[3] His versions of Salomon Gessner's New Idylls and of Edward Young's The force of religion exercised a certain influence on the preromantic movement in Italy.
[1] In 1772 he wrote one of his most important philosophical works, Intorno all'istituzione naturale d'una società e d'una lingua, e all'influenza dell'una e dell'altra sulle umane cognizioni (On the natural formation of a society and of one language, and their influence on human cognitions).
Soave presented the work to an announcement of competition from the Prussian Academy of Sciences, in which, instead, the winner was Johann Gottfried Herder.
He introduced important reforms in the method of teaching, wrote and translated many works of education and established numerous schools in Lombardy.
His Novelle Morali (Moral Tales) obtained the prize instituted by Count Carlo Bettoni, at Brescia, for the best collection calculated to excite in youthful minds the love of virtue and abhorrence of vice.