ABSTRACT
Following the appearance of Augustine’s “City of God” there was a period of nearly a thousand years during which there was no instance of even the most meager and insignificant utopian literature. The “Utopia” like all the other Utopias studied reflected the spirit of its time, and this spirit depended upon the literary models and environments. The Utopians, however, rejected the ascetic notion that virtue consisted in crossing all natural desires, in abstinence from natural pleasure, and stamping out the natural instincts. In Utopia all was substantial and sanitary, in every way conducive to the best physical and mental health. The laws in Utopia are few, because it is against all right and justice that men have imposed on them laws, which either are in number more than can be read, or blinder or darker than men may well understand.
