# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0228 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0228?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 212, page id 778263916:0228 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=228 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000228.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 57 lines, status machine # Lines: 57 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. Names of Substances. not their Male; and can sire no Realon, of the difterent Oualities We find in Them. Tiseridene the internal Constitution, Whercon their pro- perties dexend is untinoun to us. For togo no Carcher thanthe erossest and inost obvious we ean imagine amonest them, What is chat Texture et PaxES : That real Fssence, that makres L cac, and Antimony fusible; Wood, and Stones not: What makes Leac, and Tron malleable; Antimony, and Stones HOL: And ret hom insinitely thele come MOrt, OF the fine COnErI- vances, and unconceirable real FssenCeS OF PlanIS and AnimalS, CVerY. One Rnos. The Wortemanctrip oF thc all rise, and povertul Ciod, in ehe Sreat Fabrick of the Oniverle, and erery pare thereot, Carther exceedsthe Capacity and Comprehension ol the most inquisitire and incelligentMtan; thanthe best contrivance of the most ingenious Man, doth the Conce. etions oF the most isnorant ot rational Creatures. Therelore re in vain pretend to range Thinssinto sorts, and dispole them into certain Clalles, under Names, by their real Flsences, that aro (o tar trom our Comprehen- TOnS. Ablind Nan may as soon Port Things by their Colours ond hechat has lost his Smell, as vell distinguistr a Lily and a Rose by thcir OdOrs, as by thole internal Constitutions he knos not. Iethac thinks he can distinguis Sticep and Cioats by their real PSences, that are unkenorn to him, as bepleased to try his Still in thole Species, called Cassvary, and Oucrechinchio; and by cheir internal real F. ences, determine the boundaries of thole Species, rithout knoins the complex ldea of sensi- ble Oualicies, thar each os chole Names Iands Cor, in the Couneriesirhere thole Animals are tobe Found. 5. 10. Tholetheretore rrho have been tausht, that the sereral Species OF Substances had cheir distinct internal substantiat Forms; and Fhat it as those Forms, rtrich macle the distinction ol Substances into their true Species and Genera, vere led yet Farther out of the az, by havino cheir Minds set upon Fruitless Enquiries alter substancial Forms, Wrholly inintel. lisible, and rhereos re hare scarce (o muchas any obseure, or contused Conception in general. S. FF. That our ranting, and distinguistrins natural Substances into Sje- cies consists in the Nominal Fssences ehe Mind akces, and not in Fhe re- al Fssences to be tound in the Thines themselves, is Farther evident from Oux Ideas oF Spirits. For the Mindgertins, only by reflectins on its omn Operations, thole limple Ideas Which it attributes to Spirits, it hath, or cantrare no other Nocion oF Spirit, bur by attributins all those Opera- tions, it finds in it SelE, to a PorE of Beinos, Without Consideration oF Mat- ter. And even the most adranced Notion ve have of God, is bur atrri- butins che same simple Ideas we hare sor trom Reflection, on Wvhat ve find in our selres; and which e conceire eo have more perfection in chem, than rould be intheir absence, actributins, I lay, those simple Ideas co tim in an unlimited desree. Thus havins sor trom restectins on our selres, the Idea oF Exiltence, Hnomledse, Pover, and Plealure; cach oferhich e sind it better to have than to mant; and the more e have ofcach, thebetter, joinins all these together, ith intinitr to cach ot them, re have the complex Idea ot an eternal, omniscient, omnipo tene, infiniteli rile, and happy Being. And though re are told, that there are difterent Species ot Angels; vet e lenom noc ho to trame distinct specitick Ldeas ot them; not out oF ans Conceit, thac the Existence ot more Species than one oF Spirits, is impossiblo: But because havins no more simple Ldeas (nor beins able to frame more) applicable to suchBe insu but ouls thole Por, talcen trom our selres, and trom the Actions ot our onn minds in chinhins, and beins delisticed, and morins sereral PAVES au