rv SPINOZA AND LEIBNIZ 371 



of the circle is translated automatically, so to speak, 

 both by a figure and by an equation. For Leibniz, on 

 the contrary, extension is indeed still a translation, but 

 it is thought that is the original, and thought might 

 dispense with translation, the translation being made 

 only for us. In positing God, we necessarily posit also 

 all the possible views of God, that is to say, the monads, 

 But we can always imagine that a view has been taken 

 from a point of view, and it is natural for an imperfect 

 mind like ours to class views, qualitatively different, 

 according to the order and position of points of view, 

 qualitatively identical, from which the views might 

 have been taken. In reality the points of view do not 

 exist, for there are only views, each given in an indi 

 visible block and representing in its own way the 

 whole of reality, which is God. But we need to 

 express the plurality of the views, that are unlike each 

 other, by the multiplicity of the points of view that are 

 exterior to each other ; and we also need to symbolize 

 the more or less close relationship between the views 

 by the relative situation of the points of view to one 

 another, their nearness or their distance, that is to say, 

 by a magnitude. That is what Leibniz means when 

 he says that space is the order of coexistents, that the 

 perception of extension is a confused perception (that 

 is to say, a perception relative to an imperfect mind), 

 and that nothing exists but monads, expressing thereby 

 that the real Whole has no parts, but is repeated to 

 infinity, each time integrally (though diversely) within 

 itself, and that all these repetitions are complementary 

 to each other. In just the same way, the visible relief 

 of an object is equivalent to the whole set of stereo 

 scopic views taken of it from all points, so that, instead 

 of seeing in the relief a juxtaposition of solid parts, 



