,,giordano ,,bruno1 ,,paris3 #aehf4     
,,walter ,,horatio ,,pater       ,jetzo1
 da ich ausgewachsen1      ,viel        
gelesen1 viel gereist1      ,schwillt   
mein ,herz1 und ganz von ,herzen1       
,glaub' ich an den ,heilgen             
,geist4--,heine   #bcd ,,it was on the  
afternoon of the ,feast of ,pentecost   
that news of the death of ,charles the  
,ninth went abroad promptly4  ,to his   
successor the day became a sweet one1 to
 be noted unmistakably by various pious 
and other observances2 and it was on a  
,whit-,sunday afternoon that curious    
,parisians had the opportunity of       
listening to one who1 as if with some   
intentional new version of the sacred   
event then commemorated1 had a great    
deal to say concerning the ,spirit2     
above all1 of the freedom1 the          
independence of its operation4  ,the    
speaker1 though understood to be a      
brother of the ,order of ,st4 ,dominic1 
had not been present at the mass--the   
usual university mass1 ,de ,spiritu     

,sancto1 said to-day according to the   
natural course of the season in the     
chapel of the ,sorbonne1 by the ,italian
 ,bishop of ,paris4 ,it was the reign of
 the ,italians just then1 a doubly      
refined1 somewhat morbid1 somewhat      
ash-coloured1 ,italy in ,france1 more   
,italian still4  ,men of ,italian birth1
 to the great suspicion of simple       
people1 swarmed in ,paris1 already      
flightier1 less constant1 than the      
girouettes on its steeples1 and it was  
love for ,italian fashions that had     
brought king and courtiers here to-day1 
with great eclat1 as they said1 frizzed 
and starched1 in the beautiful1 minutely
 considered dress of the moment1        
pressing the university into a perhaps  
not unmerited background2 for the       
promised speaker1 about whom tongues had
 been busy1 not only in the ,latin      
quarter1 had come from ,italy4  ,in an  
age in which all things about which     
,parisians much cared must be ,italian  
there might be a hearing for ,italian   

philosophy4  ,courtiers at least would  
understand ,italian1 and this speaker   
was rumoured to possess in perfection   
all the curious arts of his native      
language4  ,and of all the kingly       
qualities of ,henry's youth1 the single 
one that had held by him was that gift  
of eloquence1 which he was able also to 
value in others--inherited perhaps2 for 
in all the contemporary and subsequent  
historic gossip about his mother1 the   
two things certain are1 that the hands  
credited with so much mysterious        
ill-doing were fine ones1 and that she  
was an admirable speaker4  ,bruno       
himself tells us1 long after he had     
withdrawn himself from it1 that the     
monastic life promotes the freedom of   
the intellect by its #bce silence and   
self-concentration4  ,the prospect of   
such freedom sufficiently explains why a
 young man who1 however well found in   
worldly and personal advantages1 was    
conscious above all of great            
intellectual possessions1 and of        

fastidious spirit also1 with a          
remarkable distaste for the vulgar1     
should have espoused poverty1 chastity1 
obedience1 in a ,dominican cloister4    
,what liberty of mind may really come to
 in such places1 what daring new        
departures it may suggest to the        
strictly monastic temper1 is exemplified
 by the dubious and dangerous mysticism 
of men like ,john of ,parma and ,joachim
 of ,flora1 reputed author of the new   
,everlasting ,gospel1 strange dreamers1 
in a world of sanctified rhetoric1 of   
that later dispensation of the spirit1  
in which all law must have passed away2 
or again by a recognised tendency in the
 great rival ,order of ,st4 ,francis1 in
 the so-called spiritual ,franciscans1  
to understand the dogmatic words of     
faith with a difference4  ,the three    
convents in which ,bruno lived          
successively1 at ,naples1 at ,citta di  
,campagna1 and finally the ,minerva at  
,rome1 developed freely1 we may suppose1
 all the mystic qualities of a genius in

 which1 from the first1 a heady southern
 imagination took the lead4  ,but it was
 from beyond conventional bounds he     
would look for the sustenance1 the fuel1
 of an ardour born or bred within them4 
,amid such artificial religious         
stillness the air itself becomes        
generous in undertones4 ,the vain young 
monk 7vain of course67 would feed his   
vanity by puzzling the good1 sleepy     
heads of the average sons of ,dominic   
with his neology1 putting new wine into 
old bottles1 teaching them their own    
business--the new1 higher1 truer sense  
of the most familiar terms1 the chapters
 they read1 the hymns they sang1 above  
all1 as it happened1 every word that    
referred to the ,spirit1 the reign of   
the ,spirit1 its excellent freedom4  ,he
 would soon pass beyond the utmost      
limits of his brethren's sympathy1      
beyond the largest and freest           
interpretation those words would bear1  
to thoughts and words on an altogether  
different plane1 of which the full scope

 was only to be felt in certain old     
pagan writers1 though approached1       
perhaps1 at first1 as having a kind of  
natural1 preparatory kinship with       
,scripture itself4  ,the ,dominicans    
would seem to have had well-stocked1    
liberally-selected1 libraries2 and this 
curious youth1 in that age of restored  
letters1 read eagerly1 easily1 and very 
soon came to the kernel of a difficult  
old author--,plotinus or ,plato2 to the 
purpose of thinkers older still1        
surviving by glimpses only in the books 
of others--,empedocles1 ,pythagoras1 who
 had enjoyed the original divine sense  
of things1 above all1 ,parmenides1 that 
most ancient assertor of ,god's identity
 with the world4  ,the affinities1 the  
unity1 of the visible and the invisible1
 of earth and heaven1 of all things     
whatever1 with each other1 through the  
consciousness1 the person1 of ,god the  
,spirit1 who was at every moment of     
infinite time1 in every atom of matter1 
at every #bcf point of infinite space1  

ay6 was everything in turn3 that        
doctrine--l'antica filosofia            
,italiana--was in all its vigour there1 
a hardy growth out of the very heart of 
nature1 interpreting itself to congenial
 minds with all the fulness of primitive
 utterance4  ,a big thought6 yet        
suggesting1 perhaps1 from the first1 in 
still1 small1 immediately practical1    
voice1 some possible modification of1 a 
freer way of taking1 certain moral      
precepts3 say6 a primitive morality1    
congruous with those larger primitive   
ideas1 the larger survey1 the earlier1  
more liberal air4  ,returning to this   
ancient pantheism1 after so long a reign
 of a seemingly opposite faith1 ,bruno  
unfalteringly asserts the vision of all 
things in ,god to be the aim of all     
metaphysical speculation1 as of all     
inquiry into nature3 the ,spirit of     
,god1 in countless variety of forms1    
neither above1 nor1 in any way1 without1
 but intimately within1 all             
things--really present1 with equal      

integrity1 in the sunbeam ninety        
millions of miles long1 and the         
wandering drop of water as it evaporates
 therein4  ,the divine consciousness    
would have the same relation to the     
production of things1 as the human      
intelligence to the production of true  
thoughts concerning them4 ,nay6 those   
thoughts are themselves ,god in man3 a  
loan1 there1 too1 of his assisting      
,spirit1 who1 in truth1 creates all     
things in and by his own contemplation  
of them4  ,for ,him1 as for man in      
proportion as man thinks truly1 thought 
and1 being are identical1 and things    
existent only in so far as they are     
known4  ,delighting in itself1 in the   
sense of its own energy1 this sleepless1
 capacious1 fiery intelligence1 evokes  
all the orders of nature1 all the       
revolutions of history1 cycle upon      
cycle1 in ever new types4  ,and ,god the
 ,spirit1 the soul of the world1 being  
really identical with his own soul1     
,bruno1 as the universe shapes itself to

 his reason1 his imagination1 ever more 
and more articulately1 shares also the  
divine joy in that process of the       
formation of true ideas1 which is really
 parallel to the process of creation1 to
 the evolution of things4  ,in a certain
 mystic sense1 which some in every age  
of the world have understood1 he1 too1  
is creator1 himself actually a          
participator in the creative function4  
,and by such a philosophy1 he assures   
us1 it was his experience that the soul 
is greatly expanded3 con questa         
filosofia l'anima1 mi s'aggrandisce3 mi 
se magnifica l'intelletto6  ,for1 with  
characteristic largeness of mind1 ,bruno
 accepted this theory in the whole range
 of its consequences4  ,its more        
immediate corollary was the famous axiom
 of indifference1 of the coincidence of 
contraries4  ,to the eye of ,god1 to the
 philosophic vision through which ,god  
sees in man1 nothing is really alien    
from ,him4  ,the differences of things1 
and above all1 those distinctions which 

schoolmen and priests1 old or new1      
,roman or ,reformed1 had invented for   
themselves1 would be lost in the length 
and breadth of the philosophic survey2  
nothing1 in itself1 either great or     
small2 and matter1 #bcg certainly1 in   
all its various forms1 not evil but     
divine4  ,could one choose or reject    
this or that8 ,if ,god the ,spirit had  
made1 nay6 was1 all things              
indifferently1 then1 matter and spirit1 
the spirit and the flesh1 heaven and    
earth1 freedom and necessity1 the first 
and the last1 good and evil1 would be   
superficial rather than substantial     
differences4  ,only1 were joy and sorrow
 also to be added to the list of        
phenomena really coincident or          
indifferent1 as some intellectual       
kinsmen of ,bruno have claimed they     
should8  ,the ,dominican brother was at 
no distant day to break far enough away 
from the election1 the seeming vocation 
of his youth1 yet would remain always1  
and under all circumstances1            

unmistakably a monk in some predominant 
qualities of temper4  ,at first it only 
by way of thought that he asserted his  
liberty--delightful1 late-found         
privilege6--traversing1 in mental       
journeys1 that spacious circuit1 as it  
broke away before him at every moment   
into ever-new horizons4 ,kindling       
thought and imagination at once1 the    
prospect draws from him cries of joy1 a 
kind of religious joy1 as in some new   
canticle of the creatures1 a new monkish
 hymnal or antiphonary4  ,nature becomes
 for him a sacred term4  ,conform       
thyself to ,nature--with what sincerity1
 what enthusiasm1 what religious        
fervour1 he enounces the precept to     
others1 to himself6  ,recovering1 as he 
fancies1 a certain primeval sense of    
,deity broadcast on things1 in which    
,pythagoras and other inspired theorists
 of early ,greece had abounded1 in his  
hands philosophy becomes a poem1 a      
sacred poem1 as it had been with them4  
,that ,bruno himself1 in the enthusiasm 

of the idea1 drew from his axiom of the 
indifference of contraries the practical
 consequence which is in very deed      
latent there1 that he was ready to      
sacrifice to the antinomianism1 which is
 certainly a part of its rigid logic1   
the purities of his youth for instance1 
there is no proof4  ,the service1 the   
sacrifice1 he is ready to bring to the  
great light that has dawned for him1    
which occupies his entire conscience    
with the sense of his responsibilities  
to it1 is that of days and nights spent 
in eager study1 of a plenary1           
disinterested utterance of the thoughts 
that arise in him1 at any hazard1 at the
 price1 say6 of martyrdom4  ,the work of
 the divine ,spirit1 as he conceives it1
 exalts1 inebriates him1 till the       
scientific apprehension seems to take   
the place of prayer1 sacrifice1         
communion4  ,it would be a mistake1 he  
holds1 to attribute to the human soul   
capacities merely passive or receptive4 
,she1 too1 possesses1 not less than the 

soul of the world1 initiatory power1    
responding with the free gift of a light
 and heat that seem her own4  ,yet a    
nature so opulently endowed can hardly  
have been lacking in purely physical    
ardours4  ,his pantheistic belief that  
the ,spirit of ,god was in all things1  
was not inconsistent with1 might        
encourage1 a keen and restless eye for  
the dramatic details of life and        
character for humanity in all its       
visible attractiveness1 since there1    
too1 in #bch truth1 divinity lurks4     
,from those first fair days of early    
,greek speculation1 love had occupied a 
large place in the conception of        
philosophy2 and in after days ,bruno was
 fond of developing1 like ,plato1 like  
the ,christian platonist1 combining     
something of the peculiar temper of     
each1 the analogy between intellectual  
enthusiasm and the flights of physical  
love1 with an animation which shows     
clearly enough the reality of his       
experience in the latter4  ,the ,eroici 

,furori1 his book of books1 dedicated to
 ,philip ,sidney1 who would be no       
stranger to such thoughts1 presents a   
singular blending of verse and prose1   
after the manner of ,dante's ,vita      
,nuova4  ,the supervening philosophic   
comment re-considers those earlier      
physical impulses which had prompted the
 sonnet in voluble ,italian1 entirely to
 the advantage of their abstract1       
incorporeal equivalents4  ,yet if it is 
after all but a prose comment1 it       
betrays no lack of the natural stuff out
 of which such mystic transferences must
 be made4 ,that there is no single name 
of preference1 no ,beatrice or ,laura1  
by no means proves the young man's      
earlier desires merely ,platonic2 and if
 the colours of love inevitably lose a  
little of their force and propriety by  
such deflection1 the intellectual       
purpose as certainly finds its          
opportunity thereby1 in the matter of   
borrowed fire and wings4  ,a kind of    
old1 scholastic pedantry creeping back  

over the ardent youth who had thrown it 
off so defiantly 7as if ,love himself   
went in for a degree at the ,university7
 ,bruno developes1 under the mask of    
amorous verse1 all the various stages of
 abstraction1 by which1 as the last step
 of a long ladder1 the mind attains     
actual union4  ,for1 as with the purely 
religious mystics1 union1 the mystic    
union of souls with each other and their
 ,lord1 nothing less than union between 
the contemplator and the                
contemplated--the reality1 or the sense1
 or at least the name of it--was always 
at hand4  ,whence that instinctive      
tendency1 if not from the ,creator of   
things himself1 who has doubtless       
prompted it in the physical universe1 as
 in man8  ,how familiar the thought that
 the whole creation longs for ,god1 the 
soul as the hart for the water-brooks6  
,to unite oneself to the infinite by    
breadth and lucidity of intellect1 to   
enter1 by that admirable faculty1 into  
eternal life--this was the true vocation

 of the spouse1 of the rightly amorous  
soul--a filosofia e necessario amore4   
,there would be degrees of progress     
therein1 as of course also of relapse3  
joys and sorrows1 therefore4  ,and1 in  
interpreting these1 the philosopher1    
whose intellectual ardours have         
superseded religion and love1 is still a
 lover and a monk4  ,all the influences 
of the convent1 the heady1 sweet        
incense1 the pleading sounds1 the       
sophisticated light and air1 the        
exaggerated humour of gothic carvers1   
the thick stratum of pagan sentiment    
beneath 7,santa ,maria sopra ,minerva67 
are indelible in him4  ,tears1          
sympathies1 tender inspirations1        
attraction1 repulsion1 dryness1 zeal1   
desire1 recollection3 he finds a place  
for them all3 knows them all #bci well  
in their unaffected simplicity1 while he
 seeks the secret and secondary1 or1 as 
he fancies1 the primary1 form and       
purport of each4  ,a light on actual    
life1 or mere barren scholastic         

subtlety1 never before had the          
pantheistic doctrine been developed with
 such completeness1 never before        
connected with so large a sense of      
nature1 so large a promise of the       
knowledge of it as it really is4  ,the  
eyes that had not been wanting to       
visible humanity turned with equal      
liveliness on the natural world in that 
region of his birth1 where all its force
 and colour is twofold4  ,nature is not 
only a thought in the divine mind2 it is
 also the perpetual energy of that mind1
 which1 ever identical with itself1 puts
 forth and absorbs in turn all the      
successive forms of life1 of thought1 of
 language even4  ,but what seemed like  
striking transformations of matter were 
in truth only a chapter1 a clause1 in   
the great volume of the transformations 
of the ,spirit4  ,to that mystic        
recognition that all is divine had      
succeeded a realisation of the largeness
 of the field of concrete knowledge1 the
 infinite extent of all there was       

actually to know4  ,winged1 fortified1  
by this central philosophic faith1 the  
student proceeds to the reading of      
nature1 led on from point to point by   
manifold lights1 which will surely      
strike on him1 by the way1 from the     
intelligence in it1 speaking directly1  
sympathetically1 to the intelligence in 
him4 ,the earth's wonderful animation1  
as divined by one who anticipates by a  
whole generation the philosophy of      
experience3 in that1 the bold1 flighty1 
pantheistic speculation became tangible 
matter of fact4 ,here was the needful   
book for man to read1 the full          
revelation1 the detailed story of that  
one universal mind1 struggling1         
emerging1 through shadow1 substance1    
manifest spirit1 in various orders of   
being--the veritable history of ,god4   
,and nature1 together with the true     
pedigree and evolution of man also1 his 
gradual issue from it1 was still all to 
learn4  ,the delightful tangle of       
things6 it would be the delightful task 

of man's thoughts to disentangle that4  
,already ,bruno had measured the space  
which ,bacon would fill1 with room      
perhaps for ,darwin also4  ,that ,deity 
is everywhere1 like all such abstract   
propositions1 is a two-edged force1     
depending for its practical effect on   
the mind which admits it1 on the        
peculiar perspective of that mind4  ,to 
,dutch ,spinosa1 in the next century1   
faint1 consumptive1 with a hold on      
external things naturally faint1 the    
theorem that ,god was in all things     
whatever1 annihilating1 their           
differences suggested a somewhat chilly 
withdrawal from the contact of all      
alike4  ,in ,bruno1 eager and           
impassioned1 an ,italian of the         
,italians1 it awoke a constant1         
inextinguishable appetite for every form
 of experience--a fear1 as of the one   
sin possible1 of limiting1 for oneself  
or another1 that great stream flowing   
for thirsty souls1 that wide pasture set
 ready for the hungry heart4            

,considered from the point of view of a 
minute observation of nature1 the       
,infinite might figure as the infinitely
 little2 no blade #bdj of grass being   
like another1 as there was no limit to  
the complexities of an atom of earth1   
cell1 sphere1 within sphere4  ,but the  
earth itself1 hitherto seemingly the    
privileged centre of a very limited     
universe1 was1 after all1 itself but an 
atom in an infinite world of starry     
space1 then lately displayed to the     
ingenuous intelligence1 which the       
telescope was one day to verify to      
bodily eyes4  ,for if ,bruno must needs 
look forward to the future1 to ,bacon1  
for adequate knowledge of the earth--the
 infinitely little2 he looked back1     
gratefully1 to another daring mind1     
which had already put the earth into its
 modest place1 and opened the full view 
of the heavens4 ,if ,god is eternal1    
then1 the universe is infinite and      
worlds innumerable4  ,yes6 one might    
well have supposed what reason now      

demonstrated1 indicating those endless  
spaces which sidereal science would     
gradually occupy1 an echo of the        
creative word of ,god himself1  ,qui    
innumero numero innumerorum nomina      
dicit4  ,that the stars are suns3 that  
the earth is in motion3 that the earth  
is of like stuff with the stars3 now the
 familiar knowledge of children1 dawning
 on ,bruno as calm assurance of reason  
on appeal from the prejudice of the eye1
 brought to him an inexpressibly        
exhilarating sense of enlargement of the
 intellectual1 nay6 the physical        
atmosphere4  ,and his consciousness of  
unfailing unity and order did not desert
 him in that larger survey1 making the  
utmost one could ever know of the earth 
seem but a very little chapter in that  
endless history of ,god the ,spirit1    
rejoicing so greatly in the admirable   
spectacle that it never ceases to evolve
 from matter new conditions4  ,the      
immovable earth beneath one's feet6 one 
almost felt the movement1 the           

respiration of ,god in it4  ,and yet how
 greatly even the physical eye1 the     
sensible imagination 7so to term it7 was
 flattered by the theorem4  ,what joy in
 that motion1 the prospect1 the music1  
the music of the spheres6--he could     
listen to it in a perfection such as had
 never been conceded to ,plato1 to      
,pythagoras even4       ,veni1 ,creator 
,spiritus1      ,mentes tuorum visita1  
,imple superna gratia1      ,quae tu    
creasti pectora6  ,yes6 the grand old   
,christian hymns1 perhaps the grandest  
of them1 seemed to blend themselves in  
the chorus1 to deepen immeasurably under
 this new intention4  ,it is not always1
 or often1 that men's abstract ideas    
penetrate the temperament1 touch the    
animal spirits1 affect conduct4  ,it was
 what they did with ,bruno4  ,the       
ghastly spectacle of the endless        
material universe1 infinite dust1 in    
truth1 starry as it may look to our     
terrestrial eyes--that prospect from    
which ,pascal's faithful soul recoiled  

so painfully--induced in ,bruno only the
 delightful consciousness of an         
ever-widening kinship #bda and sympathy1
 since every one of those infinite      
worlds must have its sympathetic        
inhabitants4  ,scruples of conscience1  
if he felt such1 might well be pushed   
aside for the excellency of such        
knowledge as this4  ,to shut the eyes1  
whether of the body or the mind1 would  
be a kind of dark ingratitude2 the one  
sin1 to believe directly or indirectly  
in any absolutely dead matter anywhere1 
because involving denial of the         
indwelling spirit4  ,a free spirit1     
certainly1 as of old6  ,through all his 
pantheistic flights1 from horizon to    
horizon1 it was still the thought of    
liberty that presented itself to the    
infinite relish of this prodigal son of 
,dominic4  ,god the ,spirit had made all
 things indifferently1 with a largeness1
 a beneficence1 impiously belied by any 
theory of restrictions1 distinctions1   
absolute limitations4  ,touch1 see1     

listen1 eat freely of all the trees of  
the garden of ,paradise with the voice  
of the ,lord ,god literally everywhere3 
here was the final counsel of           
perfection4  ,the world was even larger 
than youthful appetite1 youthful        
capacity4  ,let theologian and every    
other theorist beware how he narrowed   
either4 ,the plurality of worlds6 how   
petty in comparison seemed the sins1 to 
purge which was the chief motive for    
coming to places like this convent1     
whence ,bruno1 with vows broken1 or     
obsolete for him1 presently departed4   
,a sonnet1 expressive of the joy with   
which he returned to so much more than  
the liberty of ordinary men1 does not   
suggest that he was driven from it4     
,though he must have seemed to those who
 surely had loved so lovable a creature 
there to be departing1 like the prodigal
 of the ,gospel1 into the furthest of   
possible far countries1 there is no     
proof of harsh treatment1 or even of an 
effort to detain him4  ,it happens1 of  

course most naturally1 that those who   
undergo the shock of spiritual or       
intellectual change sometimes fail to   
recognise their debt to the deserted    
cause3 how much of the heroism1 or other
 high quality1 of their rejection has   
really been the growth of what they     
reject8  ,bruno1 the escaped monk1 is   
still a monk3 his philosophy1 impious as
 it might seem to some1 a new religion4 
,he came forth well fitted by conventual
 influences to play upon men as he was  
played upon4  ,a challenge1 a war-cry1  
an alarum2 everywhere he seemed to be   
the creature of some subtly materialized
 spiritual force1 like that of the old  
,greek prophets1 like the primitive     
enthusiasm he was inclined to set so    
high1 or impulsive ,pentecostal fire4   
,his hunger to know1 fed at first       
dreamily enough within the convent walls
 as he wandered over space and time an  
indefatigable reader of books1 would be 
fed physically now by ear and eye1 by   
large matter-of-fact experience1 as he  

journeys from university to university2 
yet still1 less as a teacher than a     
courtier1 a citizen of the world1 a     
knight-errant of intellectual light4    
,the philosophic need to try all things 
had given reasonable justification to   
the stirring desire for travel common to
 youth1 in which1 if in nothing else1   
that whole age of the #bdb later        
,renaissance was invincibly young4  ,the
 theoretic recognition of that mobile   
spirit of the world1 ever renewing its  
youth1 became1 sympathetically1 the     
motive of a life as mobile1 as ardent1  
as itself2 of a continual journey1 the  
venture and stimulus of which would be  
the occasion of ever new discoveries1 of
 renewed conviction4  ,the unity1 the   
spiritual unity1 of the world3--that    
must involve the alliance1 the          
congruity1 of all things with each      
other1 great reinforcement of sympathy1 
of the teacher's personality with the   
doctrine he had to deliver1 the spirit  
of that doctrine with the fashion of his

 utterance4  ,in his own case1          
certainly1 as ,bruno confronted his     
audience at ,paris1 himself1 his theme1 
his language1 were the fuel of one clear
 spiritual flame1 which soon had hold of
 his audience also2 alien1 strangely    
alien1 as it might seem from the        
speaker4  ,it was intimate discourse1 in
 magnetic touch with every one present1 
with his special point of               
impressibility2 the sort of speech      
which1 consolidated into literary form  
as a book1 would be a dialogue according
 to the true ,attic genius1 full of     
those diversions1 passing irritations1  
unlooked-for appeals1 in which a        
solicitous missionary finds his largest 
range of opportunity1 and takes even    
dull wits unaware4  ,in ,bruno1 that    
abstract theory of the perpetual motion 
of the world was a visible person       
talking with you4  ,and as the runaway  
,dominican was still in temper a monk1  
so he presented himself in the comely   
,dominican habit4  ,the eyes which in   

their last sad protest against stupidity
 would mistake1 or miss altogether1 the 
image of the ,crucified1 were to-day1   
for the most part1 kindly observant     
eyes1 registering every detail of that  
singular company1 all the physiognomic  
lights which come by the way on people1 
and1 through them1 on things1 the       
shadows of ideas in men's faces 7,de    
,umbris ,idearum was the title of his   
discourse71 himself pleasantly animated 
by them1 in turn4  ,there was heroic    
gaiety there2 only1 as usual with       
gaiety1 the passage of a peevish cloud  
seemed all the chillier4  ,lit up1 in   
the agitation of speaking1 by many a    
harsh or scornful beam1 yet always      
sinking1 in moments of repose1 to an    
expression of high-bred melancholy1 it  
was a face that looked1 after all1 made 
for suffering--already half pleading1   
half defiant--as of a creature you could
 hurt1 but to the last never shake a    
hair's breadth from its estimate of     
yourself4  ,like nature1 like nature in 

that country of his birth1 the ,nolan1  
as he delighted to proclaim himself1    
loved so well that1 born wanderer as he 
was1 he must perforce return thither    
sooner or later1 at the risk of life1 he
 gave plenis manibus1 but without       
selection1 and1 with all his contempt   
for the asinine vulgar1 was not         
fastidious4 ,his rank1 unweeded         
eloquence1 abounding in a play of words1
 rabbinic allegories1 verses defiant of 
prosody1 in the kind of erudition he    
professed to despise1 with a shameless  
image here or there1 product not of     
formal method1 but of ,neapolitan       
improvisation1 was akin to #bdc the     
heady wine1 the sweet1 coarse odours1 of
 that fiery1 volcanic soil1 fertile in  
the irregularities which manifest power4
 ,helping himself indifferently to all  
religions for rhetoric illustration1 his
 preference was still for that of the   
soil1 the old pagan one1 the primitive  
,italian gods1 whose names and legends  
haunt his speech1 as they do the carved 

and pictorial work of the age1 according
 to the fashion of that ornamental      
paganism which the ,renaissance         
indulged4  ,to excite1 to surprise1 to  
move men's minds1 as the volcanic earth 
is moved1 as if in travail1 and1        
according to the ,socratic fancy1 bring 
them to the birth1 was the true function
 of the teacher1 however unusual it     
might seem in an ancient university4    
,fantastic1 from first to last that was 
the descriptive epithet2 and the very   
word1 carrying us to ,shakespeare1      
reminds one how characteristic of the   
age such habit was1 and that it was     
pre-eminently due to ,italy4  ,a        
bookman1 yet with so vivid a hold on    
people and things1 the traits and tricks
 of the audience seemed to revive in    
him1 to strike from his memory all the  
graphic resources of his old readings4  
,he seemed to promise some greater      
matter than was then actually exposed2  
himself to enjoy the fulness of a great 
outlook1 the vague suggestion of which  

did but sustain the curiosity of the    
listeners4  ,and still1 in hearing him  
speak you seemed to see that subtle     
spiritual fire to which he testified    
kindling from word to word4  ,what      
,parisians then heard was1 in truth1 the
 first fervid expression of all those   
contending apprehensions1 out of which  
his written works would afterwards be   
compacted1 with much loss of heat in the
 process4  ,satiric or hybrid growths1  
things due to hybris1 insolence1 insult1
 all that those fabled satyrs           
embodied--the volcanic ,south is kindly 
prolific of this1 and ,bruno abounded in
 mockeries3 it was by way of protest4   
,so much of a ,platonist1 for ,plato's  
genial humour he had nevertheless       
substituted the harsh laughter of       
,aristophanes4  ,paris1 teeming1 beneath
 a very courtly exterior1 with mordent  
words1 in unabashed criticism of all    
real or suspected evil1 provoked his    
utmost powers of scorn for the          
triumphant beast1 the constellation of  

the ,ass1 shining even there1 amid the  
university folk1 those intellectual     
bankrupts of the ,latin ,quarter1 who   
had so long passed between them gravely 
a worthless parchment and paper         
currency4  ,in truth1 ,aristotle1 as the
 supplanter of ,plato1 was still in     
possession1 pretending to determine     
heaven and earth by precedent1 hiding   
the proper nature of things from the    
eyes of men4  ,habit--the last word of  
his practical philosophy--indolent      
habit6 what would this mean in the      
intellectual life1 but just that sort of
 dead judgments which are most opposed  
to the essential freedom and quickness  
of the ,spirit1 because the mind1 the   
eye1 were no longer really at work in   
them8  ,to ,bruno1 a true son of the    
,renaissance1 in the light of those     
large1 antique1 pagan ideas1 the        
difference between ,rome and the ,reform
 would figure1 of course1 as but an     
insignificant variation upon #bdd some  
deeper1 more radical antagonism between 

two tendencies of men's minds4  ,but    
what about an antagonism deeper still8  
between ,christ and the world1 say6     
,christ and the flesh8--that so very    
ancient antagonism between good and     
evil8  ,was there any place for         
imperfection in a world wherein the     
minutest atom1 the lightest thought1    
could not escape from ,god's presence8  
,who should note the crime1 the sin1 the
 mistake1 in the operation of that      
eternal spirit1 which could have made no
 misshapen births8  ,in proportion as   
man raised himself to the ampler survey 
of the divine work around him1 just in  
that proportion did the very notion of  
evil disappear4  ,there were no weeds1  
no tares1 in the endless field4  ,the   
truly illuminated mind1 discerning      
spiritually1 might do what it would4    
,even under the shadow of monastic      
walls1 that had ever been the precept1  
which the larger theory of inspiration  
had bequeathed to practice4  ,of all the
 trees of the garden thou mayst freely  

eat6  ,if you take up any deadly thing1 
it shall not hurt you6  ,and ,i think   
that ,i1 too1 have the spirit of ,god4  
,bruno1 the citizen of the world1 ,bruno
 at ,paris1 was careful to warn off the 
vulgar from applying the decisions of   
philosophy beyond its proper speculative
 limits4  ,but a kind of secresy1 an    
ambiguous atmosphere1 encompassed1 from 
the first1 alike the speaker and the    
doctrine2 and in that world of          
fluctuating and ambiguous characters1   
the alerter mind certainly1 pondering on
 this novel reign of the spirit--what it
 might actually be--would hardly fail to
 find in ,bruno's theories a method of  
turning poison into food1 to live and   
thrive thereon2 an art1 surely1 no less 
opportune in the ,paris of that hour1   
intellectually or morally1 than had it  
related to physical poisons4  ,if ,bruno
 himself was cautious not to suggest the
 ethic or practical equivalent to his   
theoretic positions1 there was that in  
his very manner of speech1 in his rank1 

unweeded eloquence1 which seemed        
naturally to discourage any effort at   
selection1 any sense of fine difference1
 of nuances or proportion1 in things4   
,the loose sympathies of his genius were
 allied to nature1 nursing1 with equable
 maternity of soul1 good1 bad1 and      
indifferent1 rather than to art1        
distinguishing1 rejecting1 refining4    
,commission and omission2 sins of the   
former surely had the preference4  ,and 
how would ,paolo and ,francesca have    
read the lesson8  ,how would this ,henry
 the ,third1 and ,margaret of the       
,memoirs1 and other susceptible persona 
then present1 read it1 especially if the
 opposition between practical good and  
evil traversed another distinction1 to  
the opposed points1 the fenced opposites
 of which many1 certainly1 then present1
 in that ,paris of the last of the      
,valois1 could never by any possibility 
become indifferent1 between the precious
 and the base1 aesthetically--between   
what was right and wrong1 as matter of  

art8    ,,notes  #bcd4 ,pater's article 
appeared in ,the ,fortnightly ,review1  
#ahhi4 ,later it was much revised and   
included as ,chapter ,,vii of the       
unfinished novel1 ,gaston de ,latour4   
#bcd4 ,from ,heine's ,aus der           
,harzreise1 ,bergidylle #b3 ,tannenbaum1
 mit grunen ,fingern1 ,stanza #aj4      
#bdc4 ,e-text editor's transliteration3 
hybris4  ,liddell and ,scott definition3
 wanton violence1 arising from the pride
 of strength1 passion1 etc4