1 82 THE WORLD MACHINE 



would result in the formation of but a single inhabited world, 

 lighted by a single sun. Life in all its stages was a universal 

 fact. He seems even to have caught some dim glimpse of the 

 idea of evolution. As a philosopher he must explain the exist- 

 ence of evil ; what we call evil he believes is, in truth, but the 

 limitation of our view. In an infinite universe all things must 

 and do exist in order that it may have completeness. He whose 

 eyes may see but parts of the whole cannot see the glancing 

 beauty and the glory of the All. In the larger universal life 

 he found the compensation of the ills that burden the slender 

 part we know. 



Bruno was the godfather of Spinoza ; of pantheism, too. 

 His was the first scientific religion invented by man ; probably 

 it is still the only rational religion which advancing knowledge 

 will permit us to retain. What is certain is that this earth 

 has seen few more heroic figures. His ideas, like his trust, 

 were sublime. Much that he taught could have been with him 

 but conjecture. Yet in so far as we have advanced in knowledge 

 his ideas have been confirmed, point by point. We know to-day 

 that the stars are suns, that dark planets exist in systems 

 beyond our own, and that the material of the universe is the 

 same. 



It is pathetic, if it be not the essence of tragedy, to reflect 

 that this John the Baptist of the new evangel might have been 

 forgotten from the memory of men were it not for the chance 

 discovery which came eight or nine years after his soul had 

 passed in flame. It is pathetic, if it be not the essence of 

 tragedy, to reflect that his heroism accomplished nothing. The 

 aged Galileo, forswearing the truth upon his knees, took the 

 part of civil wisdom. The invention of a fumbling apprentice 

 was to be worth more to the advancement of the race than 

 the martyrdom of the greatest intellect then walking amid the 

 ways of earth. 



