106. NEW ATLANTIS. A WQRKE UNFINISHED, 

[bound, with separate pagination, after SYLVA SYLVARUM, OR A NATURALL HISTORIE, J. H. for W. Lee, {London} 1626 {really 1627}]. 

The New Atlantis is not really science-fiction, but it has been so influential in the development of later ideal societies, which in turn have influenced science-fiction, that a description of the culture of Bensalem is not out of order. 

*  In many respects the New Atlantis is an allegory of knowledge: state control of knowledge and secrecy; divine knowledge miraculously presented; and scientific knowledge as a mechanism for the mastery of nature. 

*  Narrative date is uncertain, but presumably contemporaneous with Bacon or nearly so. 

*  The unidentified narrator is sailing with comrades from Peru to China when their vessel is driven off course to a strange, uncharted land, which seems to be temperate in climate and is obviously inhabited by civilized folk. The sailors seek harbor in a town, but are warned off from landing, and in a short time a person like a herald delivers to them a scroll containing instructions in several languages, including Spanish and Latin. 

*  The instructions state that the voyagers may not land without permission and must be gone by a certain time. These formalities are waived, however, when higher officials visit the ship, welcome the voyagers, invite them ashore, and install them in the Strangers' House. 

*  This is an institution operated by the state for maintaining such few travellers as enter the land. 

*  The country, the Englishmen learn, is the kingdom of Bensalem. It is a Christian land; when the narrator asks which apostle brought Christianity to them, the natives claim that the Old and New Testaments and other books were dispatched to them by St. Bartholomew about twenty years after the Crucifixion. 

*  To the obvious, dominating question, how the people of Bensalem are fully aware of European civilization, yet contrive to remain themselves unknown, the governor replies with a lecture on the history of the land. 

*  Around 1500 B. C. there was much international travel and commerce, and Bensalem carried on trade with most of the important nations, including Great Atlantis, or, as it is otherwise known, America. As Plato recorded after a fashion, the people Qf Mexico invaded the Mediterranean area and were defeated by the ancestral Athenians; at about the same time, the people of Peru attacked Bensalem, but were defeated and driven off. Shortly after this a great flood overwhelmed much of the Americas, so that civilization was destroyed and has never fully recovered. 

*  Around 500 B. C., the governor continues, the great King Salomona reigned, and to him is due the creation of modern Bensalem. Concerned lest the culture of the land be damaged by foreign influences, he cut Bensalem off from the world, forbidding both travel and trade with the outside nations. To keep abreast of external developments, however, he instituted secret missions that regularly visit Europe and Asia, gathering intelligence, books, technical information, and whatever else seems important. Such is the present state of Bensalem, which apparently intends to remain a hermit kingdom. 

# The question of the ultimate origin of the land Bacon leaves unsettled, although he mentions the theory of a Jew resident in the land that the natives are descended from an unrecorded son of Abraham's. The narrator scoffs at this theory, but the names he cites are obviously Hebraic. 

# The heart of the New Atlantis, for both Bacon and later readers, is Salomon's House. Founded by the great King Salomona (whose name bears obvious links to Solomon, the wise king), it is a combination museum and research facility, in which scientific specialists work on countless projects. Some of its installations are high on mountains, others are miles underground. 

*  Although the society obviously must record data and do theoretical work, its chief function, as Bacon describes it, is to serve as a central organization for the practical application of science. 

*  The museum is thus elaborately structured in terms of specialities making up (as Bacon saw them) the stages of an applied research project. Bacon thus has brought the concept of scientific progress into the utopia, though scientific matters are mentioned only in a general way. 

*  At this point the New Atlantis ends. As for the general culture of Bensalem, Bacon says much less than More did about Utopia, but it is possible to make a few generalizations. The culture is authoritarian and paternalistic, with strong social controls, but less rigid than Utopia and without Utopia's puritanical aspect. The natives of New Atlantis dress well, for Bacon describes their varied colorful garb in detail. 

*  The economy is capitalistic, with money and (apparently, for lack of comment otherwise) internal trade. Since the country is a true hermit kingdom, it does not indulge in the hypocritical aggressiveness that Utopia masks as benevolence. 

*  Sexual morals in Bensalem are high, and as has already been indicated, Ben Salem was rendered Christian by a private apostolic tradition that has nothing to do with Rome— a significant point. Oddly enough, Bensalem, created by the agnostic Bacon, is more religious than Utopia, created by the devout More. 

*  Bacon describes one novel ceremony, an anniversary celebration conducted at state expense for men who have thirty or more living descendants over three years old. 

*  The historical point of interest in Bacon's fragment lies in Salomon's House, which was to some degree influential in the founding of the British Royal Society and exemplifies the rising contemporary interest in science and technology.