“THE COMMONWEALTH OF OCEANA,” by James Harrington, has been called the most curious book in existence, but without attempting to contest its claims to uniqueness, the discriminating reader will remember that Swedenborg and Fourier have written, each in his own way, on the same subjects with which “Oceana” deals. It embodies Harrington’s ideas of how model men would live in a model commonwealth. Many of the essays on morals and government in it are in the form of speeches supposed to be delivered in the political discussions of “Oceana.” The most distinctive and practical feature of the work is the “Rotation in Office,” on which Harrington insists for all executive officers. The attempt at “Rotation” in the United States was made, undoubtedly, as a result of this suggestion.

  Harrington was born in Northamptonshire, England, in January, 1611. At Oxford, he had Chillingworth for a tutor, and while still a young man enjoyed the friendship of the Prince of Orange and the Queen of Bohemia. His strong Republican ideas did not lose him the confidence of Charles I., and he was one of the friends who accompanied the deposed king to the scaffold. “Oceana” displeased Cromwell, and he ordered its suppression while it was in the printer’s hands; but Harrington won him over, and when the book appeared in 1656 it was with a dedication to the Lord Protector, who then, if not always, was as far removed from Republican ideas as Charles I. himself. Under Charles II., Harrington was imprisoned until his health was broken and his intellectual powers impaired. He died September 11th, 1677.