y of
the political 'course' of nations. It is Vico who uttered the eulogy
of the patrician 'heroic hearts' of the 'patres patriae' first
founders of states, magnanimous defenders of the commonwealth and wise
counsellors of politics. To Vico we owe the criticism of democracies,
the affirmation of their brief existence, of their rapid
disintegration at the hands of factions and demagogues, of their lapse
first into anarchy, then into monarchy, when their degradation does
not make them a prey of foreign oppressors. Vico conceived of civil
liberty as subjection to law, as just subordination, of the private to
the public interests, to the sway of the state. It was Vico who
sketched modern society as a world of nations each one guarding its
own imperium, fighting just and not inhuman wars. In Vico therefore we
find the condemnation of pacifism, the assertion that right is
actualized by bodily force, that without force, right is of no avail,
and that therefore 'qui ab iniuriis se tueri non potest servus est.'"

It is not difficult to discern the analogies between these
affirmations and the fundamental views and the spirit of Fascism. Nor
should we marvel at this similarity. Fascism, a strictly Italian
phenomenon, has its roots in the Risorgimento and the Risorgimento was
influenced undoubtedly by Vico.

It would be inexact to affirm that the philosophy of Vico dominated
the Risorgimento. Too many elements of German, French, and English
civilizations had been added to our culture during the first half of
the XIX century to make this possible, so much so that perhaps Vico
might have remained unknown to the makers of Italian unity if another
powerful mind from Southern Italy, Vincenzo Cuoco, had not taken it
upon himself to expound the philosophy of Vico in those very days in
which the intellectual preparation of the Risorgimento was being
carried on.

An adequate account of Cuoco's doctrines would carry me too far.
Montemayor, in the article quoted above, gives them considerable
attention. He quotes among other things Cuoco's arraignment of
Democracy: "Italy has fared badly at the hand of Democracy which has
withered to their roots the three sacred plants of liberty, unity,
and independence. If we wish to see these trees flourish again let us
protect them in the future from Democracy."

The influence of Cuoco, an exile at Milan, exerted through his
writings, his newspaper articles, and Vichian propaganda, on the
Italian pa