Source:

Sämtliche schriften und briefe series I, volume 14
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed)
pp 195-197


Date: 9/19 May 1697

Translated from the French


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METAPHYSICS
MIND, BODY AND SOUL
FREE WILL AND NECESSITY
SCIENCE
POLITICS, LAW AND ETHICS
THEOLOGY

LEIBNIZ TO ELECTRESS SOPHIE CHARLOTTE


[A I 14, p195]

To Madam the Electress of Brandenburg
Hanover, 9 May 1697
     Madam

     It is by an order of Madam the Electress of Brunswick1 that I dare to take the liberty of sending this package of books to Your Electoral Serenity. Mr Helmont, before [A I 14, p196] leaving here,2 charged me to obtain a new printing of the very well made German version of the famous book by Boëthius, Roman consul in the time that the Goths were masters of Rome. Although this book, entitled The Consolation of Philosophy (copies of which will be delivered with this letter)3 always had the general approval of the cleverest people, nevertheless Mr Helmont believed, with reason, that it would be even better received in the world at present if it had the approval of two great Electresses,4 whose spirit is no less elevated than their position, and who appear to possess, by a unique gift of heaven, the ability to judge soundly of these sublime matters which are beyond the capacity of common and secular souls. Mr Helmont is especially fond of this book, because he believes he notices traces of Pythagorean sentiments in it. But putting that aside, it must be acknowledged that the author says some very fine and very sensible things about the order of the universe. For with regard to the successes of bad people, the misfortunes of good people, the brevity and everyday evil of human life, and a thousand apparent disorders that present themselves to our eyes, it seems that everything occurs by chance. But those who examine the interior of things find everything so well ordered there that they would not be able to doubt that the universe is governed by a sovereign intelligence, in an order so perfect that, if one understood it in detail, one would not only believe, but would even see that nothing better could be wished for. So the apparent disorders are only like certain chords in music which sound bad when one hears them by themselves, but which a skilful composer leaves within his work because in joining them with other chords they increase enjoyment, and render the whole harmony more beautiful. And just as what we see now is only a very small portion of the infinite universe, and as our present life is only a small fragment of what must happen to us, one must not be astonished if all the beauty of things is not initially revealed there; but we will enter into it more and more, and it is for precisely that reason that it is necessary that we change our situation. It is more or less as the movements of the stars appear irregular to those who only look at them for a few years, yet the order of centuries has made it known that there is nothing so beautiful or so regular. This is why the common man does not conceive these things, he does not raise himself to the general order at all, he does not know even his own religion, and having only false ideas of the divinity, he drifts between superstition and the always ill-founded libertinism, [A I 14, p197] depending on whether he fears evil or whether he fears nothing. But what is the point of talking more about these things which Boëthius explains much better, and which your sublime spirit conceives even better than Boëthius would be able to say? I only thought that it was appropriate that I gave some idea of the book that I send, being with an ardent devotion etc.




NOTES:

1. Electress Sophie. Leibniz is referring to Sophie's letter to him of 18 or 19 May 1697 (see A I 14, p3) in which she instructed him to send copies of Boëthius' book to Sophie Charlotte.
2. Francis Mercury van Helmont (1614-1698). He visited Hanover in March 1696 and again in August and September 1696.
3. Leibniz sent 25 copies of the book with this letter.
4. Leibniz means Electresses Sophie and Sophie Charlotte.


© Lloyd Strickland 2003
With thanks to Geert de Wilde