and we exist in time. The future is to us therefore as uncertain as
to you; except only that having a clearer and more comprehensive
knowledge of the past, we are enabled to reason better from causes
to consequences, and by what has been to judge of what is likely to
be. We have this advantage also, that we are divested of all those
passions which cloud the intellects and warp the understandings of
men. You are thinking, I perceive, how much you have to learn, and
what you should first inquire of me. But expect no revelations!
Enough was revealed when man was assured of judgment after death,
and the means of salvation were afforded him. I neither come to
discover secret things nor hidden treasures; but to discourse with
you concerning these portentous and monster-breeding times; for it
is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand
climacterics of the world. And I come to you, rather than to any
other person, because you have been led to meditate upon the
corresponding changes whereby your age and mine are distinguished;
and because, notwithstanding many discrepancies and some dispathies
between us (speaking of myself as I was, and as you know me), there
are certain points of sympathy and resemblance which bring us into
contact, and enable us at once to understand each other.

Montesinos.--Et in Utopia ego.

Sir Thomas More.--You apprehend me. We have both speculated in the
joys and freedom of our youth upon the possible improvement of
society; and both in like manner have lived to dread with reason the
effects of that restless spirit which, like the Titaness Mutability
described by your immortal master, insults heaven and disturbs the
earth. By comparing the great operating causes in the age of the
Reformation, and in this age of revolutions, going back to the