THE EVOLUTION IDEA 123 



ment (like the scale of Aristotle, or, later, of 

 Bonnet, in which each form was a starting-point 

 for the next). Therefore Bruno saw in plants 

 the latent forces of the generation of animals ; in 

 stones, the collective kinds of plants ; in man, the 

 whole lower creation. Guttler traces Bruno's 

 philosophy to Nicolas of Cusa and characterizes 

 it as monistic. Lange and Erdmann more accu- 

 rately speak of his system as pantheistic. 



In profession, but not in method, Bruno was 

 scientific. He followed Aristotle, and forestalled 

 Bacon, in teaching induction, one of his chief 

 maxims being that ^'the investigation of Nature 

 in the unbiassed light of reason is our only 

 guide to truth'' Bruno's admirers have recently 

 claimed for him anticipation not only of the 

 method of Bacon but of the 'perfection' doctrine 

 and the theory of monads of Leibnitz, and point 

 out in his physical teachings the theory of the 

 center of gravity of planets, of the elliptical or- 

 bits of comets, and the perfect sphericity of the 

 earth. 



By selecting certain passages from his profuse 

 writings we may credit Bruno with teaching 

 some elements of the evolution idea; but we 

 must first see how such special passages are en- 

 larged by others, in order to reach Bruno's real 

 conceptions. In estimating his originality, we 

 must be familiar with Greek, Arabic, and Orien- 



