rt of all other nations is quite idle. First, women generally
do little, who are the half of mankind; and if some few women are
diligent, their husbands are idle: then consider the great company of
idle priests, and of those that are called religious men; add to these
all rich men, chiefly those that have estates in land, who are called
noblemen and gentlemen, together with their families, made up of idle
persons, that are kept more for show than use; add to these, all those
strong and lusty beggars, that go about pretending some disease, in
excuse for their begging; and upon the whole account you will find that
the number of those by whose labours mankind is supplied, is much less
than you perhaps imagined. Then consider how few of those that work are
employed in labours that are of real service; for we who measure all
things by money, give rise to many trades that are both vain and
superfluous, and serve only to support riot and luxury. For if those who
work were employed only in such things as the conveniences of life
require, there would be such an abundance of them, that the prices of
them would so sink, that tradesmen could not be maintained by their
gains; if all those who labour about useless things, were set to more
profitable employments, and if all they that languish out their lives in
sloth and idleness, every one of whom consumes as much as any two of the
men that are at work, were forced to labour, you may easily imagine that
a small proportion of time would serve for doing all that is either
necessary, profitable, or pleasant to mankind, especially while pleasure
is kept within its due bounds. This appears very plainly in Utopia, for
there, in a great city, and in all the territory that lies round it, you
can scarce find five hundred, either men or women, by their age and
strength, are capable of labour, that are not engaged in it; even the
Syphogrants, though excused by the law, yet do not excuse themselves,
but work, that by their examples they may excite the industry of the
rest of the people. The like exemption is allowed to those, who being
recommended to the people by the priests, are by the secret suffrages of
the Syphogrants privileged from labour, that they may apply themselves
wholly to study; and if any of these fall short of those hopes that they
seemed at first to give, they are obliged to return to work. And
sometimes a mechanic, that so employs his leisure hours, as to make a
considerable adv