350 ULTIMATE ORIGINATION OF THINGS 



while those which undergo a greater agitation throw off 

 certain of their ingredients with greater force, and are 

 thus more quickly rectified. And this is what you might 

 call going back in order that you may put more force 

 into your leap forward (qu'on recede pour mieux sauter}. 

 Wherefore these things are to be regarded not only as 

 agreeable and comforting, but also as most true. And 

 in general I think there is nothing more true than 

 happiness, and nothing more happy and pleasant than 

 truth. 



Further, to realize in its completeness the universal 

 beauty and perfection of the works of God, we must 

 recognize a certain perpetual and very free progress of 

 the whole universe, such that it is always going forward 

 to greater improvement [cuttus]. So even now a great 

 part of our earth has received cultivation [culturd] and 

 will receive it more and more. And although it is true 

 that sometimes certain parts of it grow wild again, or 

 again suffer destruction or degeneration, yet this is to be 

 understood in the way in which affliction was explained 

 above, that is to say, that this very destruction and 

 degeneration leads to some greater end, so that somehow 

 we profit by the loss itself 41 . 



And to the possible objection that, if this were so, the 

 world ought long ago to have become a paradise, there 

 is a ready answer. Although many substances have 



40 Cf. Principles of Nature and of Grace, 12, note 51. 



41 Cf. Lettre a la Princesse Sophie (1706) (G. vii. 568) : 'And as there 

 is reason to think that the universe itself develops from more to 

 more and that all tends to some end, since all comes from an 

 Author whose wisdom is perfect, we may similarly believe that 

 souls, which last as long as the universe, go also from better to 

 better, at least naturally [physiquement] and that their perfections 

 go on increasing, although most often this takes place imperceptibly 

 and sometimes after great circuits backward.' See also Lettre a 

 Bourguet (1716) (G. iii. 589) : 'Although the universe has always 

 been equally perfect ' [i. e. each momentary state of the universe 

 equally perfect with every other] ' it will never be supremely 

 perfect ; for it always changes and gains new perfections, though 

 it loses old ones.' 



