644 ' Vico. Without encroaching on the just claims of other men, to exalt the fame of Vico, we may safely pronounce him to have been one of the most original thinkers whom his country has produced. At the time at which he lived, it was perhaps impossible to do more than detect the falsehood of long- established opinions, to discover and demonstrate the truth which should be substituted for them, was necessarily the work of a succeeding age. But he who first shakes the found- ation of an edifice of ancient error, should not be deprived of our gratitude, though he only leaves the ground encumbered with ruins, without being able to build up any thing in the room of what he has overthrown. Were he even as well qualified to construct as to destroy, he finds neither tools nor materials prepared for this second labour. Even the deep religious and moral feeling which engaged Vico in the attempt to demonstrate the law by which Providence governs the world, has probably led him into error by inducing him unconsciously to combine the facts of history and judge of their credibility, according to their apparent conformity with this law. The only method of avoiding similar errors in his- torical inquiries is, with singleness of purpose, to try every- thing by its own evidence, confident that whatever may be- come of opinion, truth can never be inconsistent with truth. M. C. Y. I. K.
