He must have known, and doubtless did know, that most of the persons whose praises he composed were of very little worth. To read his panegyrics, one would suppose that Naples was adorned with a nobility resplendent in its virtue, cultivation and learning: and yet, in giving Father De Vitry the information he desired upon the condition of studies in Naples, Vico did not conceal the facts: "the nobles slumber amid the enjoyments of a life of pleasure."[13] His pupil Antonio Genovesi has preserved to us one of his satirical expressions upon this nobility, often in extreme poverty but always proud and ready to go hungry at home in order to drive abroad in coaches sumptuously dressed.[14] With reference to the literary duke of Laurenzano, he formulated the theory that "noble" writers could not fail of excellence:[15] and yet I have discovered among his papers the manuscript of a book by this duke, rewritten from end to end by the same Vico.[16] Such are the contradictions and the transactions into which a poor man falls when the pressure of want has made him timid and cautious; so that it is not easy to determine how far his admiration was merely assumed at command or by complaisance, or how far his feeling of social inferiority developed into a real admiration for those above him in the scale, who possessed riches and dignity and everything he lacked and were the "seigneurs." [Footnote 8: _Opp._ vi. p. 20.] [Footnote 9: _Autob._ in _Opp._ iv. p. 394.] [Footnote 10: Letter of December 4, 1729: in _Opp._ vi. p. 32.] [Footnote 11: _Autob._ in _Opp._ iv. p. 366.] [Footnote 12: _Opp._ i. pp. 367, 368.] [Footnote 13: _Opp._ vi. p. 9.] [Footnote 14: He said that many of them "dragged their carriages with their own guts" (_Suppl. alla Bibl. vich._ p. 10).] [Footnote 15: _Opp._ vi. p. 95.] [Footnote 16: _Bibl. vich._ pp. 27-8.] III