esteem. And from hence it is,
that while other nations part with their gold and silver, as unwillingly
as if one tore out their bowels, those of Utopia would look on their
giving in all they possess of those (metals, when there were any use for
them) but as the parting with a trifle, or as we would esteem the loss
of a penny. They find pearls on their coast; and diamonds and carbuncles
on their rocks; they do not look after them, but if they find them by
chance, they polish them, and with them they adorn their children, who
are delighted with them, and glory in them during their childhood; but
when they grow to years, and see that none but children use such
baubles, they of their own accord, without being bid 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, use 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 vain-glorious 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 an 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,
ear-rings 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