labours, and watchings, would all fall and come to nought at the same moment with the value of money even poverty itself, for the relief of which money seems most necessary, would disappear. But in order to apprehend this aright, look at a single instance.

Take any year that has been so unfruitful that many thousands have died of hunger; and yet, if at the end of that year, a survey were made of the granaries of all the capitalists who have hoarded up corn, it would be found that there was enough among them to have prevented all that consumption of men who perished in misery; had it been distributed among them, none would have felt the terrible effects of such a scarcity. So easy a thing would it be to supply all the necessities of life, if that blessed thing called money, which is pretended to be invented for procuring them, were not really the only thing that obstructed their being procured!

I doubt not but rich men are sensible of this, and that they well know how much greater the happiness is to want none of the necessaries, than to abound in the superfluities of life; to be free from misery, than to abound with wealth. I am firmly persuaded that the sense of every man's interest, added to the authority of Christ's commands, who, as He was infinitely wise, knew what was best for us, and was not less good in discovering it, would have drawn all the world over to the laws of the Utopians, did not pride, that plague of human nature, that source of so much misery, prevent it. This vice does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others; and would be little satisfied at being thought a goddess, if no wretches were left over whom she might insult. Pride finds its own happiness shine the brighter, by comparing it with the misfortunes of others; that by displaying its own wealth, they may

feel their poverty the more sensibly. This is that infernal serpent which entwines itself too firmly round the heart of mortals, to be easily drawn forth. I am therefore glad that the Utopians have devised this form of government, in which I wish that all the world would be wise enough to imitate them. They have laid so deep a foundation of policy, that men live happy under it, and seem likely to insure its continuance. As they have rooted out of the minds of their people all the seeds both of ambition and faction, there is no danger of any of those commotions at home, which alone have proved the ruin of many states, that seemed otherwise to be well secured. But so long as they live in peace at home, and are governed by such good laws, the envy of all the neighbouring princes, who have often, though in vain, attempted their ruin, will never be able to throw their state into any commotion or disorder.

EPILOGUE.

WHEN Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to me, as well respecting the manners and laws of that people which seemed absurd, as with respect to their methods of war, and their notions of religion, and divine matters; as well as several other particulars, but more especially their community of goods, without the use of money, by which all nobility, magnificence, splendour, and majesty, which, according to the common opinion, are the true ornaments of a nation, would be quite taken away. But as I perceived that Raphael was weary, and was not sure whether he could

easily bear contradiction, remembering that he had noticed some who seemed to think they were bound in honour to support the credit of their own wisdom, by censuring all other men's inventions but their own, I contented myself by commending, in general terms, their constitution, and the account he had given of it; and so, taking him by the hand, led him to supper, telling him I would find out some other time for entering more particularly upon this subject, and for examining it more in detail; indeed, I shall be very glad to embrace an opportunity of so doing. In the meanwhile, though it must be confessed that he is both a very learned man, and a person who possesses considerable knowledge of the world, I cannot express my approbation of everything he has related. In a word, there are many things in the Commonwealth of Utopia, that I rather wish, than hope, to see followed out in our governments.

POSTSCRIPT.

Stapleton, in his life of Sir Thomas More, has the following eulogium on the Utopia:

"Nothing can be at once more delightful and ingenious than the invention displayed in this imaginary voyage; nothing more full, flowing, and elegant, than the style, nor more admirable than the rules of life, and the welldirected hints and suggestions of improvements in manners, and of an amelioration in the policy and political economy of nations. The reading of this little work, so

far from tiring the reader, will tempt him to return to the volume, and repay him with new ideas and views of life, at every reperusal. Self-love, avarice, and ambition, those three great pests of society, are sought in vain in the Commonwealth of Utopia. One peculiarity will strike us in its pages, beautiful in fancy, but, we fear, never destined to be realized here below — superiority ranged by the side of equality, poverty by the side of riches, and authority in social unison with obedience, without the one coming into collision with the other."

We add the following appropriate remarks from the pen of Mr. J. A. St. John:

"The reader will probably have detected in several pages of the Utopia, the manner and tone of that very exact and instructive traveller, LEMUEL GULLIVER; and may possibly concur with me in supposing the said traveller not a little indebted to the hero of Sir Thomas More's political romance. It must be owned that Sir Thomas understood the secret of feigning like the truth. There is nothing that communicates to a narrative so great an air of matter-of-fact as dwelling on minute particulars. On this Eschines cunningly founds an objection to his great rival, Demosthenes: He will tell you,' says he, the identical day on which some imaginary event took place; and not only so, but name at once some imaginary individual who witnessed it, exactly imitating the manner of persons who relate what is true. Defoe and Swift adopted this natural style of writing, which is also that of Bunyan, who may, perhaps, be said to have carried it to perfection.""

THE HISTORY

OP

KING RICHARD THE THIRD.

THE best preface that can be given to this interesting fragment of English history, are the remarks of Sir James Mackintosh, in his Biographical Sketch of Sir Thomas More, a composition not more remarkable for its elegance than for its liberality.

"As if it had been the lot of More to open all the paths through the wilds of our English speech, he is to be considered as our earliest prose writer, and as the first Englishman who wrote the history of his country in its present language. This historical fragment commands belief by simplicity, and by abstinence from too confident affirmation. It betrays some negligence about minute particulars, which is not displeasing as a symptom of the absence of eagerness to enforce a narrative. The composition has an ease