First edition of this rare utopia, set on a South American island, of unknown authorship (although the preface is signed E.R.V.F.L.). The piety and religion of the island are stressed, as a direct comment on the decadent state of European society. The narrative explains that the island had been sliding into corruption and godlessness until society was 'gradually reformed by men's reasoning their way to discover the best procedures' (Gibson).

First edition of this rare utopia, set on a South American island, of unknown authorship (although the preface is signed E.R.V.F.L.). The piety and religion of the island are stressed, as a direct comment on the decadent state of European society. The narrative explains that the island had been sliding into corruption and godlessness until society was 'gradually reformed by men's reasoning their way to discover the best procedures' (Gibson).
The society they create shares many of its basic tenets with Plato's Republic, most obviously the fact that children are taught and shared communally to avoid the excessive indulgence of parents. All of the people are descendants of the marriage between a French merchant and his wife Marie, who had ten children. The comparison is made with the tribes of Israel: 'Comme le peuple juif descendoit d'un seul Abraham, les Eutopiens descendent tous d'un seul homme.'