Utopia and New Atlantis
Comparison of Utopia and New Atlantis After reading Utopia by Thomas More and New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, it is evident that both authors impose two different attitudes of the way of life to an ideal society. More introduced an “ordered” way of life and Bacon introduced a “scientific” way of living. In More’s Utopia, it is evident that More’s belief is that human perfection would create a perfect society to live in. In Utopia, there is no poor man and no beggars and everyone has an occupation. Also everyone in Utopia had an education. Utopians spent much of their free time in educational pursuits, mostly reading. The Utopians believed in keeping a small number of laws and they were kept as clear and simple as possible. They chose to use slavery as a form of community service. In the Utopian society, the view of money was frowned upon. More forced Utopians to believe that too much gold and people flashing their riches were very childish. By More instilling these characteristics in his citizens, it is evident that he believed human perfection would lead to the perfect place to reside. On the other hand, Bacon believed that science would advance humans culturally. Bacon believed that humans will benefit from scientific advancements. In addition to that, Bacon also believed that knowledge is also the key to a better living. As stated in the text, “The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible.”(Bacon, p480) Bacon felt that science and knowledge were the keys to human advancement. Both More and Bacon had the faith of Christianity in their “perfect place”. However Christianity was just one amongst the many faiths practiced in More’s Utopia. In Bensalem, Christianity is the uniform religion of the