ii LULLISM 139 



the author of the celebrated Art of Reasoning} The 

 object of the Art was to tabulate the primary forms or 

 elements of thought, and their modes of combination, 

 from which data, it was believed, any process of 

 reasoning, however complex, might be carried out, 

 without greater expenditure of energy than in perform- 

 ing an arithmetical operation with any of the first 

 nine numbers. There was no question of a possible 

 divorce between thought and reality. The result of 

 any such process of rational calculus properly carried 

 out was truth. Bruno thought with Lully that 

 the ultimate ideas within reach of human thought 

 were at the same time substantial elements in reality 

 and that the completest knowledge of reality short 

 of the Absolute was within the power of human 

 reason to achieve. Lully included in this rational 

 sphere the dogmas of Christian theology : faith was for 

 the many, who must be driven to believe ; reason for 

 the few, the wise. Lully's method attracted, and his 

 teaching influenced nearly all the greater minds of the 

 later middle ages, and of the Renaissance. They 

 became a source of as bitter contention as the doctrines 

 of Aristotle himself. Bruno speaks of Lully as " almost 

 divine " ; Agrippa, after being an ardent follower, came 

 to see the vanity of the system, and Bacon called it 

 a method of imposture. At different times Bruno 

 expounded, criticised, and expanded the Art. He 

 claims 2 to have " embellished the method of him whom 

 the best leaders among philosophers admire, follow, 

 imitate." Duns Scotus (" Scotigena "), Nicholas of 



1 Besides the several works on the Art of Reasoning, Lully had written also on 

 theology and on medicine, and Bruno, in his (posthumous) M.edicina Lulliana, gave a 

 compendium of the latter group of writings. 



2 De Lampade Combinatorial, Op, Lat. ii. 2. 234. 



