THE LIFE

...Clerk of the University, and of Catherine, daughter of Wilhelm Schmuck The original French text uses the name "Guillaume Schmuck.", Doctor and Professor of Law at the University of the same city. His mother's sister was married to Johann Strauch The original French uses the Latinized "Jean Strauchius." Strauch (1612–1667) was a prominent legal scholar., Secretary of the City of Brunswick, and a famous jurisconsult A legal expert or scholar who provides authoritative opinions on the law.. He also had several relatives among the Lutheran ministers, who for that reason could not be entirely unlearned; so that Mr. Leibnitz, born into the heart of a family of men of letters A term for the "Republic of Letters," the international community of intellectuals and scholars in the 17th and 18th centuries., had to regard himself early on as a man destined for the same profession.

It was not, however, that he lacked domestic examples which could have turned his sights in another direction and led him to take up the profession of arms. Paul Leibnitz, his great-uncle, had served in Hungary with enough distinction to merit being ennobled by the Emperor Rudolf II Rudolf II (1552–1612), Holy Roman Emperor, known as a great patron of the occult, arts, and sciences in Prague., who granted him the coat of arms that his grand-nephew has always carried.

Particular circumstances, and even more a dominant inclination and talents that revealed themselves early, allowed Mr. Leibnitz to follow without reluctance a career less brilliant in itself Likely "brilliant" in the sense of the outward flash and social prestige of military life compared to the quiet study of a scholar., but in which he gathered so many laurels, and of such great

...slight omission original: "légère omission" by Mr. de Fontenelle. I feel better than anyone how unimportant this remark is; therefore, I only make it to prevent any confusion.