modern German speculative philosophy and worthy to be named with Kant himself; and, withal, an eminent scientist, 'a man of science, in the modern sense, of the first rank,' as Professor Huxley calls him,—these are a few of his claims to consideration."
And the same author remarks as to the value of the present selection from his writings:
"The profound and quickening thought of this most comprehensive thinker since Aristotle was never presented by him in a more simple and untechnical form than in his Discourse on Metaphysics and the correspondence with Arnauld relating thereto. These together with the Monadology, the last systematic presentation of his philosophy written by him a quarter of a century later, are here, at a nominal price, made accessible to the general reading public and to university students. If one will read these letters between Leibniz and Arnauld, and then the Discourse on Metaphysics, and finally the Monadology—and that is the best order in which to read the book—one will be introduced in the simplest and the best possible way to Leibniz's philosophy. The Discourse on Metaphysics is probably the best account of his philosophy which he ever wrote. His views underwent but little modification between the writing of the Discourse of Metaphysics and the writing of the Monadology. The only important difference is in the introduction in the latter of a more artificial terminology."
In the present volume, therefore, The Open Court Publishing Company hopes to have rendered a considerable service to the philosophical public.
La Salle, Ill.,
- August 20, 1902.
