Utopia

I contemplate them, and I am so affected that I sometimes seem to be dwelling in Utopia itself. And by Hercules, I would believe that Raphael himself saw less in that island during the entire five years he spent there than one might see in the description of MORE. So many miracles occur here on all sides that I am uncertain what I should admire first or most: the fidelity of his most happy memory, which could render so many things heard almost word for word; or the prudence with which he observed the sources—unknown to the public—whence all the evils of a commonwealth arise, or whence good things could arise; or the force and faculty of his speech, by which he has encompassed so many things with such purity of Latin language and such vigor of expression, especially since he is a man distracted by so many public and domestic affairs at once. But you, most learned Buslidius, admire all these things less, since you know through familiar association the man's talent, which is greater than a man’s and nearly divine. Therefore, there is nothing in the rest that I can add to his writings. I have only taken care to append the tetrastich written in the vernacular Utopian language, which Hythlodaeus happened to show me upon his departure from MORE, with the alphabet of the same people prefixed, and with some small annotations added to the margins. For as to what MORE labors over regarding the location of the island, Raphael did not even keep silent about that entirely, although he touched upon it for very few and as if in passing, as if keeping this for another place. And truly, I know not by what ill chance this was denied to both of us. For while Raphael was speaking of it, someone from the household had approached MORE, who...