344 ON THE ULTIMATE 



/ world take place in accordance with the laws, not only 

 geometrical but also metaphysical, of eternal truths, that 

 is, not only in accordance with material necessities but 

 also in accordance with formal reasons 25 . And this is 

 not only true in general as regards the reason (which we 

 have just explained) -why a world exists rather than not, 

 and why it exists thus rather than otherwise (a reason 

 which is to be found only in the tendency of possible 

 things to exist) ; but also when we come down to par- 

 ticular things we see that metaphysical laws of cause, 

 power, activity, are present in a wonderful way through- 

 out the whole of nature, and that they are even superior 

 to the purely geometrical laws of matter, as to my great 

 astonishment I found when I was explaining the laws 

 of motion, so that, as I have elsewhere more fully ex- 

 plained 26 , I was ultimately compelled to give up the law 

 of the geometrical composition of forces [conatus] which 

 I had maintained in my youth when I had more belief 

 in the material view. 



/ Accordingly we have the ultimate reason of the reality 

 both of essences and of existences in one Being who is 

 necessarily greater, higher, and older [anterius] than the 

 world itself, since through Him not only the existing 

 things which the world contains but also possible things 

 have reality. But this ultimate reason can be found 

 only in one source on account of the inter-connexion of 

 all these things 27 . But it is manifest that from this 

 source existing things continually come forth [promanare], 

 that they are being and have been produced by it, since 

 it does not appear why one state of the world rather 

 than another, the state of yesterday rather than that of 

 to-day, should flow from it 28 . It is also manifest how 



25 E. reads 'necessities' instead of 'reasons/ 



26 See Appendix I, p. 351. 



27 That is to say, the actual system of things is one and therefore 

 its source is one. Cf. Monadology, 39. 



28 The reference is not quite clear. Janet translates 'from the 

 world itself.' Kirchmann translates 'from this source.' On Janet's 



