ESSAY-REVIEWS 105 



W. B. Smith, and Dr. Bixby, a theist. Dr. Carus deserves our 

 thanks for his defence of the views and character of La Mettrie. 

 That most remarkable philosopher, born in 1709, was the first to 

 apply to human beings those principles of physiological 

 mechanism which Descartes had asserted in the case of the 

 lower animals. La Mettrie had an intellect of surpassing power 

 and originality : he was able to think right off the lines of the 

 conventional beliefs of his day. He drew a sharp and much- 

 needed line of distinction between science and ethics ; and his 

 philosophy even at the present day still retains high interest. 

 But it was his misfortune that nearly all the theories which he 

 espoused were unpopular. He was an atheist and a materialist : 

 he regarded man as an animal. His character was uncontrol- 

 ably gay and lively : and in certain respects he disregarded the 

 code of morals enjoined by the Church. He even wrote and 

 published in his CEuvres pliilosophiques one or two charming 

 essays, which however would scarcely obtain the approval of a 

 Wesleyan Methodist, nor perhaps be accepted by the editor of a 

 Parish Magazine. He has therefore been attacked on the 

 grounds of morality ; and Dr. Paul Carus well points out that 

 he was certainly no " worse " than his times. He might have 

 added that the writings in question cannot, as regards morals, 

 be compared for an instant with certain productions of Voltaire, 

 Diderot and other great contemporaries. The opponents of 

 La Mettrie, finding that they disliked his views and were unable 

 to answer them, flew to the resource of blackening his moral 

 character ; and so ready was the world to believe his theories 

 false, that his works lapsed almost into oblivion for nearly a 

 century. Lange in Germany first did justice to his memory; 

 and now happily an American translator has published his 

 Lhommc machine in Chicago. 



The Analysis of Sensations, by Dr. Ernst Mach, is a book 

 already tolerably well known in England. Originally published 

 in Germany in 1886, it was translated into English in 1897. A 

 second translation has now been made from the fifth German 

 edition ; and the book is in many ways more complete than that 

 with which English readers were previously acquainted. Among 

 several new chapters, one of the most interesting is that dealing 

 with " Physics and Biology : Causality and Teleology." Dr. 

 Mach deals with the special difficulty, which many people find, 

 of bringing the conception of purpose into a mechanistic scheme 



