NOL
Utopia

Chapter 7

part is both repetitious and rambling. Anything may

come in almost anywhere : the account of the care of

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lii INTRODUCTION j

the sick among the Utopians and that of their marriage <
customs are found, for instance, in the section headed
" Of Bondmen," and the greater part of that " Of Trav-
elling " is a philosophical disquisition on the nature
of true pleasure. And too often More is prolix &nd
tedious. Had he reduced this section by one-third, the
part would have been greater than the whole. Appar-
ently he himself appreciated the monotony of his ex-
position, and to relieve it somewhat introduced such
lightening touches as the account of the reception of
the Anemolian ambassadors, that of the war of the
Utopians against the Alaopolitanes, and that of the
pernicious zeal of the Utopian convert to Christianity. 1
The modern reader is likely to wish that he had greatly •
increased the number of these.