means by various recent publications,[1] suggests some meditation upon the leading events in his biography, accompanied with a few historical and speculative notices, as an introduction to that great department of knowledge of which he was so distinguished a cultivator, viz., Metaphysical Philosophy.
Perhaps these two last words are fitted to excite feelings of repugnance in the minds of some readers, as relating to something that is conceived to be at best vague and unproductive. The tendencies of public opinion in Great Britain, in the former half of this century, have evidently been greatly averse from these speculations. The section of society given to abstract meditation has never in any age been a large one; and the recent wide extension of a certain measure of intelligence has perhaps helped to diminish it, by putting the current lite-
- ↑ E.g. 1. God. Gul. Leibnitii Opera Philosophica quae extant Latina, Gallica, Germanica omnia. Edita recognovit e temporum rationibus disposita pluribus auxit Introductione Critica atque indicibus instruxit Joannes Eduardus Erdmann, Phil. Doct. et Prof. Publ. Ord. in Univers. Halens. Pars Prior. Pars Altera. Berlin, 1839-1840.
2. Œuvres de Leibnitz, Nouvelle Edition, collationée sur les meilleurs textes, et précédée d'une Introduction. Par M. Amedee Jacques, Professeur de Philosophie au Collége Royal de Versailles. Paris, 1842.
3. Œuvres de Locke et Leibnitz, contenant l'Essai sur l'Entendement Humain, revu, corrigé, et accompagné de Notes; l'Eloge de Leibnitz, par Fontenelle; le Discours sur la Conformité de la Foi et de la Raison; l'Essai sur la Bonté de Dieu, la Liberté de l'Homme, et l'Origine du mal, la controverse reduite à des argumens en forme. Par M. F. Thurot, Professeur de Philosophie au Collége de France, et à la Faculté des Lettres. Paris, 1839.
4. Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibnitz—Eine Biographie. Von Dr. G. E. Guhrauer. Zwei Bände. Breslau, 1842.
5. Exposition de la Doctrine Philosophique de Leibnitz. Œuvres de Victor Cousin.
