II 



SOULS OF THE STARS 217 



all material things)." Thus the motions of the heavy 

 and the light are merely relative movements ; the same 

 kind of motion does not belong always to the same 

 kind of substance or element. 1 



The movement of the stars is determined not 

 by considerations of place only, but also by the 

 necessity that bodies of one kind are under of deriving 

 sustenance from those of another, the suns from the 

 earths and the earths from the suns. It is through the 

 soul that their needs are felt, and the soul directs their 

 movements as does the human soul those of the human 

 body. There are, however, no fixed limits to their 

 movements : they are governed only by the convenience 

 of life, as perceived by the sense and mind, which are 

 inborn in each. By this fantastic principle Bruno 

 explained what he thought to be the fact, that all 

 heavenly bodies whatsoever are in movement ; or 

 perhaps we should say he inferred the fact from the 

 principle : which was first in the order of his thought 

 it would be impossible to know. Like most of his 

 contemporaries he looked upon the conception of a soul 

 in all things with peculiar reverence 



Porgimus haec paucis, vulgus procul esto prophanum, 

 Ne liceat laico sacrum conscendere montem, 



The method by which Bruno sought to know the 

 nature of the souls of the worlds is one which the 

 course of modern philosophy has rendered familiar to 

 us in other connections. It rests upon the argument 

 from the part to the whole. " Whatever we find in a 

 part of the world belongs, in a higher sense (stiblimius) y 

 to the whole, and must be attributed to it. All the 



1 Lag. 184. 35 ; Acrot. Art. 68 ; Infnito, 370. 29, 375. 6, 390. 34 ; Acrot. Art. 

 So (i. i. 189), etc. 



