LIFE AND WORKS 9 



deavour after a more satisfactory metaphysic he after- 

 wards made a considerabl_e_jjtady_ ofJPlato, and in 1676 

 he translated the Phaedo and the Theactetus. Towards 

 the end of 1675 Leibniz became acquainted with the 

 young Bohemian nobleman, Tschirnhausen, Spinoza's 

 acute critic and correspondent, who was at that time in 

 Paris, and who had earlier in the same year written 

 some of the remarkable letters on account of which his 

 name will always be associated with that of Spinoza 1 . 

 Leibniz had already (in 1671) written to Spinoza from 

 Frankfort about a question of optics ; but now Tschirn- 

 hausen seems to have aroused in him the hope that 

 a solution of the difficulties of Cartesianism might be 

 found in the unpublished system of Spinoza. In 

 November, 1675, a medical friend of Spinoza in Amster- 

 dam (G. H. Schuller) wrote to him: * Von Tschirnhausen 

 further mentions that he has found at Paris a man called 

 Leibniz, remarkably learned and most skilled in various 

 sciences, as also free from the vulgar prejudices of 

 theology. With him he has formed an intimate acquain- 

 tance, founded on the fact that Leibniz labours with him 

 to pursue the perfection of the intellect, and, in fact, 

 reckons nothing better or more useful. Von Tschirnhausen 

 says that he is most practised in ethics, and speaks with- 

 out any impulse derived from the passions, but by the 

 sole dictate of reason. He adds that he is most skilled in 

 physics, and also in metaphysical studies concerning God 

 and the soul. Finally, he concludes that he is most 

 worthy of having communicated to him the master's 

 writings, if you will first give your permission, for he 

 believes that the author will thence gain a great ad- 

 vantage, as he promises to show at length, if the master 

 be so pleased. But if not, do not doubt in the least that 



errors, his physics is too hasty, his geometry is too limited, and 

 his metaphysics has all these faults combined' (G. i. 328). 



1 Letters, 57 sqq. Van Vloten and Land, vol. ii. p. 204 ; Bruder, 

 vol. ii. p. 321 (Letters, 61 sqq.). 



