chapter 10
Sir Thomas More wrote a fable, about four hundred years ago, to set forth the social state of man
in a philosophic commonwealth, but so completely has the world missed the entire point,
that the very word "Utopia" is even today a synonym for optimistic
but impractical ideals of reform. ... Campenella, an Italian philosopher,
wrote of the major tragedy in that the subject of statesmanship alone had been neglected
as practically every other subject had been reduced to a science.
Government officials, he insisted, should be elected after examination to determine
knowledge and fitness .... Boccalini contributed further to Utopian literature,
and Andreae sought to Christianize it, with the theme: "For lack of vision the people perish."
that the very word "Utopia" is even today a synonym for optimistic
but impractical ideals of reform. ... Campenella, an Italian philosopher,
wrote of the major tragedy in that the subject of statesmanship alone had been neglected
as practically every other subject had been reduced to a science.
Government officials, he insisted, should be elected after examination to determine
knowledge and fitness .... Boccalini contributed further to Utopian literature,
and Andreae sought to Christianize it, with the theme: "For lack of vision the people perish."
One of the best known and least read of the world's literary productions is Sir Thomas More's Utopia. It was composed by a man who had suffered greatly from the political corruption of his day, 1478-1535; having held high office, More was well acquainted with those machinations commonly called conspiracies of the State.
More should properly be regarded as a Platonist, too; for the entire framework for the Utopia is borrowed from Plato's Republic, and the book is permeated throughout with Platonic ideology concerning the ideal State. Under a thinly veiled satire attacking the policies of King Henry VIII, here then is another voice calling men to the correction of their political vices.
Unfortunately, the immediate success of More's book was due to his attack on the King and the government in general, rather than any serious considerations of the remedies which he suggested.
In the Utopia, More presents his philosophical and political conviction in the form of a fable which sets forth the social state of man in a philosophic commonwealth. So completely has the world missed the entire point that More attempted to emphasize, that the very word "Utopia" has become a synonym for optimistic but impractical ideals of reform.
Sir Thomas More was centuries in advance of his day, which was reason enough why he could not be appreciated. Together with the master, Plato, More belongs to ages yet unborn, to the time when men weary of study of the dilemmas which now they examine by what they think is practical, will turn to solutions which they now term impractical.
An important Utopian was Tommaso Campenella, 1568-1639, an Italian philosopher also with strong Platonic leanings. Out of the wisdom of his years, Campenella composed the Civitas Solis, the city of the sun. In this work he departed from his usual interests--science, mathematics, and religion--to apply the principles of natural philosophy to the problems of government. He regarded it as a major tragedy that men had reduced to a science practically every branch of learning except statesmanship, which continued to be left to the vagaries of incompetent politicians skilled only in the arts of avarice.
Unfortunately, Campenella was not able to free his mind entirely from the pattern of his contemporary world, so his ideals are confused and not entirely consistent. He viewed government as a kind of necessary evil to be endured until each man shall become self-governing in his own right. To the degree that the individual is incapable of the practice of the moral virtues, he must be subjected to the laws which protect him from himself and protect others from his unwise actions. The principal purpose of life then is to release oneself from the domination of government by the perfection of personal character.
Campenella envisioned the perfect State as a kind of communistic commonwealth in which men shared all the properties of the State, receiving more or less according to the merit of each one's action. His theory that the State should control propagation is a little difficult in application, but his advice that all men should receive military training as part of their education would meet present favor. Government officials, he insisted, should be elected by an examination to determine knowledge and fitness, and promotion should be by merit alone and without political interference. This view is definitely Platonic, and leads naturally to Plato's conception of the philosopher-king as the proper ruler over his people.
Campenella may have intended his City of the Sun to be a philosophic vision of a proper world government, or may have been setting forth no more than the basis for a new constitution for the City of Naples, which at that time was looking forward to the estate of a free city. It is also said of Campenella that he lacked the beauty and idealism of the greater Platonists, and while this is probably true, his book is witness to the ills of his own time and a reminder to us that most of the evils he pointed out remain uncorrected.
In the year 1613, Trajano Boccalini, aged seventyseven, was strangled to death in his bed by hired assassins. At least this is one account. We are informed by another historian that he died of colic. A third describes his demise as a result of being slugged with sand bags. Anyhow, he died. And it is believed that Trajano's end was due to a book which he published entitled, Ragguagli di Parnaso, a witty exposition of the foibles of his time.
The 77th section of this book is titled, "A General Reformation of the World." Like the other Utopians, Boccalini made use of a fable to point out political evils and their corrections: Apollo, the god of light and truth, is dismayed by the increasing number of suicides occurring among men. So he appoints a committee composed of the wisest philosophers of all time to examine into the state of the human race. These men bring a detailed account and numerous recommendations to Apollo. Nearly every evil of modern government is included, ranging from protective tariffs to usury in private debt. The final conclusion reached by the committee is that the human problem is unsolvable except through a long process involving suffering and disaster. As an immediate remedy the best that could be done was to regulate the price of cabbages--which seemed to be the only article not defended by an adequate force of public opinion or a large enough lobby in places of power.
Boccalini's satire is important because it constituted the first published statement of the Society of the Rosicrucians. It points out that, first, evils must be recognized; then, the public must be educated to assume its proper responsibility in the correction of these evils; and lastly, public opinion must force the reformation of the State and curb the ambitions of politicians. This was a solemn pronouncement in the opening years of the 17th Century. It is little wonder that it cost Boccalini his life.
Johann Valentin Andreae, an early 17th Century German Lutheran theologian, was the next to cast his lot with the Utopians. Andreae's status is difficult to define, but he is generally believed to be at least the editor of the great Rosicrucian Manifestos, and the author of the Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz. We may therefore safely assume that he was connected with one of the great orders of the Quest.
Andreae's contribution to the Utopian literature is his Christianopolis, or the City of Christ. This work, which is almost unknown to English readers, is largely developed from the ideas of Plotinus. Christianopolis is Platonopolis, Christianized. Its author was a quiet scholar with a long white beard and a strict sense of Lutheran propriety. His Christianopolis is a monument of morality and good taste, but beneath his strict orthodoxy, Andreae was a man of broad vision. His city is governed by the wise and is enriched with all the arts and sciences; there is no poverty. The citizens are happy because each is performing his task motivated by an understanding of the dignity of human life.
To my mind, it is dignity of values that makes Christianopolis a great book. In order to live wisely, men must have a sense of participation in the present good and future good. There must be a reason for living. There must be a purpose understandable to all, vital enough and noble enough to be the object of a common consecration. Andreae tells us again and again, in the quaint wording of his old book, "For lack of vision the people perish."
It remained for the master of all fable, Sir Francis Bacon, to bind together the vision of the Utopias with supreme artistry. It is a philosophical catastrophe that Bacon's New Atlantis was left unfinished. Or was it left unfinished ? Rumor has it that the book was actually completed but was never published in full form because it told too much. The final sections of Bacon's fable are said to have revealed the entire pattern of the secret societies which had been working for thousands of years to achieve the ideal commonwealth in the political world.
I have examined two old manuscripts relating to this subject and found them most provocative; but it might be less to the point to discuss that which Lord Bacon was compelled to conceal, when there is so much that is worthy of our consideration in the parts of the work actually published.