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La Mettrie had left the Army, soon after that busy Fontenoy evening: Chivalrous Grammont, his patron and protector, who had saved him from many scrapes, lay shot on the field. La Mettrie, rushing on with mouth open and mind in tumult, had, from of old, been continually getting into scrapes.
Malo, and educated in Paris, and in Leyden under Boerhave; he died in Berlin, whither Frederick the Great had called him after he had been driven out of his native land and from Holland. On La Mettrie cf. If man is nothing but body, there is no other pleasure than that of the body.
Who could attend to Maupertuis while Voltaire was talking? Voltaire, who as obviously outshone Maupertuis as Maupertuis outshone La Mettrie and Darget and the rest. In his exasperation the President went to the length of openly giving his protection to a disreputable literary man, La Beaumelle, who was a declared enemy of Voltaire. This meant war, and war was not long in coming.
Like La Mettrie, I will relate a miracle, in which, however the eyes were profited, the stomach had no interest. This miracle took place in Breslau, in the year 1747. "Cardinal Zinzendorf was just dead, and the Duke Schafgotch, who some years before I had appointed his coadjutor, was to be his successor. But the Silesians were not content.
This was La Mettrie; he partook immoderately of a truffle-pie at the house of the French ambassador, Lord Tyrconnel, and died in consequence of a blood-letting, which he ordered himself, in opposition to the opinion of his physician. He laughingly said, "I will accustom my indigestion to blood-letting." He died at the first experiment. His death was in harmony with his life and his principles.
The King grudges to part with his Reader, who makes him laugh. La Mettrie, in a twinge of agony, cried out, 'JESUS MARIE! 'AH, VOUS VOILA ENFIN RETOURNE A CES NOMS CONSOLATEURS! exclaimed the Irishman. Enough of this poor madcap. The Piece has nothing noisy, nothing untrue; but what has it of importance? And surely the subject was questionable, or more.
"On the contrary, he remembered it well," said La Mettrie, smiling. "The best physician is the greatest quack, or the most active grave- digger, if you prefer it." "Silence!" said the king. "Voltaire has the floor; he will tell us of the greatest offence he ever received. Give attention." "Alas! my heart is sad, sire; of all other pain, the pain of looking back into the past is the most bitter.
So that La Mettrie had to demit; to get out of France rather in a hurry, lest worse befell. He had studied at Leyden, under Boerhaave. He had in fact considerable medical and other talent, had he not been so tumultuous and open-mouthed.
There is La Mettrie, who only remains here because he is convinced that my Cape wine is pure, and my pates de foie gras truly from Strasbourg. There is D'Argens, who sought safety in Prussia because in every other land in Europe there are sweethearts waiting and sighing for him, to whom he has sworn a thousand oaths of constancy.
But even amid these extreme conclusions, his enthusiasm for virtue remains too intense to allow him to assent to the audacious theories of La Mettrie and Helvetius. French natural science also tended toward materialism.
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