Utopia

...heaven, so above the dross of this known world, which is dragged turbulently and stormily into a precipice in the studies of so many mortals, which are as sharp and eager as they are empty and vain.

We owe the knowledge of that island, therefore, to THOMAS MORE, who promulgated the exemplar of a blessed life and a prescription for living in our age, found by Hythlodaeus, as he himself reports, to whom he attributes everything. Just as he fashioned the city for the Utopians and established their rites and institutions—that is, he borrowed the argument of a blessed life from there and brought it to us—MORE certainly illustrated the island and its holy institutions with his style and oratory, and polished the city of the Hagnopolitans themselves to a standard and rule, and added all those things from which grace, beauty, and authority are added to a magnificent work. Even if in performing that work he claimed for himself only the part of the builder. It was, indeed, a matter of religious respect for him to take a greater part in that work, lest Hythlodaeus could justly complain that the glory he had earned for himself was being intercepted and skimmed by MORE, if he should ever decide to commit his own labors to writing. original: "εὐλαβουμένῳ δῆθεν αὐτῷ, μὴ ὑθλόδαιος αὐτὸς ὁ τῇ οὐδέποτ’ ἄγε νήσῳ ἐμφιλοχωρῶν ἐπιφάνεις ποτε δυ-σχεράναιε καὶ βαρύνοιτο ταύτην ἀγνωμοσύνην αὐτῷ τῷ γε ἐγκα-ταλιπόντι αὐτῷ προαπλωθισμένον τὸ κλέος τοῦ εὑρέματος τούτου. οὕτω γὰρ πεπεῖσθαι, πρὸς ἀνδρῶν ἐστὶν ἀγαθῶν τε καὶ σοφῶν." meaning: "Fearing, as it were, that Hythlodaeus himself, lingering in the 'nowhere' island, might suddenly appear and be annoyed and burdened by this ingratitude on the part of the one who had left him the glory of this discovery, previously laid out. For so it is to be persuaded by good and wise men."

However, so that I may place full faith in MORE, a man who is serious by nature and supported by great authority, the testimony of Peter Giles of Antwerp is effective, a man who...