 One point that we take Leibniz to be making here is that in exoteric contexts propositions can be treated as hypotheses rather than providing rigorous demonstrations of them. He seems to think that in certain cases his readers will be less hostile to a novel thesis if it is presented as a hypothesis than if it is presented as a thesis that can be demonstrated from metaphysical principles. Although propositions that are presented hypothetically are not demonstrated they can be motivated and illustrated by examples, analogies, metaphors, and stories (as he says later on). He does not, however, claim that an esoteric work cannot contain analogies, metaphors, and the like. It can include these things, which “give a pleasing respite to a weary soul”, so long as they are carefully distinguished from the rigorous demonstrations that form the core of the work. Leibniz notes that this difference is also observed in mathematics where demonstrations, which are rigorous and exact, are carefully distinguished from scholia in which reasoning can be treated in a more familiar manner.