APPENDIX I 351 



already attained a great perfection, yet on account of 

 the infinite divisibility of the continuous, there always 

 remain in the abyss of things slumbering parts which 

 have yet to be awakened, to grow in size and worth, 

 and, in a word, to advance to a more perfect state [ad 

 meliorem cultum\. And hence no end of progress is ever 

 reached. 



APPENDIX I. 



THE GROWTH OF LEIBNIZ^ THEORIES REGARDING FORCE 

 AND MOTION. 



IN the second of two dialogues, entitled Phoranomus sen de 

 Potentia et Legibus Naturae (1689), Leibniz gives an account of 

 the progress of his views regarding dynamics and physics. 

 What follows is a portion of this account, combined with 

 part of a similar statement in the Specimen Dynamicum. 

 ' When first I escaped from the prickly thorn-brakes of the 

 schools into the more pleasant fields of later philosophy, I was 

 greatly taken with that fascinating ease of understanding, in 

 which I saw a lucid imagination comprehending all the things 

 which formerly were wrapped in dark notions And after long 

 and careful deliberation I at length rejected the " forms " and 

 " qualities " of material things, and reduced all things to purely 

 mathematical principles ; but since I was not yet versed in 

 geometry, I was convinced that a continuum consists of points 

 and that a very slow motion is broken by little bits of rest, and 

 I was inclined to other doctrines of this kind, which commend 

 themselves to those who seek to comprehend all things with 

 the imagination and who do not notice the infinite which is 

 everywhere latent in things. But although, when I became 

 a geometrician, I put off these opinions, there yet remained for 

 a while atoms and the void, as relics of a state of mind that 

 was in revolt against the idea of the infinite ; for although 

 I granted that every continuum can in thought be divided 

 ad infinitum, yet I did not really accept the view that in things 

 there are innumerable parts which follow from motion in the 

 plenum. At last, not only was I freed from this scruple, but 

 also I began to recognize something deeper in bodies, which 



