["An Utopia of Mine Owne"] "Democritus Iunior to the Reader"

1621 [Burton, Robert] (1577-1640). [“An Utopia of Mine Owne”]. “Democritus Iunior to the Reader.” In his The Anatomy of Melancholy, What It is. With all the Kindes, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes and Severall Cures of It. In Three Maine Partitions with their seuereii Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up. By Democritus Iunior [pseud.]. (Oxford, Eng.: Ptd. by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, 1621), 56-61. Later eds. have minor variations in the title, and over the various eds. this section tripled in size. Critical ed. as The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicolas K. Kessling, & Rhonda L. Blair. Commentary by J.B. Bamborough and Martin Dodsworth. 6 vols. (Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon Press, 1989-2000), 1: 85-113 with textual notes 1: 486-97 and commentary 4: 6-168. O, PSt

A formal, conservative eutopian fragment. Detailed regulation of behavior and a regulated economy. Few laws but those strictly adhered to. Few lawyers and those maintained by the public.