 These are striking words. Read in isolation from his other remarks on the exoteric/esoteric distinction, one might take this text to suggest that Leibniz had two distinct philosophies—a false philosophy suitable for presentation to the public, and his true philosophy, which he only revealed to a few trusted correspondents. But Leibniz’s claim is not as radical as it might initially seem. While it is true that the esoteric character of the content of his metaphysics made it susceptible to being seriously misunderstood, his solution was not to permanently hide his views from everyone who was likely to misunderstand them. His point, as additional texts will make clear, is that he thinks it is often useless and harmful to straightforwardly present the content of his metaphysics to the public (and even to trusted correspondents). For example, in a 1710 letter to Charles Hugony, he claims that some of his views