ii THE EFFICIENT CAUSE 157 



rising from the lowest to the highest, to the One above 

 all, implied the existence of somewhat of the One as a 

 common nature in all. The two points of view were, 

 however, held apart, and the contradiction between 

 them was not consciously perceived, so that the coinci- 

 dence of nature between God as the source, and matter 

 as the lowest emanation, never suggested itself ; on the 

 contrary, their complete opposition was maintained 

 until Bruno put forward his theory of the " divinity 

 of matter," which forms the real theme of the Causa. 



The efficient cause of the natural world is the Efficient 

 universal intelligence, " the first and principal faculty nature f 

 of the soul of the world." This intellectus universalis 

 is to natural things as our intellect to the thoughts 

 of our mind, and Bruno identifies it with the Demiurge 

 of the Platonists, and the " seed-sower " of the Magi, 

 for it impregnates matter with all " forms " : it is an 

 artefice interno, for it works from within in giving form 

 and figure to matter, as the seed or root from within 

 sends forth the stem, the stem the branches, the 

 branches the formed twigs, and these the buds ; " from 

 within leaves, flowers, fruit are formed, figured, 

 patterned ; from within again in due time the sap is 

 recalled from leaves and fruit to twigs, from twigs to 

 branches, from these to stem, from stem to root. . . . 

 But how much greater an artificer is he that works 

 not in any single part of matter alone, but continually 

 and in all." 1 The intellectus is both external and 

 internal to any particular being ; i.e. it is not a part 

 of any particular existence, is not exhausted by it, 

 therefore is so far external to it ; on the other hand, 



1 Lag. 231. 38. The Intellectus is identified also with the Pythagorean world- 

 mover (Verg. Aeneid, vi. 726) j the " World's Eye " of the Orphic Poems ; the 

 " distinguished' of Empedocles ; the "Father and Progenitor of all things" of Plotinus. 



