Leibniz: On Studious People (after June 1690)

[A IV 7, 863]

One of the things that surprises me is that studious people who apply themselves intensely to
analysis do not yield anything new, for example the late Father Prestet,1 Reverend Father
Malebranche’s friend. I think this happens in part because they follow too closely the road
that others have already taken. One has to deviate from the main road to find something,
much like a traveller who goes to Greece to find inscriptions that others have not yet
observed.

© Lloyd Strickland 2021

1
That is, the priest and mathematician Jean Prestet (1648–1690).