The New Atlantis

Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) wrote New Atlantis around 1632. He wrote of his aspiration for establishing an ideal commonwealth. This section from the introduction gives a summary of Bacon's reasons for writing this short essay. "The generosity and enlightenment, the dignity and splendor, the piety and public spirit, of the inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities which Bacon the statesman desired rather than hoped to see characteristic of his own country; and in Solomon's House ...