The New Atlantis by Lord Bacon is one of the most important of the Utopian writings because it envisions the advancements in all branches of learning in the Western Hemisphere. Strangely enough, Plato's description of the ancient Atlantean empire and Bacon's New Atlantis both end suddenly in the middle of a sentence. Published in 1627, the year after the author's death by his literary executor, speculation is that Bacon wrote his story in 1623 or 1624, which would be after his fall from political power. Unlike many of his other major works, Bacon wrote "The New Atlantis" in English and then had it translated into Latin, an indication that he intended it for a wider, English-speaking audience. Bacon focuses on the duty of the state toward science, and his projections for state-sponsored research anticipate many advances in medicine and surgery, meteorology, and machinery. Although "The New Atlantis" is only a part of his plan for an ideal commonwealth, this work does represent Bacon's ideological beliefs. The inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities of Bacon the statesman: generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit.