DE PRINCIPIIS ATQUE ORIGINIBUS 285 



growth, decay, and reproduction of plants and animals. 

 But it is essentially derived from the delight which the 

 mind takes in every form of antithetic dualism, and 

 especially in the idea of the reciprocal action of op 

 posing forces. It comes from the same source as the 

 love and strife of Empedocles, and as the good and 

 evil principles of the Persian theology. 



By the help of this notion, namely that heat and 

 cold are the constituent principles of the universe, 

 Telesius attempts to give general explanations of all 

 phenomena, leaving it to others to study them in de 

 tail. The largeness of his plan and the grave elo 

 quence with which it is set forth won for him some 

 celebrity, notwithstanding the extreme obscurity of his 

 style and the vagueness of his whole doctrine. 



The academy of Cosenza (it was at Cosenza that 

 Telesius was born) adopted his views, and both there 

 and elsewhere men were for some time to be found 

 who called themselves Telesiani. Spiriti, in his Scrit- 

 tori Cosentini, gives a list of the disciples of Telesius ; 

 it contains however no name of much note, except that 

 of Campanella, and the fame of Campanella rests much 

 more on his moral and political speculations than on 

 his defence of Telesius. Giordano Bruno and Patri- 

 cius cannot be called disciples of Telesius, though the 

 writings of both bear traces of his influence. 1 Among 

 real students of nature it was not to be expected that 



1 The influence of Telesius on Bruno is not, I think, mentioned by his 

 torians of philosophy, yet there is no doubt of its existence. In the fol 

 lowing passage the fundamental principle of Telesius is plainly assumed, 

 mingled with ideas derived from Copernicus. &quot; Cos! vien distinto 1 uni- 

 verso in fuoco et acqua, che sono soggetti di doi primi principii formal! et 

 attivi, freddo et caldo. Que corpi che spirano il caldo, son le sole, che per 

 se stesso son lucenti et caldi; que corpi che spirano il freddo son le terre.&quot; 

 Cena di Cenere, p. 174. of Wagner s edition. 



