who imagine that the so much talked of
strictness of a philosophic life is impracticable; he, I say, stands in
the rank of glory far beyond the founders of all the other Grecian
states. Therefore Aristotle is of opinion, that the honours paid him in
Lacedaemon were far beneath his merit. Yet those honours were very great;
for he has a temple there, and they offer him a yearly sacrifice, as a
god. It is also said, that when his remains were brought home, his tomb
was struck with lightning: a seal of divinity which no other man,
however eminent, has had, except Euripides, who died and was buried at
Arethusa in Macedonia. This was matter of great satisfaction and triumph
to the friends of Euripides, that the same thing should befall him after
death, which had formerly happened to the most venerable of men, and the
most favoured of heaven. Some say, Lycurgus died at Cirrha; but
Apollothemis will have it, that he was brought to Elis and died there;
and Timaeus and Aristoxenus write, that he ended his days in Crete; nay,
Aristoxenus adds, that the Cretans show his tomb at Pergamia, near the
high road. We are told, he left an only son named Antiorus: and as he
died without issue, the family was extinct. His friends and relations
observed his anniversary, which subsisted for many ages, and the days on
which they met for that purpose they called Lycurgidae. Aristocrates, the
son of Hipparchus, relates, that the friends of Lycurgus, with whom he
sojourned, and at last died in Crete, burned his body, and, at his
request, threw his ashes into the sea. Thus he guarded against the
possibility of his remains being brought back to Sparta by the
Lacedaemonians, lest they should then think themselves released from
their oath, on the pretence that he was returned, and make innovations
in the government. This is what we had to say of Lycurgus.

SIR THOMAS MORE'S

UTOPIA.

UTOPIA.

BOOK I.

Henry the Eighth, the unconquered King of England, a prince adorned with
all the virtues that become a great monarch, having some differences of
no small consequence with Charles the most serene prince of Castile,
sent me into Flanders, as his ambassador, for treating and composing
matters between them. I was colleague and companion to that incomparable
man Cuthbert Tonstal, whom the king with such universal applause lately
made Master of the Rolls; but of whom I will say nothing; not because I
fear that the testimony of a frien