530 ADDITIONS. 



a clear and decided Copernican. In his " Alae sive Scalae Mathema- 

 ticae," 1573, he bestows high praise upon Copernicus and upon his 

 system : and appears to have been a believer in the real motion of the 

 Earth, and not merely an admirer of the system of Copernicus as an 

 explanatory hypothesis. 



Giordano Bruno. 



THE complete title of the work referred to is : 



" Jordan! Bruni Nolani De Monade Numero et Figura liber couse- 

 quens Quinque De Minimo Magno et Mensura, item De lunumerabi- 

 libus, Immenso et Infigurabili ; sen De Universe et Mundis libro octo. 

 (Francofurti, 1591.)" 



That the Reader may judge of the value of Bruno's speculations, I 

 give the following quotations : 



Lib. iv. c. 11 (Index). "Tellurem totam habitabilem esse intus et 

 extra, et innumerabilia animantium complecti turn nobis sensibilium 

 turn occultorum genera." 



C. 13. "Ut Mundorum Synodi in Uni verso et particulares Mundi 

 in Synodis ordinentur," &c. 



He says (Lib. v. c. 1, p. 461): "Besides the stars and the great 

 worlds there are smaller living creatures carried through the ethereal 



O O 



space, in the form of a small sphere which has the aspect of a bright 

 fire, and is by the vulgar regarded as a fiery beam. They are below 

 the clouds, and I saw one which seemed to touch the roofs of the 

 houses. Now this sphere, or beam as they call it, was really a living 

 creature (animal), which I once saw moving in a straight path, and 

 grazing as it were the roofs of the city of Nola, as if it were going to 

 impinge on Mount Cicada ; which however it went over." 



There are two recent editions of the works of Giordano Bruno ; by 

 Adolf Wagner, Leipsick, 1830, in two volumes; and by Gfrorer, Ber- 

 lin, 1833. Of the latter I do not know that more than one volume 

 (vol. ii.) has appeared. 



Did Francis Bacon reject the Copernican System ? 



MR. DE MORGAN has very properly remarked (Comp. B. A. 1855, 

 p. 11) that the notice of the heliocentric question in the Novum Or- 

 yanon must be considered one of the most important passages in his 

 works upon this point, as being probably the latest written and best 



