OF THE NEW SYSTEM 333 



continue in their proper order, without interfering with 

 one another, unless the pendulums kept time together, 

 it happened, by a kind of wonder, that even when their 

 swinging was deliberately disturbed they soon came to 

 swing together again, somewhat like two stretched strings 

 that are in unison. 



The second way of making two clocks (even though 

 they be bad ones) constantly keep time together would 

 be to put them in charge of a skilled workman who 

 should keep them together from moment to moment. 

 I call this the way of assistance. 



Finally, the third way will be to make the two clocks 

 [pendules] at first with such skill and accuracy that we 

 can be sure that they will always afterwards keep time 

 together. This is the way of pre-established agreement 

 [consentcmeni], 



Now put the soul and the body in place of the 

 two clocks. Their agreement [accord] or sympathy will 

 also arise in one of these three ways. The way of in- 

 fluence is that of the common philosophy; but as we 

 cannot conceive material particles or immaterial species 

 or qualities which can pass from one of these substances 

 into the other, we are obliged to give up this opinion. 

 The way of assistance is that of the system of occasional 

 causes ; but I hold that this is to introduce Deus ex 

 machina in a natural and ordinary matter, in which it is 

 reasonable that God should intervene only in the way in 

 which He supports [concourt a] all the other things of 

 nature. Thus there remains only my hypothesis, that 

 is to say, the way of the harmony pre-established by a con- 

 trivance of the Divine foresight, which has from the 

 beginning formed each of these substances in so perfect, 

 so regular and accurate a manner that by merely follow- 

 ing its own laws which were given to it when it came 

 into being, each substance is yet in harmony with the 

 other, just as if there were a mutual influence between 

 them, or as if God were continually putting His hand 



