eaning of which words are capable is always the sense of their
laws; and they argue thus: all laws are promulgated for this end, that
every man may know his duty; and, therefore, the plainest and most
obvious sense of the words is that which ought to be put upon them, since
a more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and would only
serve to make the laws become useless to the greater part of mankind, and
especially to those who need most the direction of them; for it is all
one not to make a law at all or to couch it in such terms that, without a
quick apprehension and much study, a man cannot find out the true meaning
of it, since the generality of mankind are both so dull, and so much
employed in their several trades, that they have neither the leisure nor
the capacity requisite for such an inquiry.

"Some of their neighbours, who are masters of their own liberties (having
long ago, by the assistance of the Utopians, shaken off the yoke of
tyranny, and being much taken with those virtues which they observe among
them), have come to desire that they would send magistrates to govern
them, some changing them every year, and others every five years; at the
end of their government they bring them back to Utopia, with great
expressions of honour and esteem, and carry away others to govern in
their stead. In this they seem to have fallen upon a very good expedient
for their own happiness and safety; for since the good or ill condition
of a nation depends so much upon their magistrates, they could not have
made a better choice than by pitching on men whom no advantages can bias;
for wealth is of no use to them, since they must so soon go back to their
own country, and they, being strangers among them, are not engaged in any
of their heats or animosities; and it is certain that when public
judicatories are swayed, either by avarice or partial affections, there
must follow a dissolution of justice, the chief sinew of society.

"The Utopians call those nations that come and ask magistrates from them
Neighbours; but those to whom they have been of more particular service,
Friends; and as all other nations are perpetually either making leagues
or breaking them, they never enter into an alliance with any state. They
think leagues are useless things, and believe that if the common ties of
humanity do not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no
great effect; and they are the more confirmed in this by what