Utopia, became as injurious to the weal
of the nation as they were instrumental to its wealth. But such had your
system imperceptibly become, and such were your statesmen, that the
wealth of nations was considered as the sole measure of their prosperity.

_Montesinos_.--In feudal ages the object of those monarchs who had any
determinate object in view was either to extend their dominions by
conquest from their neighbours, or to increase their authority at home by
breaking the power of a turbulent nobility. In commercial ages the great
and sole object of government, when not engaged in war, was to augment
its revenues, for the purpose of supporting the charges which former wars
had induced, or which the apprehension of fresh ones rendered necessary.
And thus it has been, that of the two main ends of government, which are
the security of the subjects and the improvement of the nation, the
latter has never been seriously attempted, scarcely indeed taken into
consideration; and the former imperfectly attained.

_Sir Thomas More_.--Fail not, however, I entreat you, to bear in mind
that this has not been the fault of your rulers at any time. It has been
their misfortune--an original sin in the constitution of the society
wherein they were born. Circumstances which they did not make and could
not control have impelled them onward in ways which neither for
themselves nor the nation were ways of pleasantness and peace.

_Montesinos_.--There is one beautiful exception--Edward VI.

"That blessed Prince whose saintly name might move
The understanding heart to tears of reverent love."

He would have struck into the right course.

_Sir Thomas More_.--You have a Catholic feeling concerning saints,
Montesinos, though you look for them in the Protestant calendar. Edward
deserves to be remembered with that feeling. But had his life been
prolonged to the full age of man it would not have been in his power to
remedy the evil which had been done in his father's reign and during his
own minority. To have effected that would have required a strength and
obduracy of character incompatible with his meek and innocent nature. In
intellect and attainments he kept pace with his age, a more stirring and
intellectual one than any which had gone before it: but in the wisdom of
the heart he was far beyond that age, or indeed any that has succeeded
it. It cannot be said of him as of Henry of Windsor, that he was fitter
for a cloister