i BRUNO'S EPITAPH 99 



O' genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis, 

 Quid Styga, quid tenebras, et nomina vana timetis, 

 Materiam vatum, falsique pericula mundi ? 

 Corpora sive rogus flamma, seu tabe vetustas 

 Abstulerit, mala posse pati non ulla putetis ; 

 Morte carent animae domibus habitantque receptae. 



Bruno himself lived within the sphere of which he 

 writes in the Spaccio, " surrounded by the impregnable 

 wall of true philosophic contemplation, where the peace- 

 fulness of life stands fortified and on high, where truth 

 is open, where the necessity of the Eternity of all sub- 

 stantial things is clear, where nought is to be feared 

 but to be deprived of human perfection and justice." 

 His finest epitaph is to be found in his own words, " I 

 have fought : that is much victory is in the hands of 

 fate. Be that as it may with me, this at least future 

 ages will not deny of me, be the victor who may, 

 that I did not fear to die, yielded to none of my 

 fellows in constancy, and preferred a spirited death to a 

 cowardly life. 7 ' 



No end in history is more tragic, when looked at in 

 all its circumstances, than that of Giordano Bruno. 

 First a life of endless, unresting struggle, striving 

 through years of wandering, in many lands, to over- 

 come prejudice and outworn authority, to proclaim and 

 urge on unwilling minds the splendid gospel which 

 inspired himself, and by which for a brief time he may 

 have thought to supplant the old ; now admired of 

 kings, and sought after by the highest in the land, 

 at another time a hunted pedlar of literary wares ; then 

 eight years in darkness from the world, with shame or 

 death to choose for release. The choice made for the 

 nobler end, the mockeries of religion he had detested 

 and reviled pursued him to the end to the very stake ; 

 and the funeral pyre of this martyr for liberty of 



