124 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



tal writings, from which he drew as an omnivo- 

 rous reader. Some of the passages quoted by 

 Brinton and others give a very misleading idea 

 of the real extent of Bruno's grasp, for we un- 

 consciously read into them our present knowl- 

 edge, as where he says: "The mind of man dif- 

 fers from that of lower animals and of plants, 

 not in quality but in quantity. . . . Each indi- 

 vidual is the resultant of innumerable individ- 

 uals. . . . Each species is the starting-point for 

 the next. . . . No individual is the same today 

 as yesterday." 



Bruno, with Aristotle, finds that this eternal 

 change is not purposeless, but is ever toward 

 the elimination of defects; hence his alleged an- 

 ticipation of the optimism of Leibnitz and of the 

 theory of the perfectibility of man. As to 'mat- 

 ter' and 'form,' we again find him following 

 Aristotle in some passages ; with him, form seems 

 to stand for the ultimate law of the objective 

 universe, yet matter is not complete in its forms, 

 because "Nature produces its objects not by sub- 

 traction and addition, but only by separation and 

 unfolding. Thus taught the wisest men among 

 the Greeks; and Moses, in describing the origin 

 of life, introduces the universal efficient Being 

 thus speaking: 'Let the earth bring forth the liv- 

 ing creature ; let the waters bring forth the living 

 creature that hath life' — as though he said — 'let 



