Justin E. H. Smith

Some Poetry by Leibniz

This is from a letter in the LHv manuscripts, among the texts in the Ritterkatalog eventually to be included in Reihe VIII of the Akademie Edition. To see a scan of the original in the online Ritterkatalog, go here.

I have been working on transcribing the letter, but it is too messy towards the end for me to make out a clearly significant portion of the text. I am uncertain of the recipient and of the date, but judging from the handwriting and from the style it is almost certainly from the end of Leibniz's Paris period, 1675 or 1676.

The letter begins with a disarmingly sincere avowal of jealousy on Leibniz's part, at not having received letters from the addressee, whoever he or she (but almost certainly he) may be, while knowing nonetheless that a certain Abbé de Canisy, based in Normandy, continued to maintain an active correspondence with him or her (but almost certainly him).

It then moves on to an account of a letter Leibniz himself had sent to the same Abbé, in which he advises him of the importance of prohibiting the consumption of cider in Normandy and Brittany. He writes:

[J]e m'érigea en donneur d'avis, et je luy conseilla de faire défendre l'usage du Cidre, par ce que cette boisson estoit dangereuse, qu'elle n'estoit pas assez cuite par le soleil, et qu'elle faisoit monter a la teste certaines fumées grossieres capables de troubler les esprits des peuples. J'appuya cecy par des raisons et des experiences, et il faut qu'on les ait communiquées au Roy d'Angleterre, car c'est dépuis ce temps la qu'il a defendu l'usage public du Caffé, pour des motifs tous semblables.

[I set myself up as an advice-giver, and I encouraged him to have the consumption of cider outlawed, because this beverage was dangerous, because it was not sufficiently cooked by the sun, and because it caused certain heavy vapors, capable of troubling people's minds, to rise to the head. I backed this up with reasons and with evidence, and these must have been communicated to the king of England, for it is at that time that he prohibited the public consumption of coffee on similar grounds.]

Leibniz then confesses somewhat bashfully that he also included a poem in the letter to the abbot, intended to supplement the argument he had given against drinking cider:

J'avois adjouté des vers, qui contiennent mes raisons en racourcy. Les voicy, si vous les voyez dignes d'estre lûs.

[I added some verses, which include my reasons in abbreviated form. Here they are, if you consider them worthy of being read.]

So then, if you too consider them worthy of being read, here they are:

Normans enfoncez les tonneaux
Versez ce dangereux breuvage
Qui d'un peuple tranquille et sage
Peut faire un amas de brebaux.

L'air Breton est contagieux
Gardez vous d'en tirer l'haleine
Faites faire la quarantaine
Aux paysages audacieux.

On vous accorde assez d'esprit
Mais le Cidre en prend la partie,
Et en cas de quelque folie,
Dieu sçait si le reste suffit.

Mais j'y suis peut estre trompé
Et la nature toute sage
Vous fait encor un avantage
quand le vin vous est refusé.

Car si vous faites tant de bruit
Avec le surplus de souplesse
Avec le reste de finesse
Que le Cidre n'a pas détruit

Que feriez vous si la boisson
Estoit un peu plus genereuse,
La metamorphose est facheuse
Qui change un Normand en Gascon.

I've tried to translate the poem in a way that maintains at least a minimum of its poetic elements, in particular the enclosing rhyme scheme of the stanzas, while nonetheless giving first priority to the preservation of the general meaning:

Break your barrels, Normans,
Pour out this dangerous drink
Which transforms a people who think
Into a nation of morons.

The Breton air is contagious,
So content yourselves with breathing it,
Rather than thinking of leaving it
To suck something more outrageous.

You're endowed with adequate mind,
But on cider you've only a part left,
And God knows if you'll have enough art left,
To put paid to life's madness in kind.

But perhaps here I wrongly opine
And nature, with clear-sighted vantage,
Has seen to your nation's advantage
In refusing to let you drink wine.

For if you make so much noise,
With so much inborn ability,
With what's left of the natural agility
That the cider in large part destroys,

Then imagine if your flascons
Caused still greater a transformation,
And made of the great Normand nation
A mash more befitting Gascons.

Desiderata from Russia

[Ger'e, No. 179. Includes note: "Съ оригинала въ Моск. Арх. М. И. Д. Заглавiе заимствовано нами изъ письма Лейбница къ посланику Головкину. Напечатано у Посс. стр. 235."] circa 1712.

Es wird verlanget:

1) Ein catalogus der Bücher, die in Russland heraus kommen, sowohl derer so sich in den officien finden, als anderer.

2) Nachricht von den griechischen oder Russischen Manuscripten, so in den Clöstern Russlands und sonst in selbigen Landen sich finden.

3) Register gelehrter Leute sowohl Russen als ausländer, so in Seiner Grossczarischen Mt. Diensten oder sonst in dero Landen.

4) Nachricht von dem Mann aus japonien der durch Sturm an der Siberischen Küste angelandet, von dem Herr Vinnius umbstände wissen soll; und wenn der Mann noch vorhanden, köndte man noch mehr davon erfahren.

5) Nachricht von den Leuten aus Siberien so nach Norden fortgereiset und endtlich in warme Länder gekommen seyn sollen.

6) Beförderung der Proben von den Sprachen des grossen Reichs Seiner Mt. und angrenzenden Lande, welche Proben im Vater Unser, glaube und zehen gebothen in iede Sprache versezet, samt einer Russischen Version interlineari, auch vocabulario brevi nominum verborum et numerorum bestehen köndten.

7) Es wird auch verlangt ein Russisch dictionarium, oder vocabularium.

8) Eine Slavonische Grammatik.

9) Alte Russische Historische Bücher.

10) Das Buch genant Paterikon.

11) Russische Bibel, insonderheit das neue Testament neuer edition.

12) Das officium divinum in Russisch.

13) Catechismus Russicus. 

*

It would be desirable to have:

1) A catalog of books that are published in Russia, both those that are found in the officies [of state], as well as others.

2) News of the Greek or Russian manuscripts that are found in the monasteries of Russia and in [neighboring] lands.

3) A register of the learned people, both Russians as well as foreigners, who are in the service of His Great Majesty the Tsar, or are in his country for another reason.

4) News of the man from Japan who landed in a storm on the Siberian coast, about whose circumstances Herr Vinnius wishes to know; and if the man is still present, one could learn still more from him.

5) News of the people from Siberia who travelled into the North and who are said in the end to have arrived in a warm country.

6) Transmission of samples of the languages of the kingdom of His Majesty, as well as bordering countries, which could consist in samples of the Our Father, beliefs and prayers, written down in each language, together with an interlinear Russian version, as well as a concise vocabulary of nouns, verbs, and numbers. 

7) I would also like to have a Russian dictionary or vocabulary.

8) A manual of Slavonic grammar.

9) Old Russian historical books.

10) The book called Paterikon.

11) The Russian Bible, in particular the New Testament, in a new edition.

12) The officium divinum in Russian.

13) The Russian catechism.

De Animalibus

1672-6; LH 037, 02. 123v.

(To see a scan of the original manuscript, please go here. To read the original Latin, please click 'continue reading' below.)

The true opinion of Descartes appears to have been that animals think. Also in the book on the Method of contraries he appears to say this, indeed so that he should be more satisfying to the theologians, whose judgment he feared.  In his final letter to Henry More he did not show himself to be in doubt, but in the book on the passions, which is among the last, he said of the brutes that perhaps they do indeed think. This Malebranche did not notice. Lord Tschirnhaus believed himself to be able to show that there are no animals that do not arise from other animals.  Fleas and lice of various sorts are produced in various animals; various animals are able to produce themselves, where no animals were before. Redi performed experiments, [and] if he had followed them through, he would have arrived at this. There are at length certain black spots in men’s nostrils, and if they are pressed a sort of worm can be squeezed out of them, a larva, and this is confirmed by the example of pediculosis, but these perhaps demonstrate as much.  Visible animals often arise from invisible ones that make the air full, from indetectible spiders [come] these webs that fly through the air, which are called vulgarly Mariengarn ['Mary's thread'].  Fevers from the matter that has passed from the veins into the tissue.  Of course the supply of nutriment brings about extravasation, as other causes do constantly.  From here, blood is either expelled, or it stagnates.  If this arrives at the heart, and there brings about a fright because of its unaccustomed nature, the consumed matter returns in due time, and from here arise intermittent fevers. Artificial fever, if you poke yourself with a needle in the thumb, where on account of the hardness of the skin matter is not expelled well, and thus is carried by the blood to the heart, and brings about a little fever.  (Thus the doubt, for what is outside the vessels does not return to the heart.)  In dysentery there arises from a certain irritating matter a motion that is contrary to the peristaltic motion of the intestines, and from here, if nature should become accustomed [to this], the man dies.  Nor indeed can the one motion be made to harmonize with the other, and an untimely expulsion follows, and one that is opposed to nutrition.  A simple cure, if a man should not depart from his chair, and if he is turned every two hours, remaining until something is expelled.  Thereagter, a little concealed, he will sweat, and finally he will accept a hot broth.  These [things] suffice[:] the elements expel the irritant, opium diminishes the irritation. You will cure fever without a febrifuge if you sweat thoroughly, bringing down the fever; a certain person (though unfortunately) sweat only a little prior to paroxysm.  By a violent paroxysm the fright ceases, [and] the sweating ceases, and a slight cold is felt.  Thereupon, in turn, heat and sweat [followed], and thus the fever ceased.  (Fevers arising from wounds are artificial.)  It is noteworthy how tuberculosis comes about.

Peter the Great's Decree Appointing Leibniz to the Russian Justizrat

(I've retained as many of the features of the manuscript as possible. Two words remain undecipherable to me, though I confess my skills in early modern Slavonic paleography are a bit rusty. Translation to follow. I welcome comments from fellow Slavists.) 

Мы пεтръ пεрвыï Цръ и самѡдεржεцъ всεросиïскиï: Iпротчая ипротчая ипротчая; изобрѣли мы заблго ____ кȣрѳирстского икняжаго браȣнщвигъ люнѣбȣргъ таиного юстицъ рата готѳрида вилгεлма ѳонъ леïбница. Заεто намъ выхвалεнныя иот насъ изѡбрѣтεнныя изрядныя достоинства I искȣства тамождε внаши таиныя юстицъ раты опрεдεлить иȣчрεдить. Что намъ помεжε мы извεстны. Что ѡнъ поȣмножεнию матεматичεскихъ Iиныхъ искȣствъ ипроизыскиванью гисторεи ïкприрашεнию наȣкъ много вс'помоши можεтъ. Его поимεющемȣ нашεмȣ намѣрεнию что наȣки Iискȣства вншεмъ гдрствѣ вящεи цвѣтъ произошли употрεбить. Имы для вышεпомянȣтого εгѡ чина ншεго таиного юстицъ рата годовоε жалованьε потысячи ____ опрεдεлить изволили, которыя εмȣ отнасъ εжεгодно исправно заплачεны быть имѣютъ инчεму мы налεжащи Указы дать изволимъ. Аεто слȣжба начичаεтца снижεписанногѡ числа; воȣвεрѣние того сие заншимъ собствεннымъ рȣкопописаниεмъ игдрствεнною ншεю пεчатью Дано в Карлсьбадε [11 ноября] въ 1712 году. 

--

The manuscript is dated 11 November, 1712. Bodemann [El. Charl. 2, 324] provides a report from Elisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans from 10 December on Leibniz's meeting with the Russian Tsar a month prior:

"Es muß ein wildt wesen in Moskovien sein, ich finde also, daß herr Leibenitz groß recht hatt, nicht dahin gehen zu wollen.  Ich bin alß charmirt vom Czaar, wenn ich sehe, daß er so viel mühe nimbt, sein landt zu verbessern."

Which is to say:

"Muscovy must be a savage place. Thus I find that Herr Leibniz is right in not wishing to go there. I am as it were charmed by the Tsar, when I see how much care he takes to improve his country."

Note on Gout and 'the Vapors'

LH III 5, 56. To see the original manuscript, please go here.

25 janvier, 1676

Estant venu <un matin> chez Mons. l'Abbé de Gravel, pour aller avec luy à S. Germain, il me dit qu'il venoit de faire une operation de chirurgie sur luy même, contre la goutte, par precaution.  Je luy demanda ce que c'estoit.  Il me dit que son frere avoit appris en Allemagne, que lorsqu'on commence d'estre attaqué de la goutte, ou qu'on l'apprehende, il faut toutes les nouvelles lunes, le plus près du veritable temps de la nouvelle [lune], qu'on peut[,] faire des incisions ou scarifications sur le pouce du pied ou on commence a ressentir ou apprehender le mal, au dessus.  Son frere commenca a en avoir deux acces icy, il y a quelques temps; il s'en servit; le mal ne revient plus.  Luy y a deja ressenti quelques fois des douleurs de goutte bien plus violents encor que son frere la dessus.  il s'est servi de [c]e même remede, et le mal n'est plus revenu depuis.  Il n'y a rien de si raisonnable.  Car c'est la plus basse, et la derniere partie du corps, ou les humeurs les plus grossiers et les plus gluants ou Tartareux se rendent peu à peu, et enfin s'en durcissent; ou enflent au moins la partie.  C'est pourquoy il faut leur donner vent; cela sert à y remuer le sang, et à luy donner de l'air.  Il faut apres l'incision appliquer la ventouse.  La mode <des ventouses> des Allemands, avec les petites pointes qu'ils donnent, est bien plus commode; pour moy[,] je me souviens d'avoir entendu la même chose en Allemagne, comme un remede asseuré contre la goutte, quand elle seroit même confirmée. 

De Methodo botanica

Epistola G. G. Leibnitii ad A. C. Gackenholtzium, Medicinae Doctorem

(Transcribed from Dutens 1768 II ii, 169-74.  For my translation of this text, please go here.)

23 April. 1701.

I. De optima ratione plantas digerendi.  II. De optima dividendi methodo generatim.  III. De dividendi methodo recentiorum Botanicorum.  IV. De usu plantarum.  V. De diversa plantas dividendi methodo.  VI. De methodo Joachimi Jungii.  VII. De plantarum comparationibus non ex floribus tantum instituendis.  VIII. IX. X. De diversis plantas discriminandi capitibus.  XI. De re medica in melius provehenda, atque Ramazzini & Hoffmanni in eam meritis. 

I. Litteras tuas, doctrinae experientiaeque non vulgaris & adfectus erga me proni testes, recte accepi.  Volui autem e vestigio respondere, tum ut gratias tibi agerem, tum ut in in nonnullis mentem meam uberius explicarem.  Pulchre tu quidem & ex rerum argumentis mihi adstipularis, dum unis floribus in digerendis plantis nos non debere adstringi, radicum a me nominatarum exemplo, ostendis, quae magnae sunt varietatis capaces: possentque iis, quas memoras, differentiis addi ipsi radicum quarundam succi; quo in genere memorabile est, quod aiunt, camphorae genus haberi ex radice arboris cinamomi.  Equidem non improbo Virorum in re Botanica egregiorum ingeniosam diligentiam, qui commodiorem, quam hactenus, plantas digerendi rationem ex floribus invenere; interim considerari volui, ex uno divisionis fundamento rem non absolvi, nec doctrinae Botanicae recessus hac una methodo satis explicari. 

Corpus hominis et uniuscujusque animalis Machina est quædam (1680-82)

(For my English translation of this text, please go here. To see the original manuscript, please go here.)

LH III, 1, 2, 1-2; 1 folded folio page, 4 columns.  Previously published in a critical edition in Pasini 1996, and in Mahrenholz 1987 (text only, plus German translation. Date:1680-83 (watermark conclusively dated by Potsdam catalog to 1680; some terminology suggests a later date of composition). Published in a critical edition, with translation, by me, in the Leibniz Review (2007).

1. MACHINAE DESCRIPTIO COMMODISSIMÈ À FINALI CAUSA INCHOATUR.

Corpus hominis, quemadmodum et uniuscujusque animalis, Machina est quædam.  Machina autem omnis à finali causa optime definitur, ut in explicatione partium deinde appareat quomodo ad usum destinatum singulæ coordinentur.  Ita horologium quoddam descripturus dicet Machinam esse ad aequales temporis divisiones significandas factam, itaque opus esse indicis cujusdam aequabili motu <aliquandiutino, et ad hunc requiri porro> tum vim motricem qualis est à pondere vel elastro; tum moram ne vis subitò decurrat (quod rotis pariter et obstaculo reciprocante consequi licet;) tam denique regulam æquabilitatis, quæ imprimis à choclea elastri, aut ab oscillationibus cujusdam corporis sive gravis sive elastici, aut <etiam à> periodo quadam alibi à nobis explicata obtinetur. 

2. SCOPUS NATURAE IN PRODUCENDIS ANIMALIBUS VIDETUR, MACHINA MOTUS PERPETUI CERTA SUI SPECIE IN UNIVERSO QUOAD LICET CONSERVANDI.

Quanquam autem de finibus rerum consilioque naturae ante eventum judicare difficile sit; post rem peractam tamen de iis quae facere voluit, judicari potest ex illis quae fecit. Quare si totum hoc, quod admirabili Animalium artificio quantum licuit, consecuta est, in unam summam redigere velimus, notionemque satis simplicem constituere, caeteras omnes consequentiis complexam, dicemus: Corpora Animalium esse Machinas perpetui motus, sive ut clariùs dicam ad certam quandam ac singularem motus perpetui organici speciem semper in orbi conservandam comparatas.  <Ita quamdiu erunt araneae erunt machinae textrices quamdiu apes mellificatrices, quamdiu sciuri, saltatrices.  Scopus ergo naturae cum producit animal est machina motus perpetui quemadmodum contra scopus mechanicorum motum perpetuum irrito labore quaerentium est habere quoddam quasi animal quod alere necesse non sit.>  <Haec autem nostra> definitio animalis licet aenigmati similis videatur <si enim quaeratur quae sit Machina motus perpetui non statim qui vis divinabit intelligi Animal; non ideò tamen repudianda est, idem enim> saepe in illis contingit <definitionibus>, quae non sunt nominales sed reales sive causales, quoties nimirum à causis non statim ob viis [one word?] petuntur; quomodo autem ex hac una notione protinus compositio animalis universa derivetur <(nam plantae quidem licet speciem suam conservent motu tamen notabili carent machinaeque speciem non habent) hoc quidem> ita patebit.

De causis et curatione febrium (1704-5)

Nervi, membranae, tendines, fibrae continuum aliquod componunt, pervium etsi insensibiliter, per quod sensus motusque toto corpore propagatur.

In hoc multorum morborum sed Febrium maxime proxima causa consistit, nihilque est clarius quam tremorem, et pandiculationes in nervoso genere sedem habere.

In humoribus (id est fluidis sensibilibus corporis animalis[)] causa quidem remota collocanda est; et remotior adhuc in crassiore materia passim stabulante; sed proximam frustra in humorem putredine posuere veteres, aut in eorum fermentatione recentiores; unde symptomata non manifeste consequunture.  Constat horrorem febrilem interdum adeo afficere partes, ut vix digiti postea sine dolore moveri possint.  Inest ergo aliquid convulsioni cognatum.

De Secretione animali

17 Sept., 1715

Compellatus a te litteris, non humanissimis tantum, sed & plenis rerum purlcherrimarum, & tractantibus gravissimum argumentum; non mediocriter doleo, ita me nunc distractum occupatumque esse necessariis laboribus, ut, pro expectatione tua & voluntate mea, tibi satisfacere non possim.  Versor in opere ingenti historico, suscepto jussu superiore collectoque insigni adparatu, idque ut absolvam, studeo, dum vires supersunt, ne intercidat labor; urgetquedesiderium Magni Regis & eximiorum Principium.  Huic curae nunc omne tempus meum impendo, quod necessaria vitae officia ac valetudinis cura mihi relinquunt: omnesque meditationes Mathematicas, Philosophicas, Juridicas, quas adfectas habeo, seponere cogor.  Itaque pendent etiam commercia litteraria, & deprecari aut differreresponsiones ad epistolas amicorum cogor, donec mihi reddas.  Itaque diu est, quod etiam Hermanno nostro, Insigni Viro, respondere distuli, qui nunc pulcherrimum opus, de motuum aestimatione, a se editum, ad me misit, cui paucissima, nostra aetate, paria habentur.  Itaque, adactus ad scribendum illi, tibi etiam, Vir eximie, utcumque respondeo. 

Directiones ad rem medicam pertinentes (1671)

Man mus Instrumenta haben Urin und Puls genau zu betrachten, weil solches general zeichen seyn des Menschlichen zustandes.

    Vor die Urin ist nichts beßer als ein guthes Microscopium von einem glase, denn solches wird gar tausenterley dinge so sonst sich nicht finden in der Urin entdecken machen, und wir man in kurzer zeit zu solchen regeln kommen, so alle bisherige übertreffen.
    Ebenmäßig wird das zur adergelaßene blut können examinirt werden. Den Puls zu fuhlen ist nicht ohne daß die hände der geringsten Medicorum zu der perfection kommen werden alle differentien zu fühlen, so Galenus bermerket. Dahehr ist nüzlich daß die herrlichen gedancken, so der berühmte Marcu Marci in Sphygmica zu papyr gebracht, ins werck gerichtet würden.
    Die urin und bluth können auch mit gewicht, distillieren, durchseigen, mit und ohne feuer und auf andere weise probirt werden, sonderlich wenn man im Zweifel stehet.