"Monadology" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm)

32, 66, 386.)

50. And one created thing is more perfect than another, in this,
that there is found in the more perfect that which serves to explain a
priori what takes place in the less perfect, and it is on this account
that the former is said to act upon the latter.

51. But in simple substances the influence of one Monad upon another
is only ideal, and it can have its effect only through the mediation
of God, in so far as in the ideas of God any Monad rightly claims that
God, in regulating the others from the beginning of things, should
have regard to it. For since one created Monad cannot have any
physical influence upon the inner being of another, it is only by this
means that the one can be dependent upon the other. (Theod. 9, 54, 65,
66, 201. Abrege, Object. 3.)

52. Accordingly, among created things, activities and passivities
are mutual. For God, comparing two simple substances, finds in each
reasons which oblige Him to adapt the other to it, and consequently
what is active in certain respects is passive from another point of
view; active in so far as what we distinctly know in it serves to
explain [rendre raison de] what takes place in another, and passive in
so far as the explanation [raison] of what takes place in it is to
be found in that which is distinctly known in another. (Theod. 66.)

53. Now, as in the Ideas of God there is an infinite number of
possible universes, and as only one of them can be actual, there
must be a sufficient reason for the choice of God, which leads Him
to decide upon one rather than another. (Theod. 8, 10, 44, 173, 196
sqq., 225, 414-416.)

54. And this reason can be found only in the fitness [convenance],
or in the degrees of perfection, that these worlds possess, since each
possible thing has the right to aspire to existence in proportion to
the amount of perfection it contains in germ. (Theod. 74, 167, 350,
201, 130, 352, 345 sqq., 354.)

55. Thus the actual existence of the best that wisdom makes known to
God is due to this, that His goodness makes Him choose it, and His
power makes Him produce it. (Theod. 8, 78, 80, 84, 119, 204, 206, 208.
Abrege, Object. 1 and 8.)

56. Now this connexion or adaptation of all created things to each
and of each to all, means that each simple substance has relations
which express all the others, and, consequently, that it is a
perpetual living mirror of the universe. (Theod. 130, 360.)

57. And as the same town, looked at from various sides, appears
quite different and becomes as it were numerous in aspects
[perspectivement]; even so, as a result of the infinite number of