I have read in a book of one of your men, of a Feigned Commonwealth, where the married couple are permitted, before they contract, to see one another naked. This they dislike; for they think it a scorn to give a refusal after so familiar knowledge: but because of many hidden defects in men and women's bodies, they have a more civil way; for they have near every town a couple of pools, (which they call Adam and Eve's pools,) where it is permitted to one of the friends of the men, and another of the friends of the woman, to see them severally bathe naked.--Joabin, the "Good Jew," in Francis Bacon, New Atlantis.
Hard in truth it is for a state thus constituted to be shaken and disturbed; but since for everything that has come into being destruction is appointed, not even such a fabric as this will abide for all time, but it shall surely be dissolved, and this is the manner of its dissolution. Not only for plants that grow from the earth but also for animals that live upon it there is a cycle of bearing and barrenness for soul and body as often as the revolutions of their orbs come full circle, in brief courses for the short-lived and oppositely for the opposite; but the laws of prosperous birth or infertility for your race, [546b] the men you have bred to be your rulers will not for all their wisdom ascertain by reasoning combined with sensation, but they will escape them, and there will be a time when they will beget children out of season....And this entire geometrical number is determinative of this thing, of better and inferior births. [546d] And when your guardians, missing this, bring together brides and bridegrooms unseasonably, the offspring will not be well-born or fortunate. Of such offspring the previous generation will establish the best, to be sure, in office, but still these, being unworthy, and having entered in turn into the powers of their fathers, will first as guardians begin to neglect us, paying too little heed to music and then to gymnastics, so that our young men will deteriorate in their culture; and the rulers selected from them [546e] will not approve themselves very efficient guardians for testing.--Plato, Republic, Book VIII.
One of the public goods on Bensalem, "Adam and Eve's pools," is the site of a remarkable practice. A friend can inspect a prospective life-partner naked (and under water?) for "hidden defects." The status of divorce is ambiguous; it does not go mentioned, but there is a strong hint that it may be permitted (about which below). Either way, from the perspective of a mate-seeker this practice puts considerable pressure on one's ability to discern the character of one's friends and to rely on their judgment, self-commandment, and fidelity. Presumably these friends also need to have some knowledge of basic anatomy and be capable of discerning signs of hidden defects (I return to this below).
Sadly, we learn almost nothing about the structure of such moral education on Bensalem; this is surprising because friendship is actually a non-trivial institutions on the island: "three" chosen "friends" aid the head of a house-hold in a kind of two-day family court in which family disputes (about property (recall this post), etc.) are settled just before the "feast of a family" (a kind of fertility feast [recall this post])--the central aim of marriage is, in fact, "propagation" (and, in case you missed it, the narrator repeats that with them "population is so much affected,' and such as with them it seemed to be.") This ad hoc family court provides, "direction...touching marriages," within the extended family.* It is possible that this "direction" can involve recommending divorce. So, friends are involved both in the prospective evaluation of one's marriage partner,** and in providing guidance to one's off-spring in their marriages. (These need not be the same set of friends.)
Now, some other time I'll reflect a bit more on why there would be less "scorn to give a refusal" on Bensalem (as opposed to the practice in Utopia), for in both cases there is "so familiar knowledge," and it is not obvious why one practice is more "civil" or less likely to generate conflicts than the other. Here I want to comment on a peculiarity of the Bensalemite practice.
For most scholars and students the main historical interest in New Atlantis is the account given in it of the House of Salomon, which is kind of intellectual blueprint of The Royal Society and modern institutions of scientific research with a hierarchical division of labor, etc. It's a place where basic research is practiced, and that after several centuries of research, also generates a steady supply of useful technologies and astounding medical insights. (I am really understating their achievements!) They are a bit secretive about these technologies and are cautious about "which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep secret: though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state and some not."
Now, its research aims to provide "knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things." That is the members of the House of Salomon are true experts on the "many hidden defects of men and women's bodies." Yet, they do not provide guidance on mate-choice, even though population growth is the central political aim on the island. That's especially odd because the members of the House of Salomon possess the kind of knowledge that eludes the Guardians in Plato's Republic: "Neither do we this by chance, but we know beforehand, of what matter and commixture what kind of those creatures will arise" (they are even capable, it seems, of preventing the destruction of living beings)!
Whatever the motives of the House of Salomon's lack of interest in a political program of breeding (eugenics), their laissez faire stance toward mate selection suggests self-restraint (from the perspective of politics and philosophy). This is surprising. For it is often said by (Heidegger-ian and neo-Thomistic) critics of technology in modernity, that the Baconian approach generates hubris and a desire to dominate nature (including humankind). That consequence may be true. But the scientific project was launched with the idea (or ideology) that the members of the priestly, scientific elite would obey norms and practices with self-imposed limits.
*Joabin also reports that among the Bensalemites, "As for masculine love, they have no touch of it; and yet there are not so faithful and inviolate friendships in the world again as are there; and to speak generally...I have not read of any such chastity, in any people as theirs."
**Having said that, the friend's council is not the sole input in mate-selection. For, there is a law that demands that a "month be past from their first" meeting between the prospective marriage mates.
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