The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-14
BICENTENARY
 OF LEIBNITZ

-ne of the most brilliant names in [ German literature and philosophy Is that of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, who died in Hanover just two centu- ries ago to-day, Nov. 14, 1716. Teu- ton savants in the German universi- ties and centers of scientific research will honor his memory to-day, for. all ! though he did not excel in any one branch of learning, he was an inspi- ration to all
 Leibnitz was a universal, versatile genius, and, while he is best known as a mathematician and moral philOS- opher, he was equally interested in theology, physics, metaphysics, juris- prudence, history, philology, antiqui- i ties and the classics. In fact, 1t was i his versatility, his great diversity of interests, which prevented him from becoming one Of the greatest men of [ all time.
 Unlike most Teuton philosophers, Leibnitz was not lacking in interest in practical affairs. He invented call , culating machine and a universal al- phabet, made improvements in watch es, devoted much thought to hydrau- lie engines, and labored long on a project for line of swift carriages by which the distance between Han over and Amsterdam, about 150 miles, could be covered in twenty-four hours. His speculations on geology were high ly useful to later investigators in that branch of science. Throughout his life he dabbled in medicine, and he died, in his seventieth year, as the result of taking medicine of his own 1inh ho greatly prolong life. In some ways he was a herald of the coming age of sci ence and rationalism, while in others he was intensely superstitious and credulous. He fervently believed in the philosophers stone. which should transmute everything it touched into gold, and for some years was associat- ed with a company of alchemists en- gagged in that quest.
 Leibnitz had hearty dislike for the German language, and practically all of his works were written in Latin or French. AS a mathematician his greatest fame rests on the invention of the differentiaI calculus, although he shares this honor with Sir Isaac Newton. A bitter controversy was long waged over this point, but 1t is now generally held that Newton had priority, but that Leibnitz arrived at the same result entirely independent of Newton.
 Leibnitz had number of royal pa irons, chief of whom were Peter the Great of Russia and Queen Sophia Charlotte, wife of Frederick, the first Prussian king. She was a republi- can and philosopTic queen in an age of feudalism and superstition, and 'Ie grand Leibnitz," as she called him, : was her principal teacher and closest friend.
 Throughout his mature life Leibnitz carried on an immense correspondence with the most illustriOus scholars of Europe. He wrote all his letters with great care, often rewriting an epistle several times He united the leading thinkers of Christendom by an inter- change of ideas, and to no single per son is the civilized world more indebt- ed for the literary commerce between nations.
 Of the many stories told of the rath- CT eccentric bachelor savant, one of the most amusing deals with his ex- perience while he was a passenger in a vessel off the Italian coast. A storm threatened the ship with destruction, and the captain attributed it to the presence of the German heretic. He suggested to the mate that it would board. The philosopher, who under