service, and in arts, except those which are debasing, are not
cultivated, the few who do practise them doing so with much
aversion.

But in the City of the Sun, while duty and work are dis-
tributed among all, it only falls to each one to work for about
four hours every day. The remaining hours are spent in learn-
ing joyously, in debating, in reading, in reciting, in writing, in
walking, in exercising the mind and body, and with play. They
allow no game which is played while sitting, neither the single
die nor dice, nor chess, nor others like these. But they play
with the ball, with the sack, with the hoop, with wrestling, with
hurling at the stake. They say, moreover, that grinding poverty
renders men worthless, cunning, sulky, thievish, insidious, vag-
abonds, liars, false witnesses, etc.; and that wealth makes them
insolent, proud, ignorant, traitors, assumers of what they know
not, deceivers, boasters, wanting in affection, slanderers, etc.
But with them all the rich and poor together make up the com-
munity. They are rich because they want nothing, poor be-
cause they possess nothing; and consequently they are not
slaves to circumstances, but circumstances serve them. And on
this point they strongly recommend the religion of the Chris-
tians, and especially the life of the apostles.


G.M. This seems excellent and sacred, but the community
of women is a thing too difficult to attain. The holy Roman
Clement says that wives ought to be common in accordance with
the apostolic institution, and praises Plato and Socrates, who
thus teach, but the Glossary interprets this community with