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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Democritus Junior to the Reader

No dispute shall remain pending for more than a year: without delays or further appeals, it shall be swiftly dealt with and finally settled within that time. These and all other lower magistrates shall be selected like the learned officials of China, or by the Venetians’ scrupulous voting procedures. No one shall be eligible for magistracies, honours, or offices without sufficient learning and good character, confirmed by a rigorous examination conducted by appointed examiners;

scholars shall take precedence, then soldiers. For I share Vegetius’s opinion: a scholar deserves more than a soldier, because brave deeds belong to a single age, but writings for the benefit of the commonwealth endure for ever. A soldier’s work lasts for an age, a scholar’s for ever.

If they misconduct themselves, they shall be removed from office and punished accordingly. Whether their appointments are annual or otherwise, they shall be examined and required to render an account once a year. For people are biased and passionate, merciless, covetous, corrupt, swayed by love, hatred, fear, favour, and so on: every sovereignty is subject to a greater sovereignty. Like Solon’s Areopagites or the Roman censors, some shall inspect others and in turn be inspected themselves;

they shall see that no predatory official, using authority as a pretext, treats his subordinates like wild beasts, oppressing them, lording it over them, fleecing, grinding down, or trampling on them, or acts with partiality or corruption. There shall instead be equal justice—justice impartially administered—and people shall live together as friends and brothers;

there shall be what Sesellius so earnestly wishes for in his kingdom of France: a full and sweet harmony of kings, princes, nobles, and commoners, so closely bound together by affection as well as by law and authority that they never fall out, lord it over one another, or encroach on one another. Anyone who serves well in office shall be rewarded. For who embraces virtue for its own sake If you take away the rewards?

Anyone who invents something for the public good in any art or science, writes a treatise, or performs a noble exploit at home or abroad shall receive wealth, honour, and advancement accordingly. I say with Hannibal in Ennius: whoever strikes the enemy shall count as a Carthaginian to me. Whatever a person’s rank, in every office and undertaking, the most deserving shall receive the best reward.

Tilianus, in Philomus, wished—out of charity, no doubt—that all his books were gold and silver, jewels and precious stones, so that he could ransom captives, free prisoners, and relieve every poor distressed soul without the means to live. A pious act, I do not deny it; but to what purpose? Suppose this were successfully done: before long, even if a man had Croesus’s wealth to distribute, there would be just as many more in need.

I will therefore allow no beggars, rogues, vagrants, or idle people who cannot account for how they live and support themselves. If they are unable to work, lame, or blind, and unmarried, they shall be adequately supported in institutions built for that purpose;

if they are married and infirm, past work, or brought into hardship by unavoidable loss or similar misfortune, they shall receive grain, rent-free housing, annual pensions, or money, and be generously rewarded for their past good service. Those who can work shall be compelled to do so.

For I see no reason, as he said, why a pleasure-seeker or idle drone, a rich glutton or moneylender, should live at ease, doing nothing, enjoying honour and every kind of pleasure, and oppressing others, while a poor labourer, smith, carpenter, or farmer, who has spent his life in ceaseless toil, carrying burdens like an ass for the commonwealth’s benefit, and without whom we could not live, should be left in old age to beg or starve, leading a miserable life worse than a beast of burden.

Just as people of every rank shall be bound to their tasks, no one shall be overworked. Everyone shall have appointed times for recreation and holidays, to indulge their inclinations, with feasts and cheerful gatherings. Even the humblest craftsman or lowest servant shall be free once a week to sing or dance—though not all at once—or do whatever he pleases, as at the Persian festival of the Sacaea or the Roman Saturnalia, with as much freedom as his master.

Anyone who gets drunk shall drink no more wine or strong drink for the next twelve months. A bankrupt shall be publicly disgraced in the amphitheatre, publicly shamed. Anyone unable to pay his debts who has impoverished himself through extravagance or negligence shall be imprisoned for twelve months; if his creditors have not been paid within that time, he shall be hanged.

Anyone who commits sacrilege shall lose his hands. Anyone who bears false witness or is convicted of perjury shall have his tongue cut out, unless he gives his head to save it. Murder and adultery shall be punished by death, but theft shall not, except in especially serious cases or where the offenders are notorious. Otherwise they shall be condemned for life to the galleys or mines, or to slavery under the person they wronged.

I detest all hereditary slavery, and that harsh law of the Persians, as Brisson calls it; or, in Ammianus’s words, those exceedingly terrible and abominable laws by which an entire family perishes for one person’s offence: the harsh law that makes a wife and children, friends and relations suffer for the father’s crime.

No man shall marry before twenty-five, and no woman before twenty, unless special permission is given. If one spouse dies, the other shall not remarry for six months;

and because large dowries exhaust and ruin many families, forcing them to live parsimoniously, no dowries shall be given, or only small ones assessed by appointed supervisors. Women who are unattractive shall have larger portions; those who are beautiful shall have none, or very little. In every case the amount shall stay within the limit the supervisors consider appropriate.

Once they reach those ages, poverty or any other consideration shall prevent no one from marrying; everyone shall be compelled rather than obstructed. The exceptions are those who have lost limbs, are severely deformed or infirm, or have some grave hereditary disease of body or mind. In such cases neither man nor woman shall marry, on pain of a heavy punishment or fine; other arrangements shall be made to their satisfaction. If the population grows too large, colonies shall relieve it.

No one shall carry weapons in any city. People shall retain a fixed form of dress appropriate to their different occupations, so that these can be distinguished. Extravagance at funerals shall be abolished, that ill-timed expense restrained, along with many others.

I will admit no brokers, pawnbrokers, or extortionate moneylenders. Yet because we are dealing here with human beings, not gods—we have to do with men, not gods—and because people’s hearts are hard, I will tolerate some lending at interest. If we were honest, I confess, if we were upright people, we should have no need of it; but as things stand, we must necessarily allow it.

1058.Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science 2.3, contrasts deeds limited to one age with writings of lasting public usefulness. Burton broadens this into a claim for the precedence of scholars. Both the Latin proposition and his English restatement are translated here.

1062.“Every sovereignty is subject to a greater sovereignty” is Seneca, Thyestes 612, with the final est omitted by Burton. The Areopagus is the Athenian council invoked as a guardian of conduct; Roman censors also scrutinised public morals. Visit here means inspect, not pay a social call.

1065.The verse is Juvenal, Satire 10.141–142. Diapason is a complete musical octave, used here for social harmony. Burton combines distinctions of rank with mutual affection and rewards for service.

1069.The Ennius fragment is preserved in Cicero, For Balbus 51, where Hannibal promises Carthaginian status to whoever strikes the enemy. Burton adapts it to advancement by merit, whatever a person’s origin or rank.

1071.The printed Tilianus in Philomus is preserved; the exact work and passage remain unresolved. Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia, is proverbial here. Burton’s objection is to relief that leaves the causes of recurrent poverty untouched; it leads into his scheme of public maintenance and compulsory work.

1082.Riot here means extravagance or dissolute living. Burton’s commonwealth combines public welfare with severe punitive rules; the modern text retains the death penalty he proposes for certain insolvent debtors.

1086.To “redeem it with his head” means to save the tongue by accepting execution instead. The following rejection of hereditary slavery does not cancel the lifelong penal slavery proposed here.

1094.Dowers here means dowries or marriage portions, not specifically a widow’s dower. Foul and fair refer to perceived physical attractiveness. Burton proposes public control of marriage payments.

1100.The scheme compels marriage while excluding people on grounds of disability and supposed hereditary disease. The accompanying marginal account includes castration. These are features of Burton’s imagined polity and cited historical claims; the terms and assumptions are preserved for examination.

1104.Usury can mean lending at interest generally, whereas biting usurers are extortionate lenders. Burton moves from rejection to a regulated exception, with approved lenders, borrowers, rates, and a common bank. Both the Latin clauses and his English restatements are retained.