It would be difficult to overrate the ingenuity and originality of many of the inqui ries into which Vico was led by the attempt to delineate the ideal history of society; and he has rarely failed to put forward views, rational and probable, compared with those which were accepted among his contemporaries. With a truly admirable insight, he has not seldom hit upon the conclusions to which increased social knowledge and more scientific conceptions have conducted inquirers of later generations. Thus, in clearing the ground for the foundation of his system, lie was led to precisely those views about Homer and the authorship of the Homeric poems which arc popularly associated with the name of Wolf; and to anticipate the general view of the credibility of early Roman history which was elaborated by Niebuhr.—(See also COMTE, the germs of many of whose speculations may be found in Vice). The beginnings of religion, the origin of poetry and language, the commencement of society (which he ascribes to the influence of a common religious belief and worship), the foundation of the privileges of the heroic or aristocratic class, are among the earlier subjects of his speculation. He proceeds to trace the origin of jurisprudence, and to show how its development has been dependent upon social changes; and he afterward deduces from the history of ancient societies, and, iu some degree from the history of the governments which sprung out of the ruins of the Roman empire, the -laws which govern the progress, the conservation, and the decay of nations. A monarchy, with an equality of civil and political rights as between
subjects, was his ideal of good government for advanced societies.
Though he ascribed to religion a paramount influence in forming and in conserving society, and though it was one of his principal objects to demonstrate the divine govern ment of the world, Vico did not escape the suspicion of having written in a spirit of hostility to religion. It was alleged that he had written so obscurely, as he often did, through the fear of incurring ecclesiastical censures. Some critics of another school charged him, with at least equal plausibility, of having striven, both in his particular doctrines and in his consecration of the principle of authority, to satisfy the Roman Catholic church. The cavils made on either side, however, do not seem deserving of much attention; and it is pleasant to know that Vico, though not unconcerned about the accusations made against him, felt in his later years consoled for the many trials and disappointments of his life by the completion of a work, the greatness of which he knew better than any of his contemporaries. In 1818 the marquis deVilla Rosa published a Collection of the whole of Vico's works. A second edition appeared in 1835.