SAMUEL DE, was born in 1632 at Flach, a little village in Münster, a province in Upper Saxony; and was son of Elias Puffendorf, minister of that place. After having made great progress in the sciences at Leipzig, he turned his thoughts to the study of the public law, which in Germany consists of the puffendorf knowledge of the rights of the empire over the princes and states of which it is composed, and those of the princes and states with respect to each other. But though he used his utmost efforts to distinguish himself, he despised those pompous titles which are so much sought after at universities, and never would take the degree of doctor. He accepted the place of governor to the son of M. Coyet, a Swedish nobleman, who was then ambassador from Sweden to the court of Denmark. For this purpose he went to Copenhagen, but continued not long at ease there; for the war being renewed sometime after between Denmark and Sweden, he was seized with the whole family of the ambassador. During his confinement, which lasted eight months, as he had no books, and was allowed to see no person, he amused himself by meditating on what he read in Grotius's treatise De Jure Belli et Pacis, and the political writings of Mr Hobbes. Out of these he drew up a short system, to which he added some thoughts of his own, and published it at the Hague in 1660, under the title of Elementa Jurisprudentiae Universalis. This recommended him to the elector Palatine, who invited him to the university of Heidelberg, where he founded in his favour a professorship of the law of nature and nations, which was the first of that kind established in Germany. Puffendorf remained at Heidelberg till 1673, when Charles XI. of Sweden gave him an invitation to be professor of the law of nature and nations at Lund; which place the elector Palatine reluctantly allowed him to accept. He went thither the same year; and after that time his reputation greatly increased. Some years after, the king of Sweden sent for him to Stockholm, and made him his historiographer, and one of his counsellors. In 1688, the elector of Brandenburg obtained the consent of his Swedish majesty, that he should come to Berlin, in order to write the history of the elector William the Great; and in 1694 made him a baron. But he died that same year of an inflammation in his feet, occasioned by cutting his nails; having attained his grand climacteric. Of his works, which are numerous, the following are the principal: 1. A Treatise on the Law of Nature and Nations, written in German; of which there is an English translation with Barbeyrac's Notes. 2. An Introduction to the History of the Principal States which at present subsist in Europe; written in German; which has been also translated into English. 3. The History of Sweden, from Gustavus Adolphus's expedition into Germany to the abdication of Queen Christina. 4. The History of Charles Gustavus, two volumes folio, &c.