Sir Thomas More

Robert Southey stages a debate about society through an imagined meeting with the ghost of Sir Thomas More. The narrator, Montesinos, is sitting in his library during the public mourning for Princess Charlotte when a dignified visitor enters. Their conversation turns from national grief and historical coincidences towards belief, political change and the prospects for a better commonwealth.

The dialogues weigh the responsibilities of government against the freedom of individuals. More and Montesinos discuss Alfred's laws, the decline of older institutions and the hardship beneath Britain's prosperity. This edition presents selected conversations, retaining those concerned with the main principles of social life, as well as a discussion of Southey's library. Readers interested in political philosophy can follow how a conservative writer tests hopes for improvement through exchanges between two voices rather than a single continuous argument.