326 FIRST EXPLANATION 



eagerness to produce them especially those whose sound- 

 ness is recognized. But, lest those who know me less 

 should give to your words a meaning which we should 

 not like 22 , it will be enough to say, that in my opinion 

 it is impossible otherwise to explain transeunt activity 

 \Taction emanente] 23 in conformity with the laws of ntture, 

 and that I thought that the use of my hypothesis would 

 be evident, owing to the difficulty which the most able 

 philosophers of our time have found as to the inter- 

 relation [communication] of minds [esprits] and bodies, 

 and even of bodily substances with one another: and 

 I do not know but that you yourself have found some 

 difficulty in this. 



1 8. It is true that, in my view, there are forces [efforts] 

 in all substances ; but these forces [efforts] are, rightly 

 speaking, only in the substance itself, and what follows 

 from them in other substances takes place only in virtue 

 of a harmony pre-established 24 (if I may use the word), and 

 in no wise by a real influence or by the transmission of 

 some species or quality 25 . As I have explained what 

 activity [action] and passivity [passion] are, the nature 

 of force [effort] and of resistance may be inferred. 



19. You say, Sir, that you know there are still many 

 questions to be put, before those which we have been discussing 

 can be decided. But perhaps you will find that I have 

 already put these questions ; and I am not sure that your 

 Academics have applied what is good in their method 

 more rigorously and effectively than I 26 . I strongly 



29 E. reads ' contrary to my intentions.' 



23 That is, activity which apparently passes beyond the substance 

 itself and has effects in other substances. It is the same thing as 

 the ' influence ' of one substance upon another. See De ipsa Nalura 

 (1698), 10 (E. 157 b ; G. iv. 510), where Leibniz uses the expression 

 transeuntes creaturarum actiones. 



24 This is the first use of the term by Leibniz. 

 35 See Monadology, 7, note 10. 



46 Foucher wrote : ' We ought to observe the laws of the 

 Academics, the second of which forbids us to put in question 

 matters which we clearly see cannot be settled, as are almost all 

 those of which we have been speaking ; not that these questions 



