Sir Francis Bacon's book The New Atlantis is usually regarded as a utopian work -- that is, as a work that describes an ideal place that doesn't really exist at the time of writing. Utopian works are usually written to celebrate the ideals they describe and also to serve as implicit criticisms of the flawed societies in which the authors actually live.  Bacon's ideals in The New Atlantis seem to be mainly intellectual. In other words, he suggests ways in which human learning might be advanced and human progress thereby attained.