Scruples of conscience, if he felt such,
might well be pushed aside for the "excellency" of such knowledge as
this. To shut the eyes, whether of the body or the mind, would be a
kind of dark ingratitude; the one sin, to believe directly or
indirectly in any absolutely dead matter anywhere, because involving
denial of the indwelling spirit. A free spirit, certainly, as of
old! Through all his pantheistic flights, from horizon to horizon,
it was still the thought of liberty that presented itself to the
infinite relish of this "prodigal son" of Dominic. God the Spirit
had made all things indifferently, with a largeness, a beneficence,
impiously belied by any theory of restrictions, distinctions,
absolute limitations. Touch, see, listen, eat freely of all the
trees of the garden of Paradise with the voice of the Lord God
literally everywhere: here was the final counsel of perfection. The
world was even larger than youthful appetite, youthful capacity. Let
theologian and every other theorist beware how he narrowed either.
The plurality of worlds! how petty in comparison seemed the sins, to
purge which was the chief motive for coming to places like this
convent, whence Bruno, with vows broken, or obsolete for him,
presently departed.
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