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Source: Correspondenz von Leibniz mit der Prinzessin Sophie vol II Onno Klopp (ed) pp 396-397 Part of this letter can also be found in: Die philophischen schriften von Gottfried Wilheim Leibniz, vol. VI C. I. Gerhardt (ed) pp 520-521 Date: 18 November 1702 Translated from the French View this translation in PDF format (11k) Back to home page Search texts by category: METAPHYSICS MIND, BODY AND SOUL FREE WILL AND NECESSITY SCIENCE POLITICS, LAW AND ETHICS THEOLOGY |
LEIBNIZ TO ELECTRESS SOPHIE[K II p396] Extract from my letter to Madam the Electress Berlin 18 November 1702 The court of Berlin, it is said, has made a treaty with the emperor which entails that, with regard to grants due by Spain, the emperor will give satisfaction to the king proportionally on behalf of the Spanish monarchy, which he will be able to obtain. That seems reasonable to me, and we would have grounds to request as much of him. But it seems that the matter of the electorate sometimes absorbs our other interests. Lord Woodstock tells us of Mr Jacquelot that some held him to be suspected of Socinianism, and although pressed by his friends he has never wanted to explain himself. But I believe that he did not think it worthy of him to stop these vague rumours. Count Fleming,1 having read my paper,2 which was written in order to give Mr Toland the opportunity to display his wonderful mind, if he had wanted to reply to it, wrote a rather nice letter to the Queen3 about it, in which he says that the immaterial is active, and the material passive. And that an inferior activeness, having formed a body with its passiveness, is very often subject to another [K II p397] superior activeness, and in that way simple life makes a living body; but that a higher activeness, to which this living body takes the place of matter, makes an animal. And that the animal itself takes the place of matter with regard to the activeness from which man is made. And that even man is like matter to the prize of the supreme activeness that is the divinity. I wrote a few words on that to the Queen, where I said that Count Fleming inadvertently establishes the incarnation of God. For just as activeness joined to the animal makes man, so the divinity joined to man would make the man-God. It is true that ultimately the divinity is joined, albeit less closely, to all creatures, and that all creatures have their degree of activity and order, which makes them imitate the divinity, and even that all true or simple substances, which is to say those that are not an assemblage of other things, must always subsist, etc. NOTES: 1. Jakob Heinrich von Fleming (1667-1728), a Saxon nobleman. Leibniz often referred to him as a Count. 2. Probably 'Reflections on the doctrine of a single universal spirit'. 3. Sophie Charlotte. Fleming's letter to her is now lost. © Lloyd Strickland 2003 |