by their parents, lay them aside, and would be as much
ashamed to use them afterwards as children among us, when they come to
years, are of their puppets and other toys.

"I never saw a clearer instance of the opposite impressions that
different customs make on people than I observed in the ambassadors of
the Anemolians, who came to Amaurot when I was there. As they came to
treat of affairs of great consequence, the deputies from several towns
met together to wait for their coming. The ambassadors of the nations
that lie near Utopia, knowing their customs, and that fine clothes are in
no esteem among them, that silk is despised, and gold is a badge of
infamy, used to come very modestly clothed; but the Anemolians, lying
more remote, and having had little commerce with them, understanding that
they were coarsely clothed, and all in the same manner, took it for
granted that they had none of those fine things among them of which they
made no use; and they, being a vainglorious rather than a wise people,
resolved to set themselves out with so much pomp that they should look
like gods, and strike the eyes of the poor Utopians with their splendour.
Thus three ambassadors made their entry with a hundred attendants, all
clad in garments of different colours, and the greater part in silk; the
ambassadors themselves, who were of the nobility of their country, were
in cloth-of-gold, and adorned with massy chains, earrings and rings of
gold; their caps were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other
gems--in a word, they were set out with all those things that among the
Utopians were either the badges of slavery, the marks of infamy, or the
playthings of children. It was not unpleasant to see, on the one side,
how they looked big, when they compared their rich habits with the plain
clothes of the Utopians, who were come out in great numbers to see them
make their entry; and, on the other, to observe how much they were
mistaken in the impression which they hoped this pomp would have made on
them. It appeared so ridiculous a show to all that had never stirred out
of their country, and had not seen the customs of other nations, that
though they paid some reverence to those that were the most meanly clad,
as if they had been the ambassadors, yet when they saw the ambassadors
themselves so full of gold and chains, they looked upon them as slaves,
and forbore to treat them with reverence. You might have seen the
children who