71. But it must not be imagined, as has been done by some who have misunderstood my thought, that each soul has a quantity or portion of matter belonging exclusively to itself or attached to it for ever, and that it consequently owns other inferior living beings, which are devoted for ever to its service. For all bodies are in a perpetual flux like rivers, and parts are entering into them and passing out of them continually.

但不能像某些误解我思想的人那样去设想，每一灵魂都拥有专属于它自己，或永远附着于它的一块或一份物质，并且它就因此而拥有了永远服务于它的其他低级生物。因为一切形体都处于像河流一样的永恒变迁之中，不断地有些部分进入和离开它们。

解释：

由于与灵魂的密切关系，形体虽然具有了某种统一性，但这种统一性是不纯粹的，不可能像单子那样具有不受外界影响的绝对的独立性和自足性。在与外界的直接的相互作用中，形体不断地与外界进行着物质交换。

72. Thus the soul changes its body only by degrees, little by little, so that it is never all at once deprived of all its organs; and there is often metamorphosis in animals, but never metempsychosis or transmigration of souls; nor are there souls entirely separate [from bodies] nor unembodied spirits [genies sans corps]. God alone is completely without body. (Theod. 90, 124.)

因而，灵魂只是逐渐地、一点点地改变其形体，从而决不会突然失去其所有器官；在动物中只有形态的改变，而绝没有轮回或灵魂的迁移；也不存在完全脱离形体的灵魂或无形体的精神。只有上帝才完全没有形体。（参见《神正论》第90节, 第124节）

73. It also follows from this that there never is absolute birth [generation] nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births [generations] are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.

由此还可知，不会有严格意义上的绝对的生，或就灵魂脱离形体而言的完全的死。我们所谓的生是指发展和成长，而我们所谓的死是指封藏和缩减。

解释：

受宗教思想影响的人常倾向于认为，生是灵魂与形体的结合，死是灵魂与形体的分离，莱布尼茨对此不以为然。他认为，灵魂由于自身的有限性而必然要与形体永远相结合，这样一来，生与死不过是形体在显著状态与不显著状态之间的变化而已。就灵魂本身而言，生与死不过是知觉的某种在有意识与无意识之间的转化（参见《单子论》第21节）。

74. Philosophers have been much perplexed about the origin of forms, entelechies, or souls; but nowadays it has become known, through careful studies of plants, insects, and animals, that the organic bodies of nature are never products of chaos or putrefaction, but always come from seeds, in which there was undoubtedly some preformation; and it is held that not only the organic body was already there before conception, but also a soul in this body, and, in short, the animal itself; and that by means of conception this animal has merely been prepared for the great transformation involved in its becoming an animal of another kind. Something like this is indeed seen apart from birth [generation], as when worms become flies and caterpillars become butterflies. (Theod. Pref.86，89， 90, 187, 188, 397，403.)

哲学家们曾对形式、隐得来希或灵魂的起源大惑不解；但现在人们通过对植物、昆虫和动物的仔细考察已经知道，自然界的有机形体绝非混沌或腐化的产物，而总是源于精子，在其中无疑存在着某种预成（preformation）；经认定，不仅有机形体在受孕之前已经在那里，而且有灵魂在形体中，总之，动物自身已经存在了；通过受孕，这一动物仅仅是为巨大的变形作准备，以成为另一种动物。人们还可在在生殖之外看到类似的事情，例如蠕虫变成苍蝇，毛虫化为蝴蝶。（参见《神正论》前言，第86节, 第89节，第90节, 第187节，第188节，第397节，第403节）

解释：

莱布尼茨用当时生物学中的“预成论”来为自己的生命体的连续性思想提供经验的证明。与当时流行的生物的灵魂源于无机物（混沌或腐化）不同，“预成论”根据显微镜的观察结果提出，生命体的成熟形态在精子阶段就已经预先形成了，只不过被缩小了很多倍。

75. The animals, of which some are raised by means of conception to the rank of larger animals, may be called spermatic, but those among them which are not so raised but remain in their own kind (that is, the majority) are born, multiply, and are destroyed like the large animals, and it is only a few chosen ones [elus] that pass to a greater theatre.

这些动物，其中的一些通过受孕而上升到大动物之列，被称为精子动物，但它们中的那些没有上升而仍保持原样的（即绝大多数）象大动物一样诞生、繁衍和死亡，只有少数被选中的才走上一个更大的舞台。

76. But this is only half of the truth, and accordingly I hold that if an animal never comes into being by natural means [naturellement], no more does it come to an end by natural means; and that not only will there be no birth [generation], but also no complete destruction or death in the strict sense. And these reasonings, made a posteriori and drawn from experience are in perfect agreement with my principles deduced a priori, as above. (Theod. 90.)

但这仅是真理的一半，因而我认为，如果一个动物不为自然的方式所产生，那它也不为自然的方式所终结；不仅没有严格意义上的诞生，也没有严格意义上的完全毁灭或死亡。这些后天的、源于经验的推论与我前面的先天推演出来的原理完全一致①。（参见《神正论》，第90节）

77. Thus it may be said that not only the soul (mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself, though its mechanism [machine] may often perish in part and take off or put on an organic slough [des depouilles organiques].

由此可知，不仅灵魂（不可毁灭的宇宙的一面镜子）是不可毁灭的，动物自身也是如此，尽管它的机体常常部分消亡，并脱去或获得有机的外壳。