Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/471

 458 CEITICAL NOTICES : an outline has been arrived at by M. Eenouvier in his Classifica- tion systematique des Doctrines pliilosophiques recently reviewed in MIND, when he describes Bruno as the most consistent of all pantheists in so far as he most explicitly makes the contrast of good and evil vanish with all other contrasts in the Absolute, than by Prof. Carriere when he sees in it theistic elements. That this consistent pantheism does not lead to a moral indifference such as M. Eenouvier thinks ought to be its consequence, is. evident, however, from the passages in which Bruno touches upon ethical questions. In the Spaccio he pronounces a strong condemnation on all that in modern times has been called "Machiavellianism," with obvious reference to some positions of Machiavelli himself (Wagner, ii. 217). Like Lucretius, he has in view the ethical applications of his philosophy ; showing how it " takes away the dark veil of the mad opinion concerning Orcus and the greedy Charon," how it destroys the fables that are related of maleficent gods, " the dogmas of the sycophants " " Absona qiue ingenio, et sensu constantia nullo Humanam turbant pacem seclique quietem, Extinguunt mentis lucem neque moribu' prosunt ". His attacks on historical Christianity are above all on ethical grounds, and it is especially the practical accompaniments of the creed in his own day that move his indignation. His " Bestia Trionfante" in one of its significations, has precisely the meaning that modern criticism finds in Voltaire's " Infdme ". Among the manifestations of the monster, the chiefs of the Catholic Eeaction are not obscurely indicated. The general nature of Bruno's treatment of theological mysteries in the Spaccio and of his ' 'Euhem eristic " theory of mythology are very well brought out by Prof. Carriere, though he does not perhaps quite see that intellectually Bruno was specially hostile to the three monotheistic Semitic religions, for the reason that he found more easily in polytheism an exoteric expression of one side of his philosophy. In his attitude towards theology, to judge from one passage (ii. 99), Prof. Carriere supposes that there was a development his later books being less contrary to the- faith than his earlier and that this development is established by Bruno's own words before the Inquisition at Venice. Prof.. Carriere's interpretation, however, is not borne out by the passage in the documents that seems to be referred to (Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, p. 353). And, as a matter of fact, the Latin poems, while they contain fewer passages directed against theological doctrines than the Spaccio and the Cabala, contain more than Delia Causa and Dell' Infinite, to which in their general subject-matter they closely correspond. There are, no doubt, variations of mood in Bruno's attitude towards Christianity ; but not such as indicate any real change of mind. When he speaks favourably of " the theologians " it is on the supposition that they are willing to tolerate philosophy