Full Idea
Essences exist in the divine understanding before one considers will.
Gist of Idea
Essences exist in the divine understanding
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1686.07.4/14 X)
Book Reference
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence', ed/tr. Mason,HT/Parkinson,GHR [Manchester UP 1967], p.55
A Reaction
This is a sort of religious neo-platonism. The great dream seems to be that of mind-reading God, and the result is either Pythagoras (it's numbers!), or Plato (it's pure ideas!), or this (it's essences!). See D.H.Lawrence's poem on geranium and mignottes.