352 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



a step further than Jakobi himself ; Bruno's principle 

 of the coincidence of opposites, he said, was of more 

 value to him than all the Kantian criticism. In the 

 pantheistic or monistic side of Bruno's philosophy he 

 found sympathy with his own revolt against the excessive 

 intellectualism and rationalism which seemed to him to 

 be the chief danger of the Kantian philosophy. 1 Goethe 

 also was carried away by the flowing tide of enthusiasm, 

 and, indeed, his own philosophical conception had much 

 affinity with that of the Nolan, although in their inner 

 natures the two men differed to to coeto. 2 Buhle first 

 in his Comment on the Rise and Progress of Pantheism 

 (1790), afterwards in his learned and careful History of 

 Philosophy 3 placed Bruno amongst the highest of pan- 

 theistic writers. Even Tennemann 3 grows eloquent 

 over the brilliant effort of Bruno, by which he almost 

 achieved a philosophy of the Absolute two centuries 

 before Schelling and Hegel. 4 Fulleborn is more cautious 

 and critical, but in his Contributions to the History of 

 Philosophy he gives analyses and extracts from several 

 of Bruno's works. 5 Schelling himself, as is clear from 

 the dialogue which he wrote bearing Bruno's name, 

 regarded the Italian as nearest to himself among his 

 forerunners in the philosophy of the absolute. There 

 is obviously a close analogy between the two ; and 

 Schelling may be said to take, with regard to the course 

 of philosophy after him, the same place which Bruno 

 took as regards the lines of development in the philosophy 

 of the seventeenth century. Both had a wider view, and 



1 Cf. Carriere, op. at. p. 475. 



2 Brunnhofer has suggested an active influence of Bruno upon Goethe TJ. Gbthe 

 Jahrbuch (1886), Gbthe's Bildkraft (1890), Leipzig ; also Carriere, p. 487. 



3 Geschichte des neueren Philosophic, 6 vols., Gbttingen (1800-1805), vol. 2. 



4 History of Philosophy, n vols. (1798-1819), vol. 9, pp. 372-429. 



5 Beitrage, vii. 4 and xi. I. 



