Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"To this, the accused philosopher answered by the following profession of faith, which is that of every disciple of the ancient masters:   "I hold, in brief, to an infinite universe, that is, an effect of infinite divine power, because I esteemed it a thing unworthy of divine goodness and power, that being able to [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"Perfidious as they are, the above words plainly indicate the belief of Bruno in the Pythagorean metempsychosis, which, misunderstood as it is, still shows a belief in the survival of man in one shape or another. Further, the accuser says:   "He has shown indications of wishing to make himself the author of a new [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"The charges in the denunciation of Mocenigo, his accuser, are expressed in the following terms:   "I, Zuane Mocenigo, son of the most illustrious Ser Marcantonio, denounce to your very reverend fathership, by constraint of my conscience and by order of my confessor, that I have heard say by Giordano Bruno, several times when he [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"But Professor Draper seems to have a very superficial knowledge of the true belief of the philosophers. We can leave Spinoza out of the question, and even allow him to remain in the eyes of his critics an utter atheist and materialist; for the cautious reserve which he placed upon himself in his writings makes [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"The modern commentators affirm that Bruno, "unsustained by the hope of another and better world, still surrendered his life rather than his convictions"; thereby allowing it to be inferred that Giordano Bruno had no belief in the continued existence of man after death. Professor Draper asserts most positively that Bruno did not believe in the [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"Bruno's and Spinoza's doctrines are nearly identical, though the words of the latter are more veiled, and far more cautiously chosen than those to be found in the theories of the author of the Causa Principio et Uno, or the Infinito Universo e Mondi.   Both Bruno, who confesses that the source of his information [...]

Isis Unveiled: chapter III (The mirror of the soul)

"These facts all go to show the identical parentage of this idea in the three religious systems, Hindu, Egyptian and Judaico-Christian. Wherever the mystic water-lily (lotus) is employed, it signifies the emanation of the objective from the concealed, or subjective - the eternal thought of the ever-invisible Deity passing from the abstract into the concrete [...]