Man a machine / by Julien Offray de La Mettrie. French-English ; including Frederick the Great's "Eulogy" on La Mettrie and extracts from La Mettrie's "The natural history of the soul" ; philosophical and historical notes by Gertrude Carman Bussey.
- Julien Offray de La Mettrie
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Man a machine / by Julien Offray de La Mettrie. French-English ; including Frederick the Great's "Eulogy" on La Mettrie and extracts from La Mettrie's "The natural history of the soul" ; philosophical and historical notes by Gertrude Carman Bussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![character, to avoid all disputes unless to whet conver- sation. The Cartesians would here in vain make an onset upon me with their innate ideas. I certainly would not give myself a quarter of the trouble that M. Locke took, to attack such chimeras. In truth, what is the use of writing a ponderous volume to prove a doctrine which became an axiom three thou- sand years ago? According to the principles which we have laid down, and which we consider true; he who has the most imagination should be regarded as having the most intelligence or genius, for all these words are synonymous; and again, only by a shameful abuse [of terms] do we think that we are saying different things, when we are merely using different words, different sounds, to which no idea or real distinction is attached. The finest, greatest, or strongest imagination is then the one most suited to the sciences as well as to the arts. I do not pretend to say whether more intellect is necessary to excel in the art of Aris- totle or of Descartes than to excel in that of Eu- ripides or of Sophocles, and whether nature has taken more trouble to make Newton than to make Corneille, though I doubt this. But it is certain that imagination alone, differently applied, has pro- duced their diverse triumphs and their immortal glory. If one is known as having little judgment and much imagination, this means that the imagination has been left too much alone, has, as it were, oc- cupied most of the time in looking at itself in the mirror of its sensations, has not sufficiently formed the habit of examining the sensations them-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21172432_0127.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
