THE MONADOLOGY 251 



[symbolisent avec % ] simple substances. For all is a plenum 

 (and thus all matter is connected together) and in the 

 plenum every motion has an effect upon distant bodies in 

 proportion to their distance, so that each body not only is 

 affected by those which are in contact with it and in some 

 way feels the effect of eveiything that happens to them, 

 but also is mediately affected by bodies adjoining those 

 with which it itself is in immediate contact. Wherefore 

 it follows that this inter-communication of things extends 

 to any distance, however great. And consequently every 

 body feels the effect of all that takes place in the uni- 

 verse, so that he who sees all might read in each what is 

 happening everywhere, and even what has happened or 

 shall happen, observing in the present that which is 

 far off as well in time as in place : o-v/zTrvoca Travra, as 

 Hippocrates said 97 . But a soul can read in itself only 



9(5 The expression ' symbolize ' suggests the ' calculus ' idea which' 

 is so continually in Leibniz's mind. As numbers are symbols of 

 the things numbered, and we make accurate calculations without 

 referring at every step to the particular things for which our 

 symbols stand, so in general unanalyzed thoughts may be symbols 

 of their simple elements. In the same way compound things are 

 symbols of the simple substances which compose them. What is 

 perceived confusedly in compounds is not a mere illusion but an 

 imperfect representation or symbol of the real characteristics of 

 simple substances. Thus, in this section, Leibniz would say that 

 the spatial or material plenum (which is a confused perception of 

 ours) is a symbol of the infinite (or perfectly complete) series of 

 Monads, which has no gaps, since the Monads differ from one 

 another by infinitely small degrees. Similarly, the material action 

 and re-action throughout the universe, such that a change at any 

 one point affects every other, is a symbol of the Pre-established 

 Harmony among the Monads. And, again, the fact that every- 

 thing that happens, has happened or shall happen in the universe 

 might be read in any one body is a symbol of the representative 

 character of each Monad as ideally containing the whole within 

 itself. It is because they are thus symbolic that the phenomena 

 of the material world are phenomena benefundata. 



97 'Svpirvota (the noun) is probably a corruption from ovpirvoa (the 

 adjective), ' in agreement,' lit. ' breathing together/ conspirantia. 

 Leibniz makes the same quotation in the New Essays, Introduction, 

 p. 373. He there translates the phrase by the words 'tout est 



