Shadows of Events,--the indirect yet fatal influence there of deeds
in which he had no part, so now, for a time, he seemed to fall under
the spell, the power, of the Shadows of Ideas, of Bruno's Ideas; in
other words, of those indirect suggestions, which, though no
necessary part of, yet inevitably followed upon, his doctrines.
What, for instance, might be the proper practical limitations of that
telling theory of "the coincidence, the indifference, of opposites"?

To that true son of the Renaissance, in the light of his large,
antique, pagan ideas, the difference between Rome and the Reform
would figure, of course, as but an insignificant variation upon some
deeper and more radical antagonism, between two tendencies of men's
minds. But what about an antagonism deeper still? Between Christ
and the world, say!--Christ and the flesh!--or about that so very
ancient antagonism between good and evil. Was there any place really
left for imperfection, moral or otherwise, in a world, wherein the
minutest atom, the lightest thought, could not escape from God's
presence? Who should note the crime, the sin, [160] the mistake, in
the operation of that eternal spirit, which was incapable of mis-
shapen births? In proportion as man raised himself to the ampler
survey of the divine work around him, just in that proportion did the
very notion of evil disappear. There were no weeds, no "tares," in
the endless field. The truly illuminated mind, discerning
spiritually, might do what it would. Even under the shadow of
monastic walls, that had sometimes been the precept, which larger
theories of "inspiration" had bequeathed to practice. "Of all the
trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat!--If ye take up any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt you!--And I think that I, too, have the
spirit of God."