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Full Idea
Micrographers observe qualities of larger things found in smaller things. And if this proceeds to infinity - which is possible since the continuum is divisible to infinity - any atom will be an infinite species, and there will be worlds within worlds.
Gist of Idea
Microscopes and the continuum suggest that matter is endlessly divisible
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (works [1690], A VI ii 241)
Book Ref
Arthur, Richard T.W.: 'Leibniz' [Polity 2014], p.58
A Reaction
[a work of the 1670s] The microscope had a huge impact on Leibniz, much more than the telescope.