He failed to attain it because, stopping at the genus of opposition, he remained snared by it in such a way that, not having
descended
to the species of contrariety, he did not reach or even perceive the goal.
Bruno-Cause-Principle-and-Unity
?
.
? ?
Fifth dialogue
? one, nor being, nor the true, because he did not recognize being as one. Although he could have adopted the meaning of being which is common to substance and accident, and further, distinguished his categories accord- ing to as many genera and species as there are specific differences, nonethe- less he perceived truth badly, not going deeply enough into the knowledge of this unity and of this indistinction of the eternal nature and eternal being. With his harmful explanations and his irresponsible arguments, this arid sophist perverted the sense of the ancients and hampered the truth, less, perhaps, out of intellectual weakness, than out of jealousy and ambition.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So that this world, this being, this truth, this universe, this infinity, this immensity is found entire in each of its parts: it is the ubique [everywhere] itself. Thus, everything in the universe, in relation to the uni- verse, exists everywhere according to its capacity, whatever its relation might be with other particular bodies; for it is above, below, right, left and so on, in keeping with all local differences, since, in the totality of the infi- nite, there are all these differences and none of them. Whatever thing we take in the universe, it has in itself that which is entire everywhere, and hence comprehends, in its own way, the entire world soul (although, as we have said, it does not comprehend it totally), and that world soul is entire in every part of the universe. This is why, even if the act is one and consti- tutes a single being, wherever it may be found, we must not think that there is, in the world, a plurality of substance and of that which is truly being.
Following on this, I know that you take as manifest that each of these innumerable worlds, which we see in the universe, is not found there so much as if in a containing site, nor as in an interval or a space, but is found there as in a place that comprehends it, a conserver, mover and efficient, which itself is comprised in its entirety in each of these worlds, as the soul is found in its entirety in each of the parts of that world. For that reason, although a particular world moves towards or around another, as the earth moves to and around the sun, nonetheless, with respect to the universe, nothing moves to or around it, but only within it.
You, further, hold that, just as the soul (to take up the common way of speaking once more) pervades that great mass to which it gives being, remaining altogether indivisible, so that it is altogether present in the whole and any of its parts, so the essence of the universe is one both in the infinite and in anything taken as a member of the universe; so that, substantially, the whole and each of its parts are but one. In your opinion, Parmenides was, therefore, right to say that the universe is one, infinite and immobile
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Cause, principle and unity
? (although it is not entirely clear what he intended, his words having been reported by a commentator who is not particularly reliable). 6
You say that all the differences seen in bodies, from the point of view of formation, constitution, figures, colours and other individual or common characteristics, are nothing but the diverse aspects of the same substance: fleeting, mobile and corruptible aspects of an immobile, persistent and eternal being in which all forms, figures and members exist, though indis- tinctly and (so to speak) conglomerated - exactly as in the seed, where the arm is not distinct from the hand, nor the bust from the head, or the nerve from the bone, and where differentiation and separation do not produce another or a new substance, but bring into act and accomplish certain qual- ities, differences, accidents and dispositions related to that substance. And what is said of the relation between the seed and the members of animals may also be said of food in relation to chyle, to blood, to phlegm, to flesh and seed. This goes for any other thing which precedes the alimentary state, or other state. It also goes for all things, from the lowest level of nature to the highest, climbing from the physical totality philosophers know to the archetype in which theologians believe, if you like, until we reach a single original and universal substance, the same for all, which we call being, the basis of all species and all different forms. Similarly in the art of carpentry there is a single substance of wood which is subject to all dimensions and shapes, which are not themselves wood but are of wood, in the wood or involving the wood. That is why everything that makes for the diversity of genera, species, differences, properties, all that which consists in genera- tion, corruption, alteration and change, is not being, is not essence, but condition and circumstance of being or essence, which is one, infinite, substratum, matter, life, soul, truth and goodness.
You say, then, that, since being is indivisible and absolutely simple, because it is infinite, and is act in its fullness in the whole and in every part of it (in the same way we speak of parts in the infinite, but not of parts of the infinite), we cannot think in any way that the earth is a part of being, nor that the sun is part of substance, since the latter is indivisible. But it is quite reasonable to speak of the substance of the part, or better still, of the substance in the part; just as it is not reasonable to say that a part of the soul is found in the arm or another part in the head, but it is legitimate to say that the soul is in the part that is the head, and that the substance is sub- stance of the part - or in the part - that is the arm. For to be portion, part, 6 Aristotle. See the end of the third dialogue, where Aristotle's opinion of Parmenides is mentioned.
? ? ?
Fifth dialogue
? member, the whole, equal to, larger or smaller, like this or like that, relative to this or to that, identical to or different from, etc. , respond to other con- cepts which do not express an absolute, and hence cannot designate the substance, the one or being, but, in terms of modes, determinations and forms, exist through the substance, in the one, and relative to being. Thus, just as it is commonly said that quantity, quality, relation, action, passion and other kinds of accidents are relative to one and the same substance, in the same way one could say that the one and supreme being, in which act does not differ from potency, can be all absolutely and is everything that it can be. It is in a complicative manner one, immense, infinite and compre- hensive of all being, and in an explicative manner, it is present in sensible bodies and in the potency and the act that we see distinguished in them. That is why you hold that what is generated and generates (be it a question of an equivocal agent or of a univocal agent, as is commonly said in phil- osophy), as well as that of which the generation is made, are always of the same substance. Your ears will, therefore, not be jarred by the thesis of Heraclitus, which declares all things to be but one - the one which, thanks to its mutability, contains all things in itself. And since all forms are in it, it follows that all definitions accord with it, so that all contrary propositions are true. And what creates multiplicity in things is not being, is not the thing, but what appears, what is offered to the senses and lies on the sur- face of things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. But I would like you to read further in this most important science and of this solid foundation of the truths and the secrets of nature. First, therefore, I would like you to note that nature descends to the production of things, and intellect ascends to the knowledge of them, by one and the same ladder. Both ways proceed from unity to unity, pass- ing through a multitude of middle terms. Not to mention that the philo- sophical method of the Peripatetics and of many Platonists is to have the multitude of things as middle term, preceded by the pure act, at one extremity, and the pure potency, at the other; similar to other philosophers who affirm metaphorically that the darkness and the light come together in the constitution of innumerable degrees of forms, images, figures and colours. But beside all these philosophers, who take into consideration two principles and two princes, others rise up who, impatient with and hos- tile towards polyarchy, make the two principles coincide into one, which is at the same time abyss and darkness, clarity and light, profound and impenetrable obscurity, and supernal and inaccessible light.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? Secondly, consider that the intellect, wishing to liberate and detach itself from the images to which it is bound, not only resorts to mathematical and symbolic figures or analogies drawn from them in order to comprehend the being and the substance of things, but also ascribes the multiplicity and diversity of species to one and the same root. Thus, Pythagoras, who posited numbers as the exclusive principles of things, understood unity to be the basis and substance of all of them. Thus, Plato and other philoso- phers who made species to consist of figures conceived of the point as sub- stance and universal genus, inasmuch as it is the common stock and root of all figures. And perhaps surfaces and figures are what Plato meant ulti- mately by his 'great', and the point and the atom are what he meant by his 'small', two principles of specification of things which refer, then, to one, as everything that is divided refers to the undivided. Therefore, those who say that the one is the substantial principle mean that substances are like numbers, and others who think of the substantial principle as a point mean that the substances of things are like figures, but all agree in positing an indivisible principle. However, Pythagoras' method is better and purer than Plato's, because unity is the cause and the reason for individuality and the point, and it is a principle which is more absolute and appropriate to universal being.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Why has Plato, who came after him, not done as well or better than Pythagoras?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becausehepreferredtospeaklesswell,inamannerlessade- quate and less appropriate, and to be acclaimed as a master, than to say something better, in a better manner and be reputed a disciple. I mean that the goal of his philosophy was more his personal glory than the truth; see- ing that, as I cannot doubt, he knew very well that his manner was more appropriatetocorporealthingsorthingsconsideredcorporeally,whilethat of Pythagoras was no less suitable and adequate for corporeal things than it was for those things which reason, imagination, intellect, and both intelli- gible and sensible nature can forge. As everyone will acknowledge, Plato was not ignorant of the fact that unity and numbers are essential in order to justify and explain points and figures, but that these latter are not essen- tial for justifying and examining unity and numbers, as dimensional and corporeal substance depends on the incorporeal and the indivisible. Furthermore, he knew that unity and number are independent from points and figures, because numbers may be explained without reference to measure, but measure is not independent from numbers, because the understanding
? ?
Fifth dialogue
? of measure cannot be found without an understanding of numbers. That is why arithmetical analogy and proportion are better suited than geometry to guide us, by means of multiplicity, in the contemplation and appre- hension of that indivisible principle which, because it is the unique and radical substance of all things, cannot possess a distinct and limited name, or any term that has a positive rather than privative meaning. Therefore, it has been called by some 'point', by others 'unity', and by still others 'infinity', and so on, with various like terms.
Add to what has been said, that when the intellect wishes to grasp the essence of something, it proceeds by simplifying as much as possible: I mean that it shuns composition and multiplicity, rejecting accidents, which are corruptible, as well as dimensions, signs and figures, and turns to what lies beneath these things. Just as a lengthy, long-winded oration cannot be understood but by reducing it to a simple conceit. By so doing, the intel- lect clearly demonstrates how the substance of things consists of unity, which it looks for either in reality, or by analogy. The man who could reduce to a single proposition all the propositions disseminated in Euclid's principles would be the most consummate and perfect geometrician; like- wise, the most perfect logician would be he who reduced all propositions in logic to one. Herein lies the level of intelligence, because inferior intel- lects cannot understand multiplicity except through many species, analo- gies and forms, superior intellects do better with less, and the very best do perfectly with very little. The premier intelligence embraces everything in a single, absolutely perfect idea, and the divine mind and the absolute unity, with no species, is that which understands and that which is under- stood simultaneously. So that, to ascend to perfect knowledge, we proceed by grouping and restricting the many, just as unity, descending to the pro- duction of things, proceeds by unfolding into many. The descent moves from a single being to an infinity of individuals and innumerable species; the ascent moves from the latter to the former.
Therefore, to conclude this second consideration, I say that when we aspire and strive towards the principle and substance of things, we progress towards indivisibility, and that we must never believe we have arrived at the first being and the universal substance until we have come to this indivisi- ble one in which all is comprised. Meanwhile, let us not be led into believ- ing we can understand of the substance and essence more than what we can understand concerning indivisibility. Peripatetics and Platonists gather the infinity of individuals into a simple concept, which is their species; they
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? gather countless species under determined genera, which Archytas first declared to be ten in number; they gather the determined genera into one being, a single thing: but this thing, this being, is understood by them as a name, a term, as a logical concept, and finally a vain thing. For then, when they treat of the physical, they no longer recognize a single principle of reality and of being for all that is, as they have recognized a common con- cept and name for all that which is expressible and intelligible. All this is due to their intellectual weakness.
Thirdly, you must know that substance and being are distinct from and independent of quantity, so that number and measure are not substance, but relative to substance; not being, but relative to being. We must define substance, therefore, as essentially without number and without measure and, consequently, as one and undivided in all particular things - which, themselves, owe their particularity to number, that is, to things relative to substance. Thus, whoever apprehends Poliinnio as Poliinnio does not apprehend a particular substance, but apprehends substance in the partic- ular and in the differences which characterize it and which, by these differences, comes to place this man under a species in number and multi- plicity. 7 And here, just as certain accidents of man cause the multiplication of what we call human individuals, so certain accidents of animals multiply the species of animality. Similarly, certain accidents of what is vital cause the multiplication of what is animated and alive. It is no different for certain corporeal accidents which cause the multiplication of corporeality, in the same way certain accidents of the substantial multiply the substance. And finally, in the same way, certain accidents of being cause the multi- plication of entity, truth, unity, being, the true, the one.
Fourthly, if you consider the signs and the proofs thanks to which we wish to demonstrate the coincidence of contraries, it will not be difficult to infer that all things are one in the end. All number, be it odd or even, finite or infinite, is reduced to a unity which, repeated in a finite series, posits number, and by an infinite repetition, negates number. You will adopt signs from mathematics and proofs from other moral and specula- tive sciences. Let us look at signs first: tell me what is more unlike a straight line than the circle? Is there anything more opposite to a straight line than a curve? And yet, they coincide in the principle and the minimum, since
? 7 The one substance of Bruno's world is manifest in Poliinnio, and since he belongs to a number of different species, such as man, philosopher, tall, etc. , the number and multiplicity which are associ- ated with Poliinnio result from his belonging to various species rather than from the unity of sub- stance which is manifested in him.
? ?
Fifth dialogue
? (as the Cusan8, the inventor of geometry's most beautiful secrets, divinely pointed out) what difference could you find between the minimum arc and the minimum chord? Furthermore, in the maximum, what difference could you find between the infinite circle and the straight line? Do you not see that the larger the circle, the more its arc approximates straightness? Who is so blind that he cannot see (fig. 1) how the arc BB, by being larger than the arc AA, and the arc CC, by being larger than the arc BB, and the arc DD, by being larger than the other three, tend to be parts of ever-larger circles, and, therefore, approach ever more closely the straightness of the infinite line of the infinite circle, indicated by IK? We must, therefore, say and believe with absolute certainty that, as that line which is longer is also, because of its greater length, more straight, the longest of all must superlatively be the straightest. The infinite straight line thus finally becomes the infinite circle. Here, then, is how not only the maximum and the minimum converge into one being, as we have already shown elsewhere, but also how, in the maxi- mum and the minimum, contraries come to be but one, and to be indistinct.
fig. ? .
Moreover, compare, if you will, the finite species to a triangle, since all finite things are seen to participate, by a certain analogy, in the finitude and the limitation of the first finite and first limited thing (just as in all genera, the analogous predicates draw their degree and order from the first and loftiest of the genus), so that the triangle is the first shape which cannot be resolved into another species of simpler shape (while the quadrangle, for instance, can be resolved into triangles), making the triangle the primary foundation of every limited and configurated thing. You will find that the
8 Nicolas of Cusa, in his De mathematica perfectione and De berillo. ? ?
? ? Cause, principle and unity
? triangle, as it cannot be resolved into another figure, likewise cannot be composed into triangles whose three angles are greater or smaller, even if the triangles are diverse and varied, of diverse and varied types in terms of greater or lesser size, minimal or maximal. Therefore, if you posit an infi- nite triangle (I do not mean really and absolutely, since the infinite has no figure; I mean infinite hypothetically, insofar as its angle is useful for our demonstration), it will not have an angle greater than that of the smallest finite triangle, and likewise for that of any intermediate triangle and of another, maximum triangle.
But leaving off the comparison between one shape and another, I mean between triangles, and considering angles, we see that they are all equal, whatever their size, as in this square (fig. 2). This square is divided diago- nally into several triangles, and we see that not only are the angles of the
fig. ? .
three squares A, B and C equal, but also that all the acute angles resulting from the division made by the said diagonal, which doubles the series of triangles, are all equal. From this we can very clearly see, by a very marked analogy, how the one infinite substance can be whole in all things, although in some in a finite manner and in others in an infinite manner, in some in lesser measure and in others in greater measure.
Add to this (to see further that, in this one, in this infinity, contraries coincide) that the acute and the obtuse angles are two contraries. But do you not see (fig. 3) that they are formed from a unique, undivided, identi- cal principle, that is, from the inclination made by the line M, which joins perpendicularly the horizontal line BD at point C? Pivoting on point C, and by a simple inclination towards point D, that perpendicular line, that produces, first, two identical right angles and highlights, then, the difference between the acute and the obtuse angle as it approaches point D. When it
? ? ?
Fifth dialogue
? has reached that point and is united with it, it merges the acute and obtuse angles, which cancel one another out, since the one and the other are united in the potency of one and the same line. The line M, which has been made
fig. ? .
to unite with and merge with line BD, can, similarly, disunite and separate itself from it, giving rise from the same identical, unique and undivided principle to the most contrary angles, from the maximum acute and the maximum obtuse, to the minimum acute and the minimum obtuse, and thence to their equivalence as right angles, and their merging produced when the perpendicular and the horizontal lines are superimposed.
Let us proceed now to proofs: first, regarding the active primary quali- ties of corporeal nature, who does not know that the principle of heat is indivisible and, in consequence, is separated from all heat, since the prin- ciple cannot be any of the principled things? And if this is true, who can hesitate to affirm that the principle is neither cold nor hot, but that there is one and the same principle for cold and heat? What explains that a contrary is the principle of its opposite, and that, therefore, the transmutations are circular, if not the existence of a subject, of a principle, of a term, and a con- tinuity and a coincidence between the one and its contrary? Are not maxi- mum heat and minimum cold wholly one? Is it not from the limit of maximum heat that we obtain the point of departure in the movement toward cold? It is evident, therefore, that not only do the two maxima some- times coincide in their opposition and that the two minima coincide in their agreement, but etiam [also] that the maximum and the minimum coincide through the vicissitude of transmutation. Therefore, it is not without cause that physicians are often concerned when faced with the best of health, or that those with foresight grow doubly prudent in periods of greatest hap- piness. Who does not see that corruption and generation derive from the same principle? Is not the end of the corrupt thing the beginning of the thing generated? Do we not similarly say: to take that, is to posit this?
? ? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? There was that, there is this? If we use our judgement wisely, we see clearly that corruption is nothing but a generation, and generation is nothing but a corruption; love is a hate and hate is a love, in the end. Hate of the contrary is a love of the congruent, and the love of this is the hate of that. Therefore, in substance and at the root, love and hate, amity and dis- cord are the same thing. Where does the physician find the antidote more surely than in poison? Who delivers a better theriac than the viper? The best remedies lie in the worst venoms. Is a potency not the potency of two contrary objects? And how do you think that can be explained, if not because the principle of the being of both the one and the other is one, as is the principle of their conception, and if not because the contraries are related to one and the same substratum, just as they are apprehended by the same sense? Not to mention that the sphere rests on the plane, the con- cave remains on and settles into the convex, the irascible lives in accord with the patient, the prideful likes the humble the best and the bountiful the miser.
In conclusion, he who wants to know the greatest secrets of nature should observe and examine the minima and maxima of contraries and opposites. There is a profound magic in knowing how to extract the con- trary from the contrary, after having discovered their point of union. Poor Aristotle was tending to this in his thought when he posited privation (to which a certain disposition is joined) as the progenitor, parent and mother of form, but he could not get to it.
He failed to attain it because, stopping at the genus of opposition, he remained snared by it in such a way that, not having descended to the species of contrariety, he did not reach or even perceive the goal. He strayed completely away from it by claiming that contraries cannot actually concur in the same substratum.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You have expatiated in an elevated, rare and exceptional way about the whole, the maximum, about being, principle and the one. But I would like to hear you speak more explicitly about unity, for I find there a Vae soli [Woe to the solitary]! 9 Moreover, I feel a great anguish at the idea that in my purse and in my wallet, there is but a single coin.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Theunitywhichisallisnotunfolded,norfoundinnumeric distribution and distinction. It is not a singularity such as you perhaps conceived it, but a unity which is all-embracing and comprehensive.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exemplum [An example]? To tell the truth, intendo, but non capio [I am paying attention, but I do not understand].
9 Ecclesiastes ? , ? ? . ? ? ?
? Fifth dialogue
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thedecadeisaunityinthesameway,butitiscomplex;the hundred is no less a unity, but it is more complex, and the thousand is a unity no less than the other two, but much more complex. And what I tell you in arithmetical terms, you must understand in the sense of a greater depth and a greater simplicity as regards the totality of things. The supreme good, the supreme object of desire, the supreme perfection, the supreme beatitude consists in the unity which embraces the whole. We delight in colour; not in a single, express colour, whatever it may be, but above all in the colour which embraces all colours. We delight in sound, not in any particular one, but in a complex sound which results from the har- mony of many sounds. We delight in a sensible thing, but we take greatest delight in that which comprehends, in itself, all sensible things; similarly, we take delight in a knowable thing that comprehends all knowable things, an apprehensible thing that embraces all that can be apprehended, a being that embraces everything; we delight, above all, in the one which is itself the all. Just as you, Poliinnio, would prefer the unity of a gem so precious as to be worth all the gold in the world, to the multitude of thousands upon thousands of such pennies as the one you have in your purse.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Optime[Excellent].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Here I am grown learned. For if the man who does not understand the one understands nothing, he who really understands the one understands everything. And the closer one gets to the intelligence of the one, the closer one comes to the apprehension of everything.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . The same goes for me. If I have understood rightly, I am going away much enriched by the considerations of Teofilo, reliable reporter of the Nolan philosophy.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Praised be the gods, and may all living things magnify the infinite, perfectly simple, unique, highest and absolute cause, principle and unity.
End of the five dialogues
on Cause, Principle, and Unity
? ? ?
On Magic
On magic
As with any other topic, before we begin our treatise On Magic, it is necessary to distinguish the various meanings of the term, for there are as many meanings of 'magic' as there are of 'magician'.
First, the term 'magician' means a wise man; for example, the trismegistes among the Egyptians, the druids among the Gauls, the gymnosophists among the Indians, the cabalists among the Hebrews, the magi among the Persians (who were followers of Zoroaster), the sophists among the Greeks and the wise men among the Latins.
Second, 'magician' refers to someone who does wondrous things merely by manipulating active and passive powers, as occurs in chemistry, medicine and such fields; this is commonly called 'natural magic'.
Third, magic involves circumstances such that the actions of nature or of a higher intelligence occur in such a way as to excite wonderment by their appearances; this type of magic is called 'prestidigitation'.
Fourth, magic refers to what happens as a result of the powers of attrac- tion and repulsion between things, for example, the pushes, motions and attractions due to magnets and such things, when all these actions are due not to active and passive qualities but rather to the spirit or soul existing in things. This is called 'natural magic' in the proper sense.
The fifth meaning includes, in addition to these powers, the use of words, chants, calculations of numbers and times, images, figures, symbols, characters, or letters. This is a form of magic which is intermediate between the natural and the preternatural or the supernatural, and is properly called 'mathematical magic', or even more accurately 'occult philosophy'.
The sixth sense adds to this the exhortation or invocation of the intelli- gences and external or higher forces by means of prayers, dedications,
? ? ?
On magic
? incensings, sacrifices, resolutions and ceremonies directed to the gods, demons and heroes. Sometimes, this is done for the purpose of contacting a spirit itself to become its vessel and instrument in order to appear wise, although this wisdom can be easily removed, together with the spirit, by means of a drug. This is the magic of the hopeless, who become the vessels of evil demons, which they seek through their notorious art. On the other hand, this is sometimes done to command and control lower demons with the authority of higher demonic spirits, by honouring and entreating the latter while restricting the former with oaths and petitions. This is transnatural or metaphysical magic and is properly called 'theurgy'.
Seventh, magic is the petition or invocation, not of the demons and heroes themselves, but through them, to call upon the souls of dead humans, in order to predict and know absent and future events, by taking their cadavers or parts thereof to some oracle. This type of magic, both in its subject matter and in its purpose, is called 'necromancy'. If the body is not present, but the oracle is beseeched by invoking the spirit residing in its viscera with very active incantations, then this type of magic is properly called 'Pythian', for, if I may say so, this was the usual meaning of 'inspired' at the temple of the Pythian Apollo.
Eighth, sometimes incantations are associated with a person's physical parts in any sense; garments, excrement, remnants, footprints and anything which is believed to have made some contact with the person. In that case, and if they are used to untie, fasten, or weaken, then this constitutes the type of magic called 'wicked', if it leads to evil. If it leads to good, it is to be counted among the medicines belonging to a certain method and type of medical practice. If it leads to final destruction and death, then it is called 'poisonous magic'.
Ninth, all those who are able, for any reason, to predict distant and future events are said to be magicians. These are generally called 'diviners' because of their purpose. The primary groups of such magicians use either the four material principles, fire, air, water and earth, and they are thus called 'pyromancers', 'hydromancers', and 'geomancers',1 or they use the three objects of knowledge, the natural, mathematical and divine. There are also various other types of prophecy. For augerers, soothsayers and other such people make predictions from an inspection of natural or phys- ical things. Geomancers make predictions in their own way by inspecting mathematical objects like numbers, letters and certain lines and figures, 1 The fourth implied name, 'aeromancers', is not included in Bruno's text.
? ? ? ?
On magic
? and also from the appearance, light and location of the planets and similar objects. Still others make predictions by using divine things, like sacred names, coincidental locations, brief calculations and persevering circum- stances. In our day, these latter people are not called magicians, since, for us, the word 'magic' sounds bad and has an unworthy connotation. So this is not called magic but 'prophecy'.
Finally, 'magic' and 'magician' have a pejorative connotation which has not been included or examined in the above meanings. In this sense, a magician is any foolish evil-doer who is endowed with the power of help- ing or harming someone by means of a communication with, or even a pact with, a foul devil. This meaning does not apply to wise men, or indeed to authors, although some of them have adopted the name 'hooded magi- cians', for example, the authors2 of the book De malleo maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer). As a result, the name is used today by all writers of this type, as can be seen in the comments and beliefs of ignorant and foolish priests.
Therefore, when the word 'magic' is used, it should either be taken in one of the senses distinguished above, or, if it is used without qualifications, it should be taken in its strongest and most worthy sense as dictated by the logicians, and especially by Aristotle in Book ? of the Topics. 3 So as it is used by and among philosophers, 'magician' then means a wise man who has the power to act. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the word, when unquali- fied, means whatever is signified by common usage. Another common meaning is found among various groups of priests who frequently specu- late about that foul demon called the devil. Still other meanings are to be found in the common usages of different peoples and believers.
Given these distinctions, we will deal generally with three types of magic: the divine, the physical and the mathematical. The first two of these types of magic necessarily relate to what is good and best. But the third type includes both good and evil, since the magician may direct it towards either. Although all three types agree on many principles and actions, in the third type, wickedness, idolatry, lawlessness and charges of idolatry are found when error and deception are used to turn things which are intrinsically good into evil. Here, the mathematical type of magic is not defined by the
2 The authors of this book, first published c. ? ? ? ? , were Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Institoris) and James Sprenger. An English translation by Rev. Montague Summers has been published under the Latin title Malleus maleficarum (New York: Benjamin Blom, ? ? ? ? ; Dover, ? ? ? ? ).
3 In Topics, ? , ? -? , Artistotle provides a long list of rules to be used to determine the meaning of words in terms of the properties assigned to things.
? ? ? ?
On magic
? usually mentioned fields of mathematics, i. e. , geometry, arithmetic, astron- omy, optics, music, etc. , but rather by its likeness and relationship to these disciplines. It is similar to geometry in that it uses figures and symbols, to music in its chants, to arithmetic in its numbers and manipulations, to astronomy in its concerns for times and motions, and to optics in making observations. In general, it is similar to mathematics as a whole, either because it mediates between divine and natural actions, or because it shares or lacks something of both. For some things are intermediates because they participate in both extremes, others because they are excluded from both extremes, in which case they should not be called intermediates but a third species which is not between the other two but outside of them. From what has been said, it is clear how divine and physical magic differ from the third type.
To turn now to the particulars, magicians take it as axiomatic that, in all the panorama before our eyes, God acts on the gods; the gods act on the celestial or astral bodies, which are divine bodies; these act on the spirits who reside in and control the stars, one of which is the earth; the spirits act on the elements, the elements on the compounds, the compounds on the senses; the senses on the soul, and the soul on the whole animal. This is the descending scale.
By contrast, the ascending scale is from the animal through the soul to the senses, through the senses to compounds, through compounds to the elements, through these to spirits, through the spirits in the elements to those in the stars, through these to the incorporeal gods who have an ethereal substance or body, through them to the soul of the world or the spirit of the universe; and through that to the contemplation of the one, most simple, best, greatest, incorporeal, absolute and self-sufficient being.
Thus, there is a descent from God through the world to animals, and an ascent from animals through the world to God. He is the highest point of the scale, pure act and active power, the purest light. At the bottom of the scale is matter, darkness and pure passive potency, which can become all things from the bottom, just as He can make all things from the top. Between the highest and lowest levels, there are intermediaries, the higher of which have a greater share of light and action and active power, while the lower levels have a greater share of darkness, potency and passive power.
As a result, all light in lower things, which comes to them from above, is more powerful in higher things. And also, all darkness in higher things is stronger in lower things.
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Fifth dialogue
? one, nor being, nor the true, because he did not recognize being as one. Although he could have adopted the meaning of being which is common to substance and accident, and further, distinguished his categories accord- ing to as many genera and species as there are specific differences, nonethe- less he perceived truth badly, not going deeply enough into the knowledge of this unity and of this indistinction of the eternal nature and eternal being. With his harmful explanations and his irresponsible arguments, this arid sophist perverted the sense of the ancients and hampered the truth, less, perhaps, out of intellectual weakness, than out of jealousy and ambition.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So that this world, this being, this truth, this universe, this infinity, this immensity is found entire in each of its parts: it is the ubique [everywhere] itself. Thus, everything in the universe, in relation to the uni- verse, exists everywhere according to its capacity, whatever its relation might be with other particular bodies; for it is above, below, right, left and so on, in keeping with all local differences, since, in the totality of the infi- nite, there are all these differences and none of them. Whatever thing we take in the universe, it has in itself that which is entire everywhere, and hence comprehends, in its own way, the entire world soul (although, as we have said, it does not comprehend it totally), and that world soul is entire in every part of the universe. This is why, even if the act is one and consti- tutes a single being, wherever it may be found, we must not think that there is, in the world, a plurality of substance and of that which is truly being.
Following on this, I know that you take as manifest that each of these innumerable worlds, which we see in the universe, is not found there so much as if in a containing site, nor as in an interval or a space, but is found there as in a place that comprehends it, a conserver, mover and efficient, which itself is comprised in its entirety in each of these worlds, as the soul is found in its entirety in each of the parts of that world. For that reason, although a particular world moves towards or around another, as the earth moves to and around the sun, nonetheless, with respect to the universe, nothing moves to or around it, but only within it.
You, further, hold that, just as the soul (to take up the common way of speaking once more) pervades that great mass to which it gives being, remaining altogether indivisible, so that it is altogether present in the whole and any of its parts, so the essence of the universe is one both in the infinite and in anything taken as a member of the universe; so that, substantially, the whole and each of its parts are but one. In your opinion, Parmenides was, therefore, right to say that the universe is one, infinite and immobile
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Cause, principle and unity
? (although it is not entirely clear what he intended, his words having been reported by a commentator who is not particularly reliable). 6
You say that all the differences seen in bodies, from the point of view of formation, constitution, figures, colours and other individual or common characteristics, are nothing but the diverse aspects of the same substance: fleeting, mobile and corruptible aspects of an immobile, persistent and eternal being in which all forms, figures and members exist, though indis- tinctly and (so to speak) conglomerated - exactly as in the seed, where the arm is not distinct from the hand, nor the bust from the head, or the nerve from the bone, and where differentiation and separation do not produce another or a new substance, but bring into act and accomplish certain qual- ities, differences, accidents and dispositions related to that substance. And what is said of the relation between the seed and the members of animals may also be said of food in relation to chyle, to blood, to phlegm, to flesh and seed. This goes for any other thing which precedes the alimentary state, or other state. It also goes for all things, from the lowest level of nature to the highest, climbing from the physical totality philosophers know to the archetype in which theologians believe, if you like, until we reach a single original and universal substance, the same for all, which we call being, the basis of all species and all different forms. Similarly in the art of carpentry there is a single substance of wood which is subject to all dimensions and shapes, which are not themselves wood but are of wood, in the wood or involving the wood. That is why everything that makes for the diversity of genera, species, differences, properties, all that which consists in genera- tion, corruption, alteration and change, is not being, is not essence, but condition and circumstance of being or essence, which is one, infinite, substratum, matter, life, soul, truth and goodness.
You say, then, that, since being is indivisible and absolutely simple, because it is infinite, and is act in its fullness in the whole and in every part of it (in the same way we speak of parts in the infinite, but not of parts of the infinite), we cannot think in any way that the earth is a part of being, nor that the sun is part of substance, since the latter is indivisible. But it is quite reasonable to speak of the substance of the part, or better still, of the substance in the part; just as it is not reasonable to say that a part of the soul is found in the arm or another part in the head, but it is legitimate to say that the soul is in the part that is the head, and that the substance is sub- stance of the part - or in the part - that is the arm. For to be portion, part, 6 Aristotle. See the end of the third dialogue, where Aristotle's opinion of Parmenides is mentioned.
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Fifth dialogue
? member, the whole, equal to, larger or smaller, like this or like that, relative to this or to that, identical to or different from, etc. , respond to other con- cepts which do not express an absolute, and hence cannot designate the substance, the one or being, but, in terms of modes, determinations and forms, exist through the substance, in the one, and relative to being. Thus, just as it is commonly said that quantity, quality, relation, action, passion and other kinds of accidents are relative to one and the same substance, in the same way one could say that the one and supreme being, in which act does not differ from potency, can be all absolutely and is everything that it can be. It is in a complicative manner one, immense, infinite and compre- hensive of all being, and in an explicative manner, it is present in sensible bodies and in the potency and the act that we see distinguished in them. That is why you hold that what is generated and generates (be it a question of an equivocal agent or of a univocal agent, as is commonly said in phil- osophy), as well as that of which the generation is made, are always of the same substance. Your ears will, therefore, not be jarred by the thesis of Heraclitus, which declares all things to be but one - the one which, thanks to its mutability, contains all things in itself. And since all forms are in it, it follows that all definitions accord with it, so that all contrary propositions are true. And what creates multiplicity in things is not being, is not the thing, but what appears, what is offered to the senses and lies on the sur- face of things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. But I would like you to read further in this most important science and of this solid foundation of the truths and the secrets of nature. First, therefore, I would like you to note that nature descends to the production of things, and intellect ascends to the knowledge of them, by one and the same ladder. Both ways proceed from unity to unity, pass- ing through a multitude of middle terms. Not to mention that the philo- sophical method of the Peripatetics and of many Platonists is to have the multitude of things as middle term, preceded by the pure act, at one extremity, and the pure potency, at the other; similar to other philosophers who affirm metaphorically that the darkness and the light come together in the constitution of innumerable degrees of forms, images, figures and colours. But beside all these philosophers, who take into consideration two principles and two princes, others rise up who, impatient with and hos- tile towards polyarchy, make the two principles coincide into one, which is at the same time abyss and darkness, clarity and light, profound and impenetrable obscurity, and supernal and inaccessible light.
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Cause, principle and unity
? Secondly, consider that the intellect, wishing to liberate and detach itself from the images to which it is bound, not only resorts to mathematical and symbolic figures or analogies drawn from them in order to comprehend the being and the substance of things, but also ascribes the multiplicity and diversity of species to one and the same root. Thus, Pythagoras, who posited numbers as the exclusive principles of things, understood unity to be the basis and substance of all of them. Thus, Plato and other philoso- phers who made species to consist of figures conceived of the point as sub- stance and universal genus, inasmuch as it is the common stock and root of all figures. And perhaps surfaces and figures are what Plato meant ulti- mately by his 'great', and the point and the atom are what he meant by his 'small', two principles of specification of things which refer, then, to one, as everything that is divided refers to the undivided. Therefore, those who say that the one is the substantial principle mean that substances are like numbers, and others who think of the substantial principle as a point mean that the substances of things are like figures, but all agree in positing an indivisible principle. However, Pythagoras' method is better and purer than Plato's, because unity is the cause and the reason for individuality and the point, and it is a principle which is more absolute and appropriate to universal being.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Why has Plato, who came after him, not done as well or better than Pythagoras?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becausehepreferredtospeaklesswell,inamannerlessade- quate and less appropriate, and to be acclaimed as a master, than to say something better, in a better manner and be reputed a disciple. I mean that the goal of his philosophy was more his personal glory than the truth; see- ing that, as I cannot doubt, he knew very well that his manner was more appropriatetocorporealthingsorthingsconsideredcorporeally,whilethat of Pythagoras was no less suitable and adequate for corporeal things than it was for those things which reason, imagination, intellect, and both intelli- gible and sensible nature can forge. As everyone will acknowledge, Plato was not ignorant of the fact that unity and numbers are essential in order to justify and explain points and figures, but that these latter are not essen- tial for justifying and examining unity and numbers, as dimensional and corporeal substance depends on the incorporeal and the indivisible. Furthermore, he knew that unity and number are independent from points and figures, because numbers may be explained without reference to measure, but measure is not independent from numbers, because the understanding
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Fifth dialogue
? of measure cannot be found without an understanding of numbers. That is why arithmetical analogy and proportion are better suited than geometry to guide us, by means of multiplicity, in the contemplation and appre- hension of that indivisible principle which, because it is the unique and radical substance of all things, cannot possess a distinct and limited name, or any term that has a positive rather than privative meaning. Therefore, it has been called by some 'point', by others 'unity', and by still others 'infinity', and so on, with various like terms.
Add to what has been said, that when the intellect wishes to grasp the essence of something, it proceeds by simplifying as much as possible: I mean that it shuns composition and multiplicity, rejecting accidents, which are corruptible, as well as dimensions, signs and figures, and turns to what lies beneath these things. Just as a lengthy, long-winded oration cannot be understood but by reducing it to a simple conceit. By so doing, the intel- lect clearly demonstrates how the substance of things consists of unity, which it looks for either in reality, or by analogy. The man who could reduce to a single proposition all the propositions disseminated in Euclid's principles would be the most consummate and perfect geometrician; like- wise, the most perfect logician would be he who reduced all propositions in logic to one. Herein lies the level of intelligence, because inferior intel- lects cannot understand multiplicity except through many species, analo- gies and forms, superior intellects do better with less, and the very best do perfectly with very little. The premier intelligence embraces everything in a single, absolutely perfect idea, and the divine mind and the absolute unity, with no species, is that which understands and that which is under- stood simultaneously. So that, to ascend to perfect knowledge, we proceed by grouping and restricting the many, just as unity, descending to the pro- duction of things, proceeds by unfolding into many. The descent moves from a single being to an infinity of individuals and innumerable species; the ascent moves from the latter to the former.
Therefore, to conclude this second consideration, I say that when we aspire and strive towards the principle and substance of things, we progress towards indivisibility, and that we must never believe we have arrived at the first being and the universal substance until we have come to this indivisi- ble one in which all is comprised. Meanwhile, let us not be led into believ- ing we can understand of the substance and essence more than what we can understand concerning indivisibility. Peripatetics and Platonists gather the infinity of individuals into a simple concept, which is their species; they
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Cause, principle and unity
? gather countless species under determined genera, which Archytas first declared to be ten in number; they gather the determined genera into one being, a single thing: but this thing, this being, is understood by them as a name, a term, as a logical concept, and finally a vain thing. For then, when they treat of the physical, they no longer recognize a single principle of reality and of being for all that is, as they have recognized a common con- cept and name for all that which is expressible and intelligible. All this is due to their intellectual weakness.
Thirdly, you must know that substance and being are distinct from and independent of quantity, so that number and measure are not substance, but relative to substance; not being, but relative to being. We must define substance, therefore, as essentially without number and without measure and, consequently, as one and undivided in all particular things - which, themselves, owe their particularity to number, that is, to things relative to substance. Thus, whoever apprehends Poliinnio as Poliinnio does not apprehend a particular substance, but apprehends substance in the partic- ular and in the differences which characterize it and which, by these differences, comes to place this man under a species in number and multi- plicity. 7 And here, just as certain accidents of man cause the multiplication of what we call human individuals, so certain accidents of animals multiply the species of animality. Similarly, certain accidents of what is vital cause the multiplication of what is animated and alive. It is no different for certain corporeal accidents which cause the multiplication of corporeality, in the same way certain accidents of the substantial multiply the substance. And finally, in the same way, certain accidents of being cause the multi- plication of entity, truth, unity, being, the true, the one.
Fourthly, if you consider the signs and the proofs thanks to which we wish to demonstrate the coincidence of contraries, it will not be difficult to infer that all things are one in the end. All number, be it odd or even, finite or infinite, is reduced to a unity which, repeated in a finite series, posits number, and by an infinite repetition, negates number. You will adopt signs from mathematics and proofs from other moral and specula- tive sciences. Let us look at signs first: tell me what is more unlike a straight line than the circle? Is there anything more opposite to a straight line than a curve? And yet, they coincide in the principle and the minimum, since
? 7 The one substance of Bruno's world is manifest in Poliinnio, and since he belongs to a number of different species, such as man, philosopher, tall, etc. , the number and multiplicity which are associ- ated with Poliinnio result from his belonging to various species rather than from the unity of sub- stance which is manifested in him.
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Fifth dialogue
? (as the Cusan8, the inventor of geometry's most beautiful secrets, divinely pointed out) what difference could you find between the minimum arc and the minimum chord? Furthermore, in the maximum, what difference could you find between the infinite circle and the straight line? Do you not see that the larger the circle, the more its arc approximates straightness? Who is so blind that he cannot see (fig. 1) how the arc BB, by being larger than the arc AA, and the arc CC, by being larger than the arc BB, and the arc DD, by being larger than the other three, tend to be parts of ever-larger circles, and, therefore, approach ever more closely the straightness of the infinite line of the infinite circle, indicated by IK? We must, therefore, say and believe with absolute certainty that, as that line which is longer is also, because of its greater length, more straight, the longest of all must superlatively be the straightest. The infinite straight line thus finally becomes the infinite circle. Here, then, is how not only the maximum and the minimum converge into one being, as we have already shown elsewhere, but also how, in the maxi- mum and the minimum, contraries come to be but one, and to be indistinct.
fig. ? .
Moreover, compare, if you will, the finite species to a triangle, since all finite things are seen to participate, by a certain analogy, in the finitude and the limitation of the first finite and first limited thing (just as in all genera, the analogous predicates draw their degree and order from the first and loftiest of the genus), so that the triangle is the first shape which cannot be resolved into another species of simpler shape (while the quadrangle, for instance, can be resolved into triangles), making the triangle the primary foundation of every limited and configurated thing. You will find that the
8 Nicolas of Cusa, in his De mathematica perfectione and De berillo. ? ?
? ? Cause, principle and unity
? triangle, as it cannot be resolved into another figure, likewise cannot be composed into triangles whose three angles are greater or smaller, even if the triangles are diverse and varied, of diverse and varied types in terms of greater or lesser size, minimal or maximal. Therefore, if you posit an infi- nite triangle (I do not mean really and absolutely, since the infinite has no figure; I mean infinite hypothetically, insofar as its angle is useful for our demonstration), it will not have an angle greater than that of the smallest finite triangle, and likewise for that of any intermediate triangle and of another, maximum triangle.
But leaving off the comparison between one shape and another, I mean between triangles, and considering angles, we see that they are all equal, whatever their size, as in this square (fig. 2). This square is divided diago- nally into several triangles, and we see that not only are the angles of the
fig. ? .
three squares A, B and C equal, but also that all the acute angles resulting from the division made by the said diagonal, which doubles the series of triangles, are all equal. From this we can very clearly see, by a very marked analogy, how the one infinite substance can be whole in all things, although in some in a finite manner and in others in an infinite manner, in some in lesser measure and in others in greater measure.
Add to this (to see further that, in this one, in this infinity, contraries coincide) that the acute and the obtuse angles are two contraries. But do you not see (fig. 3) that they are formed from a unique, undivided, identi- cal principle, that is, from the inclination made by the line M, which joins perpendicularly the horizontal line BD at point C? Pivoting on point C, and by a simple inclination towards point D, that perpendicular line, that produces, first, two identical right angles and highlights, then, the difference between the acute and the obtuse angle as it approaches point D. When it
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Fifth dialogue
? has reached that point and is united with it, it merges the acute and obtuse angles, which cancel one another out, since the one and the other are united in the potency of one and the same line. The line M, which has been made
fig. ? .
to unite with and merge with line BD, can, similarly, disunite and separate itself from it, giving rise from the same identical, unique and undivided principle to the most contrary angles, from the maximum acute and the maximum obtuse, to the minimum acute and the minimum obtuse, and thence to their equivalence as right angles, and their merging produced when the perpendicular and the horizontal lines are superimposed.
Let us proceed now to proofs: first, regarding the active primary quali- ties of corporeal nature, who does not know that the principle of heat is indivisible and, in consequence, is separated from all heat, since the prin- ciple cannot be any of the principled things? And if this is true, who can hesitate to affirm that the principle is neither cold nor hot, but that there is one and the same principle for cold and heat? What explains that a contrary is the principle of its opposite, and that, therefore, the transmutations are circular, if not the existence of a subject, of a principle, of a term, and a con- tinuity and a coincidence between the one and its contrary? Are not maxi- mum heat and minimum cold wholly one? Is it not from the limit of maximum heat that we obtain the point of departure in the movement toward cold? It is evident, therefore, that not only do the two maxima some- times coincide in their opposition and that the two minima coincide in their agreement, but etiam [also] that the maximum and the minimum coincide through the vicissitude of transmutation. Therefore, it is not without cause that physicians are often concerned when faced with the best of health, or that those with foresight grow doubly prudent in periods of greatest hap- piness. Who does not see that corruption and generation derive from the same principle? Is not the end of the corrupt thing the beginning of the thing generated? Do we not similarly say: to take that, is to posit this?
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Cause, principle and unity
? There was that, there is this? If we use our judgement wisely, we see clearly that corruption is nothing but a generation, and generation is nothing but a corruption; love is a hate and hate is a love, in the end. Hate of the contrary is a love of the congruent, and the love of this is the hate of that. Therefore, in substance and at the root, love and hate, amity and dis- cord are the same thing. Where does the physician find the antidote more surely than in poison? Who delivers a better theriac than the viper? The best remedies lie in the worst venoms. Is a potency not the potency of two contrary objects? And how do you think that can be explained, if not because the principle of the being of both the one and the other is one, as is the principle of their conception, and if not because the contraries are related to one and the same substratum, just as they are apprehended by the same sense? Not to mention that the sphere rests on the plane, the con- cave remains on and settles into the convex, the irascible lives in accord with the patient, the prideful likes the humble the best and the bountiful the miser.
In conclusion, he who wants to know the greatest secrets of nature should observe and examine the minima and maxima of contraries and opposites. There is a profound magic in knowing how to extract the con- trary from the contrary, after having discovered their point of union. Poor Aristotle was tending to this in his thought when he posited privation (to which a certain disposition is joined) as the progenitor, parent and mother of form, but he could not get to it.
He failed to attain it because, stopping at the genus of opposition, he remained snared by it in such a way that, not having descended to the species of contrariety, he did not reach or even perceive the goal. He strayed completely away from it by claiming that contraries cannot actually concur in the same substratum.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You have expatiated in an elevated, rare and exceptional way about the whole, the maximum, about being, principle and the one. But I would like to hear you speak more explicitly about unity, for I find there a Vae soli [Woe to the solitary]! 9 Moreover, I feel a great anguish at the idea that in my purse and in my wallet, there is but a single coin.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Theunitywhichisallisnotunfolded,norfoundinnumeric distribution and distinction. It is not a singularity such as you perhaps conceived it, but a unity which is all-embracing and comprehensive.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exemplum [An example]? To tell the truth, intendo, but non capio [I am paying attention, but I do not understand].
9 Ecclesiastes ? , ? ? . ? ? ?
? Fifth dialogue
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thedecadeisaunityinthesameway,butitiscomplex;the hundred is no less a unity, but it is more complex, and the thousand is a unity no less than the other two, but much more complex. And what I tell you in arithmetical terms, you must understand in the sense of a greater depth and a greater simplicity as regards the totality of things. The supreme good, the supreme object of desire, the supreme perfection, the supreme beatitude consists in the unity which embraces the whole. We delight in colour; not in a single, express colour, whatever it may be, but above all in the colour which embraces all colours. We delight in sound, not in any particular one, but in a complex sound which results from the har- mony of many sounds. We delight in a sensible thing, but we take greatest delight in that which comprehends, in itself, all sensible things; similarly, we take delight in a knowable thing that comprehends all knowable things, an apprehensible thing that embraces all that can be apprehended, a being that embraces everything; we delight, above all, in the one which is itself the all. Just as you, Poliinnio, would prefer the unity of a gem so precious as to be worth all the gold in the world, to the multitude of thousands upon thousands of such pennies as the one you have in your purse.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Optime[Excellent].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Here I am grown learned. For if the man who does not understand the one understands nothing, he who really understands the one understands everything. And the closer one gets to the intelligence of the one, the closer one comes to the apprehension of everything.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . The same goes for me. If I have understood rightly, I am going away much enriched by the considerations of Teofilo, reliable reporter of the Nolan philosophy.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Praised be the gods, and may all living things magnify the infinite, perfectly simple, unique, highest and absolute cause, principle and unity.
End of the five dialogues
on Cause, Principle, and Unity
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On Magic
On magic
As with any other topic, before we begin our treatise On Magic, it is necessary to distinguish the various meanings of the term, for there are as many meanings of 'magic' as there are of 'magician'.
First, the term 'magician' means a wise man; for example, the trismegistes among the Egyptians, the druids among the Gauls, the gymnosophists among the Indians, the cabalists among the Hebrews, the magi among the Persians (who were followers of Zoroaster), the sophists among the Greeks and the wise men among the Latins.
Second, 'magician' refers to someone who does wondrous things merely by manipulating active and passive powers, as occurs in chemistry, medicine and such fields; this is commonly called 'natural magic'.
Third, magic involves circumstances such that the actions of nature or of a higher intelligence occur in such a way as to excite wonderment by their appearances; this type of magic is called 'prestidigitation'.
Fourth, magic refers to what happens as a result of the powers of attrac- tion and repulsion between things, for example, the pushes, motions and attractions due to magnets and such things, when all these actions are due not to active and passive qualities but rather to the spirit or soul existing in things. This is called 'natural magic' in the proper sense.
The fifth meaning includes, in addition to these powers, the use of words, chants, calculations of numbers and times, images, figures, symbols, characters, or letters. This is a form of magic which is intermediate between the natural and the preternatural or the supernatural, and is properly called 'mathematical magic', or even more accurately 'occult philosophy'.
The sixth sense adds to this the exhortation or invocation of the intelli- gences and external or higher forces by means of prayers, dedications,
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On magic
? incensings, sacrifices, resolutions and ceremonies directed to the gods, demons and heroes. Sometimes, this is done for the purpose of contacting a spirit itself to become its vessel and instrument in order to appear wise, although this wisdom can be easily removed, together with the spirit, by means of a drug. This is the magic of the hopeless, who become the vessels of evil demons, which they seek through their notorious art. On the other hand, this is sometimes done to command and control lower demons with the authority of higher demonic spirits, by honouring and entreating the latter while restricting the former with oaths and petitions. This is transnatural or metaphysical magic and is properly called 'theurgy'.
Seventh, magic is the petition or invocation, not of the demons and heroes themselves, but through them, to call upon the souls of dead humans, in order to predict and know absent and future events, by taking their cadavers or parts thereof to some oracle. This type of magic, both in its subject matter and in its purpose, is called 'necromancy'. If the body is not present, but the oracle is beseeched by invoking the spirit residing in its viscera with very active incantations, then this type of magic is properly called 'Pythian', for, if I may say so, this was the usual meaning of 'inspired' at the temple of the Pythian Apollo.
Eighth, sometimes incantations are associated with a person's physical parts in any sense; garments, excrement, remnants, footprints and anything which is believed to have made some contact with the person. In that case, and if they are used to untie, fasten, or weaken, then this constitutes the type of magic called 'wicked', if it leads to evil. If it leads to good, it is to be counted among the medicines belonging to a certain method and type of medical practice. If it leads to final destruction and death, then it is called 'poisonous magic'.
Ninth, all those who are able, for any reason, to predict distant and future events are said to be magicians. These are generally called 'diviners' because of their purpose. The primary groups of such magicians use either the four material principles, fire, air, water and earth, and they are thus called 'pyromancers', 'hydromancers', and 'geomancers',1 or they use the three objects of knowledge, the natural, mathematical and divine. There are also various other types of prophecy. For augerers, soothsayers and other such people make predictions from an inspection of natural or phys- ical things. Geomancers make predictions in their own way by inspecting mathematical objects like numbers, letters and certain lines and figures, 1 The fourth implied name, 'aeromancers', is not included in Bruno's text.
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On magic
? and also from the appearance, light and location of the planets and similar objects. Still others make predictions by using divine things, like sacred names, coincidental locations, brief calculations and persevering circum- stances. In our day, these latter people are not called magicians, since, for us, the word 'magic' sounds bad and has an unworthy connotation. So this is not called magic but 'prophecy'.
Finally, 'magic' and 'magician' have a pejorative connotation which has not been included or examined in the above meanings. In this sense, a magician is any foolish evil-doer who is endowed with the power of help- ing or harming someone by means of a communication with, or even a pact with, a foul devil. This meaning does not apply to wise men, or indeed to authors, although some of them have adopted the name 'hooded magi- cians', for example, the authors2 of the book De malleo maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer). As a result, the name is used today by all writers of this type, as can be seen in the comments and beliefs of ignorant and foolish priests.
Therefore, when the word 'magic' is used, it should either be taken in one of the senses distinguished above, or, if it is used without qualifications, it should be taken in its strongest and most worthy sense as dictated by the logicians, and especially by Aristotle in Book ? of the Topics. 3 So as it is used by and among philosophers, 'magician' then means a wise man who has the power to act. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the word, when unquali- fied, means whatever is signified by common usage. Another common meaning is found among various groups of priests who frequently specu- late about that foul demon called the devil. Still other meanings are to be found in the common usages of different peoples and believers.
Given these distinctions, we will deal generally with three types of magic: the divine, the physical and the mathematical. The first two of these types of magic necessarily relate to what is good and best. But the third type includes both good and evil, since the magician may direct it towards either. Although all three types agree on many principles and actions, in the third type, wickedness, idolatry, lawlessness and charges of idolatry are found when error and deception are used to turn things which are intrinsically good into evil. Here, the mathematical type of magic is not defined by the
2 The authors of this book, first published c. ? ? ? ? , were Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Institoris) and James Sprenger. An English translation by Rev. Montague Summers has been published under the Latin title Malleus maleficarum (New York: Benjamin Blom, ? ? ? ? ; Dover, ? ? ? ? ).
3 In Topics, ? , ? -? , Artistotle provides a long list of rules to be used to determine the meaning of words in terms of the properties assigned to things.
? ? ? ?
On magic
? usually mentioned fields of mathematics, i. e. , geometry, arithmetic, astron- omy, optics, music, etc. , but rather by its likeness and relationship to these disciplines. It is similar to geometry in that it uses figures and symbols, to music in its chants, to arithmetic in its numbers and manipulations, to astronomy in its concerns for times and motions, and to optics in making observations. In general, it is similar to mathematics as a whole, either because it mediates between divine and natural actions, or because it shares or lacks something of both. For some things are intermediates because they participate in both extremes, others because they are excluded from both extremes, in which case they should not be called intermediates but a third species which is not between the other two but outside of them. From what has been said, it is clear how divine and physical magic differ from the third type.
To turn now to the particulars, magicians take it as axiomatic that, in all the panorama before our eyes, God acts on the gods; the gods act on the celestial or astral bodies, which are divine bodies; these act on the spirits who reside in and control the stars, one of which is the earth; the spirits act on the elements, the elements on the compounds, the compounds on the senses; the senses on the soul, and the soul on the whole animal. This is the descending scale.
By contrast, the ascending scale is from the animal through the soul to the senses, through the senses to compounds, through compounds to the elements, through these to spirits, through the spirits in the elements to those in the stars, through these to the incorporeal gods who have an ethereal substance or body, through them to the soul of the world or the spirit of the universe; and through that to the contemplation of the one, most simple, best, greatest, incorporeal, absolute and self-sufficient being.
Thus, there is a descent from God through the world to animals, and an ascent from animals through the world to God. He is the highest point of the scale, pure act and active power, the purest light. At the bottom of the scale is matter, darkness and pure passive potency, which can become all things from the bottom, just as He can make all things from the top. Between the highest and lowest levels, there are intermediaries, the higher of which have a greater share of light and action and active power, while the lower levels have a greater share of darkness, potency and passive power.
As a result, all light in lower things, which comes to them from above, is more powerful in higher things. And also, all darkness in higher things is stronger in lower things.
