i SUPERSTITION AND NATURAL LAW 7 



pure and calm, become visible to the eye. He himself 

 had seen them on Beech Hill, and on Laurel Hill, and 

 they frequently appeared to the inhabitants of these 

 places, sometimes playing tricks upon them, stealing 

 and hiding their cattle, but afterwards returning the 

 property to their stalls. Other spirits were seen about 

 Nola by the temple of Portus in a solitary place, and even 

 under a certain rock at the roots of Mount Cicala, 

 formerly a cemetery for the plague-stricken ; he and 

 many others had suffered the experience when passing 

 at night of being struck with a multitude of stones, 

 which rebounded from the head and other parts of the 

 body with great force, in quick succession, but did no 

 injury either to him or to any of the others. 1 It was 

 at Nola that Bruno saw what seemed a ball or beam of 

 fire, but was " really " one of the living beings that 

 inhabit the ethereal space ; " as it came moving swiftly 

 in a straight line, it almost touched the roofs of the 

 houses and would have struck the face of Mount Cicala, 

 but it sprang up into the air and passed over." To 

 understand the mind of Bruno, it is necessary to 

 remember the atmosphere of superstition in which he 

 lived as a child. 



One lesson from nature was early implanted which unity of 

 gave body and form to Bruno's later views : he had 

 seen from Cicala, the fair mount, how Vesuvius looked 

 dark, rugged, bare, barren, and repellent ; but when 

 later he stood on the slopes of Vesuvius itself, he dis- 

 covered that it was a perfect garden, rich in all the 

 fairest forms and colours, and luxurious bounty of 

 fruits, while now it was his own beloved hill, Cicala, 

 that gloomed dim and formless in the distance. He 

 learnt once for all that the divine majesty of nature is 



1 De Magia, Of. Lat. Hi. Op. 430, 431. a De Immense, z/. Of. Lat. i. 2. p. 120. 



