Analysis of the Protogcea of Leibnitz. 5*7 



I am the rather inclraed to ofter it because of the erroneous char- 

 acter given of that work in a recent geological publication of Prof. 

 Brande. 



"Among the correspondents and opponents of Woodward, we 

 meet with several authors whose works are never read, and whose 

 names are falling fast into entire oblivion ; there v/ere others of 

 more celebrated memory, and among them Leibnitz, who, towards 

 the end of the 17th century, published his Protogsea, in which there 

 are little more than crude and improbable speculations, relating to 

 the agency of fire upon a supposed chaotic mass." 



It may be useful, before proceeding to the proposed analysis, to 

 notice the circumstances which had directed the mind of Leibnitz 

 to the subject of geology, and prepared him for the composition of 

 this work. 



No individual of the age iji which he lived, had formed so inti- 

 mate an acquaintance with all the dijEFerent departments of knowl- 

 edge. "That extraordinary genius," says Gibbon, speaking of 

 Leibnitz, " embraced and improved the whole circle of human sci- 

 ence ;" — he remarks however, in another place, that "he maybe 

 compared to those heroes whose empire has been lost in the ambi- 

 tion of universal conquest." He had made chemistry a particular 

 object of attention in early life.* On the death of the Elector of 

 Mentz, the Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg became his patron, and 

 establishing himself at Hanover in 1677, the next ten years of his 

 life were spent chiefly in that city. Most of the valuable mines in 

 the Hartz being within the territories of the Duke, who derived a 

 considerable revenue from them, and the successful prosecution of 

 operations there being obstructed by the accumulation of water, the 

 mechanical ingenuity of Leibnitz was put in requisition for creating 



* His scheme for acquiring a knowledge of chemistry, had in it perhaps as much 

 of cunning as probity. He heard at Nuremburg, that there was in the city a very 

 secret society of persons engaged in the study of that science and the pursuit of the 

 pliiiosopher's stone. The difficulty was to secure an admission amongst them. He 

 collected from the chemical books the expressions whose meaning he found himself 

 the least able to comprehend, and composed of them a letter wiiolly unintelligible 

 to himself, which he addressed to the director of the societ}^, demanding, on the 

 ground of the proofs therein exhibited of his extensive knowledge, to be admitted a 

 member of their body. It was not doubted that the author of the letter was an 

 adept. He was received witVi much honor in their laboratory ; requested to act as 

 their secretary, and by these methods made iiimself master of whatever knovyledge 

 lliey possessed. — Fontcnclh's Eloge. Bnicker''s Philosophy. 



Vol. XX.— No. 1. 8 



