2i 8 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



capacities of each part are attributed to the whole that 

 is, their perfections and activities, not the qualities they 

 possess as parts, and as less than the whole in any 

 respect." Thus the hindrances to which lesser in- 

 dividuals are exposed, the necessity of taking in and 

 giving out matter as their forms change, exist in the 

 greater individual in a minimal degree. But in all 

 parts of the earth Bruno found signs of life, sensation, 

 and even intelligence. Stones of different kinds were 

 universally believed to have a kind of sensibility and 

 instinct : to move of their own accord, attract other 

 bodies to themselves, act upon our human spirits and 

 senses. The phenomena of animal instinct were a 

 constant object of interest to Bruno, who saw in them 

 the expression of a deeper intelligence than the merely 

 human. It is true the observations on which he built 

 may not always have been exact ; but that does not 

 detract from the value of his principle. Thus the 

 porcupine (istrix) moved his admiration because of 

 its careful storing up of a stock of darts in its back, 

 with which to protect its life ; it could, with unerring 

 aim, cast one at its enemy, hearing, it is said, with its 

 skin ; and its precision far surpassed all that the cunning 

 of man, with his many instruments, could do. With 

 perfect skill it threw its darts, yet sparingly, so that no 

 part of its body was ever defenceless, the spirit directing 

 all its actions from one centre, to which, from every 

 part of the body, report was made ! " With how much 

 higher reason will the star be endowed, of the body of 

 which animals are made, by whose spirit they flourish ? 

 So the earth from one centre directs all its actions and 

 those of its parts ; it never errs, neither it nor any 

 of the worlds which dwell in the immeasurable ether." 1 



De Imm. bk. v. ch. i. 



