of Bruno's philosophy is contained in Goethe's poem _Proemium
zu Gott und Welt_. Yet this poem expresses Goethe's thought, and it is
doubtful whether Goethe had studied Bruno except in the work of his
disciple Spinoza.]

It must not be supposed that Bruno apprehended these points with
distinctness, or that he expressed them precisely in the forms with
which we are familiar. The hackneyed metaphor of a Pisgah view across
the promised land applies to him with singular propriety. Moreover, as
an acute critic has remarked, things old and new are so curiously
blended in his writings that what at first sight appears modern, is
often found upon reflection to be antique, and what is couched in
obsolete scholastic terminology, turns out upon analysis to contain the
germs of advanced theories.[126] The peculiar forms adapted for the
exposition of his thoughts contribute to the difficulty of obtaining a
methodical view of Bruno's philosophy. It has, therefore, been disputed
whether he was a pantheist or an atheist, a materialist or a
spiritualist, a mystic or an agnostic. No one would have contended more
earnestly than Bruno himself, that the sage can hold each and all of
these apparent contradictions together, with the exception of atheism;
which last is a simple impossibility. The fragmentary and impassioned
exposition which Bruno gave to his opinions in a series of Italian
dialogues and Latin poems will not discourage those of his admirers who
estimate the conspicuous failure made by all elaborate system-builders
from Aristotle to Hegel. To fathom the mystery of the world, and to
express that mystery in terms of logic, is clearly beyond the faculty of
man. Philosophies that aim at universe-embracing, God-explaining,
nature-elucidating, man-illuminating, comprehensiveness, have justly,
therefore, become objects of suspicion. The utmost that man can do,
placed as he is at obvious disadvantages for obtaining a complete survey
of the whole, is to whet his intelligence upon confessedly insoluble
problems, to extend the sphere of his practical experience, to improve
his dominion over matter, to study the elevation of his moral nature,
and to encourage himself for positive achievements by the indulgence in
those glorious dreams from which regenerative creeds and inspiring
philosophies have sprung--

Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And ever moving as the restless spheres.

[Footnote 126: Spaventa in his _Saggi di Cr