ii THE HIERARCHY OF SOULS 313 



daemon or soul " which is wholly in the whole extent 

 of the life of the earth, by the life of which we live, and 

 in the being of which we are ; " above it is the in- 

 dividual soul or substantial nature which is in the wider 

 extent of the solar system to which the earth belongs ; 

 above it again the soul of the whole system of the 

 universe ; and highest of all the mind of minds God, 

 the one spirit filling all things wholly. 1 



So in the Lampas the Intellectus -primus is said to be 

 separable from particular finite intelligences. It does 

 not belong to their substance : it works in them, but 

 not as a part of them. It does not gradually leave the 

 being to which it has presented itself when that begins 

 to decay, but simply ceases to operate, just as it comes 

 also suddenly to each, if at all. 2 



It follows that each of the lower monads is so far 

 imperfect that it is never at any one time all that it 

 has the possibility of being ; the eternal essence of 

 humanity, for example, the truth of humanity, its ideal, 

 is realised not in any one individual, but only in the 

 species as a' whole, 3 and this is true of the perfection of 

 every other species. But Bruno's optimism surmounts 

 this difficulty. The evil, the imperfection, is so only 

 to the individual, and in that particular phase of its 

 life. Each thing has a double tendency and a double 

 striving to remain in the state in which it is, and to 

 press beyond that to realise new forms. But each thing 

 has in itself the nature of the whole is therefore in its 

 inmost nature perfect. It is imperfect only in its explicit 



1 De Minima, ii. ch. 6 (Op. Lat. i. 3. 208 ff.). Cf. i. 2. 80 : "The seats of the 

 blessed are the stars ; the seat of the gods is the ether or heavens j for the stars I 

 call gods in a secondary sense j the seat of God is the universe, everywhere, the whole 

 immeasurable heaven empty space, of which he is the fulness." For Bruno's 

 Demonology, vide i. 2. 6 1 (De Immenso, iv. n), and i. 2. 399 (De Monade). 



2 Lampas, Op. Lat. iii. 48 j cf. Her. Fur. Lag. 741. 15. 



3 Her. Fur. Lag. 721. 33. 



