substance which underlies all things; Prudence or providence is the regulating power of truth, and comprehends both liberty and necessity ; Wisdom is providence itself in its supersensible aspect. in man it is reason which grasps the truth of things ; Law results from wisdom, for no good law is irrational, and its sole end and aim is the good of man kind ; Universal Judgment is the principle whereby men are judged according to their deeds, and not according to their belief in this or that catechism. Mingled with his allegorical philosophy are the most vehement attacks upon the established religion. The monks are stigmatized as pedants who would destroy the joy of life on earth, who are avaricious, dissolute, and the breeders of eternal dissensions and squabbles. The mysteries of faith are scoffed at. The Jewish records are put on a level with the Greek myths, and miracles are laughed at as magical tricks. Through all this runs the train of thought resulting naturally from Bruno s fundamental principles, and familiar in modern philosophy as Spinozism, the denial of particular providence, the doctrine of the uselessness of prayer, the identification in a sense of liberty and necessity, and the peculiar defini tion of good and evil. Altogether the Spaccio, as it is the
most popular, is the most characteristic of Bruno s works.In 1586 he returned to Paris with Castelnau, but was soon driven from his refuge, and we next find him at Marburg and Wittenberg, the headquarters of Luther- anism. There is a tradition that here or in England he embraced the Protestant faith ; nothing in his writings would lead one to suppose so. Several works, chiefly logical, appeared during his stay at Wittenberg. In 1588 he went to Prague, then to Helmstadt. In 1591 he was at Frankfort, and published three important metaphysical works, De Triplici Minima et Mensura ; De Monade, Numero, et Figura; De Immenso et Innumeraljili- bus, He did not stay long at Prague, and we find him next at Zurich, whence he accepted an invitation to Venice. It was a rash step. The emissaries of the Inquisition were on his track ; he was thrown into prison, and in 1593 was brought to Home. Seven years were spent in confinement. On the 9th February 1600 he was excommunicated, and on the 17th was burned at the stake.
As has been said, for an estimation of Bruno s philosophy, the most important works are the two Italian dialogues and the three last-mentioned Latin treatises. It is not an easy mitter to put his opinions into small compass, for the general form of exposition adopted by him, the dialogue, imposes a certain looseness on his own mode of thinking.
To Bruno as to all other great thinkers, the end of philosophy is the search for unity. Amid all the varying and contradictory phenomena of the universe there is something which gives coherence and intelligibility to them. Nor can this unity be something apart from the tilings ; it must contain in itself the universe, which develops from it ; it must be at once all and one. This unity is God, the universal substance, the one and only principle, or causa immanens, that which is in things and yet is distinct from them as the universal is distinct from the particular. He is the efficient and final cause of all, the beginning, middle, and end, eternal and infinite. By his action the world is produced, and his action is the law of his nature, his necessity is true freedom. He is living, active intelligence, the principle of motion and creation, realizing himself in the infinitely various forms of activity that constitute individual things. To the infinitely actual there is necessary the possible ; that which determines involves somewhat in which its determinations can have existence. This other of God, which is in truth one with him, is matter. The universe, then, is a living cosmos, an infinitely animated system, whose end is the per fect realization of the variously graduated forms.
The unity which sunders itself into the multiplicity of things may be called the monas monad am, each thing being a monas or self-existent, living being, a universe in itself. Of these monads the number is infinite. The soul of man is a thinking monad, and stands mid- way between the divine intelligence and the world of external things. As a portion of the divine life, the soul is immortal. Its highest function is the contemplation of the divine unity, discoverable under the manifold of objects.
Such is a brief summary of the principal positions of Bruno s philosophy. It seems quite clear that in the earlier works, particularly the tvo Italian dialogues, he approached more nearly to the pantheistic view of things than in his later Latin treatises. The unity expounded at first is simply an anima mundi, a living universe, but not intelligent. There is a distinct development traceable towards the later and final form of his doctrine, in which the universe appears as the realization of the divine mind.
The Italian works of Bruno, formerly exceedingly rare, have been collected and published in two volumes, by A. Wagner, 1830. An edition of the Latin works was begun by Gfrbrer in 1834, but has not been completed. The most complete monograph on him is that by C. Bartholmess, 2 vols. 1846-47 ; the most recent life is that by Domenico Berti, 1868. The best systematic account of his philo sophy is that by Carrie re, Philoso2)hische Weltanschauung der lieformationszeit, 1847, pp. 411-494. The relations between his philosophy and that of (Jusanus are treated in Clemens, G. Bruno und Nicolaus von Cusa, 1847. An English translation by Morehead (not, as is generally supposed, by Toland) of the Spaccio is dated 1713. It was probably printed before that time, and it is now excessively rare. Toland translated the preface to De C Infinite ; it is found in his Posthumous Works. There is a French translation of part of the .tyaccio, Le del Rcforme, 1750. Lasson has translated De In Causa into German, 1872, with introduction and notes.
The earlier literature with regard to Bruno is copious; it will be found in Bayle, Buhle, and Tennemann.
BRUNSWICK (German Braunschweig), a duchy and state of Northern Germany, forming part of the new German Empire, and included in the Prusso-German Zollverein. It consists of three larger and five smaller portions of territory lying mainly between 51 38 and 52 28 N. lat., and between 9 20 and 11 30 E. long. The principal part, containing the cities of Brunswick, Wolfenbiittel, and Helmstedt, is situated between Hanover and Prussia, to the S.E. of the former, and has its surface diversified by hill and plain. The part containing Holz- minden and Gandersheim extends eastward from the Weser to Goslar, and is intersected by branches of the Hartz Mountains. The Blankenburg portion lies to the S.E. of the two former, between Prussia, Anhalt, and Hanover, and is traversed by the Hartz. Of the smaller portions some form enclaves in Hanover and others in Prussia.
Brunswick has an area of 1424 English square miles, and is divided into six circles, comprehending thirteen cities, and between four and five hundred smaller towns and villages. Besides the cities already mentioned the most important are Schoningen, Seesen, and Schoppenstedt. The population was in 1812, 209,527 ; in 1852, 271,208 ; in 1861, 281,708; and in 1871, 311,175. Of the last number 302,989 were Protestants, 7030 Roman Catholics, and 1171 Jews. The proportions in the political divisions were as follows:—
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Extent inhabitants miles. 1834. 18G7 1871. 209 61,232 82,828 90,845 AVolfenhiittel 294 50,423 59,454 60,739 Helmstedt 304 41,155 52,023 53,705 Holzminden Gandersheim 221 212 41,290 39,277 42,129 43,430 41,581 42,322 Blankf nl)ur rr .. 184 19,855 22,928 22,523 1424 253,232 302,792
311,715