and stars.  His meditations on these subjects had brought him to the conclusion that the views of Averroes are not far from the truth—­that there is an Intellect which animates the universe, and of this Intellect the visible world is only an emanation or manifestation, originated and sustained by force derived from it, and, were that force withdrawn, all things would disappear.  This ever-present, all-pervading Intellect is God, who lives in all things, even such as seem not to live; that every thing is ready to become organized, to burst into life.  God is, therefore, “the One Sole Cause of Things,” “the All in All.”

Bruno may hence be considered among philosophical writers as intermediate between Averroes and Spinoza.  The latter held that God and the Universe are the same, that all events happen by an immutable law of Nature, by an unconquerable necessity; that God is the Universe, producing a series of necessary movements or acts, in consequence of intrinsic, unchangeable, and irresistible energy.

On the demand of the spiritual authorities, Bruno was removed from Venice to Rome, and confined in the prison of the Inquisition, accused not only of being a heretic, but also a heresiarch, who had written things unseemly concerning religion; the special charge against him being that he had taught the plurality of worlds, a doctrine repugnant to the whole tenor of Scripture and inimical to revealed religion, especially as regards the plan of salvation.  After an imprisonment of two years he was brought before his judges, declared guilty of the acts alleged, excommunicated, and, on his nobly refusing to recant, was delivered over to the secular authorities to be punished “as mercifully as possible, and without the shedding of his blood,” the horrible formula for burning a prisoner at the stake.  Knowing well that though his tormentors might destroy his body, his thoughts would still live among men, he said to his judges, “Perhaps it is with greater fear that you pass the sentence upon me than I receive it.”  The sentence was carried into effect, and he was burnt at Rome, February 16th, A.D. 1600.

No one can recall without sentiments of pity the sufferings of those countless martyrs, who first by one party, and then by another, have been brought for their religious opinions to the stake.  But each of these had in his supreme moment a powerful and unfailing support.  The passage from this life to the next, though through a hard trial, was the passage from a transient trouble to eternal happiness, an escape from the cruelty of earth to the charity of heaven.  On his way through the dark valley the martyr believed that there was an invisible hand that would lead him, a friend that would guide him all the more gently and firmly because of the terrors of the flames.  For Bruno there was no such support.  The philosophical opinions, for the sake of which he surrendered his life, could give him no consolation.  He must fight the last