APPENDIX C 205 



and real in the motion, we may equally well suppose that the 

 body is at rest and that everything else moves, in accordance 

 with the hypothesis, since the whole motion in itself is only 

 a relative thing, viz. a change of position [situation] which 

 we do not know how to explain with mathematical exactness ; 

 but we do attribute it to a body by means of which all is 

 distinctly explained ' [i. e. so far sufficiently explained, though 

 not with mathematical exactness]. 'And in fact, taking all 

 the phenomena little and great, there is only one hypothesis 

 which serves to explain the whole distinctly. And we may 

 indeed say that, although this body may not be an efficient 

 physical cause of these effects, its idea is at least, so to speak, 

 their final, or, if you like, archetypal [exemplaire] cause in 

 the understanding of God. For, if we wish to find whether 

 there is anything real in the motion, let us imagine that 

 God wills directly to produce all the changes of situation 

 in the universe exactly as if this vessel were producing them 

 in passing through the water ; is it not true that there would 

 actually happen exactly the same thing ? For it is impossible 

 to assign any real difference. Thus, in metaphysical strict- 

 ness, we have no more reason to say that the vessel compels 

 the water to make this great number of ripples by means 

 of which the place of the vessel is filled up, than to say that 

 the water is compelled to make all these ripples and that 

 it compels the vessel to move in conformity with it; but, 

 except by saying that God has willed directly to produce 

 so great a number of motions all tending to this one thing, 

 we can give no reason for it, and as it is not reasonable to 

 have recourse to God for the immediate explanation of matters 

 of detail, we have recourse to the vessel, although actually, 

 in an ultimate analysis, the agreement of all the phenomena 

 of the various substances comes only from this, that they 

 are all productions of one and the same cause, to wit, God; 

 and consequently each individual substance expresses the re- 

 solution which God has taken with regard to the whole 



universe It is quite right to say that my will is 



the cause of the motion of my arm and that a solutio continui 

 in the matter of my body is the cause of pain, for the one 

 expresses distinctly what the other expresses more confusedly, 

 and activity {action} is to be attributed to the substance of 

 which the expression is more distinct.' (p. 71.) 



