THE MONADOLOGY 1 . 1714. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



THE Monadology is one of the latest of the works of Leibniz, 

 having been written at Vienna in 1714, two years before his 

 death. On this last visit of his to Vienna he had met the 

 soldier prince Eugene of Savoy, who (probably through Queen 

 Sophia Charlotte of Prussia) had heard of the one great work 

 Leibniz had hitherto published, the Theodicee, which appeared 

 in 1710. Having read the Theodice'e, Prince Eugene begged 

 Leibniz to write for him a condensed statement of the main 

 principles of his philosophy, and having obtained this, in the 

 form either of what we now call the Monadology or of the 

 Principles of Nature and of Grace, he was so delighted with it 

 that he kept it like a jewel in a case, so that his friend, Count 

 Bonneval, wrote to Leibniz, perhaps with a touch of humorous 

 exaggeration : ' He keeps your writing as the priests at Naples 

 keep the blood of St. Januarius ; he lets me kiss it and imme- 

 diately shuts it up again in its casket.' (Guhrauer, ii. 287.) 



The Monadology was written in French; but it was not 

 published in its original form until 1840, when Erdinann, 

 who had discovered the MS. in the Royal Library at Hanover, 

 printed it in his edition of the philosophical works of Leibniz. 

 German and Latin translations of it appeared in 1720 and 1721, 

 and it was for a long time combined with the Principles of 



1 Erdinann gave the name ' La Monadologie ' to this work when lie 

 published it in 1840. Kohler published a German version of it in 

 1720, under the title: Lehrsatze uber die Monadologie, &c. Dutens 

 gives a Latin translation of the German and entitles it : Principia 

 philosophiae seu theses in gratiam Principis Eugenii. The original 

 MSS. have no title. 



