intended to teach science, but morals only; and that they cannot
be received as of any authority on astronomical and physical subjects.
Especially must we reject the view they reveal to us of the constitution
of the world, that the earth is a flat surface, supported on pillars;
that the sky is a firmament--the floor of heaven. On the contrary, we
must believe that the universe is infinite, and that it is filled with
self-luminous and opaque worlds, many of them inhabited; that there
is nothing above and around us but space and stars. His meditations
on these subjects had brought him to the conclusion that the views of
Averroes are not far from the truth--that there is an Intellect which
animates the universe, and of this Intellect the visible world is only
an emanation or manifestation, originated and sustained by force derived
from it, and, were that force withdrawn, all things would disappear.
This ever-present, all-pervading Intellect is God, who lives in all
things, even such as seem not to live; that every thing is ready to
become organized, to burst into life. God is, therefore, "the One Sole
Cause of Things," "the All in All."

Bruno may hence be considered among philosophical writers as
intermediate between Averroes and Spinoza. The latter held that God and
the Universe are the same, that all events happen by an immutable law
of Nature, by an unconquerable necessity; that God is the Universe,
producing a series of necessary movements or acts, in consequence of
intrinsic, unchangeable, and irresistible energy.

On the demand of the spiritual authorities, Bruno was removed from
Venice to Rome, and confined in the prison of the Inquisition, accused
not only of being a heretic, but also a heresiarch, who had written
things unseemly concerning religion; the special charge against him
being that he had taught the plurality of worlds, a doctrine repugnant
to the whole tenor of Scripture and inimical to revealed religion,
especially as regards the plan of salvation. After an imprisonment of
two years he was brought before his judges, declared guilty of the
acts alleged, excommunicated, and, on his nobly refusing to recant, was
delivered over to the secular authorities to be punished "as mercifully
as possible, and without the shedding of his blood," the horrible
formula for burning a prisoner at the stake. Knowing well that though
his tormentors might destroy his body, his thoughts would still live
among men, he said t