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aside, and, pointing to him with whom he had been discoursing, he said, “ Do you see that man? I was just thinking to bring him to you." I answered, "He should have been very welcome on "And on his own too," replied he, your account." "if you knew the man; for there is none alive that can give you so copious an account of unknown nations and countries as he can do; which I know you very much desire." "Then," said I, “I did not guess amiss; for at first sight I took him for a seaman." But you are much mistaken," said he, " for he has not sailed as a seaman, but as a traveller, or rather as a philosopher; for this Raphael, who from his family carries the name of Hythloday, as he is not ignorant of the Latin tongue, so he is eminently learned in the Greek, having applied himself more particularly to that than to the former, because he had given himself much to philosophy, in which he knew that the Romans have left us nothing that is valuable, except what is to be found in Seneca and Cicero.13 He is a Portuguese by birth, and was so desirous of seeing the world, that he divided his estate among his brothers, and ran fortunes with Americus Vespucius, and bore a share in three of his four voyages that are now published; only he did not remain with him in his last, but obtained leave of him, almost by force, that he

13 To this I would not subscribe. There is much valuable philosophy in Lucretius, though his general theory be false; and the elder Pliny, a naturalist, indeed, but an able one, is full of a bold kind of philosophy, much in the carping vein of Seneca.

might be one of those four-and-twenty who were left at the furthest place at which they touched, in their last voyage to New Castile. The leaving him thus did not a little gratify one that was more fond of travelling than of returning home to be buried in his own country; for he used often to say that the way to heaven was the same from all places; 14 and he that had no grave had the heavens still over him. Yet this disposition of mind had cost him dear, if God had not been very gracious to him; for after he, with five Castilians, had travelled over many countries, at last, by a strange good fortune, he got to Ceylon, and from thence to Calicut, and there he very happily found some Portuguese ships; and so, beyond all men's expectations, he came back to his own country." When Peter had said this to me, I thanked him for his kindness in intending to give me the acquaintance of a man whose conversation he knew would be so acceptable to me; and upon that Raphael and I embraced

14 This is an ingenious application of the saying of Anaxagoras, which, because it is good, has found a place in most works where a contempt of death is inculcated. I have found it, however, in no author older than Cicero's time; though, no doubt, he derived it from good sources. "Præclarè Anaxagoros," says he, "qui cum Lampsaci moreretur, quærentibus amicis, vellet ne Clazomenas in patriam, si quid accidisset, auferri, nihil necesse est, inquit, undique enim ad inferos tantumdem viæ est." Tusc. Quæst. i. §. 43. Diogenes Laertius probably, as Menage conjectures, made use of Cicero's authority. IIpòs ròv dvopopοῦντα ὅτι ἐπὶ ξένης τελευτᾷ, πανταχόθεν, ἔφη, ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ εἰς ᾅδου κατάβασις. II. iii. 11. Annot. p. 79. d. Erasmus, of course, has it, Apophth. VII. 561. with slight variations.

one another; and, after those civilities were past which are ordinary for strangers upon their first meeting, we went all to my house; and, entering into the garden, sat down on a green bank, and entertained one another in discourse. He told us, that when Vespucius had sailed away, he and his companions that staid behind in New Castile, did by degrees insinuate themselves into the people of the country, meeting often with them, and treating them gently and at last they grew not only to live among them without danger, but to converse familiarly with them; and got so far into the heart of a prince, whose name and country I have forgot, that he both furnished them plentifully with all things necessary, and also with the conveniences of travelling both boats when they went by water, and waggons when they travelled over land; and he sent with them a very faithful guide, who was to introduce and recommend them to such other princes as they had a mind to see: and after many days' journey, they came to towns, and cities, and to commonwealths, that were both happily governed and well-peopled. Under the equator, and as far on both sides of it as the sun moves, there lay vast deserts that were parched with the perpetual heat of the sun; 15 the soil was withered, all things

15 This will doubtless remind the reader of the old fancy which made the torrid zone uninhabitable. Indeed, both here and elsewhere, it is clear Sir Thomas More's notions were strongly affected, if they were not absolutely bounded, in matters of this kind, by what the ancients knew or thought. We find him constantly adopting their opinions both in science and morals; and therefore where they are imperfect, he is nearly always so.

looked dismally, and all places were either quite uninhabited, or abounded with wild beasts and serpents, and some few men, that were neither less wild, nor less cruel than the beasts themselves. But as they went further, a new scene opened, all things grew milder, the air less burning, the soil more verdant, and even the beasts were less wild : and at last there are nations, towns, and cities, that have not only mutual commerce among themselves, and with their neighbours, but trade both by sea and land, to very remote countries. There they found the conveniences of seeing many countries on all hands, for no ship went any voyage into which he and his companions were not very welcome. The first vessels that they saw were flatbottomed, their sails were made of reeds and wicker woven close together, only some were made of leather; 16 but afterwards they found ships made with round keels and canvass sails, and in all things like our ships; and the seamen understood both astronomy and navigation. He got wonderfully

16 Here we have a glance at the practices of the further east. The various substances made use of by semi-barbarous nations for sails, are enumerated by Goguet, Origine des Loix, t. iv. p. 260. Hemp, rushes, leaves of trees, and the skins of animals, were among the substances of which the earliest sails consisted. Scheffer. de Re Naval. II. p. 141. Lilius Gyraldus, De Navigiis, col. 635, observes, that sails were also made from broom and papyrus, which he states on the authority of Pliny. Hist Natur. xiii. 22. Milton speaks of waggons propelled by sails; "But in his way lights on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany wagons light,"

Par. Lost, iii. 437.ff.

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kindred and friends, which other people do not part with till they are old and sick; and then they unwillingly give among them that which they can enjoy no longer themselves. I think my friends ought to rest contented with this, and not to expect that for their sakes I should enslave myself to any king whatsoever."18 "Soft and fair," said Peter;

I do not mean that you should be a slave to any king, but only that you should assist them, and be useful to them." "The change of the word," said he, “does not alter the matter." "But term it as you will," replied Peter," I do not see any other way in which you can be so useful, both in private to your friends and to the public, and by which you can make your own condition happier." 'Happier!" answered Raphael, is that to be compassed in a way so abhorrent to my genius ? Now I live as I will, to which I believe few courtiers can pretend: and there are so very many that court the favour of great men, that there will be no great loss, if they are not troubled either with me, or with others of my temper." Upon this I said, "I perceive, Raphael, that you neither desire wealth nor greatness; and indeed I value and admire such

18 It is perfectly evident that Raphael expresses the opinions of the author; for though he sometimes feigns to make opposition to them, it is feebly done, and the victory is left with the imaginary interlocutor. In fact, he had imbibed his notions from the Greek writers, to whom kings were an object of aversion; and if he served Henry VIII., and, as we have seen, could occasionally condescend to flatter him, it was because he yielded to the necessities of the times, and was fain to do all the good in his power.