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Vico’s Ring
75
ments” in
Scienza nuova
151
.
They include the following Axioms,
without necessarily representing equal space or attention actually
accorded by Vico to each subject:
XVI (§ 149): «Vulgar traditions must have had public grounds of
truth, by virtue of which they came into being and were preserved by
entire peoples over long periods of time».
XVII (§ 151): «The vulgar tongues should be the most weighty wit-
nesses concerning those ancient customs of the peoples that were in
use at the time the languages were formed».
XVIII (§§ 152, 153): «A language of an ancient nation […] should
be a great witness to the customs of the early days of the world. This
axiom assures us that the weightiest philological proofs of the natural
law of the gentes […] can be drawn from Latin speech».
XX (§ 156): «if the poems of Homer are civil histories of ancient
Greek customs, they will be two great treasure houses of the natural
law of the gentes of Greece».
XXII (§ 161): «There must in the nature of human institutions be a
mental language common to all nations, which uniformity grasps the
substance of things feasible in human social life and expresses it with
as many diverse modifications as these same things may have diverse
aspects»
152
.
XXX (§ 176): «Axioms XXVIII-XXX establish the fact that the
world of peoples began everywhere with religion. This will be the first
of the three principles of this Science».
XLV (§ 201): «Men are naturally impelled to preserve the memories
of the laws and institutions that bind them in their societies».
LIII (§ 218): «Men at first feel without perceiving, then they per-
ceive with a troubled and agitated spirit, finally they reflect with a clear
mind».
LXVI (§ 241): «Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next
attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence
grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance»
(Similarly Axiom LXVII, § 242).
LXIX (§ 246) «Governments must conform to the nature of the
men governed».