 One can reasonably view the Principes de la Nature et de la Grace as one of the most exoteric presentations of Leibniz’s theory of monads. In the text he omits nearly all of the details of his nuanced ontological scheme. He describes bodies as “composite substances” so that his reader will recognize that both simple substances and bodies are “real”. By overemphasizing the degree of reality that he grants bodies he is able to introduce the theory of monads in a way that makes it appear less far removed from received opinions. It also helps avoid the serious misunderstanding that bodies are mere illusions—a misunderstanding that one could easily fall into in the absence of a full presentation of Leibniz’s ontological scheme.