1 92 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



men subordinate to him is not excluded, but rather 

 demanded in order that he may fulfil the harmony of 

 his being. So the best, the first, of the monads, which 

 comprises all particular things in itself, embraces, in 

 spite of its unity, innumerable worlds, without limit, 

 under its corporeal aspect. One does not suffice, for the 

 productive mind diffuses itself throughout the whole 

 universe, wholly in every part, in equal goodness and 

 power, and fills the void in order that its great image 

 may be presented throughout the whole. 1 Nature thus 

 puts forth an infinite mirror of itself and a fitting re- 

 flection ; its substance is infinite and its force eternal, 

 there is an explicit immeasurable, as God is implicitly in 

 the whole and everywhere wholly. 2 To the infinite 

 nothing finite bears any proportion, nor can be a fitting 

 product of it. Hence if it communicate itself at all to 

 corporeal things, or unfold its magnitude in corporeal 

 existences and in multitude, the reflection of its essence 

 and imprint of its power must be infinite in magnitude 

 and without number. " Although, when we consider 

 individuals singly, under that proximate and immediate 

 respect in which they are particulars, they must be re- 

 ferred to a finite principle and cause (since a finite effect 

 demands a finite power), in the consideration of the 

 universe, however, each and all the innumerable exist- 

 ences in immeasurable space point to an infinite first 



cause." 3 



Argument In the simplicity and unity of God's being, all attri- 

 toth e G butes are one, therefore knowledge, will, and power 

 world. coincide. The consequences of this doctrine Bruno un- 

 folds in a series of aphorisms or propositions which 

 are interesting as anticipating Spinoza's method of 



1 De Imm. bk. i. ch. n. p. 239 ; In/in. 314 f. 2 De Imm. bk. i. ch. II. p. 241. 



3 Ib. Schol. ch. n. pp. 241, 242. 



