PREFACE
In this country Leibniz has received less attention than any other of
the great philosophers. Mr. Merz has given, in a small volume, a general
outline of Leibniz's thought and work, Professor Sorley has written for
the Encyclopaedia Britannica a remarkably clear, but brief,
account of his philosophy, and there are American translations of the
Nouveaux Ensaiu and of some of his philosophical papers. That is
very nearly the whole of English writing about him. Yet few
philosophical systems stand so much in need of exposition as that of
Leibniz. His theories have to be extracted from seven large volumes of
correspondence, criticism, magazine articles, and other discursive
writings, and it is only in recent years that this material has been
made fully available by the publication of Gerhardt's edition. No
complete and detailed account of Leibniz's philosophy has hitherto been
published in English, and accordingly I have written a very full
Introduction to this book, with illustrative foot-notes, consisting
mainly of translations from Leibniz himself.
The endeavour of the book is to make the Monadology clear to
students. I cannot agree with Dillmann in treating it as of little
importance.
Leibniz himself expressly intended it to be a compact and ordered
statement of the views he had expounded in many scattered papers and in
his somewhat desultory Theodice'e, the only book he published.
There is evidence of this in his correspondence and in the fact that he
annotated the Monadology with references to passages in the
Theodiee'e. My original intention was to publish a translation of
these passages along with the Monadology, but on re-consideration
it seemed better to translate several short papers illustrating
different parts of Leibniz's system and explaining its growth. Thus the
Monadology, as being the centre of the book, is printed first of
the translations (although in date it is last), while the other writings
follow in chronological order. The only disadvantage of this arrangement
is that it places the Principles of Nature and of Grace, which is
most akin to the Monadology, farthest away from it.
If I might venture to suggest to the student the way in which the
book should be read, I would recommend him first to read Part I of the
Introduction, then the Monadology (without the notes), afterwards
Parts II and III of the Introduction, the Monadology again (with
the notes), the other translations, and finally Part IV of the
Introduction, in which I have endeavoured to ' place' the philosophy of
Leibniz in relation to the systems which came before and after his.
My indebtedness to authors is so great and varied that I cannot
acknowledge it in detail; but I may mention as specially helpful to me
the works of Boutroux, Dillmann, Nourisson, Nolen, and Stein. My thanks
are due to Professor Jones, of Glasgow, who read the Introduction in
manuscript, for much valuable suggestion and criticism; and I am more
than grateful to Professor Ritchie, of St. Andrews, who read the whole
book, both in manuscript and in proof, and to whom it owes numerous
improvements as well in form as in matter.
I have adopted the spelling ' Leibniz' in place of the traditional '
Leibnitz,' because the former was invariably used by Leibniz in signing
his own name.
It ought perhaps also to be mentioned that Parts II and III of the
Introduction were accepted by the University of Edinburgh as a thesis
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
ROBERT LATTA.
University or St. Andrews, June, 1898.
