314 NEW SYSTEM 



another by a transmission of species or of qualities, such 

 as the mass of ordinary philosophers suppose Gi . Further, 

 as the organized mass, in which is the point of view of 

 the soul, is more nearly expressed by the soul 65 and, 

 conversely, is ready of itself to act, according to the laws 

 of the corporeal mechanism, at the moment the soul 

 desires it, without either of them interfering with the 

 laws of the other the animal spirits \les esprits] 66 and 

 the blood having exactly at that moment the right 

 motions to correspond to the passions and perceptions of 

 the soul this mutual relationship, prearranged in each 

 substance in the universe, produces what we call their 

 communication and alone constitutes the union of soul and 

 ~body. And in this way we can understand how the soul 

 has its seat in the body through an immediate presence, 

 which is as near as possible, since the soul is in the 

 body as the unit [unite] is in the multiplicity which is 

 the resultant of units [unites] 67 . 



6 * See Monadology, 7, note 10. 



65 E. omits ' by the soul' (par elle). 



66 'Animal spirits ' was the name given by Descartes to certain 

 ' very fine particles of the blood,' by means of which he explained 

 muscular movement. The name was derived from the Stoic 

 Trvevfta, through the early medical philosophers, such as Galen, who 

 speaks of l natural spirits ' and ' vital spirits ' ; but Descartes's use 

 of the term is original. * What I here call " spirits " are only 

 bodies, and they have no other property except that they are very 

 small bodies which move very quickly, like the particles of flame 

 which come from a lighted torch ; so that they do not stay in any 

 place, and as soon as some of them enter the cavities of the brain, 

 others go out again through the pores in its substance, which pores 

 lead them to the nerves and thence to the muscles, by means of 

 which they move the body in all the different ways it can be 

 moved.' Les Passions de I'Ame, part i. art. 10. See also articles 11-13, 

 and Method, part v, where he says that the ' animal spirits ' are ' like 

 a very subtle wind, or rather a very pure and vivid flame.' The 

 name survives in common language, and the hypothesis was only 

 set aside by the results of microscopic study in anatomy. Cf. Kuno 

 Fischer, Descartes and his School, bk. ii. ch. 9, a. 



67 Descartes also held that the soul must be present to the whole 

 organism. But he maintained that ' nevertheless there is in the 

 body a part in which the soul exercises its functions more specially 

 than in any other part,' this special 'seat of the soul' being the 

 pineal gland in the brain. (Les Passions, part i. articles 30-33.) 



