ii OPTIMISM 175 



unity and identity, it is not relative, but absolute. In 

 the one infinite, immovable, which is substance, ens, 

 there is multitude, number ; and number, as " mode " of 

 the ens, differentiates thing from thing ; it does not 

 therefore make the ens to be more than one, but to be of 

 many modes, forms, and figures. Hence " leaving the 

 logicians to their vain imaginings," we find that all that 

 makes difference and number is pure accident, pure 

 figure, pure "complexion" ; every creation of whatso- 

 ever sort it may be is an alteration, the substance 

 remaining always the same, for there is only One Being, 

 divine, immortal. 1 



Thus all things are in the universe, the universe in Beauty, 

 all things ; we in it, it in us ; and so all concurs in a 

 perfect unity. Therefore, cries Bruno, we need not be of nature> 

 troubled in spirit, nor be afraid ; for this unity is one, 

 stable, and always abides ; this one is eternal ; every 

 aspect, every face, every other thing, is vanity, is as 

 nought ; all that is outside of this One is nought. 

 These philosophers have found the wisdom that they 

 love, who have found this unity. Wisdom, truth, unity, 

 are the same. All difference in bodies, difference of 

 formation, complexion, figure, colour, or other property, 

 is nothing but a varying aspect of one and the same 

 substance, an aspect that changes, moves, passes away, 

 of one immovable, abiding, and eternal being, in which 

 are all forms, figures, members, but indistinct and " ag- 

 glomerated," just as in the seed, or germ, the arm is not 

 distinct from the head, the sinew from the bone, and the 

 distinction or "disglomeration" does not produce another 

 and new substance, but only realises in act and fulfil- 

 ment certain qualities of the substance, already present. 



The coincidence of Bruno's doctrine with some of 



1 Lag. pp. 278-281. 



