The Utopia

The flourishing condition of the State of Utopia, lately admitted into the Union, renders it an interesting subject of inquiry. The absence of partyspirit; the harmony with which all the internal affairs of that CommonWealth are conducted; the prompt & satisfactory distribution of justice; the universality of political, moral, & economical information, among people of every condition; the rapid & vigorous extension of agricultural improvement, evident from the most careless survey of the face of the country; these, & numerous other advantages, all possessed in a singular & eminent degree by this happy people, can not fail to inspire every considerate mind with an eager disposition to search into & discover what are the foundations of a prosperity so novel & affecting. It is to gratify a curiosity, at once rational & natural, that the following work has been composed. Herein, the author has endeavored, by a careful history of the Institutions of the Republic of Utopia, to expose to every inquirer the causes of it’s [sic, consistently] rare felicity. They who are equal to form a just estimation of things; who are not dazzled by that empty luster which surrounds empires distinguished for their military & naval power, their wealth, their commerce, their luxury & their arts; they, in short, who prefer peace to victory, virtue to power, & tranquil simplicity to the splendid enchantments of magnificence & fame, will thank me for my labors, & will obtain improvement from the picture now presented for their contemplation. I shall exceed the measure of my expectations, & experience the most sincere species of all pleasures, if a single statesman should learn from the perusal, that the perfection of the whole depends on that of it’s integral parts; that manufactures, & commerce, & fleets, & armies, & a full treasury, do not, of themselves, solely, constitute the greatness of an empire; & that a nation is not happy & respectable in proportion to the number of individuals it contains, but in proportion to their knowledge & their virtue.