50 INTRODUCTION 



the universe. But as each Monad actually represents 

 the whole universe, however confusedly or imperfectly, 

 and as each is essentially a force or living principle, 

 proceeding, by its own spontaneous activity, from one 

 perception to another, the distinct and the confused are 

 not essentially separate from one another, but it is possible 

 for the confused perception to unfold into distinctness. 

 Each Monad contains the whole more or less confusedly 

 within itself l , and by its appetition may rise to a more 

 perfect state. Each Monad contains as it were enfolded 

 within itself all that it is to be. It is ' big with the 

 future.' It is like an exceedingly condensed algebraical 

 statement which can be indefinitely expounded : some- 

 what like the symbol n in the problem of determining 

 the relation between the lengths of the diameter and 

 circumference of a circle, with this very important differ- 

 ence, that the Monad ' reads itself off.' An omniscient 

 Being could see the reality and history of the whole 

 universe within the lowest Monad. 



Three Classes of created Monads (i) unconscious, 



(2) conscious, (3) self-conscious. 



While there is thus a perfect continuity in the degrees 

 of perfection with which the Monads represent the 

 universe, Leibniz has roughly distinguished created 

 Monads into three main classes (i) unconscious or bare 

 Monads (monades nues), (2) conscious Monads, and (3) 

 rational or self-conscious Monads. As we have seen, 

 every Monad or simple substance has a certain degree of 

 perfection or completeness, inasmuch as it ideally or 

 potentially contains 'the whole within itself. Thus the 

 Aristotelian name of Entelechies might be given to all 

 Monads, since they have each 'a certain perfection* 

 (exovo-i TO eWeAe'y), and 'a certain self-sufficiency (avrapKeia) 

 which makes them the sources of their internal actions, 



1 ' The world is entirely in each of its parts, but more distinctly 

 in some than in others.' Lettre a la Princesse Sophie (1696) ,G. vii. 



