In truth, Aristotle, as
the supplanter of Plato, was still in possession, pretending to
determine heaven and earth by precedent, hiding the proper nature of
things from the eyes of men. Habit--the last word of his practical
philosophy--indolent habit! what would this mean in the intellectual
life, but just that sort of dead judgments which are most opposed to
the essential freedom and quickness of the Spirit, because the mind,
the eye, were no longer really at work in them?
To Bruno, a true son of the Renaissance, in the light of those large,
antique, pagan ideas, the difference between Rome and the Reform
would figure, of course, as but an insignificant variation upon [244]
some deeper, more radical antagonism between two tendencies of men's
minds. But what about an antagonism deeper still? between Christ and
the world, say! Christ and the flesh?--that so very ancient
antagonism between good and evil? Was there any place for
imperfection in a world wherein the minutest atom, the lightest
thought, could not escape from God's presence? Who should note the
crime, the sin, the mistake, in the operation of that eternal spirit,
which could have made no misshapen births? In proportion as man
raised himself to the ampler survey of the divine work around him,
just in that proportion did the very notion of evil disappear.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34