PRINCIPLES OF NATURE AND GRACE 407 



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would not be compounds ; and consequently all nature is 

 full of life 2 . 



2. The Monads, having no parts, can neither be made 

 \formees] nor unmade. They can neither come into being 

 nor come to an end by natural means, and consequently 

 they last as long as the universe, which will be changed, 

 but which will not be destroyed. They can have no 

 shape [figure] ; otherwise they would have parts 3 . Con- 

 sequently any one Monad in itself and at a particular 

 moment can be distinguished from any other only by 

 internal qualities and activities [actions] 4 , which cannot 

 be other than apperceptions (that is to say, the represen- 

 tations of the compound, or of that which is outside 5 , in 

 the simple) and its appetitions (that is to say, its tendencies 

 to pass from one perception to another), which are the 

 principles of change. For the simplicity of substance is 

 by no means inconsistent with the multiplicity of the 

 modifications which are to be found together in that 

 same simple substance, and these modifications must 

 consist in variety of relations to the things which are 

 outside 6 . It is as in the case of a centre or point, in 



2 To say that matter is infinitely divisible is the same as saying 

 that there is compound substance everywhere ; for to be divisible 

 is to be compound. But compound substances are made up of 

 simple substances. Consequently there are simple substances or 

 living beings everywhere. 



3 If they had shape, they would be extended or spatial. But 

 everything extended is divisible, and hence they would not be 

 simple but compound, having parts. 



4 Thus we cannot perceive Monads by means of our senses. 

 What the senses give us is not the substance itself, but merely 

 a phenomenon bene fundatum. l Spirits, souls, and simple substances 

 or Monads in general cannot be known [comprehendi~] by the senses 

 and imagination, because they have no parts/ Epistola ad Bierlingium 

 (1711) (E. 678 a; G. vii. 501). 



5 The compound, as compound, consists of partes extra partes ; but 

 as compound, it is merely phenomenal. 



6 'The simplicity of a substance is by no means inconsistent 

 with its having within it several modes at one time. There are 

 successive perceptions ; but there are also simultaneous perceptions. 

 For when there is perception of a whole, there are at the same 



