Answer:
The purpose of this excerpt is to show how utopians were willing to defeat their enemies.
Explanation:
The narrator of the story shows how the utopians had a passion for fighting and how they were determined to achieve great achievements since it promotes the defeat of their enemies. This passion was what motivated them to fight and that is why they seemed so frightening. We can see this through the lines "their keenness in carrying it on being supported by their strength in maintaining it, it not only shook some very flourishing states and very much afflicted other."