Vico. 627 but it was hereditary, and aggravated by the disappointments of his life. His father was a bookseller in humble circum- stances ; his education was conducted by the Jesuits, or rather by himself under their nominal superintendance, for his mind was not formed to yield to the guidance of others. His studies were chiefly directed to metaphysical philosophy, languages and jurisprudence, and he must have made extra- ordinary proficiency in the last, since at sixteen he successfully defended an action which had been brought against his father ^ But he could not be tempted to plunge in the bustle of the forum ; his health was infirm, and he accepted the offer of the Bishop of Ischia to undertake the instruction of his nephews in jurisprudence. In the salubrious seclusion of the castle of Vatolla, where he spent nine years, he recovered his health and pursued his studies witiiout interruption, especially those of the Canon Law and Theology : the first conception of his work on the principles of Natural Law was the result, he tells us, of his endeavours to attain the true Catholic medium between the extremes of Calvinism and Pelagianism on the subject of Grace^. The assiduous study of Cicero, whom he used in order to correct the influence of the barbarous phraseology of the jurists, gave him that command of style which is displayed in his treatises and orations in the Latin language. His taste growing more and more severe, he abandoned the modern literature of his country for the great fathers of Italian poetry and prose, Petrarca, Boccaccio, and above all Dante, whose serious and melancholy character seems to have harmonized best with his own. Returning to Naples, with tastes and opinions formed in ancient schools, he found himself a stranger among his countrymen. Instead of Plato, whom Vico had chosen for his master, and whom the Italian scholars of the 15th century had worshipped, Des Cartes reigned in the schools of philosophy ; although poetry had abandoned the vicious model of Marini and his school, it had not returned to that of the great men whom alone Vico honoured. Not accustomed to conform to popular taste, he was only the more confirmed in his admiration of the ancients; to preserve the purity of I Vita di G. B. Vico, p. 7. ' ^^^^- P- ^^• Vol. II. No. 6. 4L
