270 THE MONADOLOGY 



which takes pleasure in the happiness of the beloved. 

 This it is which leads wise and virtuous people to devote 

 their energies to everything which appears in harmony 

 with the presumptive or antecedent will of God, and yet 

 makes them content with what God actually brings to 

 pass by His secret, consequent and positive [decisive] 

 will 143 , recognizing that if we could sufficiently under- 



and Fenelon. Fenelon (partly in defence of Mme. Guyon) main- 

 tained the possibility of a disinterested love of God, that is, a love 

 which has no regard to rewards and punishments. Ultimately, 

 however, Pope Innocent XII condemned the views of Fenelon, at 

 the same time censuring the controversial methods of Bossuet. 

 The view of Leibniz is more fully given in his Preface, On the 

 Notions of Right and Justice (1693), p. 285 ; cf. Butler, Sermons xi, 

 xiii, and xiv. 



143 The distinction between the antecedent and the consequent 

 will of God is due to Thomas Aquinas. He says : ' This dis- 

 tinction is not founded upon the Divine will itself, for in it there 

 is neither before nor after ; but it is founded upon the objects of 

 His will. ... A thing may be considered either in itself, absolutely, 

 or with some particular circumstance, which forms a subsequent 

 consideration. For instance it is good in itself that man should 

 live and bad that he should he killed, considering the matter 

 absolutely ; but if we add, with regard to some particular man, 

 that he is a murderer or that his living is a source of danger to 

 a large number of people, in this case it will be good that the man 

 should be killed, and bad that he should live. Accordingly it may 

 be said that a judge wills with an antecedent will that every man 

 should continue to live, but wills with a consequent will that 

 a murderer should be hanged.' Summa Theol. i. Qu. 19, Art. 6 ad 

 primum. Cf. De Veritate, Qu. 23, Art. 2. Leibniz brings this into 

 relation with his own hypothesis regarding the region of possible 

 things and the actual, existing world. ' In a general sense it may 

 be said that will consists in the inclination to do something in 

 proportion to the good it contains. This will is called antecedent, 

 when it is separate [detachee] and has regard to each good by itself, 

 in so far as it is good. In this sense it may be said that God tends 

 to all good in so far as it is good, ad perfectionem simpliciter simplicem, 

 in Scholastic language, and that by an antecedent will. He has 

 an earnest inclination to sanctify and save all men, to do away 

 with sin and to prevent damnation. It may even be said that this 

 will is efficacious in itself (per se), that is to say, so that the effect 

 would follow, were there not some stronger reason which prevents 

 it ; for this will does not go to the extreme of effort (ad summum 



