Analysts of the Protogea of Letbnitz. 57 
1 am the rather inclined to offer it because of the erroneous char- 
acter given of that work in a recent geological publication of Prof. 
rande. , 
“Among the correspondents and opponents of Woodward, we 
meet with several authors whose works are never read, and w 
names are falling fast into entire oblivion; there were others of 
more celebrated memory, and among them Leibnitz, who, towards 
the end of the 17th century, published his Protogwa, in which there 
are little more than crude and improbable speculations, relating to 
the agency of fire upon a supposed chaotic mass.” 
It may be useful, before proceeding to the proposed analysis, to 
notice the circumstances which had directed the mind of Leibnitz 
to the subject of geology, and prepared him for the composition of 
this work. 
No individual of the age in which he lived, had formed so inti- 
mate an acquaintance with all the different departments of knowl- 
edge. “That extraordinary genius,” says Gibbon, speaking of 
Leibnitz, “embraced and improved the whole circle of human sci- 
ence ;”——he remarks however, in another place, that “he may be 
compared to those heroes whose empire has been lost in the ambi- 
tion of universal conquest.” He had made chemistry a particular 
object of attention in early life.* On the death of the Elector of 
Mentz, the Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg became his patron, and 
establishing ‘himself at Hanover in 1677, the next ten years of his 
life were spent chiefly in that city. Most of the valuable mines in 
the Hartz being within the territories of the Duke, who. derived a 
Considerable revenue from them, and the successful prosecution of 
Operations there being obstructed by the accumulation of water, the 
mechanical ingenuity of Leibnitz was put in requisition for creating 
mee a te ed 
Stound of the proofs therein exhibited of his extensive knowledge, to be admitted a 
Member of their body. 1t was not doubted that the author ef the letter was an 
fe was received with much honor in their laboratory ; requested to act as 
their secretary, and by these methods made himself master of whatever knowledge 
they possessed.— Fontenelle’s Kluge. Brucker’s Philosophy. 
Tr 
Vou. XX.—No. 1. 8 
