2l6 THE MONADOLOGY 



Nature and of Grace, there being some doubt as to which of the 

 two was the treatise written for Prince Eugene. The two 

 writings are similar in scope and intention, and were probably 

 written about the same time. Gerhardt holds that the work 

 written for Prince Eugene was not the Monadology but the 

 Principles of Nature and of Grace. (See G. vi. 483 and prefatory 

 note to the Principles of Nature and of Grace in this edition.) 

 The Principles of Nature and of Grace certainly appears to be 

 the earlier of the two. 



As to its contents, the Monadology is to be regarded, not as 

 an introduction to the philosophy of Leibniz, but rather as a 

 condensed statement of the principles expressed in many philo- 

 sophical papers, and expounded, after a somewhat desultory 

 fashion, in the Theodicee. Leibniz himself indicated this fact 

 by putting on the margin of his manuscript of the Monadology 

 a series of references to sections of the Theodicte in which his 

 views are more fully expressed. Thus, as Erdmann says, the 

 Monadology is (in the German sense) an ' Encyclopaedia ' of 

 the philosophy of Leibniz, and the full understanding of it 

 presupposes some general knowledge of his thinking. It is not 

 possible rightly to understand it at a first reading. 



The Monadology expounds a Metaphysic of Substance, and it 

 may for convenience be regarded as consisting of two main 

 divisions, in the first of which an account is given of the essen- 

 tial nature of all the substances, created and uncreated, which 

 constitute the reality of the universe, while the second division 

 explains the mutual relations through which they form one 

 world. I to 48 make up the first of these divisions, the 

 second consisting of 49 to 90. In the first division three 

 principal parts may be discriminated; (a) 1-18, in which 

 the nature of Created 'Monads is explained; (b) 19-30, in 

 which three great classes of Created Monads are discriminated ; 

 and (c) 31-48, in which transition is made from the highest 

 class of Created Monads (the self-conscious) to the Uncreated 

 Monad (God) through the two great principles of Reason, that 

 of Contradiction and that of Sufficient Reason. Thus a philo- 

 sophic view is taken of the whole universe, considered as 

 a hierarchy of individual beings. The second division of the 

 Monadology, in which the mutual relations of substances are 

 more fully explained, may also be subdivided into three prin- 

 cipal parts : (a) 49-60, expounding the general principles 



