LIFE AND WORKS 15 



the Harz Mountains, and in connexion with this he 

 studied and wrote on geological subjects and on the 

 currency. But, above all, the interest of Leibniz in these 

 later years lay in the endeavour to extend science and 

 civilization throughout Europe. With this end in view, 

 he, who (according to Frederick the Great) was an 

 Academy in himself, succeeded after much effort in 

 obtaining the foundation of an Academy at Berlin, of 

 which he himself was appointed the first president 

 (1700). Afterwards he made long-continued but un- 

 successful attempts to induce the King of Poland, the 

 Czar, and the Emperor to found similar Academies at 

 Dresden, St. Petersburg, and Vienna. He had Inter- 

 views with Peter the Great, whom he expected to 

 become 'the Solon of Russia,' and he lived for some 

 time in Vienna, where he tried to bring about an alliance 

 between the Czar and the Emperor. Charles VI favoured 

 his projects for the founding of learned societies, and he 

 was also strongly supported by Prince Eugene of Savoy, 

 for whom in 1714 he wrote the Monadologie (or, as 

 Gerhardt maintains, the Principes de la Nature et de la 

 Grace). But Europe was full of wars and rumours of 

 wars, and the peaceful plans of Leibniz were set aside. 

 The Berlin Academy had a struggling existence, and no 

 other was founded until long after Leibniz's death. 



The happiest years of the life of Leibniz were now 

 over. The Duke of Brunswick 1 died in 1698, and 

 Leibniz seems gradually to have lost favour with his son 

 and successor, our George I. After the death of his 

 friends, 'the two Electresses,' Sophia and Sophia Charlotte 

 (the mother and the sister of George I), Leibniz's position 

 became intolerable. George I succeeded to the English 

 crown in 1714, and his prejudices against Leibniz, shown 

 in his displeasure on account of the latter 's residence in 

 Vienna, were encouraged by some of Newton's friends, 



1 Successor of the duke who had originally appointed Leibniz to 

 the librarianship at Hanover. 



