Although only a few persons who reveal a special capacity and disposition for studies are allowed to devote themselves entirely to learning, the entire population is encouraged to devote a good share of its leisure time to reading.
The Utopians had never heard of any of the chief thinkers of the Western world until Hythloday’s company visited them, and yet they had developed independently the same skills and concepts as the Greeks had in music, logic, arithmetic, and geometry. They are truly excellent logicians, although they have no understanding of, or appreciation for, abstract speculation and fantastical images, having never been exposed to certain niceties of logic that English students are regularly trained to employ. They have made great advances in astronomy and have devised ingenious instruments for observations and calculations in that study, but they take no account of astrology or divining by the stars. They are skillful in predicting the weather, but their inquiries into the causes of natural phenomena have not proved successful.
