Dicunt tamen
propterea
quod nullas habet dimensiones [But that, they say, is because it possesses no dimensions].
Bruno-Cause-Principle-and-Unity
For the same matter (or, to put it more clearly), the same that can be made, or that can exist, is either made, and it exists through the dimensions and extension of the substra- tum and the qualities that have their existence in quantity - and this is called corporeal substance and presupposes a corporeal matter - or else it is made (supposing that its being has an inception) and is without those dimensions, extensions and qualities, and it is called incorporeal substance, and similarly presupposes the above mentioned matter.
Thus, to an active potency, in the case of both corporeal and incorporeal things - that is, to both corporeal and incorporeal beings - there corresponds a passive potency, which is both corporeal and incorporeal, and a possibility of being which is both corporeal and incorporeal.
If, then, we wish to speak of com- position in the one nature as much as in the other, we must understand it in two different senses.
We must also consider that, in eternal things, we speak of matter which is always under the same act, while in variable things, matter contains now one, now another act.
With the former case, matter possesses, at once, always and together, all it can possess, and is all it can be; with the latter case, it has all it can possess and is all it can be, but at different times and according to a certain order of succession.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Some, though they admit matter in incorporeal things, understand it in a very different sense.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . However different their particular natures are, through which one thing descends to corporeal being and the other does not, and one thing receives sensible qualities and the other not, and however impos- sible it seems that there can be an essence common to, on the one hand, that matter which is incompatible with quantity and with the fact of being the substratum of qualities which have their existence in dimensions, and, on the other hand, that matter which is neither incompatible with the one nor with the other, nevertheless, they are one and the same thing, and the whole difference (as has been said many times) depends on the contraction of matter into corporeal being or incorporeal being. Similarly, in the animal being, all beings endowed with sense are one, but if we contract the genus to a particular species, the essence of a man is incompatible with that of a lion, and that of the lion with another animal. To this I add, if you please (since you might say that what is never found must be considered impos- sible, and unnatural rather than natural), that, primary matter never
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? acquiring dimensions, one must consider corporeal matter as contrary to its nature, and that if this is so, it would not be likely that the two sorts of matter should have a common nature before one of them is conceived as being contracted to corporeal matter. I add, as I was saying, that we can just as well attribute to that first matter the necessity of having all dimensional acts, than (as you would have it) their impossibility. Since this matter is, in act, all that it can be, it has all measures and has all species of figures and dimensions. Because it has them all, it has none of them, since what is so many different things is necessarily none of them in particular. What is everything must exclude all particular being.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you claim, then, that matter is act? Do you also claim that matter in incorporeal things coincides with act?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Yes, as the possibility to be coincides with being. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,itdoesnotdifferfromform?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It does not differ at all in the absolute potency and absolute
act, and, because it is absolutely all, is therefore absolutely pure, simple, indivisible and unified. If it possessed definite dimensions, a definite being, a definite property and a definite individuality, it would not be absolute, nor would it be all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then, everything which comprises all the genuses is indi- visible?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly, because the form which comprises all the qualities is itself none of them; that which comprises all figures does not itself pos- sess any; that which possesses all sensible being is not, for that reason, accessible to the senses. That which possesses all natural being is highly indivisible; that which possesses all intellectual being is still more highly indivisible; that which possesses all that can be is the most highly indivisible of all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You hold that there exists a ladder of the possibility to be, like the ladder of being? And you hold that material nature ascends along the one just as formal nature ascends along the other?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thatistrue.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You give a lofty and profound definition of matter and potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Trueagain.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Butthistruthwillnotbegraspedbyeveryone,foritisindeed hard to understand how it is possible to possess all the species of dimen- sions without having any, and to possess all formal being, and yet no form.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you, yourself, understand how this can be?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I believe so, for I understand that, in order to be all things, the act cannot be any one thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Non potest esse idem totum et aliquid; ego quoque illud capio [The same thing cannot be, at the same time, the whole and some part of it. I, too, understand this].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,youwillbeabletoseehowitfollowsthat,ifwewanted to posit having dimensions as the nature of matter, such a nature would not be incompatible with any kind of matter. But the only difference between the two matters is that one is freed from dimensions and the other is con- tracted to them. Being independent of dimensions, matter is above them all and comprehends them all; being contracted, it is comprehended by some dimensions and is under some of them.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You are right to say that matter, in itself, has no definite dimensions, and, therefore, must be understood as indivisible, receiving dimensions according to the nature of the form it receives. Its dimensions differ according to whether it is found under human form, under equine form, under that of the olive or under that of the myrtle tree. So, just as it has the faculty of receiving all those forms, before it exists under any of these forms, it has all of their dimensions in potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
Dicunt tamen propterea quod nullas habet dimensiones [But that, they say, is because it possesses no dimensions].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And we say that ideo habet nullas, ut omnes habeat [it has no dimensions, so that it may have all of them].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Whydoyoumaintainthatitincludes,ratherthanexcludes, all of them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becauseitdoesnotreceivedimensionsasfromwithout,but sends them out and brings them forth as from its womb.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Well put. I might add that that is the way in which the Peripatetics habitually express themselves also, saying that the dimensional act and all natural forms emerge and derive from the potency of matter. Averroes understood this in part. Although an Arab, and not knowing Greek, he grasped more of the Peripatetic doctrine than any Greek we have read and he would have understood still more, had he not been so devoted to his idol, Aristotle. He says that matter, in its essence, comprises inde- terminate dimensions. By this, he wishes to convey that they come to be determined - taking on now this figure and dimension, now others - according to the modification of natural forms. In this sense, we see that
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? matter produces forms from itself, so to speak, and does not receive them as from outside. In a way, this is what Plotinus, prince of Plato's school, also understood. In establishing the difference between the matter of higher things and that of lower, he says that the first is everything at the same time and that, since it possesses all, there is nothing into which it changes, while the second, by means of a certain renovation at the level of parts, becomes everything, and becomes successively one thing after another - always, therefore, in a state of diversity, alteration and movement. In consequence, neither the one nor the other matter is ever formless, although each is formed differently; one in the instant of eternity, the other in the instant of time; one in simultaneity, the other in succession; one by way of enfold- ing, the other by way of unfolding; one as a unity, the other as multiplicity; one as being all and each thing, the other individually and thing after thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So, you wish to infer that, not only according to your prin- ciples, but also according to those of other philosophical methods, matter is not prope nihil [almost nothing], pure potency, bare, without act, without virtue and perfection.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. Isaythatitisdeprivedofformsandwithoutthem, not in the way ice lacks warmth or the abyss is without light, but as a preg- nant woman lacks the offspring which she produces and expels forth from herself, and as the earth is without light at night in our hemisphere, which it can reacquire by its turning.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So,evenintheseinferiorthings,actcoincidesintheend-if not entirely, at least to a great extent - with potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Ileaveyoutodecide.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And what would happen if, finally, this potency from below became one with that from above?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Judgeforyourself. Youcanhenceforthrisetotheconcept,I do not say of the supreme and most excellent principle, which has been excluded from our inquiry, but to the concept of the world soul, insofar as it is the act of everything and the potency of everything, and insofar as it is present in its entirety in everything - whence it follows that (even if there exist innumerable individuals) all things are one, and the knowledge of that unity is the object and term of all philosophies and all meditation on nat- ural things - leaving in its domain the highest speculation of all, that which, surpassing nature, is impossible and vain for the unbeliever.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . That is true, for one ascends there guided by supernatural and not natural light.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is that which is lacking in those who deem that everything is a body, simple like the ether, or composite like the stars and astral things - and who do not look for the divinity outside of the infinite world and the infinity of things, but inside that world and those things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is only on that point, it seems to me, that the faithful theologian differs from the truthful philosopher.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Iagree. IthinkyouhaveunderstoodwhatImean.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Very clearly, I believe. And so, I infer from your remarks that, even if we do not let matter go beyond the level of natural things and keep to the common definition that the more vulgar philosophy gives of it, we will find that matter retains a greater excellence than is recognized in it by that philosophy. For, in the end, it does not attribute any other status to it except that of being a substratum of forms and a potency which is recep- tive to natural forms - without name, definition or determination because it is without any actuality. This point seemed difficult to certain monks17 who, wishing to excuse rather than to accuse this doctrine, claimed that matter possesses only entitative act - that is, different from that which is simply without being and which has no reality in nature, as, for example, some chimera or imaginary thing. For this matter, in the end, has being - which is enough for it - similar to that which, without mode or dignity, depends on actuality and is nothing. But you could insist on asking Aristotle: Why do you claim, O prince of the Peripatetics, that matter is nothing, from the fact of its having no act, rather than saying that it is all, from the fact that it possesses all acts, or possesses them confusedly and confoundedly, as you prefer? Is it not you who, always speaking of the new being of the forms in matter, or of the generation of things, says that forms proceed from and emerge from inside matter? You have never been heard to say that forms proceeded - through the action of the efficient cause - from outside matter, saying rather that the efficient cause makes them emerge from within. I shall not mention that you also make an internal principle of the efficient cause of those things, to which you give the com- mon name 'nature', and not an external principle as is the case with artifi- cial things. In that case, it seems to me we should say that when matter receives a form from outside, it does not possess in itself any form or act. It also seems to me that when one says it sends all forms forth from its womb, we must declare that it possesses them all. Is it not you who, if not obliged by reason, at least compelled by normal usage, defines matter by saying that
17 Followers of Duns Scotus.
? ? ?
18 Paraphrase of Genesis ? , ? ? and ? ? .
19 Genesis ? , ? : Bruno translates ferebatur as covava, 'brooded'.
Fourth dialogue
? it is 'that thing from which each natural species is produced', never saying that it is 'that in which things are made' - as we would say if acts did not come out of it and if, consequently, it did not possess them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . CerteconsuevitdicereAristotelescumsuispotiusformaseduci de potentia materiae quam in illam induci, emergere potius ex ipsa quam in ipsam ingeri [Certainly, Aristotle and his followers usually say that forms come out from matter, rather than that they are introduced into it, that they emerge from it rather than being absorbed into it], but I would say that Aristotle preferred to call 'act' the unfolding of form rather than its enfolding.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And I say that the expressed, sensible and unfolded being does not constitute the fundamental essence of actuality, but is a conse- quence and effect of it. In the same way, the principle being of wood and the essence of its actuality do not consist in being a bed, but in its being a substance so constituted that it can be a bed, a bench, a beam, an idol and anything else formed out of wood.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Some, though they admit matter in incorporeal things, understand it in a very different sense.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . However different their particular natures are, through which one thing descends to corporeal being and the other does not, and one thing receives sensible qualities and the other not, and however impos- sible it seems that there can be an essence common to, on the one hand, that matter which is incompatible with quantity and with the fact of being the substratum of qualities which have their existence in dimensions, and, on the other hand, that matter which is neither incompatible with the one nor with the other, nevertheless, they are one and the same thing, and the whole difference (as has been said many times) depends on the contraction of matter into corporeal being or incorporeal being. Similarly, in the animal being, all beings endowed with sense are one, but if we contract the genus to a particular species, the essence of a man is incompatible with that of a lion, and that of the lion with another animal. To this I add, if you please (since you might say that what is never found must be considered impos- sible, and unnatural rather than natural), that, primary matter never
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? acquiring dimensions, one must consider corporeal matter as contrary to its nature, and that if this is so, it would not be likely that the two sorts of matter should have a common nature before one of them is conceived as being contracted to corporeal matter. I add, as I was saying, that we can just as well attribute to that first matter the necessity of having all dimensional acts, than (as you would have it) their impossibility. Since this matter is, in act, all that it can be, it has all measures and has all species of figures and dimensions. Because it has them all, it has none of them, since what is so many different things is necessarily none of them in particular. What is everything must exclude all particular being.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you claim, then, that matter is act? Do you also claim that matter in incorporeal things coincides with act?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Yes, as the possibility to be coincides with being. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,itdoesnotdifferfromform?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It does not differ at all in the absolute potency and absolute
act, and, because it is absolutely all, is therefore absolutely pure, simple, indivisible and unified. If it possessed definite dimensions, a definite being, a definite property and a definite individuality, it would not be absolute, nor would it be all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then, everything which comprises all the genuses is indi- visible?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly, because the form which comprises all the qualities is itself none of them; that which comprises all figures does not itself pos- sess any; that which possesses all sensible being is not, for that reason, accessible to the senses. That which possesses all natural being is highly indivisible; that which possesses all intellectual being is still more highly indivisible; that which possesses all that can be is the most highly indivisible of all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You hold that there exists a ladder of the possibility to be, like the ladder of being? And you hold that material nature ascends along the one just as formal nature ascends along the other?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thatistrue.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You give a lofty and profound definition of matter and potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Trueagain.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Butthistruthwillnotbegraspedbyeveryone,foritisindeed hard to understand how it is possible to possess all the species of dimen- sions without having any, and to possess all formal being, and yet no form.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you, yourself, understand how this can be?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I believe so, for I understand that, in order to be all things, the act cannot be any one thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Non potest esse idem totum et aliquid; ego quoque illud capio [The same thing cannot be, at the same time, the whole and some part of it. I, too, understand this].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,youwillbeabletoseehowitfollowsthat,ifwewanted to posit having dimensions as the nature of matter, such a nature would not be incompatible with any kind of matter. But the only difference between the two matters is that one is freed from dimensions and the other is con- tracted to them. Being independent of dimensions, matter is above them all and comprehends them all; being contracted, it is comprehended by some dimensions and is under some of them.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You are right to say that matter, in itself, has no definite dimensions, and, therefore, must be understood as indivisible, receiving dimensions according to the nature of the form it receives. Its dimensions differ according to whether it is found under human form, under equine form, under that of the olive or under that of the myrtle tree. So, just as it has the faculty of receiving all those forms, before it exists under any of these forms, it has all of their dimensions in potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
Dicunt tamen propterea quod nullas habet dimensiones [But that, they say, is because it possesses no dimensions].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And we say that ideo habet nullas, ut omnes habeat [it has no dimensions, so that it may have all of them].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Whydoyoumaintainthatitincludes,ratherthanexcludes, all of them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becauseitdoesnotreceivedimensionsasfromwithout,but sends them out and brings them forth as from its womb.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Well put. I might add that that is the way in which the Peripatetics habitually express themselves also, saying that the dimensional act and all natural forms emerge and derive from the potency of matter. Averroes understood this in part. Although an Arab, and not knowing Greek, he grasped more of the Peripatetic doctrine than any Greek we have read and he would have understood still more, had he not been so devoted to his idol, Aristotle. He says that matter, in its essence, comprises inde- terminate dimensions. By this, he wishes to convey that they come to be determined - taking on now this figure and dimension, now others - according to the modification of natural forms. In this sense, we see that
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? matter produces forms from itself, so to speak, and does not receive them as from outside. In a way, this is what Plotinus, prince of Plato's school, also understood. In establishing the difference between the matter of higher things and that of lower, he says that the first is everything at the same time and that, since it possesses all, there is nothing into which it changes, while the second, by means of a certain renovation at the level of parts, becomes everything, and becomes successively one thing after another - always, therefore, in a state of diversity, alteration and movement. In consequence, neither the one nor the other matter is ever formless, although each is formed differently; one in the instant of eternity, the other in the instant of time; one in simultaneity, the other in succession; one by way of enfold- ing, the other by way of unfolding; one as a unity, the other as multiplicity; one as being all and each thing, the other individually and thing after thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So, you wish to infer that, not only according to your prin- ciples, but also according to those of other philosophical methods, matter is not prope nihil [almost nothing], pure potency, bare, without act, without virtue and perfection.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. Isaythatitisdeprivedofformsandwithoutthem, not in the way ice lacks warmth or the abyss is without light, but as a preg- nant woman lacks the offspring which she produces and expels forth from herself, and as the earth is without light at night in our hemisphere, which it can reacquire by its turning.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So,evenintheseinferiorthings,actcoincidesintheend-if not entirely, at least to a great extent - with potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Ileaveyoutodecide.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And what would happen if, finally, this potency from below became one with that from above?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Judgeforyourself. Youcanhenceforthrisetotheconcept,I do not say of the supreme and most excellent principle, which has been excluded from our inquiry, but to the concept of the world soul, insofar as it is the act of everything and the potency of everything, and insofar as it is present in its entirety in everything - whence it follows that (even if there exist innumerable individuals) all things are one, and the knowledge of that unity is the object and term of all philosophies and all meditation on nat- ural things - leaving in its domain the highest speculation of all, that which, surpassing nature, is impossible and vain for the unbeliever.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . That is true, for one ascends there guided by supernatural and not natural light.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is that which is lacking in those who deem that everything is a body, simple like the ether, or composite like the stars and astral things - and who do not look for the divinity outside of the infinite world and the infinity of things, but inside that world and those things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is only on that point, it seems to me, that the faithful theologian differs from the truthful philosopher.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Iagree. IthinkyouhaveunderstoodwhatImean.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Very clearly, I believe. And so, I infer from your remarks that, even if we do not let matter go beyond the level of natural things and keep to the common definition that the more vulgar philosophy gives of it, we will find that matter retains a greater excellence than is recognized in it by that philosophy. For, in the end, it does not attribute any other status to it except that of being a substratum of forms and a potency which is recep- tive to natural forms - without name, definition or determination because it is without any actuality. This point seemed difficult to certain monks17 who, wishing to excuse rather than to accuse this doctrine, claimed that matter possesses only entitative act - that is, different from that which is simply without being and which has no reality in nature, as, for example, some chimera or imaginary thing. For this matter, in the end, has being - which is enough for it - similar to that which, without mode or dignity, depends on actuality and is nothing. But you could insist on asking Aristotle: Why do you claim, O prince of the Peripatetics, that matter is nothing, from the fact of its having no act, rather than saying that it is all, from the fact that it possesses all acts, or possesses them confusedly and confoundedly, as you prefer? Is it not you who, always speaking of the new being of the forms in matter, or of the generation of things, says that forms proceed from and emerge from inside matter? You have never been heard to say that forms proceeded - through the action of the efficient cause - from outside matter, saying rather that the efficient cause makes them emerge from within. I shall not mention that you also make an internal principle of the efficient cause of those things, to which you give the com- mon name 'nature', and not an external principle as is the case with artifi- cial things. In that case, it seems to me we should say that when matter receives a form from outside, it does not possess in itself any form or act. It also seems to me that when one says it sends all forms forth from its womb, we must declare that it possesses them all. Is it not you who, if not obliged by reason, at least compelled by normal usage, defines matter by saying that
17 Followers of Duns Scotus.
? ? ?
18 Paraphrase of Genesis ? , ? ? and ? ? .
19 Genesis ? , ? : Bruno translates ferebatur as covava, 'brooded'.
Fourth dialogue
? it is 'that thing from which each natural species is produced', never saying that it is 'that in which things are made' - as we would say if acts did not come out of it and if, consequently, it did not possess them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . CerteconsuevitdicereAristotelescumsuispotiusformaseduci de potentia materiae quam in illam induci, emergere potius ex ipsa quam in ipsam ingeri [Certainly, Aristotle and his followers usually say that forms come out from matter, rather than that they are introduced into it, that they emerge from it rather than being absorbed into it], but I would say that Aristotle preferred to call 'act' the unfolding of form rather than its enfolding.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And I say that the expressed, sensible and unfolded being does not constitute the fundamental essence of actuality, but is a conse- quence and effect of it. In the same way, the principle being of wood and the essence of its actuality do not consist in being a bed, but in its being a substance so constituted that it can be a bed, a bench, a beam, an idol and anything else formed out of wood.
