The New Science

that a Fatal Necessity drags (a) everything, even human free will; they grant a temporary life to souls after death: and although they preach that there is an Eternal Just and immutable, and that Honesty should be the norm of human actions; yet they annihilate Humanity by wanting it entirely insensitive to passions; and they reduce men to despair of being able to practice their virtue with that maxim of theirs, much harder than iron: that sins are all equal; and that one sins just as much by beating a slave a little more than he deserves as by killing one's father. So that the Epicureans, with their ever-changing utility, ruin the first and principal foundation of this Science, which is the Immutability of the Natural Law of Nations: the Stoics, with their iron severity, banish from it the benign interpretation that regulates interests and punishments according to the celebrated three degrees of faults: so compatible are the Sects of these Philosophers with the Roman Jurisprudence; that one tears away its maxim, and another denies the most important practice of its Principles!

Only the Divine Plato meditated in a Reserved Wisdom that would regulate man according to the maxims he learned from the Common Wisdom of Religion and the laws: because he is entirely committed to Providence and the Immortality of human souls; he places Virtue in the moderation of passions; he teaches that by the proper duty of a Philosopher, one must live in conformity with the laws, even where they become rigid to excess for some reason; following the example that Socrates, his Master, left with his own life; who, although innocent, chose to be condemned as a culprit, satisfy the penalty, and take the hemlock. However, this Plato lost sight of Providence when, through a common error of human minds, which measure the natures of others—not well—

(a) Drags.

Vico, New Science.