ—â—er began to play the scoâ—â—er indeed and verily he was good at that for he could play a part in that play no man better Patient your selfe good Master Fryar quoth he and be not angry for Scripture saith In your patience you shall saue your soules Then the Fryar for I will rehearse his owne very words No gallowes wretch I am not angry quoth he or at the least-wise I doe not sinne for the Psalmist saith Be you angry and sinne not Then the Cardinall spake gently to the Fryar and desired him to quiet himselfe No my Lord quoth he I speak not but of a good zeale as I ought for holy men had a good zeale Wherefore it is said The zeale of thy house hath eaten me And it is sung in yâ— Church The scorners of Helâ—zâ—us whiles he went vp into the house of God felt the zeale of the bald as peradventure this scorning villaine Râ—bbauld shall feele You doe it quoth the Cardinall perchance of a good minde and affection but me thinketh you should doe I cannot and esteeme me and my sayings I ensure you Master Raphael quoth I I tooke great delectation in hearing you all things that you said were spoken so wittily and so pleasantly And me thought me selfe to be in the meane time not onely at home in my Country but also through the pleasant remembrance of the Cardinall in whose house I was brought up of a Child to wax a child againe And friend Raphael though I did beare very great love towards you before yet seeing you doe so earnestly favour this man you will not beleeve how much my love towards you is now increased But yet all this notwithstanding I can by no meanes change my mind but that I must needs beleeve that you if you be disposed and can find in your heart to follow some Princes Court shall with your good counsels greatly helpe and further the Common-wealth Wherefore there is nothing more appertaining to your duty that is to say to the duty of a good man For whereas your Plato judgeth that weale-publikes shall by this meanes attaine perfect felicity either if Philosophers be Kings or â—lse if Kings give themselves to the study of Philosophy how farre I pray you shall Common-wealths then be from this felicitie if Philosophers will vouchsafe to instruct Kings with their good counsell They be not so unkind quoth he but they would gladly doe it yea many have done it already in books that they have put forth if Kings and Princes would be willing and ready to follow good counsell But Plato doubtlesse did well fore-see unlesse Kings themselves would apply their mindes to the study of Philosophy that else they would never thorowly allow the counsell of Philosophers being themselves before euen from their tender age infected and corrupt with peruerse and euill opinions Which thing Plato himselfe prooued true in king Dyonise If I should propose to any King wholsome decrees doing my endevour to pluck out of his mind the pernicious originall causes of vice and naughtinesse thinke you not that I should forthwith either be driven away or else made a laughing stocke Well suppose I were with the French King and there sitting in his Counsell whiles in that most secret consultation the King himselfe there being present in hiâ— owne person they beat their braines and search the very bottomes of their wits to discusse by what craft and meanes the King may still keepe Millaine and draw to him againe fugitiue Naples and then how to conquer the Venetians and how to bring vnder his jurisdiction all Italie then how to winne the Dominion of Flanders Brabant and all Burgundy with divers other Lands whose Kingdomes hee hath long agoe in mind and purpose invaded Heere whiles one counsaileth to conclude a League of Peace with the Venetians so long to endure as shall be thought meete and expedient for their purpose and to make them also of their Councell yea and besides that to give them part of the prey Which afterward when they have brought their purpose about after their owne mindes they may require and claime again Another thinketh best to hyre the Germans Another would have the favour of the Switzers wonne with money Anothers advice is to appease the puissant power of the Emperors Majestie with Gold as with a most pleasant and acceptable sacrifice Whiles another giveth counsell to make peace with the King of Arragon to restore unto him his owne Kingdome of Navarre as a full assurance of of peace Another commeth in with his five egges and adviseth to hooke in the King of Castile with some hope of affinitie or allyance and to bring to their part certaine Peeres of his Court for great Pensions Whiles they all stay at the chiefest doubt of all what to doe in the
you be sure shall never be regarded nor received For how can so strange informations be profitable or how can they be beaten into their heads whose minds be already prevented with cleane contrary perswasions This Schoole Philosophy is not unpleasant among friends in familiar communication but in the counsels of Kings where great matters be debated and reasoned with great authority these things haue no place That is it which I meant quoth he when I said Philosophy had no place among Kings Indeed quoth I this Schoole philosophy hath not which thinketh all things meet for every place But there is another Philosophy more civill which knoweth as ye would say her owne stage and thereafter ordering and behaving her selfe in the play that she hath in hand playeth her part accordingly with comelinesse vttering nothing out of due order and fashion And this is the Philosophy that you must vse Or else whiles a Comody of Plautus is playing and the vild bond-men scoffing and trifling among themselues if you should suddenly come vpon the Stage in a Philosophers apparell and rehearse out of Octavia the place wherein Seneca disputeth with Nero had it not beene better for you to haue played the dumme person then by rehearsing that which served neither for the time nor place to have made such a tragicall Comedy or gallimalfry For by bringing in other stuffe that nothing appertaineth to the matter you must needs marre prevent the play that is in hand though the stuffe that you bring be much better What part soever you have taken vpon you play that as well as you can and make the best of it And doe not therefore disturbe and bring out of order the whole matter because that another which is merrier and better commeth to your remembrance So the case standeth in a Common-wealth and so it is in the consultations of Kings and Princes If evill opinions and naughty perswasion cannot be vtterly quite plucked out of their hearts if you cannot even as you would remedy vices which vse and custome hath coÌ„firmed yet for this cause you must not leaue and forsake the Common-wealth you must not forsake the Ship in a tempest because you cannot rule and keepe downe the winds No nor you must not labour to driue into their heads new and strange informations which you know well shall be nothing regarded with them that be of cleane contrary minds But you must with a crafty wile subtile train study and endevour your selfe as much as in you lieth to handle the matter wittily and handsomly for the purpose and that which you cannot turne to good so to order it that it be not very bad For it is not possible for all things to be well vnlesse all men were good which I think will not be yet these good many yeares By this meanes quoth he nothing else will be brought to passe but but whiles I goe about to remedy the madnesse of others I should be even as mad as they For if I should speake things that be true I must needs speake such things but as for to speake false things whether that be a Philosophers part or no I cannot tell truly it is not my part How beit this communication of mine though per adventure it may seeme vnpleasant to them yet cannot I see why it should seeme strange or foolishly newfangled If so be that I should speake those things that PLATO faineth in his Weale publike or that the Vtopians doe in theirs these things though they were as they be indeed better yet they might seeme spoken out of place For as much as here amongst vs every man hath his possessions severall to himselfe and there all things be in commen But what was in my communication contained that might not and ought not in any place to be spoken Saving that to them which haue throughly decreed and determined with themselves to runne headlong on the contrary way it cannot be acceptable and pleasant because it calleth them backe and sheweth them the jeopardies Verily if all things that evill and vitious manners have caused to seeme vnconvenient naught should be refused as things vnmeet and reproachfull then we must among Christian people winke at the most part of all those things which Christ taught vs and so straightly forbad them to be wincked at that those things also which he whispered in the eares of his Disciples he commanded to be proclaimed in open houses And yet the most part of them is more dissident from the manners of the world now a dayes then my communication was But Preachers silly and wily men following swarme into the streetes and daily wet to the skin with raine and yet cannot perswade them to goe out of the raine and to take their house knowing well that if they should goe out to them they should nothing prevaile nor winne ought by it but with them be wet also in the raine they doe keepe themselves within their houses being content that they be safe themselves seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people How be it doubtlesse Master Moore to speake truly as my mind giveth me where possessions be private where money beareth all the stroake it is hard and almost impossible that there the Weale publike may justly be governed and prosperously flourish vnlesse you thinke thus That Iustice is there executed where all things come into the hands of evill men or that prosperity there flourisheth where all is divided among a few which few neverthelesse doe not leade their liues very wealthily and the residue live miserably wretchedly and beggerly Wherefore when I consider with my selfe and weigh in my mind the wise and godly ordinances of the Vtopians among whom with very few lawes all things be so well and wealthy ordered that vertue is had in a price and estimation and yet all things being there common every man hath abundance of every thing Agâ—â—â—â—e on the other part when I compare with them so many Nations ever making new lawes yet none of them all well and sufficiently furnished with lawes where every man calleth that he hath gotten his owne proper and private goods where so many new lawes daily made be not sufficient for every man to enjoy defend and know from another mans that which he calleth his owne which thing the infinite controversies in the law daily rising never to be ended painly declare to be true These things I say when I consider with my selfe I hold well with Platâ— and doe nothing mervaile that he would make no lawes for them that refused those lawes whereby all men should have and enjoy equall portions of wealths and commodities For the wise man did easily fore-see this to be the one and onely way to the wealth of a communalty it equality of all things should be brought in and stablished Which I thinke is not possible to be observed where every mans goods be proper and peculiar to himselfe For where
whom the things is given but those Cities that have given of their store to any other City that lacketh requiring nothing againe of the same City doe take such things as they lack of another City to the which they gaue nothing So the whole Iland is as it were one family or houshold But when they have made sufficient provision of store for themselves which they thinke not done vntill they haue provided for two yeares following because of the vncertainty of the next years proofe then of those things whereof they have abundance they carry forth into other Countries great plenty as Grayne honey wool flaxe wood maddâ—â— purple died felles waxe tallow leather and living Beasts And the seaventh part of all these things they giue franckly and freely to the poore of that Country The residue they sell at a reasonable and meane price By this meanes of traâ—â—â—que or marchandise they bring into their owne countrey nor onely great plenty of gold and silver but also all such things as they lacke at home which is almost nothing but Iron And by reason they haue long vsed this trade now they haue more abundance of these things then any man will beleeue Now therefore they care not whether they sell for ready money or else upon trust to be paid at a day and to have the most part in debts But in so doing they never follow the credence of private men but the assurance or warrantise of the whole City by instruments and writings made in that behalfe accordingly When the day of payment is come and expired the City gathereth up the debt of the private debtors and putteth it into the common boxe and so long hath the use and profit of it untill the Vtopians their creditors demand it The most part of it they never aske For that thing which is to them is no profit to take it from other to whom it is profitable they think it no right nor conscience But if the case so stand that they must lend part of that money to another people then they require their debt or when they have warre For the which purpose onely they keepe at home all the â—â—eaâ—â—re which they have to be holpen and succoured by it either in extreame jeopardies or in suddaine dangers But especially and chiefly to hire therewith and that for unreasonable great wages strange Soldiers For they had rather put Strangers in jeopardy then their owne Country-men knowing that for money enough their enemies themselves maâ—y times may be bought and sold or else through treason be set together by the eares among themselves For this cause they keepe an inestimable treasure But yet not as a treasure But so they haue it and vse it as in good faith I am ashamed to shew fearing that mywordes shall not bee beleeved And this I haue more cause to feare for that I know how difficulty and hardly I my selfe would haue beleeved another man telling the same if I had not presently seene it with mine eyes For it must needes be that how far a thing is dissonant and disagreeing from the guise trade of the hearers so farre shall it be out of their beleefe Howbeit a wise and indifferent esteemer of things will not greatly meruaile perchance seeing all their other lawes and customes doe so much differ from ours if the vse also of gold and silver among them be applied rather to their owne fashions then to ours I meane in that they occupy-not money themselves but keepe it for that chance which as it may happen so it may be that it shall never come to passe In the mean time gold and silver whereof money is made they doe so vse as none of them doth more esteeme it then the very nature of the thing deserveth And then who doth not plainly see how farre it is vnder Iron as without the which men can no better liue then without fire and water Whereas to gold and silver nature hath given no vse that we may not well lacke if that the folly of men had not set it in higher estimation for the rarenesse sake But of the contrary part nature as a most tender and louing mother hath placed the best and necessary things open abroad as the ayre the water and the earth it selfe And hath remooved and hid farthest from vs vaine and vnprofitable things Therefore if these mettals among them should be fast locked vp in some Tower it might be suspected that the Prince and the Counsell as the people is ever foolishly imagining intended by some subtilty to deceiue the Commons and to take some profit of it to themselves Furthermore if they should make thereof plate and such other finely cunningly wrought stuffe if at any time they should have occasion to breake it and melt it againe therewith to pay their souldiours wages they see and perceive very well that men would be loth to part from those things that they once began to have pleasure and delight in To remedy all this they have found out a means well as it is agreable to all their other lawes and customes so it is from ours where gold is so much set by and so diligently kept very farre discripant and repugâ—â—â—t and therefore uncredible but only to them that be wise For whereas they eate and drinke in earthen and glasse veslels which indeed be curiously and properly made and yet be of very small value of gold and silver they make chamber-pots and other veslels that serve for most vile vseâ— not only in their common halâ— but â—â— every mans private house I â—…more or the same 〈…〉 they make great chaine sâ—â—â—â— and gyues wherein they â—â—â— their bond-men Finally whosoever for a â—â—â—â—â—sence be â—â—â—â—med by their 〈…〉 â—ang â—â—â—g or gold vpon their fâ—â—gers they weare rings of gold and about their necke 〈…〉 of â—…d in conclusion then 〈…〉 tied with gold Thus by â—â—â—â—eanes pâ—â—â—â—ble they pâ—oâ—ure to have gold and 〈…〉 among them 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 And these mettals which other Nations doe as grievously and sorrowfully soregoe as in a manner their owne lives if they should altogether at once be taken from the 〈◊〉 no man there would thinke that he had lost the worth of one fâ—rthing They gather also pearles by the sea sidâ— and Dâ—â—â—onds and Carbunâ—lâ—â— upon certaine Rocke and yet they sâ—â—ke â—â—â— for them but by chance finding them they â—ut and polish them And therewith they deck their young Infants Which like as in the first yeares of their childe hood they make much and 〈…〉 and proud of such 〈◊〉 so when they be a little â—ore growne in yeareâ— and disâ—retioâ— perceiue that â—oâ—e but children doe weare such tâ—ye and trifles they â—â—â— them away even of theâ—… shame astnesse without 〈◊〉 â—â—dding of their 〈…〉 our children when they waxe bigge doe cast away nuttes brouches and puppets Therefore these lawes and custome which be so far different from all