A seventh argument, closely related to some of the others, is drawn
from the old belief in the earth as the centre of gravity, the heaviest
body in the universe, and in the empyrean as the outermost limit and
the lightest body.[312] But, as we have seen, there is in the universe
no centre--as the stars and their inhabitants are heavenly beings to
us, so are we and our earth to them. "Just as the earth knows no centre
or downward direction proper which is away from its own body, but only
a centre of its mass, a central cavern of its heart, from which the
precious life is diffused through the whole body, and which we may
believe to be the chief seat of the soul; so there must be in the moon
and other bodies a centre which connects all parts, to which every
member contributes, and which is nourished by all the forces of the
living body." The old belief, therefore, that if there were inhabitants
at the antipodes they would be apt to fall downwards into space, or
that the parts of the moon and its living beings might fall upon our
earth, was absurd, for the face of the earth always looks upward in the
direction of the radii from the centre to the superficies.[313]
[Sidenote: 8. The perfect as the self-limited.]
The last argument was that drawn from the supposed perfection of the
universe.[314] Aristotle defined the perfect as that which was limited
by itself, not by another. Hence the immeasurable would not be perfect,
while the world was perfect because limited by its own terminus. Again
body does not pass over into any other kind of quantity, but it is
the limit into which the line and the point flow. The first argument,
said Bruno, would hold of any fragment of body, while the second
would apply to any animal or member of an animal, for these also are
self-contained and do not pass over into any other kind. Perfection
has no reference to quantity, nor to limitation by self, which is a
geometrical determination.[315] For this mechanical idea of perfection,
Bruno substitutes a teleological; the perfect is that which consists
of a number of parts or members, working together towards the end for
which the whole is ordained: the universe is perfect "as adorned by so
many worlds, which are so many deities, and as that in and to which, as
a unity embracing the perfection of all, innumerable things perfect in
their kind are reduced, referred, united."[316]
[Sidenote: Infinite number of worlds.]
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