largest army* that England ever counted in the field is preparing to return, crowned with laurels, to its native land. May the peace that they, together with our allies, the gallant French and the brave Sardinians, have achieved for us, be as lasting as their valour has been unfailing and their arms triumphant. We linger in fancy over this remote corner of the earth, where lie buried so many whom we loved and honoured, and from whence has sprung that glorious end for which alone they fought, bled, and conquered!

ART. II.-PSYCHOLOGY OF LEIBNITZ.†

BY PROFESSOR HOPPUS, LL.D.

THE speculative science of the Germans must be regarded as dating from LEIBNITZ. The name of Puffendorf, indeed, is generally placed first among those writers who have contributed to the formation of an indigenous German philosophy; but he cultivated only one branch-jurisprudence. Leibnitz was in every sense universal. Our limited space obliges us to condense to the utmost as plain an account as we can give of the main psychological and metaphysical speculations, sometimes vagaries, of this great master-genius.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz was born at Leipzig in 1646. He was contemporary with Newton, Clarke, Locke, Spinoza, Malebranche, and other celebrated men; and he was not eclipsed amidst the splendour of such a constellation-micat inter omnes. The period was favourable to the influence of such a mind: former polemic heats were allayed; and there was a growing taste for research, and for scientific intercommunication; witness the efforts, to this end, of Wallis in England, and Mersenne in France. Germany was prepared to take her part in this favourable crisis; and, in that country, Leibnitz's influence may be traced in almost every branch of speculation down to recent times. He, alone, is to Germany what Locke and Newton are to England. But his fame is European; and it is well remarked by Dugald Stewart, that his "best eulogium is furnished by the literary history of the eighteenth century." At school he was ardently devoted to classical learning; and he afterwards entered the University of Leipzig, in which his father was professor of *Times, April 8, 1856:

"We have to keep that army in efficiency, if not in full numbers, and, should it suffer any decay, should it crumble into regiments, should it disappear in country quarters and colonial stations, and have no aggregate existence except in the monthly list, showing whereabouts in the world each hundredth part of the army happens to be buried, we are sure that the Government of this country will be held responsible for the calamities certain to fall on us in the next great war.' +"Leibnitzii Opera Philosophica quæ extant omnia." Berlin. (By Professor Erdmann.)

jurisprudence. Here, though he studied for the law, he applied himself intensely to almost every branch of knowledge, but especially to mathematics and philosophy; and, in pursuit of the latter, he devoted much time to Plato and Aristotle. He early formed the project of laying the foundation of a new and improved system of knowledge, in the attempt to combine whatever he could harmonize in the views and methods of these ancients, with those of Descartes. His prodigious memory enabled him to retain and recal his immense reading, but did not damp his ardour for new discoveries, and for intercourse with all the great men of his day who came within his reach. Almost fabulous statements are made of his vast industry; but, no doubt, in this, as in other things, he surpassed ordinary mortals, though it must be an exaggeration to state, as Fontenelle does, that he "did not leave his study-chair, day or night, for weeks together." So anxious was he for knowledge of all kinds, that he was ready to identify himself, for the sake of it, even with pretenders or fanatical devotees to science. When still in his youth, he joined a society of alchemists, at Nüremberg; into which he craved admission by writing a letter to the adepts, which was so appropriately obscure and mystical as to induce them eagerly to elect him as their secretary. His more public literary and scientific career may be dated from the time when he was persuaded to withdraw from this confraternity by the Baron von Boineburg, chancellor of the Elector of Mentz, and whose valuable patronage he now obtained.

The amount of Leibnitz's writings is immense; yet throughout all his speculative pieces one idea reigns-that of a prima philosophia, a science of first principles, which is to be the basis of all systematic knowledge. But though his aim was thus one and unique, his writings were for the most part inspired by occasions, and were miscellaneous, often of a fragmentary character, found in reviews and detached pieces, or in his extensive correspondence. All are constantly marked by the same tendency to general principles and fundamental truths, and to the harmonizing of previous and apparently discordant systems, ancient and modern―by the fertile and inventive character of his imagination, and by his inclination to introduce mathematical ideas into general subjects. By adopting demonstrative methods in the psychological and moral sciences, he sanguinely hoped to put an end to controversy. In thus maintaining that the methods and spirit of mathematics should be carried into all other studies, he symbolized with Descartes and Spinoza, however much he differed from them in other respects. He first distinguished himself in 1664, on taking his Master's degree, when about eighteen years of age, by his inaugural thesis de Principio Individuationis, in which he

shows an accurate acquaintance with certain phases of the scholastic philosophy, and takes the side of the nominalists in regard to the question of universals. He also here claims a real positive existence for individual objects, contrarily to the views of Spinoza; and sustains his opinions by appealing to Aureolus, Gregory Arimensis, Gabriel Bird, Durandus, and others, whom he either quotes or refers to. We must not attempt to give a particular account of his treatises, which now followed each other in quick succession; and which, from first to last, compassed almost the entire circle of human knowledge. We can only touch on a few of these pieces-chiefly those which bear more closely on psychological matters. His "Ars Combinatoria," 1666, and his posthumous fragment entitled, "Historia et Commendatio Linguæ characteristicæ universalis," both relate to an idea which he conceived when 16 years of age, of framing an alphabet of human thought, which should comprise the most simple elements of our ideas, and express their combinations. There was some analogy between this scheme and some recent methods* which propose to reduce reasoning, or even thought in general, to an algebraical calculus. Leibnitz was astonished, he tells us, that such a method had escaped Aristotle and Descartes: but he never followed it out into the actual construction of a universal language. It is curious, that about this time, our philosopher employed his logic to persuade the Poles to choose the Prince of Neuburg to their elective monarchy; but though he brought into the field a phalanx of sixty propositions, bristling with axioms rigorously applied, his logic was not strong enough to seat the prince on the throne.

Leibnitz was now rapidly rising to honour, and he was made a councillor and chancellor of justice to the Elector of Mentz: but he still thirsted after knowledge; and his next project was an Encyclopædia of learning, on the basis of that of Alstedius: however, this, like many other gigantic enterprises which he conceived, was never realised. Amidst his other works on law, politics, history, philosophy, and two on mechanical principleswhich latter were rejected by men of science as resting on no solid basis,--we see a "Defence of the Doctrine of the Trinity, on the principles of Logic"!+ Soon afterwards we find Leibnitz inventing an arithmetical machine, intended as an improvement on that of Pascal, and which is still to be seen at Göttingen. He rejected, about this time, the place of Pensioner of the French Academy, as it would have involved his professing the Catholic religion; yet this discursive, and sometimes eccentric genius, in a work on German diplomacy, actually propounded a * Particularly by Professors De Morgan and Boole.

+"Sacrosancta Trinitas per nova argumenta logica defensa," 1670. NO. IIL-NEW SERIES. Z

scheme for making the pope the head of the Protestant as well as the Catholic Church in the west, the German emperor being the co-ordinate civil ruler. The idea was that of a general government for Europe. Leibnitz actually corresponded with Bossuet on the subject of a Catholico-Protestant union, on the principle of mutual concessions. A year or two afterwards we have a new phase of our author in his "Protogæa," a work on the formation of the earth, and of which Dr. Buckland has recorded that it contains germs of the most enlightened speculations of modern geological science. In 1710 appeared Leibnitz's celebrated work, "Essai de Theodicée," in which are contained his doctrines of pre-established harmony and optimism. It is, in short, a defence of the wisdom of God, viewed in connexion with the existence of evil; and it was aimed against the atheism of Bayle. His "Monadologie" was posthumously published, and was composed for Prince Eugéne of Savoy. Just before his death, Leibnitz was engaged in the celebrated controversy with Dr. Samuel Clarke, on freewill, the reality of space, and other knotty points, which were all discussed in a series of letters, in 1715 and 1716; in which great learning is exhibited on both sides, with occasional sharpness of retort on the part of our philosopher. His important work, "Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement Humain," was not published in his life-time. It was written as early as 1704, in answer to Locke's Essay; but Leibnitz did not publish it, on account of Locke's death: "for," (said he in a letter to Remonde) "I cannot bring myself to publish refutations of deceased authors."

The fame of Leibnitz during his lifetime was perhaps rarely equalled. Even crowned heads did him honour. The German Emperor awarded to him a pension of two thousand florins, with the dignity of Baron of the Holy Roman Empire, and Aulic councillor; and the Czar Peter conferred on him the title of privy-councillor with a pension, in return for his advice in regard to the civilisation of the Russian people. His talents were undoubtedly great, and his ambition was greater. He even tried his hand at poetry; but, like Cicero, he did not find the muse propitious, and he gained no laurels by her inspiration. He wrote a piece* in recommendation of the study of his native tongue, but he composed very little in it. Frederic Schlegel remarks that "it is a pity that he did not write his philosophical works in German: it would have been impossible to have left so many divinely illuminated thoughts to swim in such a sea of sciolism (halbheiten) as, alas! has often happened in the barbarous scholastic Latin, and in French."+ It was half a century * Vid. "Collectanea Etymologica," Dutens, vi. p. 651. † “ Einleitung zu Lessing's Gedanken.”

later before German assumed the position which it now holds among the languages of Europe. Some of Leibnitz's remarks show that he himself was not fully aware of its resources and its flexibility.* His Latin style is not generally elegant or pleasing, and it often contains Gallicisms. It was not, on the whole, such as to expose him to be beaten by the angel, as was said of one of the Fathers, for writing with the pen of Tully. It is less remarkable that his French prose should occasionally fall into Germanisms; but his French style is not wanting in simplicity and force, and it is often marked by a great combination of life, point, and beauty.

There has never, that we are aware, been a complete edition. of Leibnitz's writings. Probably no one has ever waded through all the vast heterogeneous matter that has actually seen the light. Dutens's edition (Geneva, 1768) is in six quarto volumes, of from 600 to 1000 mortal pages each; but it is far from containing all. Raspe published an important collection, entitled "Œuvres Philosophiques de feu M. Leibnitz." In 1805, Feder added a selection of letters never before printed. In 1840, Professor Erdmann, of Berlin, published "Leibnitzii Opera Philosophica quæ extant omnia," in one volume, which is a much more complete collection of his pieces on speculative philosophy than is to be found either in Dutens or Raspe. In 1845, M. Jaques published a selection from Leibnitz's philosophical writings, at Paris. Our author has had many biographers, of whom the most recent is Guhrauer, who has made valuable additions to our knowledge of this great man. We have some curious autobiographical fragments, in which Leibnitz describes the development of his own mind. He here tells us how he invented for himself an original method of studying Latin. He began by devouring Livy, and the Chronological Thesaurus of Calvisius." The latter he easily managed, because he had a German book on the same subject; but Livy required to be "devoured" secundum artem. He at first chiefly pored over the words immediately under the wood-cuts, and, at all events, missed everything which seemed obscure and difficult. This operation. he repeated several times, and every time understood more and more, till at last almost all was plain, and this "without a dictionary."

He also informs us how his master wanted to check his ardour, on pretence of regulating his studies, but really on account of his own ignorance; how he read Latin pretty well, knew some Greek, and made verses, at twelve years of age. Logic seems to have been next attacked, and our author says

* "Euvres de Leibnitz," Dutens, v. 331.