Godfrey William de, an eminent mathematician and philosopher, was born at Leipzig in Saxony in 1646. At the age of 15 years, he applied himself to mathematics at Leipzig and Jena; and in 1663, maintained a thesis de Principiis Individuationis. The year following he was admitted master of arts. He read with great attention the Greek philosophers; and endeavoured to reconcile Plato with Aristotle, as he afterwards did Aristotle with Des Cartes. But the study of the law was his principal view; in which faculty he was admitted bachelor in 1665. The year following he would have taken the degree of doctor; but was refused it on pretence that he was too young, though in reality because he had raised himself several enemies by rejecting the principles of Aristotle and the schoolmen. Upon this he went to Altorf, where he maintained a thesis de Casibus Perplexis, with such applause, Leibnitz, plausible, that he had the degree of doctor conferred on him. He might have settled to great advantage at Paris; but as it would have been necessary to have embraced the Roman Catholic religion, he refused all offers. In 1673, he went to England; where he became acquainted with Mr Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, and Mr John Collins, fellow of that society. In 1676, he returned to England, and thence went into Holland, in order to proceed to Hanover, where he proposed to settle. Upon his arrival there, he applied himself to enrich the duke's library with the best books of all kinds. The duke dying in 1679, his successor Ernest Augustus, then bishop of Ohnaburg, showed our author the same favour as his predecessor had done, and ordered him to write the history of the house of Brunswick. He undertook it, and travelled over Germany and Italy in order to collect materials. The elector of Brandenburg, afterwards king of Prussia, founded an academy at Berlin by his advice; and he was appointed perpetual president, though his affairs would not permit him to reside constantly at Berlin. He projected an academy of the same kind at Dresden; and this design would have been executed, if it had not been prevented by the confusions in Poland. He was engaged likewise in a scheme for an universal language. His writings had long before made him famous over all Europe. Beside the office of privy counsellor of justice, which the elector of Hanover had given him, the emperor appointed him in 1711 aulic counsellor; and the czar made him privy counsellor of justice, with a pension of 1000 ducats. He undertook at the same time the establishment of an academy of science at Vienna; but the plague prevented the execution of it.

However, the emperor, as a mark of his favour, settled a pension on him of 2000 florins, and promised him another of 4000 if he would come and reside at Vienna. He would have complied with this offer, but he was prevented by death in 1716. His memory was so strong, that in order to fix anything in it, he had no more to do but to write it once; and he could even in his old age repeat Virgil exactly. He professed the Lutheran religion, but never went to sermon; and upon his deathbed, his coachman, who was his favourite servant, desiring him to send for a minister, he refused, saying, he had no need of one. Mr Locke and Mr Molyneux plainly seem to think that he was not so great a man as he had the reputation of being. Foreigners ascribed to him the honour of an invention, of which, it is said, he received the first hints from Sir Isaac Newton's letters, who had discovered the method of fluxions in 1664 and 1665. But it would be tedious to give a detail of the dispute concerning the right to that invention. See Fluxions.