The Confusion

“You have a point,” said Fatio, “but I hardly think it is somehow simpler to endow these atoms, instead, with the ability to perceive and to think.”

 

 

“Perception and thought are properties of souls. It is no worse to posit that the fundamental building-block of the Universe is souls than to say it is wee bits of hard stuff, moving about in an empty space that is pervaded by mystickal Fields.”

 

“Somehow a planet’s perception of the sun and all the other planets, then, causes it to behave exactly as if it were in such a ‘mystickal Field,’ to an uncanny degree of precision.”

 

“I know it sounds difficult, Monsieur Fatio, but ’twill work out better in the long run.”

 

“Physics, then, becomes a sort of vast record-keeping exercise. Every object in the Universe is distinguished from every other object by the uniqueness of its perceptions of all the other objects.”

 

“If you think on it long enough you will see it is the only way to distinguish them.”

 

“Why, it is as if every atom or particle—”

 

“I call them monads.”

 

“Monad, then, is a sort of Knowledge Engine unto itself, a Bücherradrad-rad-rad…”

 

Leibniz summoned a weak smile.

 

“Its gears grind away like the ones in your Arithmetickal Engine, and it decides what to do of its own accord. You knew Spinoza, did you not?”

 

Leibniz held up a warning hand. “Yes. But pray do not put me in with him.”

 

“If I may just return to the topic that got us started, Doctor, it seems to me that your theory allows for a possibility you scoffed at—namely, that two lumps of gold might be different from each other.”

 

“Any two such lumps are different, but it is because, being differently situated, they have different perceptions. I am afraid that you want to assign mystickal properties to some gold and not other.”

 

“Afraid why?”

 

“Because the next thing you’ll do is melt it down to extract that mystery and put it in a phial.”

 

Fatio sighed. “In truth, all these theories have their problems.”

 

“Agreed.”

 

“Why not admit it, then? Why this stubborn refusal to consider Newton’s system, when yours is just as fraught with difficulties?”

 

Leibniz drew to a halt before the front stoop of the Schlo?, as if he’d rather freeze than continue the discussion where it might be overheard. “Your question is dressed up in the guise of Reason, to make it appear innocent. Perhaps it is. Perhaps not.”

 

“Even if you do not think me innocent, pray believe that my confusion is genuine.”

 

“Isaac and I had this conversation long ago, when we were young, and matters stood quite differently.”

 

“How odd. You are the only person, other than Daniel Waterhouse, who has ever called him by his Christian name.”

 

The look of uncertainty on Leibniz’s face now hardened into open disbelief. “What do you call him, when the two of you are alone together in your London house?”

 

“I stand corrected, Doctor. There are three of us who have known him thusly.”

 

“That is a very clever sentence you just uttered,” Leibniz exclaimed, sounding genuinely impressed. “Like a silken cord turned in on itself and knotted into a snare. I commend you for it, but I will not put my foot in it. And I will thank you to keep Daniel out of it as well.”

 

Fatio had turned red. “The only thing I wish to snare is a clearer understanding of what has passed between you and Isaac.”

 

“You want to know if you have a rival.”

 

Fatio said nothing.

 

“The answer is: you do not.”

 

“That is well.”

 

“You do not have a rival, Fatio. But Isaac Newton does.”

 

 

 

*In this context meaning a cavalry stable, a large structure situated near a palace, and serving as home and headquarters for a military organization, as opposed to a barn for keeping beasts out of the rain.

 

*Wheel of Books.

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland

 

 

1690-1691

 

 

 

 

THE KING’S OWN BLACK TORRENT Guards had been founded by a man King William did not like very much (John Churchill), and as a sort of punishment for that, the regiment had now been exiled in Ireland for almost two years. Bob Shaftoe had learned many things about this island during that time: For example, that it was commonly divided into four pieces, which were variously styled Kingdoms or Duchies or Presidencies or Counties depending on whom you were talking to and what peculiar notions they held concerning the true nature and meaning of Irish history. Connaught was one, and the others were Ulster, Leinster, and Munster.

 

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