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632 Vico. that selfishness which would lead every individual, if he had the power^ to snatch what another possessed : Vico makes this very selfishness, under the restraint of religion, the source of civilization and humanity^. Thus the elements of Law exist among all nations, and it is an error to regard it as taught by one to another, by Egypt to Greece, by Athens to Rome ; it originated in- dependently in each, and it was only by wars, embassies and commercial intercourse, that such a communication took place, as to form at length a Law of Nations. The notions which thus expand and unite to become a general system of law are derived from the Common sense of mankind^ an irreflective judgment of necessity or utility, common to a people^ a nation, or to the whole human race. Man is essentially a social creature, for nothing can long remain in a state which is not natural. The accounts which nations give of their own early state must not be implicitly believed ; all have been misled by vanity to attribute to their own ancestors the commencements of civilization, and to suppose that they could carry up their annals to the origin of the world. The vanity of the learned too has led them to suppose, that what they knew had been known also in remote ages, to attribute a surprising know- ledge of philosophy to Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Or- pheus, Pythagoras ; to find a mystical meaning in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and philosophical allegories in the poems of Homer. It is a principle of human nature, to magnify what is remote, and make itself the model of everything that is unknown, Popular traditions, when preserved by whole na- tions and for a great length of time, must have some motive of truth, but this, by lapse of time and change of language, becomes so buried under falsehood, that a chief labour of the new science is to extricate it. Languages are the most certain witnesses of the ancient customs of a people, and each of the great changes which they have undergone has ■^ Sc. N. Vol. I. 202. L'uomo nello stato bestiale ama solamente la sua salvezza ; presa moglie e fatti figliuoli ama la sua salvezza con la salvezza della Famiglia ; venuto a vita civile ama la sua salvezza con la salvezza della Citta ; distesi gl' imperj sopra piu popoli ama la sua salvezza con la salvezza delle Nazioni ; unite le nazioni in guerre, paci, allianze, commerzj, ama la sua salvezza con la salvezza di tiitto il Gener Uinano.