III. On Immensity

The De Immenso is a very great book indeed It is a prolonged hymn of wonder and praise and intellectual exaltation, sung in the temple of immensity. Perhaps it may be ranked with the Causa as the greatest of Bruno's works. Essentially in line with the explict idealists of the early nineteenth century, he always tries to unite his idealism with scientific conceptions of the Universe.^ The spirit of kinship with which he regards the starry host is that of a poet lately among us :
" So may we read and little find them cold : Not frosty lamps, illumining dead space, Not distant aliens, not senseless Powers. The fire is in them whereof we are born, The music of their motion may be ours." ^
De Immenso is a restatement of the cosmic teaching of the great Italian works, often more detailed and more precise. Like the De Minima and De Monade it consists of Latin verses and prose annotations thereon. Seven years had passed since the first bold attempts to furnish the world with a new cosmology. As presenting Bruno's views in their final form, the work is of the highest import- ance ; but, since these have been dealt with in the order in which they were given to the public, it is not necessary to do more than present a general notion of the work and set down indications of advance.
He says there is an incessant unfolding of Nature in move-
' Hoffding, H ; Hist, oj Mod. Phil., tr. Meyer, igoo, vol. I, p. 139. ^ Meredith, G ; Meditation under the Stars.
THE GREAT LATIN POEM AND LAST BOOKS 239
ment; and the same motion never exactly repeats itself.* Illusion must be corrected by comparing the report of one sense with that of other senses.^ In the Cena Bruno's mathematics and astronomy had fallen below the standard of Copernicus : here he corrects errors, reproduces a whole chapter from the work of that wonderful Pole,* criticises him, and sagaciously comes very near to the law discovered by Galileo, that in rotary motion the direction of the axis remains parallel to itself.* All planetary life in any sidereal system is derived from the light and heat of its central sun ; planets such as the earth, being cold, dark bodies.^ He has insight, before Kepler, Galileo and Newton confirm his assertion, that the earth is not the heaviest thing in Nature, where worlds move securely through space, he believes of their own intrinsic energy.* There is no essential difference between the heavens and the earth, as Aristotle taught;' or in essential nature, between sun and earth.* There are not merely invisible planets revolving round the stars,* but undiscovered planets re- volving round our sun.*" The sun is a solid body, but with liquid material in it, which burns, and hence it has a luminous atmosphere. In 1584, he regarded the sun as being a solid metallic body, but now he conceives of its light and heat as produced by the chemical changes in the liquid parts of its body.*' The incessant internal commotion due to these chemical changes cause a rotation of the sun ; ** and
' He immenso, VI, xvij. « Ibtd., I, iv.
' Tocco, F; Op. lat. espos. e confront., pp. 313 sqq.
* De imm., Ill, x Gf schol.
^ Ibid,, III ; IV, vij v. 76 sq ; VI, v, 5 sq.
' Ibid., Ill ; IV, XV, v. 12 sqq : VI, ix, v. 12 sqq.
' Ibid., IV, iij, V. 27 sqq. ' Ibid., IV, vij, v. 18 sqq.
» Ibid., I, iij, V. 13 sqq ; III, iv, v. Kyz sqq ; VI, ij, v. 7 sq. " Ibid., II, ix, V, 127 sqq. '' Ibid., IV, ix, V. 32. Cfr. Infinito, Dial. III. " Ibid., Ill, V ; IV, vii.
240 GIORDANO BRUNO
1 the scintillation of sun and stars is due to rapidity of rota- ! tion ; but the phenomenon is not observable in planets, which do not give out light, but only reflect it.^
He exhibits great interest in comets and shows that he was closely following the observations of the astronomers of his time ; he casts aside the notion, which had prevailed since the time of Aristotle, that they were slowly burning vapours, set afire by the motion of the stars, and he recognises that these wandering Arabs of the sky are genuine members of the cosmic system and subject to cosmic law. Meteors are also cosmic matter, wandering through space ; they are living beings.^ He had but a poor notion of the relative distances of the planets : he did not think Jupiter or Saturn could be much farther from the sun than the Earth is, or that their period of revolution could be much longer than our year.'
Seven years before, he would seem to have believed the stars and planets to be eternal, though subject to vicissi- tude ; * but now he says that only the Universe as a whole is eternal ; its worlds decay and perish, their constituent parts entering into fresh combinations.*
He attacks the superstitions interwoven with all religions, and especially the creed of those Catholics who put the Pope in the place of God.^ He is still as filled with religious enthusiasm and poetic fire as when his eyes were first opened to transcendent truth ; he rejoices now as then in the confident vision of an everliving, infinite universe and its innumerable choirs of flaming spirits dwelling under the reign of ever-unfolding, spiritual law.
It is worthy of note that he refers sympathetically and almost proudly to the daring sea-dogs of Britain who had
'■ De immenso, IV, vij, i sqq ; IV, viij. * Ihid., V, ij.
^ Ibid., V, viij. * Cena, Dial. V ; Infinito, Dial. II.
' De immenso, II, v, v. i sqq. ' Ibid., I.
THE GREAT LATIN POEM AND LAST BOOKS 24 1
braved the might of his own monarch, Philip of Spain, and prevailed against him.^