it.”  On February 17th, 1600, he was burned at the stake in the Campo de’ Fiori at Rome.  He remained steadfast to the end, saying, “I die a martyr, and willingly.”  His ashes were cast into the Tiber.  Two hundred and fifty-nine years afterwards, his statue was unveiled on the very spot where he suffered; and the Italian government is bringing out (1896) the first complete edition, the ‘National Edition,’ of his works.

In their substance Bruno’s writings belong to philosophy rather than to literature, although they are still interesting both historically and biographically as an index of the character of the man and of the temper of the time.  Many of the works have either perished or are hidden away in inaccessible archives.  For two hundred years they were tabooed, and as late as 1836 forbidden to be shown in the public library of Dresden.  He published twenty-five works in Latin and Italian, and left many others incomplete, for in all his wanderings he was continually writing.  The eccentric titles show his desire to attract attention:  as ’The Work of the Great Key,’ ‘The Exploration of the Thirty Seals,’ etc.  The first extant work is ‘Il Candelajo’ (The Taper), a comedy which in its license of language and manner vividly reflects the time.  In the dedication he discloses his philosophy:  ’Time takes away everything and gives everything.’  The ‘Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante’ (Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast), the most celebrated of his works, is an attack on the superstitions of the day, a curious medley of learning, imagination, and buffoonery.  ‘Degl’ Eroici Furori’ (The Heroic Enthusiasts) is the most interesting to modern readers, and in its majestic exaltation and poetic imagery is a true product of Italian culture.

Bruno was evidently a man of vast intellect and of immense erudition.  His philosophic speculations comprehended not only the ancient thought, and that current at his time, but also reached out toward the future and the results of modern science.  He perceived some of the facts which were later formulated in the theory of evolution.  “The mind of man differs from that of lower animals and of plants not in quality but only in quantity....  Each individual is the resultant of innumerable individuals.  Each species is the Starting point for the next....  No individual is the same to-day as yesterday.”

Not only in this divination of coming truths is he modern, but also in his methods of investigation.  Reason was to him the guide to truth.  In a study of him Lewes says:—­“Bruno was a true Neapolitan child—­as ardent as its soil ... as capricious as its varied climate.  There was a restless energy which fitted him to become the preacher of a new crusade—­urging him to throw a haughty defiance in the face of every authority in every country,—­an energy which closed his wild adventurous career at the stake.”  He was distinguished also by a rich fancy, a varied humor, and a chivalrous gallantry, which constantly remind us that the intellectual athlete is an Italian, and an Italian of the sixteenth century.