256 THE MONADOLOGY 



each has some motion of its own ; otherwise it would be 

 impossible for each portion of matter to express the whole 

 universe 108 . (Theod. Prelim., Disc, de la Conform. 70, and 



195.) 



66. Whence it appears that in the smallest particle of 

 matter there is a world of creatures, living beings, animals, 

 entelechies, souls. 



67. Each portion of matter may be conceived as like 

 a garden full of plants and like a pond full of fishes. But 

 each branch of every plant, each member of every animal, 

 each drop of its liquid parts is also some such garden or 

 pond. 



68. And though the earth and the air which are between 

 the plants of the garden, or the water which is between 

 the fish of the pond, be neither plant nor fish ; yet they 

 also contain plants and fishes, but mostly so minute as to 

 be imperceptible to us 109 . 



108 rj^ p 0r {;i ons O f ma tter,' of which Leibniz here speaks, are 

 ultimately Monads, each of which must ideally contain the whole 

 universe. The Monads are infinite in number, and each, as it 

 ideally contains all, must therefore contain an infinity of ' parts.' 

 Or the argument which Leibniz implies may be otherwise put 

 thus : If the ' portions of matter ' are not actually subdivided 

 without end, there must be ultimate undivided atoms. But such 

 atoms necessarily imply a void ; they are inconsistent with a plenum. 

 And unless there is a plenum it is impossible for each portion of 

 matter to ' express ' or be aifected by all the rest. 



109 Leibniz had a deep interest in the remarkable development 

 of microscopic investigation, which took place during his lifetime. 

 He frequently refers to the work of Leuwenhoek, the discoverer of 

 spermatozoa, Swammerdam, the entomologist, and Malpighi, who, 

 among many other works, made a microscopic study of the physio- 

 logy of animals and plants. In a Meditation sur la notion commune de 

 la Justice (Moll at, p. 66), Leibniz says : ' It is very necessary to 

 advance our microscopical knowledge. Scarce ten men in the world 

 are earnestly devoted to it ; and though there were a hundred 

 thousand, they would not be too many for the discovery of the 

 important wonders of this new world which is the inside of the 

 world we know and which is capable of making our knowledge 

 a hundred thousand times as extensive as it is. For this reason 

 I have often wished that great princes might be led to make 

 arrangements for this and to support people who would devote 



