126 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



higher. . . . Every species is first shown in Na- 

 ture before it passes into hfe, thus each becomes 

 the starting-point for the next; as in the expan- 

 sion of the form of the embryo there is an un- 

 broken continuity into the species of man or 

 beast." At other points he speaks as if this soul 

 or intelhgence was conceived in a dualistic sense, 

 for he says: "The perfecting power of intelh- 

 gence does not rest upon another or upon more, 

 but upon the whole." 



In geology, Bruno appears as a uniformi- 

 tarian, and describes the gradual changes in Na- 

 ture, not as cataclysmal, but as following their 

 natural course. Thus, he argues against the short 

 six thousand years of the Biblical chronology. 

 This was also not original with Bruno; for he 

 was preceded in the tenth century by Arabic ge- 

 ologists, as seen in the quotation from Avicenna. 

 It is highly probable that Bruno drew upon the 

 Arabs for many other of his scientific ideas. 



Finally we may quote a passage from Bruno's 

 satire. Cabala of the Pegasan Horse, published 

 in 1585, a dialogue between Sabasto and Onorio, 

 in which Bruno affirms the Oriental doctrine of 

 metempsychosis and explains his views of the de- 

 velopment of organic life. He first compares the 

 animal and human intellect and contrasts mon- 

 keys with men in their absence of tool-bearing 

 hands. Speaking of the tongue of the parrot as 



