3 i 4 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



nature on its outward side. The striving after new 

 life is due to the felt conflict, or want of harmony, 

 between what it has in it to become its inner self 

 and what it has actually become, the limited form in 

 which it appears. On the one hand evil is necessary 

 for good, for were the imperfections not felt, there 

 would be no striving after perfection ; all defect and 

 sin consist merely in privation, in the non-realisation of 

 possible qualities. " It would not be well were evil 

 non-existent, for it makes for the necessity of good, 

 since if evil were removed the desire of good would 

 also cease." 1 In its whole life, however, the soul will 

 realise all good, and therefore is only per accident im- 

 perfect. On the other hand, however mean in itself at 

 any moment, it is a necessary part of the whole, and 

 therefore, relatively to the whole it is good. "If we 

 look to the order of the universe it will appear that 

 every action and effect is good by way of necessity, for 

 even the things which appear the most trifling and sordid 

 are parts of greater and more noble things, as the form- 

 less are parts of the formed, the least are necessary 

 elements of the great, the great of the greatest ; and 

 as the less cannot subsist without the least, so 

 neither can the greatest without the great. All beings, 

 therefore, of whatsoever nature, are good, if they 

 are rightly considered, not less good than greater 

 things, if we take into account the fact that the 

 goodness of the whole depends on the goodness of 

 its parts." 2 



Every part, every individual in the universe, differs 

 from every other ; each has its own inalienable individuality 

 by which it stands out from all others and is itself. So 

 far was this principle carried by Bruno that, as we have 



1 Lampas, Of. Lai. Hi. 215 cf. 23. z Ib. p. 108. 



