Vico. 631 Vico thought that there must be in human nature, and the order of Providence, principles not only equally certain in their operation, but equally capable of demonstrative proof. As, according to Plato, there was in the Divine Mind an Idea, antecedent to the existence of a material world, and being its archetype, so there must exist an eternal Idea of the history of mankind in the Divine Intellect, which is made sensible in actual events, and never exceeded or de- parted from in all the variety of human affairs. The first glance at history seems to contradict the supposition, that any such regularity exists, but moi'e closely examined it will be found, that there is order in the seeming confusion, and a great cycle of changes always returning into itself. The discovery of this order is the New Science ; new, because no one had yet demonstrated its existence ; a science, because its subject is intellectual, universal and eternal. Vico desired to obtain as firm a basis for his favourite studies of juris- prudence and history, as the philosophy of external nature had already received, and the principles of his new science are promulgated in the form of axioms, which occupy the greater part of his first book. No philosophy of human nature can be sound or useful, which either attempts to eradicate the passions, or abandons man to their corrupt influence. The Stoics committed the first error, the Epicureans the second; neither system, there- fore, can be the foundation of the New Science ; neither of them recognizes Providence, the Stoics substituting Fate for it, and the Epicureans, Chance. The Platonic philosophy on the other hand agrees with all lawgivers, in recognizing three truths, that there is a Providence, that human virtue consists in the moderation of the passions, and that the soul is immortal. The passions which tend to the destruction of Society, moderated by the influences to which Providence subjects man, are the virtues which hold society together and promote the welfare of its members. In laying down these axioms, Vico has evidently had in view the system of Ilobbes, which had alarmed the friends of morality and freedom throughout Europe. He had represented society as kept together only by the power of the magistrate, repressing
