The New World

Thomas More (1478-1535) died a martyr and has been made a saint, but his humanism was of the kind that concerned itself more with the expansion of man’s possibilities in this world than with the study of the past or thoughts of the world to come. 1 He was fourteen years old when Columbus discovered America, and twenty-nine when Amerigo Vespucci popularized the news of that event. More is known to us by some memorable historical scenes, in which he played noble parts, but the scene that perhaps portrays him best is not historical. It is the scene he has imagined at the opening of the Utopia, when his Antwerp friend, Peter Giles, presented to him an alleged companion of Vespucci, one Raphael Hythloday, 2 with the assurance that the latter must be very welcome to More, “for there is no man this day living that can tell you of so many strange and unknown peoples and countries as this man can. And I know well that you be very desirous to hear of such news.” Thomas More and the Utopia