LEIBNIZ
CORRESPONDENCE WITH BIERLING
Translation © George MacDonald Ross, 1974–1999
Leibniz to Bierling, 7th July 1711 (GP.VII)
[497] . . . Even mystical philosophy, such as that of Plato and Pythagoras, has its uses, as does contemporary mystical theology, since it has a greater emotional impact. I myself have the highest opinion of Pythagoras, and I would almost put him above all the other ancient philosophers, since he was virtually the founder of mathematics, and of the science of immaterial entities, by being the first to discover that all souls are immortal — a famous doctrine worthy of the sacrifice of a hundred oxen.