Page 108 - UTOPIA

themselves to others, it could not be expected that they
would be so well provided for nor so tenderly used as they
must otherwise be. If any man should reproach another for
his being misshaped or imperfect in any part of his body,
it would not at all be thought a reflection on the person so
treated, but it would be accounted scandalous in him that
had upbraided another with what he could not help. It is
thought a sign of a sluggish and sordid mind not to preserve
carefully one’s natural beauty; but it is likewise infamous
among them to use paint. They all see that no beauty rec-
ommends a wife so much to her husband as the probity of
her life and her obedience; for as some few are caught and
held only by beauty, so all are attracted by the other excel-
lences which charm all the world.
‘As they fright men from committing crimes by punish-
ments, so they invite them to the love of virtue by public
honours; therefore they erect statues to the memories of
such worthy men as have deserved well of their country,
and set these in their market-places, both to perpetuate the
remembrance of their actions and to be an incitement to
their posterity to follow their example.
‘If any man aspires to any office he is sure never to
compass it. They all live easily together, for none of the mag-
istrates are either insolent or cruel to the people; they affect
rather to be called fathers, and, by being really so, they well
deserve the name; and the people pay them all the marks
of honour the more freely because none are exacted from
them. The Prince himself has no distinction, either of gar-
ments or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of

108 Utopia