As far as the particulars of this condition of the human soul after death are concerned and in what way it is exempted from the transformation of things, revelation alone can give us particular instruction; the jurisdiction of the reason does not extend so far. Perhaps an objection may be made to my position when I say that God has given souls to all natural machines which are capable of them, because the souls do not interfere with one another and do not occupy any position; and that it is possible to assign to them as much perfection as they are able to have, since God has made everything in the most perfect possible manner; "there is no more a vacuum of forms than of bodies." It might be said that, by the same reasoning, God should give reasoning souls or souls capable of reflection to all animated substances. But I reply that laws superior to the laws of material nature are opposed to this, that is to say, the laws of justice, because the order of the universe would not permit justice to be observed toward all, and it would have to be, therefore, that at least no injustice should be done them; that is why they have been made incapable of reflection or consciousness, and consequently, not susceptible of happiness and unhappiness.

Finally, to recapitulate my position in a few words, I maintain that every substance involves in its present state all its past and future states and even expresses the whole universe according to its point of view, since nothing is so far from anything else that there is no relation between them. This expression would be particularly complete, however, with regard to the relations to the parts of its own body, which it expresses more immediately. Consequently, nothing happens to the substance except out of its own being and in virtue of its own laws, provided that we add the concurrence of God. It perceives other things because it expresses them naturally, having from the start been created in such a way that it can do this in a series of events, accommodating itself as called for, and it is in this agreement imposed from the beginning that consists what is called the action of one substance upon another. With regard to corporeal substances, I hold that mass, when we mean by this what is divisible, is a pure phenomenon; that every substance has a true unity in the strictness of metaphysics; that it is indivisible, ingenerable, and incorruptible; that all matter must be full of animated or, at least, living substances; that generation and corruption are only transformations from the little to the great, and vice versa; that there is no particle of matter in which is not found a world with an infinity of creatures organized as well as brought together; and, above all, that the works of God are infinitely greater, more beautiful, and better ordered than is commonly thought, and that mechanism, or organization, that is to say, order, is essential to them even in their smallest parts. Therefore, no hypothesis can enable us better to recognize the wisdom of God than mine: according to which there are everywhere substances indicating God's perfection, and there are just so many differing reflections of the beauty of the universe, where nothing remains empty, sterile, uncultivated and without perception. It must also be held as indubitable that the laws of motion and the changes of bodies serve the laws of justice and of control, which are without doubt observed the best way possible in the government of spirits; that is to say, of the intelligent souls which enter into social relations with God and, together with him, constitute a kind of perfect city of which he is the monarch.