ii PHYSICAL ATOMISM 247 



finite origin which are here no longer valid. In the 

 simple all contraries coincide, for the very reason that 

 it has no determinations in itself; even the highest 

 qualities which men would attribute to God, for 

 example, justice and goodness, are improperly 

 predicated of him, for as in him the greatest and the 

 least coincide, so do goodness and evil and all other 

 contrary qualities. In this respect Bruno was following 

 closely in the footsteps of Nicolaus of Cusa. 



From the second point of view, that of physical Physical 



. ... ill- Atomism. 



atomism, the atom is nothing more than a hypothesis 

 to explain the constitution and qualities of nature as we 

 experience it. We seek to account for the differences 

 in material bodies and in their ways of acting upon one 

 another by the interaction of ultimate elements of which 

 the nature and laws may be variously interpreted. Of 

 this point of view also there are traces in Bruno, 

 although for it he had least regard. He does not 

 attempt, for example, to apply the theory of the atoms 

 to explain the four elements which had come down from 

 Aristotle. He leaves them practically intact, and we 

 have seen that they form a standing difficulty in the 

 way of a consistent theory. The earth alone is atomic 

 in its nature ; water, air, and fire seem alike fluid and 

 continuous in quality, but wherein their difference from 

 one another consists he was unable, or did not care, to 

 make clear. Perhaps, if we take his view at its best, 

 we should say that all three represent strata, varying in 

 density, of the one fluid and all-pervading ether. Had 

 he worked out this conception, which was evidently 

 present, on occasions, to his mind, he would have given 

 an example of what is meant by physical atomism. But 

 this was left for another century to fulfil. From the 



i -i . . j . r i i i Critical 



third or critical point of view, which inquires into the Atomism. 



