LEIBNITZ (more accurately LEIBNIZ), GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON, perhaps the most extraordinary example of universal scholarship upon record, was July 6, 1646, at Leipsic, where his father was professor of law. Ile studied at the "Nicholas school" of his native city, under Thomasius; but he derived much more of the vast store if miscellaneous learning which his after-life exhibits from his private studies in a library to which he had access, and thus entered the university with peculiar advantages in his 15th year, selecting the law as his profession, but devoting himself alSo to philosophy and literature. He spent some time at the university of Jena, and on his return presented himself for the degree in law, for which he composed two essays of very remarkable merit. In consequence of his youth, however, he was refused the degree at Leipsie, and ultimately (in his 2-0th year), in 1666, graduated at Altdorf, where he was offered, but declined, a professorship; accepting in preference the post of secretary and tutor in the family of the baron von Boineburg, to whom lie rendered, from 1667 till 1672, it variety of literary and politico-literary services, and through whose recommendation he was appointed member of the judicial council in the service of the archbishop-elector of Mainz. In 1672 he accompanied Boineburg's sons to Paris, and there submitted to Louis XIV. an essay entitled Consilium YEgypticecum, containing it plan far the invasion of Egypt, which is by some supposed to have led to the Egyptian expedition of Bona parte in 1798. In the course of this tour, which extended also to London, he formed the acquaintance of the most eminent philosophers of France and Englai.d, and among them of Newton. On the death of the elector of Mainz, Leibnitz. declining an appoint ment at Paris which would have necessitated his becoming a Catholic, entered the ser vice of the duke of Brunswick, and followed that prince, in 1676. privy-councilor and librarian, to Hanover, where he permanently fixed his residence. His literary services to this court were of a very miscellaneous character. After a tour of historical exploration he prepared a series of illustrating the history of the house of Brunswick, seven volumes of which. were published by himself. and two have been edited in our own time by Dr. Perz, Jimmies Imperil Occidenlis Brunswieensis (1843-45). He undertook. like wise the scientific direction and organization of the royal mines, into which he intro , ct ducal many improvements; and he also, at the desire of the prince, took an active part in the negotiation for church union, and the theological discussion's connected therewith, which formed the subject of a protracted correspondence with the celebrated Bossuet (q.v.) and with 3I, Pe;isson, and led to the preparation, on his own part, of a very emi ous exposition of doctrinal belief (published from his 3IS. within this century, under the title Sp&Ina Theo?ogicam), which, although written in the assumed character of a Catholic, was intended to form a basis of negotiation. His private studies, however, were chiefly philosophical and philological. His correspondence on these subjects was most extensive, and he contributed largely- to almost every literary and scientific journal of his day. He was the chief organizer of the academy of Berlin, of which he was the first president, and originated both at Dresden and Vienna a project for the establish ment of similar bodies. It was to him, likewise, that Peter the great, who invited him to a meeting at Torgau, and bestowed on him it pension of 1000 rubles, with the title of privy-councilor, owed the plan of the since celebrated academy of St. Petersburg. On
the accession of the elector George to the crown of Great Britain. as George I., Leibnitz was disappointed in his expectation of accompanying the prince to his new court; nor did he long survive that event. His death, which was rather unexpected, occurred at Hanover, Nov. 14, 1716. His biographers justly complain that his memory was treated with but little honor by his contemporaries; but a tardy atonement for their neglect has been recently offered by the erection of a monument in one of the squares of the city of Hanover. The scholarship of Leibnitz, as regards the vastness of i:s range, is probably unexampled. He was eminent in languages, history, divinity, philosophy, political studies, experimental science, mechanical science, and even belles-lettres. But it is chiefly through his philosophical reputation that he lives in history. It would be diffi cult to convey, in a popular sketch, a correct notion of his philosophical system, espe cially as he has nowhere himself methodized it. He was deeply influenced by the Cartesian philosophy, but he differed from Descartes both in his method and in some of his principles. 1 he most important peculiarities of Leibnitz's system may be reduced to four: his doctrine as to the origin of ideas, his theory of monads (q.v.), the "pre established harmony," and the theory of optimism (q.v.). Of these, three will be found discussed under separate heads. The pre-established harmony requires a few words of explanation. The object of this singular conception was to explain the mysterious problem of the joint action of mind and body, or even in general the joint action of any two or more of the so-called "monads," since Leibnitz held that no two "monads" could act upon each other. Descartes had resolved this problem by his theory of assist ance, which attributed all action to the direct assistance of God. Leibnitz, rejecting this hypothesis, supposed the mind and the body to be two distinct and independent machines, Each having its own independent though simultaneous action: hut both so regulated by a harmony pre-established by God, that their mutual actions shall corre spond with each other, and shall occur in exact and infallible unison. This harmony Leibnitz explained by the example of two time-pieces, one of which should be made to strike just as the other-pointed to the hour. In the same way, just at the moment when the mind freely determines itself to a particular act, the body, by a harmony pre arranged by God, will produce the particular action which is required to give efficacy to the volition of the mind. One of the most painful incidents in the literary and scientific history of Leibnitz was his controversy with Newton as to priority in the dis covery of the method of the calculus. See CALCULUS, FLuxioxs. Leibnitz was the inventor of a calculating-machine, the working-model of which is still preserved at Gbttingen. His works were first collected by Dutens, in 6 vols. 4to, Geneva; his philo sophical works by Raspe, Amsterdam, 1767; and his letters at Lausanne and Geneva, 2 vols. 4to, 1745. Other collective editions are those of Pertz (1843-62), Poucher de Cared (begun in 1859), and Klopp (begun in 1864). The best edition of Leibnitz's philo sophical works is Erdmann's (18-10): and the best life of Leibnitz is by Guhrauer, Leib nil; Eine Biographie, 2 vols. 8vo (Breslau, 1842).