More promised to send Giles a copy of the manuscript soon after he returned to England but did not fulfill his promise for almost a year. The reason for the delay was that he was caught up in some new ideas which he decided to incorporate in the book. It happened that soon after his return to England he was offered a post in the government by Henry VIII and the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, a proposal that caused him to engage in some serious deliberation — to re-examine his aims in life, his duty to his country, and his evaluation of politicians and a political career. The substance of that deliberation appears in the newer section of Utopia, the section that makes up the main portion of Book I and is called "The Dialogue of Counsel." In that section More represents himself as a party in the dialogue and argues with Hythloday about the duties of a person of exceptional intellect and experience toward society, about the inner workings of governments, and about the character of officials who direct government policies. The fact is that More is arguing with himself, using Hythloday to voice one side of the dilemma while he was voicing the other side. Hythloday's position is presented more forcefully and eloquently than More's, but More seems to have won the decision, since he did enter the government.
It is often stated that Book II was written before Book I, and that is basically true, but it is an over-simplification. A more precise pattern of the development reads as follows:
Netherlands, 1515
Bk I, Introduction (approximately 5 pp.)
Bk II, Discourse on Utopia (approximately 70 pp.)
England, 1516
Bk I, Dialogue of Counsel (approximately 30 pp.)
Bk II, Peroration and Conclusion (approximately 5 pp.)
(A more detailed account of the above developments is to be found in the Yale Edition of the Complete Works of Sir Thomas More, vol. IV, pp. xxvii–xli.)
