a2 NATURE AND LIFE. 
and God. The demon of geometry, accused of having been 
the evil genius of Descartes, never tormented Leibnitz; his: 
philosophy does not issue from that source. Nevertheless, 
that philosophy is a star that, after seeming eclipse, rises 
anew to illuminate us. In the light of its rays, it may be 
unwittingly, sciences gain unlooked-for power, and are in- 
vigorated by grand inspirations. Be its term of revolution 
long or brief, it will have been the guiding star, through 
all the course of its circuit, for the most useful and produc- 
tive studies. We shall attempt to prove this assertion; but 
first we must renew the recollection of the principles lymg 
at the foundation of Leibnitz’s metaphysics, and the too- 
unfamiliar aggregate of his scientific teachings. 
iE 
Our senses are struck by an endless variety of per- 
plexed and intertangled phenomena; our mind isa restless, 
limitless ocean, full to overflow of impressions, thoughts, 
and longings. By what means do we attain the concep- 
tion of any single distinct thing in this measureless chaos ? 
By unceasing action and reaction of the external upon 
ourselves, and of ourselves upon the external. We begin 
by dividing the Z from the xo¢ J, and this process gives us 
the perception of a profound difference between these two 
terms. The not J, the external, impresses us at once, from 
the most general point of view, that of motions and forms, 
with something purely geometrical; but we also discern 
in it another, more hidden element, which Leibnitz dis- 
cusses admirably; that is, resistance, spring, inward and 
latent force. At the bottom of those phenomenal shows, 
which Descartes reduces to what he calls material points, 
and to motion, the Hanoverian philosopher detects a very 
different notion, that of “force not myself,’ as Maine de 
Biran uses the expression, in virtue of which the external 
object resists the effort of will, limits and confines it, and 
