LEIBNITZ, GOTTFRIED WILTIELM TON (ante), not only one of the most remarkable examples of universal scholarship, but also of early acquirement, excelling in precocity the prodigy Chatterton; for, although he did not reach maturity as soon as Chatterton, he excelled him in mental power and acquirements at an early age. At a period when the latter was merely a brilliant writer, Leibnitz was a philosopher and had solid acquire ments. Before he was 12 years old he was quite familiar with many Latin authors, and was also making critical readings of Bacon and Descartes as compared to Aristotle and Plato, and was forming theories which embraced the idea of the unity of all the sciences. His treatise De Principio Individue, which was produced on becoming bach elor of philosophy at the age of 17, is the most wonderful example of early erudition and power of thought on record. The refusal of the faculty at Leipsic to grant him the degree of doctor of law was, according to some, only ostensibly on account of his youth, really because of entertained towards him, and which caused him to leave his native city forever. Previous to meeting the baron von Boineherg. he became acquainted with a society of Rosicrucians and alchemists at and as their secretary recorded their experiments and searched the alchemic authors for evidences of the philosopher's stone. It would require a large volume to contain brief notices, not to speak of commentaries, on all his works. His visit to Paris in company with the Dons of Boineburg resulted iu his acquaintance with Huygens and Cassini—the one the greatest continental physicist, and both the most accomplished practical astronomers of that time, lie also visited Newton in England, and must have obtained from these sources many ideas which aided him in forming his system of the calculus. At Paris. especially, he devoted himself to mathematics and physics. Ho was an especial friend and admirer, and indeed pupil, of Huygens, although the latter did not follow the methods of the calculus until his old age because of his wonderful facility in the older methods. The genius of Leibnitz most have been colossal, but his domain was too vast to admit of undisputed sway, and some of his doctrines require the support of reason ing which is not sufficiently grounded in established truths. There is a certain degree of unwarrantable assumption and hypothesis involved in the doctrine of monads, anal his doctrine of pre-established harmony, as briefly noticed in the foregoing article,' is not as well grounded in logical data as many more recent works on metaphysical or philosophical subjects, although exhibiting wonderful talent iu giving verbal form to brilliant ideas.. Many of his ideas had been formed in his youth, and notwithstanding his immense intellectual ability, they must have been in some degree, it may be justly said, crude; for if modern biological science has demonstrated anything, it is the fact that a certain length of time—more than 25 years—is required to allow of the development of any brain as an efficient organ of extensive thought; and this remark is justified by the fact that his doctrine of ntonads, of pre-established harmony, and of optimism, have resulted in no positive advancement in mental or physical science. The doctrine of monads, besides being inconsistent with the tenor of much else that he wrote, may indeed be taken as one of the foundations of materialism; at least, some of the hypoth eses contained in it may be so used. if his hypothesis that to arrive at the essential power of matter (and he concedes that it possesses inherent power) we must proceod to its ultimate elements, be well founded, then the doctrine of evolution is easily main tained—a doctrine which, although not demonstrably inconsistent with that of opti mism, or of pm-established harmony, is opposed to ideas assumed in many other portions of his writings. For instance, at the congress of Nimeugen, in 1677, he produced a
treatise in which he defined theology as the jurisprudence of God, and maintained, although not a Roman Catholic, that all the states of Christendom should form but a single body, with the pope for its spiritual and the emperor for its temporal head. To uphold many of his philosophical ideas he maintained that logical truth is equivalent to actual truth, and that ideas are identical with things; and this is a logical deduction from the premises that an ultimate particle, or rather its attenuation, like a monad, possesses the power of thought. From this also naturally flows the idea that any abstract conception which involves no contradiction with reason must be absolutely true, The doctrine of monads is essentially a mystical one, and may be taken as the nidus for the evolution of many hypotheses or theories. If, as Leibnitz maintained, monads be the simple, active elements of things, the veritable living atoms of nature, the final forces of the universe, uninfluenced from without, but continually changing by an inward principle in consequence of which they develop themselves spontaneously, and if they be, properly speaking, souls, each independent of the other, and also a micro cosm of the whole universe, we have elements out of which may be formed various evolution hypotheses, preordained harmonies, or simple pantheism. God, he says, is the original monad, from which all the rest are generated. To maintain some of his positions he considers that there are two kinds of monads, conscious and unconscious, and that God has so perfected all things that all the monads in the universe work together to accomplish that for which they were intended. This harmony results from the nature of monads, as well as from a pre-established divine decree. A harmony therefore follows between all parts of matter, between the future and the past, and between divine decrees and human actions; and one physical cause follows another in preordained sequence. The doctrine of optimism naturally follows from these conclu sions.
LErCESTER, a t. of England, municipal and parliamentary borough, and capital of the county of the same name, is situated on the right bank of the Soar. about 100 m. ii.n.w. of London. it contains numerous interesting churches, one of which, St. Nich olas, is partly built of bricks from an ancient Roman building in the vicinity. Besides the ecclesiastical edifices, there are a number of important educational and benevolent institutions. Manufactures of boots and shoes, and of woolen and hosiery goods, lace making, wool-combing and dyeing, are extensively carried on. Leicester is the center of a famous agricultural and wool-raising district. There are about 12 fairs annually, The town of Leicester returns 2 members to Parliament. Pop. '71, 95,084.
Leicester, known to the Romans as Rater, derives its present name either from Leire, the former name of the Soar, or from its having been a mita& legionum, a station or camp (castra) of the legions, which the Saxons would translate into Legeo-ceaster, cor responding to the British or Welsh Caer-leon. Under the Lancastrian princes, its castle, now almost entirely destroyed, was frequently a royal residence. The ruins of the abbey of St. Mary Pro, or De Pratis, where cardinal Wolsey died, still exist.