XXX, 135: Herder calls Leibniz the greatest man that Germany has had.
XXX, 258: Herder has remarked frequently upon Leibniz’ theory that the human mind is never more clear-sighted and disposed to activity than in play. He analyzes the thought here, and it is worth considering because it hinges closely upon Herder’s philosophy which causes him to seek genuine Volk character in methods of expression which are natural rather than artificial.
He asks, Why is it that there is this connection between our innermost selves and pleasure and joy? Many forms of play are so difficult and fatiguing, others are subject to such strict rules; just because they demand this is the form of play interesting for those who like it. It becomes pleasant because it keeps both soul and body constantly and interchangeably busied. In the progress of being occupied lies an indefinable pleasure; we feel the happy progressiveness by which our forces are strengthened and grow. The more frequently this interchange takes place, the more do we realize our forces enriched.
XXIII, 154: Herder says Shaftesbury sent to Leibniz the former’s works and that Leibniz found in them his own system.
XXIII, 461: Herder praises Leibniz’ efforts in behalf of the Royal Scientific Society in Berlin.
XXIII, 468 ff.: Herder has written an essay on Leibniz in which he reviews the work of the latter under the following heads: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: (1) Theologie und Religion; (2) Rechtsgelehrsamkeit und Politik; (3) Geschichte, Alterthümer, Sprachen; (4) Mathematik und Physik; and (5) Die erste Philosophie.
Herder’s own comments in certain parts of this series of expositions are important in this connection.
1. Theology and religion.—Leibniz’ proof of Christianity Herder finds was based upon natural religion; after firmly laying the foundation of this natural religion, one should show the necessity of a revealed religion, then the superior beauty of the Christian religion, surpassing as it does all other religions. Leibniz sees atheism as well as materialism, to say nothing of the disparagement or mockery of Christendom, as the herald of a barbarism with which is bound up the decay of honor and morality. Herder’s comment upon this is: How faithfully have succeeding times proved this to be true! Leibniz, he continues, would rejoice if he could see the Bible so clarified, every one of its books interpreted in the light and spirit of its own time and above all the subtleties foreign to the sense and content of Christianity removed—all this, such as it was in his own day, is Herder’s idea. Important to note here is the return to nature as a foundation for Christianity, and to natural environment for the interpretation of Christian teachings.
2. Jurisprudence and statesmanship.—Here Herder finds that Leibniz became a real teacher der Völker through his work, Codex des allgemeinen Völkerrechts. Just as Leibniz in his opposition to Puffendorf founds man’s natural rights upon eternal principles of right and reason, so he carries these on into the so-called “voluntary rights of peoples” to which he adds in the Christian Republic a divine, positive right.
This divine, positive right Herder admits was, in the beginnings of the Christian republic, conceived of as being embodied in the emperor as head of the state. But, says he, Leibniz’ great thought was true; true in the sense that this divine, positive right is that which made itself evident long before the French Revolution.