plorers, so that with it they may have the means of living.
They receive merchants into their States from the different
countries of the world, and these buy the superfluous goods of
the city. The people of the City of the Sun refuse to take
money, but in importing they accept in exchange those things
of which they are in need, and sometimes they buy with money;
and the young people in the City of the Sun are much amused
when they see that for a small price they receive so many things
in exchange. The old men, however, do not laugh. They are
unwilling that the State should be corrupted by the vicious cus-
toms of slaves and foreigners. Therefore they do business at
the gates, and sell those whom they have taken in war or keep
them for digging ditches and other hard work without the city,
and for this reason they always send four bands of soldiers to
take care of the fields, and with them there are the laborers.
They go out of the four gates from which roads with walls on
both sides of them lead to the sea, so that goods might easily
be carried over them and foreigners might not meet with diffi-
culty on their way.

To strangers they are kind and polite; they keep them for
three days at the public expense; after they have first washed
their feet, they show them their city and its customs, and they
honor them with a seat at the Council and public table, and
there are men whose duty it is to take care of and guard the
guests. But if strangers should wish to become citizens of
their State, they try them first for a month on a farm, and for
another month in the city, then they decide concerning them,
and admit them with certain ceremonies and oaths.