# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0065 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0065?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 49, page id 778263916:0065 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=65 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000065.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 56 lines, status machine # Lines: 56 recognised, mean confidence 0.92 # Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German. # Licence: CC BY 4.0, Leibniz Legible. Machine output: do not ingest it as verified text; keep this provenance with the text. # Wording rule: say "the machine reads it as …", never "Leibniz wrote". # After the first blank line: the recognised lines in reading order, one per line. Idea of Soliditi. may approach one another, ithout touchine or displacins any solic chino, till cheir Superticies come to meet; Wvhereby, Tthink, we have tho clear Idea Ol Space without soliditr. For (not 1050(0 tar as aninihiila- tion ot any particular BOdY) Pasli, WVhether a Plan cannothavo che Idea Otthe motion ol one linele Body alone, rithout anr other succcedins immediarelr into ies Place: Wrhich, I chink, tis erident he Can; thC Idea oFMocion in one Bodr, no more includino the idea ot Motion in q- nother, than the Idea oF a square Figure in one Body includes the idea ot a square Pisure in anocher. I do not ask, Whether Bodies do P0 exist, that the motion of orie Body cannor reallr bc Wichout the morion ol another: To derermine this cither way, is to beo the uection Por or asains a Vacuum. But my Oueltion is, Whether one cannochare the Idea ol one Body moved, hilst ochers are at rest: and I chintc. this no one will denr: IF (0, then the Place it delerted, sires us the Idea oF pure Space Without Soliditr, Whereinto another Body mas enter, ithout cither Relistance or Protrusion of any thing. When the Suelcer in a Pump is drarrn, the space it Alled in the Fube is certain- lx the lamme, Wrhether any other bodr follons the motion ofthe Sucter or nO; nor does it imply a contradiction, That upon the motion oloneB0. dr, another chat is ontr contiguous to it, Mould not tollo it. Thene- cessitr oF such a motion, is built onty on the Supposition, Thac thie Worid is Full; buc not on the distinet Ideas oF Space and Soliditr, irhich are a5 different, as Relistance and not Relictonce, Protrusion and nor Protrusion: And that Men have Ideas ol Space, Without Body, their very Disputes a bout a Vacuum plainly demonstrate, asis eved in another Placc. 6. 4. Solidiry is hrereby also differenced from FTardness, in that Solidi- tr consilts in repletion, and so an ulter Fxclusion ot ocher Bodies out of the space it possesses: BuF FPardness, in a tirm Cohesion oF, the parts OF Matter, makins up masses of a sensiblo bulk; (0 that the whole docs not casils chanse its Fisure. And indced, IPard and Solt, are, as apprehended by us, ouls relatire Terms, eo the Constitutions of our Bodies; that beins oeneralIY Calld hard by us, ertich ill put us to Pain, (ooner than chanse Figure by the presture ot ans part of our Bodies; and that on the contra- ry, TolE, Wrhich chanses the Siruation of its parts upon an calie and un. Paintul touch. But chis Difficuley OF changins the Situation oF the sensible parts a- monost chemselves, or olthe Fisure of the whole; sires no more Solidi. ey tothe hardest Body in the Wortd, than to the (otrest; nor is an Ada- mant one jot more solid than Water. For though thc to AaF Sides OF tiro pieces ot Marble, ill more calils approach cach other, betreen Whieh there is nothins but Water or Air, than if there De an Adamant betreen them: vet it isnot, chat elie parts of the Adamant are more solid than those oF Water, or resist more; but becaule the parts of Water, beino more casils separable From each octer, ther illby à sidemorion be more calilr remored, and sire as to the approach ot the tro picces oF Mar- ble: But if ther couldbe Kept trom makins Place, by that lide:motion, eher ould eternally hinder the approach ot these tiro picces ot Marole, as much as the Diamond; and trrould be as impostible by any force, t0 surmount their Relistance, asto surmounethe Relistance of the parts oF a Diamond. The soltest Body in the Worid will as invincibly resist the comins together ofany tro ocher Bodies, is it benot purout ol the may. Dut remain betrreen them, as the hardest that can be found or imaxined. HC that Malltll a vicldins sole Body Well wich Air or Water, will quicklr find its Resistance: And he chat chins, thac nothins but Bodies, thar are Marct