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Like Plato he is full of satirical reflections on governments and

princes; on the state of the world and of knowledge. The hero of

his discourse (Hythloday) is very unwilling to become a minister

of state, considering that he would lose his independence and his

advice would never be heeded (Compare an exquisite passage, of

which the conclusion is as follows: 'And verily it is naturally

given...suppressed and ended.') He ridicules the new logic of his

time; the Utopians could never be made to understand the doctrine

of Second Intentions ('For they have not devised one of all those

rules of restrictions, amplifications, and suppositions, very

wittily invented in the small Logicals, which here our children

in every place do learn.