l6 INTRODUCTION 



whom he met in England. Leibniz thought of leaving 

 Hanover ; but in later years his health had been some- 

 what broken, and on November 14, 1716, he died during 

 an attack of gout. His secretary, Eckhart, invited all 

 the people of the Court to his funeral, but not one of 

 them came, and Eckhart alone followed his master's body 

 to the grave. An acquaintance of Leibniz, John Ker of 

 Kersland 1 , who had come to Hanover on the very day 

 of Leibniz's death, says that he was buried ' more like 

 a robber than, what he really was, the ornament of his 

 country.' No minister of religion was present ; for 

 Leibniz was parcus deorum cultor et infrequens, and his 

 absence from church was counted to him for irreligion, 

 so that from priests and people he got the nickname 

 Ajjdvenix (the Low German for Glaubet nichts, believer in 

 nothing). The Berlin Academy and the Koyal Society 

 of London took no notice of his death ; but a year 

 afterwards Fontenelle commemorated it in a fine oration, 

 delivered before the Parisian Academy. 



Personal Characteristics. , 



As to the personal characteristics of Leibniz, Eckhart 

 tells us that he was of middle height, with a somewhat 

 large head, dark-brown hair, and small but very sharp 

 eyes. He was near-sighted, but had no difficulty in 

 reading, and himself wrote a very small hand. His lungs 

 were not strong, and he had a thin but clear voice, with 

 a difficulty in pronouncing gutturals. He was broad- 

 shouldered and always walked with his head bent for- 

 ward, so that he looked like a man with a humped back. 

 In figure he was slim rather than stout, and his legs 



1 A leader of the Scottish Cameronians. He lived on political 

 intrigue, and when his resources in England were failing him he 

 presented to the Emperor, through Leibniz, a project for privateer- 

 ing and buccaneering against the Spaniards in the Pacific. In 

 the Political Memoir containing Ker's proposals there is a curious 

 medley of religious considerations and the hope of gain. Cf. Foucher 

 de Careil, iv. 272 sqq. 



