ii COPERNICUS 151 



that gave the decisive trend to Bruno's thought, 

 holding him fast to the one all-important fact that the 

 earth is not the centre of the universe but one of its 

 humblest members. Without the solid arguments of 

 Copernicus, Bruno's superb conception of the cosmic 

 system would have remained a dream, an intuition 

 of genius, rather than a well-grounded forecast of 

 modern scientific discovery. " There is more under- 

 standing," said Bruno, " in two of his chapters than in 

 tKe" whole philosophy of nature of Aristotle and all the 

 Peripatetics. 1 Grave, thoughtful, careful, and mature 

 in mind, not inferior to any of the astronomers that 

 went before him in natural judgment far superior to 

 Ptolemy, Hipparch, Eudoxus, and all the others that 

 have walked in their footsteps a height he attained by 

 freeing himself from the prejudices, not to say blindness, 

 of the vulgar philosophy. Yet he did not get beyond 

 it ; being more a student of mathematics than of 

 nature, he was unable wholly to uproot all unfitting, 

 vain principles, to solve all contrary difficulties, liberate 

 both himself and others from so many vain inquiries, 

 and fix their contemplation on things abiding and sure. 

 With all that, who can sufficiently appraise the greatness 

 of this German, who paid little heed to the foolish 

 multitude, and stood solid against the torrent of 

 opposing belief. Although almost destitute of living 

 reasons for weapons, he took up those cast-off and 

 rusty fragments that he could get to his hand from 

 antiquity ; repolished them, brought the pieces together, 

 mended them, so that through his arguments mathe- 

 matical rather than physical though they were he 

 made a cause that had been ridiculed, despised, 

 neglected, to be honoured and prized, to seem more 



1 Op, Lot. i. i. 17. 



