ii CUSANUS AND BRUNO 147 



planets, in nature. A further corollary was that the 

 whole is mirrored in each of the parts, as each parti- 

 cular thing partakes of the soul or creative force of all ; 

 each does not, however, mirror or reflect the Divine 

 nature with the same adequacy as every other ; some 

 do so more perfectly than others, man most perfectly of 

 all. 1 Cusanus did not definitely accept the suggestion 

 of a soul of the universe, analogous in its relation to 

 the world to the soul of man in the body ; still less did 

 he identify it with God, as Bruno tended more and 

 more to do. Hence he escaped the fantastical conse- 

 quences of the belief in Universal Animism, which 

 were drawn without reserve by the Renaissance writers 

 the consequence, e.g. that if one soul, one nature, 

 pervades all things, and is the life of all things, then 

 out of each may be produced any other out of lead, 

 gold, etc. On the other hand, the four elements at 

 least were different forms of the same fundamental 

 being, and might be produced each out of the other ; 

 and, in common with Bruno, Cusanus held the pre- 

 Aristotelian belief in Atomism : there cannot be division 

 of anything, cube or surface, or line ad infinitum ; ulti- 

 mately there must in each kind be a minimum, 2 an 

 atom, beyond which we cannot in fact go, although to 

 thought it may be still further divisible ; so there is in 

 every figure, in every kind of thing, a definite number 

 of atoms. It was partly this thought, partly also the 

 mystical value from time immemorial given to the 

 different numbers and geometrical figures, that led both 

 Cusanus and Bruno to look to mathematics and geo- 

 metry for the true method or organon of natural 

 science. " Number is the natural and fruitful principle 



1 Cusanus, De Ludo globi, bk. i. 

 2 Cusanus, De Idiota, hi. (De Mente, 9). 



