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The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy

Anne Conway·1690 CE·Latin

About this text

Anne Conway's only book, published after her death. It argues that spirit and matter are not two substances but one living substance shading by degrees, every creature able to rise toward the good. Leibniz read it and borrowed her term, the monad.

Spirit and body differ not essentially but gradually: body is nothing but fixed and condensed spirit, and spirit nothing but subtle and volatile body. There is no such thing in nature as dead matter — the least dust, the least sand, is alive in some degree, and capable of all kinds of feeling and knowledge.

All creatures are capable of being changed into one another, and every creature can become more and more spiritual to infinity; for in the infinite goodness of God nothing stands still, and no creature can fall so far that it may not rise again.

How could dead matter proceed from a God who is infinite life and infinite love? Like produces like: the creatures of a living God are living.

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