OF THE COSMOS. INTRODUCTION. 17 



the effects of two incorporeal principles, (activities, forces, 

 or powers,) heat and cold. Even the whole of organic life, 

 ("animated" plants and animals) is the production of these 

 two eternally-divided forces, one of which, heat, belongs to 

 the celestial, and the other, cold, to the terrestrial sphere. 



With fancy still more unregulated, but gifted with a pro- 

 found spirit of research, Giordano Bruno of Nola attempts in 

 three works entitled " De la Causa Principio e Uno," " Con- 

 templationi circa lo Infinito, Universe e Moudi innumerabili," 

 and " De Minirno et Maximo," to embrace the entire Uni- 

 verse. ( 2S ) In the " Natural Philosophy'' of Telesio, a cotem- 

 porary of Copernicus, we perceive at least the endeavour to 

 reduce the variations of matterto two of its fundamental forces, 

 " which are indeed imagined as acting from without," yet are 

 similar to the fundamental forces of attraction and repulsion 

 in the dynamic doctrines of Boscovich and Kant. The cosmi- 

 cal views of Giordano Bruno are purely metaphysical; they do 

 not seek the causes of sensible phenomena in matter itself, 

 but touch on ee the infinity of space filled with self luminous 

 worlds, the animation of these worlds by souls, and the 

 relations of the highest Intelligence, God, to the universe." 

 Although himself but scantily furnished with mathematical 

 knowledge, Giordano Bruno was, nevertheless, up to the 

 time of his dreadful martyrdom, ( 29 ) an enthusiastic admirer 

 of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler. Although a co- 

 temporary of Galileo, he died before the invention of the 

 telescope by Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Jansen, and 

 could not therefore witness the discovery of Jupiter's satel- 

 lites, the phases of Yenus, and the nebulse. With daring 

 confidence in what he termed "lume interno, ragione natn- 

 rale, altezza dell' intelleto," he gave himself up to happy 



vor.. m. C 



