SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 139 



and Harvey. And La Mettrie still further increased their irritation by pub- 

 lishing a number of satirical pamphlets against his opponents. Eventually 

 the latter found an opportunity of taking their revenge; in a work, L'His- 

 toire naturelle de I' dme, he had expressed views that were considered to be 

 at variance with the Christian faith. The theologians rushed to battle and 

 La Mettrie's friends advised him to go to Holland until the storm should 

 blow over. At Leyden, however, he printed a new pamphlet, which still 

 further aggravated his position; this was the famous treatise L' Homme ma- 

 chine, which was published anonymously, it is true, but which was immedi- 

 ately recognized. Its contents were such that the author could by no means 

 count upon even Dutch tolerance; he had to take precipitate flight and to 

 remain in hiding for a time. His fate would now have been deplorable had 

 not Europe possessed a reigning monarch who was absolutely indifferent 

 to religious problems, but who, on the other hand, was amused by witty 

 companions; this was Frederick II of Prussia. La Mettrie was summoned to 

 Berlin, was appointed lecturer at the royal court, and besides was given an 

 opportunity of practising as a physician. He enjoyed these privileges only 

 for a space of three years; in 175 1 he died as the result of an accident. He 

 had always boasted with some pride of his power of enjoying life's pleasures 

 both qualitatively and quantitatively; so at a feast, just to show off, he 

 ate enormous quantities of truffle pasty, immediately fell ill, and died in 

 terrible pain; probably the pasty had contained septic poison. This tragic 

 end, however, still further increased the ill fame caused by his writings;' 

 his name has, in fact, been one of the blackest in the whole of the eighteenth 

 century. In many respects, however, he paved the way for ideas which mod- 

 ern biological research has adopted and it is therefore worth while paying 

 some attention to his views. 



La Mettrie's polemical ivorks 

 In his writings La Mettrie shows himself to be a marked oppositionist. 

 It is destructive work that amuses him most, and he likes best to pit his 

 strength against what his contemporaries regarded as the most unshakable 

 foundations both of the knowledge of existence and of the social order and 

 good manners. His polemical writings are sometimes brutally frank, some- 

 times subtly insidious, but he invariably challenges deep-rooted ideals, both 

 scientific and traditional, and is quite prepared to call white black and black 

 white. His love of truth goes just so far as serves his immediate purpose, 

 but undaunted courage we cannot deny him, and he has a firm faith in the 



^ In ancient times it was held to be a matter of fact in High-Church quarters that no one 

 can die in peace without the Church's blessing. In this connexion it has been related that Luther 

 hanged himself (a Catholic statement), that Spinoza died under the influence of opium, and 

 Voltaire in a fit of madness. In furtherance of this kind of propaganda La Mettrie's above- 

 described death, which is historically confirmed, was a good find indeed. 



