1 88 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



one another, were supposed, their action would not be 

 of one whole upon another, but of the parts on the con- 

 tiguous parts. 1 Force is exerted by bodies not inten- 

 sively but extensively, because as, where one part of a 

 body is, there another is not, so at the point where one 

 part of the body acts another does not. 2 



5. Proper- A difficulty, not unknown to recent philosophy, 

 towho?ein occurred as to the relation of infinites to one another, 

 the infinite. Whatever is an element of the infinite must be infinite 

 also ; hence both earths and suns are infinite in number. 

 But the infinity of the former, said Bruno, is not greater 

 than that of the latter ; nor, where all are inhabited, are 

 the inhabitants in greater proportion to the infinite than 

 the stars themselves. 3 Each sun is surrounded by 

 several earths or planets, but the one class is not greater 

 in respect of its infinite than the other. A single sun, 

 earth, constellation, is not really a part of the infinite nor 

 a part in it, for it can bear no proportion to it. A thousand 

 infinities are not more than two or three, and even one 

 is not comprehensible by finite numbers. In the 

 innumerable and the immeasurable there is no place for 

 more or less, few or many, nor for any distinctions of 

 number or measure. 4 The matter of the stars is 

 immeasurable, and no less immeasurable is that of the 

 fiery type or suns than of the aqueous type or earths. 

 Nor does the fact that these infinities are not given to 

 sense disprove their existence, as Aristotle had maintained. 

 To imagine there is nothing beyond the sphere which 

 limits our range of sight, is to be like Bruno as a child, 

 when he believed there was nothing beyond Mount 

 Vesuvius because there was nothing to strike his senses. 5 



1 Op. Lot. i. i. p. 279. 2 Ib. p. 281. 



3 Bk. ii. ch. 8 (p. 283) } cf. Op. Lat. i. 4. 216, and Infinite, Lag. 344 ff. 338. 

 4 Op. Lat. i. i. p. 284. 5 P. 285. 



