with hurling at the stake. They
say, moreover, that grinding poverty renders men worthless, cunning,
sulky, thievish, insidious, vagabonds, liars, false witnesses, &c.; and
that wealth makes them insolent, proud, ignorant, traitors, assumers of
what they know not, deceivers, boasters, wanting in affection,
slanderers, &c. But with them all the rich and poor together make up the
community. They are rich because they want nothing, poor because they
possess nothing; and consequently they are not slaves to circumstances,
but circumstances serve them. And on this point they strongly recommend
the religion of the Christians, and especially the life of the Apostles.

_G.M._ This seems excellent and sacred, but the community of women is a
thing too difficult to attain. The holy Roman Clement says that wives
ought to be common in accordance with the apostolic institution, and
praises Plato and Socrates, who thus teach, but the Glossary interprets
this community with regard to obedience. And Tertullian agrees with the
Glossary, that the first Christians had everything in common except
wives.

_Capt._ These things I know little of. But this I saw among the
inhabitants of the City of the Sun that they did not make this
exception. And they defend themselves by the opinion of Socrates, of
Cato, of Plato, and of St. Clement but, as you say, they misunderstand
the opinions of these thinkers. And the inhabitants of the solar city
ascribe this to their want of education, since they are by no means
learned in philosophy. Nevertheless, they send abroad to discover the
customs of nations, and the best of these they always adopt. Practice
makes the women suitable for war and other duties. Thus they agree with
Plato, in whom I have read these same things. The reasoning of our
Cajetan does not convince me, and least of all that of Aristotle. This
thing, however, existing among them is excellent and worthy of
imitation--viz., that no physical defect renders a man incapable of
being serviceable except the decrepitude of old age, since even the
deformed are useful for consultation. The lame serve as guards, watching
with the eyes which they possess. The blind card wool with their hands,
separating the down from the hairs, with which latter they stuff the
couches and sofas; those who are without the use of eyes and hands give
the use of their ears or their voice for the convenience of the state,
and if one has only one sense, he uses it in the fa