Giordano Bruno maintained the world of sense to be "a vast animal
having the Deity for its living. soul." The inanimate part of the
world is thus excluded from participation in the Deity, and a
conception that our minds can embrace is offered us instead of
one which they cannot entertain, except as in a dream,
incoherently. But without such a view of evolution as was
prevalent at the beginning of this century, it was impossible to
see "the world of sense" intelligently, as forming "a vast
animal." Unless, therefore, Giordano Bruno held the opinions of
Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, with more definiteness
than I am yet aware of his having done, his contention must be
considered as a splendid prophecy, but as little more than a
prophecy. He continues, "Birth is expansion from the one centre
of Life; life is its continuance, and death is the necessary
return of the ray to the centre of light." This begins finely,
but ends mystically. I have not, however, compared the English
translation with the original, and must reserve a fuller
examination of Giordano Bruno's teaching for another opportunity.

Spinoza disbelieved in the world rather than in God. He was an
Acosmist, to use Jacobi's expression, rather than an Atheist.
According to him, "the Deity and the Universe are but one
substance, at the same time both spirit and matter, thought and
extension, which are the only known attributes of the Deity."

My readers will, I think, agree with me that there is very little
of the above which conveys ideas with the fluency and comfort
which accompany good words. Words are like servants: it is not
enough that we should have them-we must have the most able and
willing that we can find, and at the smallest wages that will