New Atlantis

Just as Plato did in his works Timaeus and Critias, Bacon uses the story of Atlantis as an allegory for spiritual and social reforms he would like to see in his native Europe. In a vacuum, New Atlantis is little more than a story of a merchant ship crashing on an island belonging to an incredibly advanced civilization. Yet when viewed through an allegorical framework, the customs and systems of Bensalem serve as counterpoints to contemporary European beliefs and mores. The most explicit counterpoint is expressed by Joabin, who presents his society as a model for chastity that Europe would do well to emulate. In a broader sense, Bacon intends to inspire European nations—or perhaps even the colonies in the new world—to embrace the institutional harmony found on Bensalem between the church, the state, and academia. Such an embrace would mean rejecting what Bacon views as a false binary between religion and the empirical study of the natural world.

Interlocution is a form of dialogue often used to convey philosophical concepts. It is a convention pioneered by Socrates and immortalized by his student Plato in numerous philosophical dialogues.