420 PRINCIPLES OF NATURE AND GRACE 



But as each distinct perception of the soul includes an 

 infinite number of confused perceptions, which involve 

 the whole universe, the soul itself knows the things of 

 which it has perception, only in so far as it has distinct 

 and heightened [or unveiled] 52 perceptions of them ; and 

 it has perfection in proportion to its distinct perceptions. 

 Each soul knows the infinite, knows all, but confusedly ; 

 as when I walk on the sea-shore and hear the great noise 

 the sea makes, I hear the particular sounds which come 

 from the particular waves and which make up the total 

 sound, but I do not discriminate them from one another. 

 Our confused perceptions are the result of the impressions 

 which the whole universe makes upon us. It is the same 



x with each Monad 53 , God alone has a distinct knowledge 

 of all, for He is the source of all. It has been very well 

 said that as a centre He is everywhere, but His circum- 

 ference is nowhere 54 , for everything is immediately pre- 



\sent to Him without any distance from this centre. 



1 4. As regards the rational soul or mind [I'esprit], there is 

 in it something more than in the Monads or even in mere 

 [simple] souls 5 \ It is not only a mirror of the universe 

 of created beings, but also an image of the Deity. The 

 mind [I'esprit] has not merely a perception of the works 

 of God, but it is even capable of producing something 

 which resembles them, although in miniature. For, to 

 say nothing of the wonders of dreams, in which we 



w E. reads relevees G. reads revdees. Revelees (without the usual 

 accents) looks like a slip of the pen and relevees is elsewhere used 

 in a similar connexion. Cf. Monadology, 25. 



53 Cf. Monadology, 60 and 61. 



54 l The world is an infinite sphere, of which the centre is every- 

 where, the circumference nowhere.' Pascal, Pensees, i. (Ha vet's ed., 

 p. i). Havet traces the phrase to Rabelais (bk. iii. ch. 13^ thence 

 to Gerson and Bonaventura, and ultimately to Vincent de Beauvais 

 (early in the thirteenth century) who attributes it to Empedocles. 

 It is not in any writing of Empedocles now known. See Havet's 

 Pascal, pp. 17 sqq. 



55 ' The Monads ' here means bare or unconscious Monads, while 

 * mere souls ' means conscious souls, which are not self-conscious. 



