Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/268

256 THOMAS WHITTAKEE: In defending himself against those who bring arguments from the Bible against the Copernican astronomy, Bruno takes up the position that the Bible is a moral revelation, not a revelation of speculative truth. The object which a wise legislator has in view is, he says, to teach the multi- tude to choose the good and to avoid the evil. In aiming at this object he speaks in the manner of the vulgar about things that have nothing to do with practice, leaving the further consideration of them to " contemplative men ". If he were to use terms understood only by himself and a few others, and to make great case of things that are indif- ferent to the ends for which laws are ordained, he would be thought to address himself not to the multitude but to 11 wise and generous spirits," to those who " without law do what they ought ". But for these demonstration is re- quired ; faith suffices only for the many, for those who cannot act rightly without external law. The sacred writers, then, must not serve for authorities when they speak as "presupposing in natural things the sense commonly received," " but rather when they speak indifferently," that is, without reference to practice. Re- gard must be had not only to the words of " divine men " speaking thus, but also " to the enthusiasms of the poets, who with superior light have spoken to us ". In accordance with this principle Bruno finds in the Book of Job sug- gestions of some of his physical theories ; he often quotes passages from Ecclesiastes in support of his doctrine of the permanence of substance ; and in the Mosaic cosmogony (as in other cosmogonies) he finds the distinction of matter and form. The speculative parts of all religious systems are for him an exoteric philosophy. In one place he says that the veil which covered the face of Moses, and which signified, according to the Cabbalists, a veil that was over the law, was not for deception, but to prepare the eyes of men for the light, which would cause blindness if they were suddenly to pass into it from darkness. 1 The essential end of all religions being practice, it follows that they are good in proportion as they encourage right action. This view is developed in the Spaccio delta Bestia trionfante, a book which, as Bruno explains in the dedication, has for its chief object to lay the foundation of his moral philosophy. It is only in this book and in its sequel, the Cabala del Cavallo peyaseo, that he makes an attack which is direct and at the same time more than incidental on the 1 Ue Unibris Idearum, ed. Tugini, pp. 33-4.