i DEPARTURE FROM WITTENBERG (1588) 55 



printed book ; but thought and reality or nature are 

 not opposed to one another they are essentially one. 

 The elements of thought when discovered will accord- 

 ingly give us the constitutive elements of nature and 

 the connections in, and workings of, nature will be 

 understood from the different complications of these 

 simple elements of thought. In the same year appeared 

 the De Progressu et Lampade Venatorid Logicorum, De p ro - 

 " To enable one to dispute promptly and copiously f^*' 

 on any Subject proposed." It was dedicated to the 

 Chancellor of the University of Wittenberg, and was 

 mainly a commentary, without special references, on the 

 Topics of Aristotle, and doubtless formed part of the 

 lectures on the Qrganon, given in Bruno's first year at 

 Wittenberg. The simile of the hunt i.e. the idea that 

 the solution of a problem or the finding of a middle 

 term is like a quarry that has to be stalked and hunted 

 down is a favourite one with Bruno. 



Unfortunately for Bruno, the Duke's party in 1588. 

 Wittenberg soon gained the upper hand only for a 

 time, it is true l and the party to which Bruno himself 

 belonged fell out of power. As a Copernican, Bruno 

 must in any case soon have fallen foul of the Calvinists, 

 by whom the new theory had been declared a heresy. 

 He therefore left Wittenberg in the beginning of 1588, 

 after delivering on the 8th of March an eloquent fare- 

 well address to the university (Oratio Vakdictoria). o ra tw 

 By the fable of Paris and the three Goddesses, he 

 indicated his own choice of Wisdom (Minerva) over 

 riches or fame (Juno), and over worldly pleasure or the 

 delights of society (Venus) : u Wisdom is communi- 

 cated neither so readily nor so widely as riches or 

 pleasure. There are not and there never have been so 



1 Krell was imprisoned, and put to death ten years later. 



