80 THEOLOGIANS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS. 



which he drew as an omnivorous 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 unconsciously read into them our 

 present knowledge, as where he says : " The mind of 

 man differs from that of lower animals and of plants, 

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

 ual is the resultant of innumerable individuals. . . . 

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

 No individual is the same to-day as yesterday." 



Bruno, with Aristotle, finds that this eternal 

 change is not purposeless, but is ever towards the 

 elimination of defects; hence his alleged anticipa- 

 tion of the optimism of Leibnitz and of the theory 

 of the perfectibility of man. As to ' matter ' 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 subtraction 

 and addition, but only by separation and unfolding. 

 Thus taught the wisest men among the Greeks ; 

 and Moses, in describing the origin of life, intro- 

 duces the universal efficient Being thus speaking : 

 ' Let the earth bring forth the living creature ; 

 let the waters bring forth the living creature that 

 hath life' as though he said 'let matter bring 

 them forth.' " But we find an important departure 

 from Aristotle, where Bruno conceives of matter 

 not as potential but as actual and active. 



