236 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



only in those things which are permanent and the same ; 

 changing bodies are unequal to themselves at any two 

 instants." l " Nothing variable or composite consists 

 at two moments of time wholly of the same parts 

 and the same order of parts, since the efflux and influx 

 of atoms is continuous, and therefore not even from 

 the primary integrating parts will you be able to name 

 a thing as the same twice." 2 



Number itself is not an absolute, but a relative 

 determination : it does not touch the nature of the 

 thing itself. Nature has no difference of number, as 

 we have, of odd and even, tens and hundreds ; nor 

 do the gods, spirits, or other rational beings define the 

 numbers and measures of objects by the same series of 

 terms. Both numbers and the methods of numbering are 

 as diverse as are the fingers, heads, and mental equip- 

 ment of the numberers. That which fits in with the 

 numbers of nature will therefore never fit in with our 

 numbers. Thus ten horses and ten men, although 

 determined arithmetically by one and the same number, 

 are in nature, or physically, wholly unequal to one 

 another. 3 



The atoms. In order that men's minds may be better disposed 

 for the reception of truth, it is necessary first to 

 demolish the foundations of error ; 4 Bruno accordingly 

 sets himself to disprove the infinite divisibility of the 

 continuum. 5 It was the common belief that there 

 were no limits set to the dividing power of either 

 nature or art, so that, however small a part might be 

 arrived at, it was possible to divide it into yet smaller 

 parts, on the analogy of the division of a fraction into 

 tens of thousands of parts. Bruno denied this analogy 



1 Op. Lat. i. 3. p. 207. 5 (cf. p. 302, bk. v. ch. 2). 2 P. 208. 9. 3 P. 207. 

 4 De Min. bk. i. ch. 5. 5 Arist. Phys. Z. i. 231, a 23. 



