DE PRINCIPIIS ATQUE ORIGINIBUS. 279 



of this theory have always been encumbered by its 

 being thought necessary, in order to explain phenom 

 ena, to ascribe to the atoms properties which in reality 

 belong only to the bodies which they compose ; that 

 is, by its being thought necessary to break through 

 Bacon s principle of heterogeneity. Thus the atoms 

 have been supposed of definite sizes and figures, there 

 by resembling other and larger bodies, and to be per 

 fectly hard and unyielding. When freed from these 

 subsidiary hypotheses, the atomic theory becomes a 

 theory of forces only, and of whatever ulterior devel 

 opments it may be capable, these can only be intro 

 duced when it has assumed this form. The specula 

 tions of Boscovich do not mark the farthest point to 

 which the atomic theory may be carried, but they 

 were nevertheless an essential step in advance, and 

 altogether in accordance with what Bacon has here 

 said, though in an obscure and somewhat abrupt man 

 ner. &quot; We do well,&quot; remarks Leibnitz, &quot; to think 

 highly of Verulam, for his hard sayings have a deep 

 meaning in them : &quot; a judgment which may not im 

 probably have had a particular reference to the views 

 now spoken of. For Leibnitz s own monaclism is in 

 effect only an abstract atomic theory: 1 more abstract 

 doubtless than any thing which Bacon had conceived 

 of, but yet a system which might have been derived 

 from that of Democritus by insisting on and develop 

 ing Bacon s principle of heterogeneity. And again, 

 in a different point of view, it seems not unlikely 

 that Leibnitz perceived an analogy between his own 

 doctrine and that of Bacon. In the earlier part of 



1 The monad, Leibnitz himself remarks, is a metaphysical point, or 

 formal atom 



