ii COMPARISON WITH BACON 327 



that the movements of the heavenly bodies may be in 

 spiral lines instead of in perfect circles. 1 The latter 

 especially is a characteristic thought of Bruno. 



Bacon, like Bruno, was a believer in a purified 

 natural magic, the handmaid of metaphysics, " because 

 of its broad ways and wider dominion over nature." 

 They are united in their admiration for the Book of 

 Job as a compendium of natural philosophy. Bacon 

 writes that " if we take that small book of Job and 

 diligently work through it, we shall find it full, and, as 

 it were, pregnant with the mysteries of natural philo- 

 sophy." 3 Both recur with conviction to the saying of 

 Solomon that there is nothing new under the sun. 

 " As to novelty, there is no one who has thoroughly 

 imbibed letters and philosophy, but has had it impressed 

 on his heart that there is nothing new upon the 

 earth." 4 Deeper harmonies, if not more suggestive, 

 exist between the two reformers of philosophy than 

 these. One is the argument against authority, against 

 general agreement, against antiquity of belief, as 

 grounds or reasons for belief, and the special applica- 

 tion of this argument to undermine the hold of the 

 Aristotelian philosophy upon the minds of men. " It 

 is the old age of the world and the fulness of years 

 that are to be regarded as its true antiquity. For that 

 age, with respect to us ancient and older, with respect 

 to the world itself was new and younger." " As we 



Cenere (Lag. 167. 13). Bruno, on his part, refers to Alexander of Aphrodisias j it 

 is not to be found, however, in Alexander's commentary upon the Meteorologica 

 (E. and S. refer to Ideler, i. 148). 



1 Nov. Org. i. aph. 45. * Ib. ii. 9. 



3 De Augm. i. p. 466 ; cf. Bruno's Ceaa, Lag. 177. 27. Elsewhere, however, 

 Bacon condemns the habit of "some of the moderns," who have attempted to base 

 natural philosophy upon the first chapter of Genesis and the Book of Job, and 

 other sacred scriptures. Nov. Org. i. ax. 65. 



4 De Augm. i. 479, and Bruno, passim. 



