# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0231 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0231?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 215, page id 778263916:0231 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=231 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000231.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 56 lines, status machine # Lines: 56 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. Names of Substances. real Fssence it sel(, it is impossible eo bnor alL thole Properties, That ROW trom it, and are (o annexed to it, that any one ofthem beins avar, re may certainly concluile, that that Rsence is not there, and so the Phine is noc ofthat Species. We can never Hno wrhat are the precile num- ber of Properties, dependins on the real Kssence ot Gold, any onc oF WhicH failins, the real Fssence ot Ciold, and consequentir Gold, vould not Dc there, untess we lne the real F. Sence oF GOId it selF, and by chat de termined that Species. By the Nord Gold hero, Tmustbe understood to delion a particular picce otMatter; 2. g. the lalt Cuiriea that Was coind. For it it Mould stand here in its ordinary Signification for that complex Idea Wrhich I, Or any one else calls Gold: i. e. For the nominal Fssence of Cold, it vould be Fargon: Pohard is it, to Bew the rarious meanins and impersection of Words, wtien e have noching elle but Nords eo do it Dy. 5. 20. By all erhich it is elear, Tnat our distincuistine substances inte Species Dy Names, is not at all founded on their real Pssences; nor can We pretend toranse, and determine them exactls into Species, accordins co internal essential differences. B. 2F. But Cinco, as is atorelaid, re hare necd ot general Words; tho re bno not the real Eslences ot Thines; all re cando, is tocollect lueti a number ot simple Ideas, as by rixamination, re find to De united togei cher in Things existins, and chereof to matce one complex Idea; Whick thouoh it be not the real Lllence ot ans Subltance that exilts, is vet the Specisick Fssence, to Which our Namo belones, and is corivertible witk its DV wtrich wemay at least try the Truch oF chese nominal EssenCCS. POr Fixample, chere bechat lay, thar che Psence oF Body is Eixtension: IF il b0 l0, re can never mistalce, in puctins che Flsence ot ans chin Por the Thins it SCIF. Let us then in Discourle, put Sxtension For Body; and irhen we vould Cay, that Body mores, let us lay, that lxtension mores, and sec hor it will look: And he that sould lay, thatonc Extention, by Im pulle mores anocher lixtention, vould, by the bare tixprection, sustici entlr Be che absurdier of such a Notion. The Fssence oF any thins. in respeet otus, is therhole complex Idea, comprehended and marked by that Name; and in Substances, Beldes the sereral distinet Ciriple Ideas that makce them up, the contuled onc of Substance, or ot an unkenonn Suppore and Cause ostheir Vnion, is alvars a pare: And therolore the Fssence oF Body is not bare Fxtension, bur an extended solid thino; and soro lay, an extended solid chins moves, or impels another, is all Onc, and as intelligible, as to lay, Body moves, or impels. Lilcewile, to lay. that a rational Animal is capable ot Converlation, is all onc, a5tolay, à Man. But no one will lay, Thac Rationalits is capable ol Converlarion, becaule it matres not the whole Flence, to which e sire the Name Man. 8. 22. There are Creatures in the World, thathare Mapes like ours, but are hairy, and rant Languase, and Realon. Therc are Naturalsamonest us, that have pertectis our Chape, but rant Realon, and lome ol them Language 100. Thereare Creatures, as tis laid, (sit fides penes Authorem but chere appears no contradiction, that there Mould be luch,) that rith Languare, and Reason, and a Chape in other Thinss agreeins with ours, trave hairy Pails; others wrhere che Males have no Beards, and others erhere the Females have. IFit be astred, Whecher thele De aII Men, OrnO all of humane Species; tis plain, the Quection resers only to eho nomi- nal FNence: For thole to nhom the definition of the Nord Man, Or thO complex Ldea, sixritied by chat Name, aerees, phe are Men, and che EBEL