gh was revealed when man was assured of judgment
after death, and the means of salvation were afforded him. I neither
come to discover secret things nor hidden treasures; but to discourse
with you concerning these portentous and monster-breeding times; for it
is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics
of the world. And I come to you, rather than to any other person,
because you have been led to meditate upon the corresponding changes
whereby your age and mine are distinguished; and because, notwithstanding
many discrepancies and some dispathies between us (speaking of myself as
I was, and as you know me), there are certain points of sympathy and
resemblance which bring us into contact, and enable us at once to
understand each other.

_Montesinos_.--_Et in Utopia ego_.

_Sir Thomas More_.--You apprehend me. We have both speculated in the
joys and freedom of our youth upon the possible improvement of society;
and both in like manner have lived to dread with reason the effects of
that restless spirit which, like the Titaness Mutability described by
your immortal master, insults heaven and disturbs the earth. By
comparing the great operating causes in the age of the Reformation, and
in this age of revolutions, going back to the former age, looking at
things as I then beheld them, perceiving wherein I judged rightly, and
wherein I erred, and tracing the progress of those causes which are now
developing their whole tremendous power, you will derive instruction,
which you are a fit person to receive and communicate; for without being
solicitous concerning present effect, you are contented to cast your
bread upon the waters. You are now acquainted with me and my intention.
To-morrow you will see me again; and I shall continue to visit you
occasionally as opportunity may serve. Meantime say nothing of what has
passed--not even to your wife. She might not like the thoughts of a
ghostly visitor: and the reputation of conversing with the dead might be
almost as inconvenient as that of dealing with the devil. For the
present, then, farewell! I will never startle you with too sudden an
apparition; but you may learn to behold my disappearance without alarm.

I was not able to behold it without emotion, although he had thus
prepared me; for the sentence was no sooner completed than he was gone.
Instead of rising from the chair he vanished from it. I know not to what
the instantaneous disappear