NEW SYSTEM 315 



15. This hypothesis is very possible. For why might 

 not God in the beginning give to substance an inner 

 nature or force which could regularly produce in it 

 as in an automaton that is spiritual or endowed with 

 a living principle c8 , but free in the case of a substance 

 which partakes of reason 69 everything that will happen 

 to it, that is to say, all the appearances or expressions it 

 will have, and that without the help of any created 

 thing ? This is the more likely since the nature of sub- 

 stance necessarily requires and essentially involves a 

 progress or change, without which it would have no 

 force to act 70 . And as the nature of the soul is to 

 represent the universe in a very exact way (though with 

 greater or less distinctness), the succession of representa- 

 tions which the soul produces for itself will correspond 

 naturally to the succession of changes in the universe itself ; 

 while, on the other hand, the body has also been adapted 

 to the soul to fit the circumstances in which the soul is 

 conceived as acting outwardly. This adaptation of the 

 body to the soul is the more reasonable inasmuch as 

 bodies are made only for spirits [esprits] 71 , which alone 

 are capable of entering into fellowship with God and 

 celebrating His glory. Thus as soon as we see that this 

 hypothesis of agreements [accords'] is possible, we see 



Leibniz seeks to show that, on his hypothesis, the connexion 

 between soul and body is much closer. The soul is ' immediately ' 

 present to the body and thus has no special seat but is in every 

 part (independently of the part's position) as the unit is in every 

 part of the whole. 



68 The French is : un automate spiritual ou formel. Formel conveys 

 the idea of the form or individual unity of the thing, as in the 

 phrase ' substantial form.' 



69 Every substance has spontaneity, inasmuch as it produces from 

 within itself the series- of its states or phenomena ; but rational 

 souls alone have liberty, for liberty is action under the guidance of 

 right reason. 



70 No substance can act upon anything outside of it. Thus its 

 action must appear in some internal change. 



71 That is to say, bodies are entirely subordinate to spirits, as the 

 realm of efficient causes is to that of final causes. See Monadology, 

 concluding . 



72 In the First Draft, Leibniz says : < I call this the system of 



