THE MONADOLOGY 231 



same way several times in succession, whence comes a 

 giddiness which may make us swoon, and which keeps 

 us from distinguishing anything 36 . Death can for a time 

 put animals into this condition 37 . 



22. And as every present state of a simple substance is 

 naturally a consequence of its preceding state, in such a 

 way that its present is big with its future 38 ; (Theod. 350.) 



23. And as, on waking from stupor, we are conscious of 

 our perceptions, we must have had perceptions imme- 

 diately before we awoke, although we were not at all 

 conscious of them ; for one perception can in a natural 

 way come only from another perception, as a motion 

 can in a natural way came only from a motion 39 . (Theod. 

 401-403.) 



24. It thus appears that if we had in our perceptions 

 nothing marked and, so to speak, striking and highly- 

 flavoured, we should always be in a state of stupor. And 

 this is the state in which the bare Monads are. 



25. We see also that nature has given heightened 

 perceptions to animals, from the care she has taken to 

 provide them with organs, which collect numerous rays 

 of light, or numerous undulations of the air, in order, by 

 uniting them, to make them have greater eifect 40 . Some- 



36 Leibniz's point is that in such states as these we are still mani- 

 festly in certain peculiar relations to the external world, although 

 consciousness has, for the time, become so slight as to be imper- 

 ceptible. 



37 Cf. Honadology, 14, note 23. 38 Cf. 78 and 79. 



39 In virtue of the principle of sufficient reason, every perception 

 must have a cause, which can be nothing but another perception 

 (see 17) ; and if the antecedent perception did not immediately 

 precede the consequent, there would be a breach of continuity in 

 the existence of the soul. Ultimately, of course, motions are them- 

 selves perceptions ; but they are confused perceptions, of such a 

 kind that their relations to one another can be stated according 

 to mechanical laws, which, however, are abstract and pre-suppose, 

 for their full explanation, the system of final causes or the laws of 

 perception in general. 



40 Cf. Helmholtz, Popular Scientific Lectures, vol. i. p. 186. See also 

 Principles of Nature and of Grace, 4. 



