INTRODUCTION 



PAKT I. 



THE LIFE AND WORKS OF LEIBNIZ. 



His Boyhood. 



ON June 21, 1646, two years before the close of 

 the Thirty Years' War, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 

 born at Leipzig. His family was of Bohemian origin ; 

 but his ancestors for several generations had lived in 

 Saxony and Prussia, and his father was a Professor of 

 Philosophy in the University of Leipzig. Leibniz was 

 only six years of age when his father died ; and, though 

 in his early years he had the training of a pious mother, 

 she also passed away before he had completed his Univer- 

 sity studies. The boys of Leipzig in Leibniz's time 

 appear to have been brought up on ' the picture-book of 

 Comenius and the little Catechism ' (Luther's) ; but the 

 soul of Leibniz already sought stronger meat, and having 

 found in the house an illustrated copy of Livy, of which 

 he could not thoroughly understand a single line, he 

 managed to get a tolerable idea of its contents, supple- 

 menting his scanty Latin by a study of the pictures and 

 some judicious guessing. As an indirect result of this 

 precocity, his father's library was thrown open to him, 

 and he wandered at will from volume to volume, finding 

 (as was ever characteristic of him) some good in all 1 . 



1 ' It is characteristic of me to hold opposition (Widerlegeri) as of 



B 



