# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0157 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0157?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 141, page id 778263916:0157 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=157 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000157.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 57 lines, status machine # Lines: 57 recognised, mean confidence 0.91 # 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. Uet re Chap. L LIII. Our Ideas of substances. verr admirable: But il Fyes (o Tramed, could nor vier at once the Flanc and the Characters oF the HTour. plare, and thereby at a distance sec what 2. Clock it as, their Omner could not be much benetited by that acute- vess; wrhich whillt, ic discovered the secret contrivance olthe Parts ol the Machin, made him looleits ulc. 5. F3. And here sive me lcave to propole an extravasant conjecture oF mine, viz. Fhat since ve have lome Reason, (il there be any Credit t0 besiven cothe repore oE thinss, that our PhilO(Ophy CANNOLACCOUNEFOF,) to imaginc. that Spirits can assume to themselres Bodies ot differene BuII, Figure, and Conformation ol Parrs, Whether one great advantase some ot them have over us, may not lic in chis, that they can (0 trame,, and Brape tothemselves Organs oF Senlarion or Perception, 25 ro suit them to their present Desion, and the Circumstances ol the Object ther ould consi- der. For horr much vould that Nan excced all otters in Rnowledee, irtrohad bur theFaculer soro alter the Scructure oFhis Fy es, thatone Sense. 25 to make it capable oF all the several degrees of Vision, Wrhich the al fistence of Glasses (calually at at tirst listicon) hastaught us to conceive: What mondors rould he discover, Wrho could (0 ht his Fye to aII TOrrS OF Objects, as to sec when he pleased the Figure and Motion ol the minure Particles in the Blood, and other juices of Animals, as distinct Iy as he docs at other times the saxe and morion of the Animals Themselves. BUE LO us in our present state, unalterable Orsans, so contrired, asto dilcover the Figure and Motion oF che minute parts ol Bodies, Whercon devend thole senlible Dualities, we nor observe in chem, vould, perhaps, be of no ad vantase. Ciod has no doube made us so, as is best For us in our presene Condition. IIc hach firred us For che Neishbourhood of the Bodies, that Furround us, and we have to do with: And thouot e cannoc by the Fa- culties me have, attain to a perfect Rnomledse of Thines; vet ther will serre us ell enoush For thole ends abore mentioned, Wwhich are our preat Concermment. IbeS my ReaderS Pardon, for lavine betore him (o wild a Phansie, concernins the wars of Conception in Beines abore us: But Bor extravagant soerer it be, I doubt Whecher re can imagine any chine about the Rnomledsc oF Ansels, but alter this maniner, some Way or o- ther, in proxortion to irhat re tind and oblerre in our selves. And tho e cannot butallon, that the intinite Porver and Wisdom ot Ciod, may trame Creatures rith a thousand other Faculties, and irays or perecirine thinss richour them, than whac re have: Yet oue Thouotus car eono Farther than our omn, soimpossible it is For us to cnlarse our very Cuesses berond the ideas received trom our oon senlation and Reflection. The Suppolition at least, that Ansels do lomctimes altume Bodies, necd not Aareleus, since some of the most ancient, and most. lcarned Fathers of thO Chureh, Scemed to beliere, chat thez had Bodies: And this is certain, that their late, and way oP Existence is untenomn to us. D. F4. BUFtO return tO the Macter in Hand, Te Tdeas Wehave OE Sub. sances; and thowass e come by chem, I say our Ideas of Substances are nochins ellebut a Collection of a certain number of simple Ideas, consi- dered as united in one thine. Thele Ideas ot Substances, thoushthey are commontr called limple Apprehentions, and the Wames ot them limple Terms; vet in esfeet, are complex and compounded. Thus the Idea ertich an FneusB. man significd by ehe Name Svan, is trhire Colour, lons Neck, red beak, BIaCK L Cos, and Whole Feet, and all these ot a certain 1zC, Wrich a porer of limmins in the Narer, and matsins a certain kind OF Noile, and, pertraps, toa Man, rho has lone observed thole kind of Birds, tome other Propercieo, itiicta all cerminale in senlible simple labas.