coincidence in the One of the possible and the real, the century and the moment, the solid and the point: the universe all centre and all circumference: diversity and difference as nothing but diverse and different aspects of one and the same substance: the coincidence of contraries:--these are among the chief topics of this, the freshest and most brilliant of Bruno's philosophical writings: "a dialogue worthy of Plato," Moritz Carrière has said. In the same year appeared _The Infinite Universe and its worlds_ (_De l'infinito universo et Mondi_), dedicated to Mauvissière.[66] It contained a masterly array of reasons, physical and metaphysical, for the belief that the universe is infinite, and is full of innumerable worlds of living creatures; sense and imagination are shown to be at once the source and the limit of human knowledge. Yet the argument is mainly _a priori_: the infinite power of the Efficient Cause cannot be ineffective, the divine goodness cannot withhold the good of _life_ from any _possible_ being; the divine will is one with the divine intelligence and with the divine action: all _possible_ existence falls within the sphere of the divine intelligence, therefore is willed; but whatever is willed is realised, for the power is infinite; and whatever is is good, for it is willed by the infinitely good. Whatever really is, is a substance, and therefore immortal. The substance of us is immutable, only the outward face or form of it changes, passes away; in the whole all things are good; where things appear evil or defective, it is because we look at the part or the present, not at the whole or the eternal. [Sidenote: _Spaccio de la bestia trionfante._] [Sidenote: The _Cabala_, 1585.]