ery darts upon Sorbonne and Faculty, at his own discretion,--which was
always a MINIMUM quantity:--he had, before long, made Leyden also too
hot for him. His Books gained a kind of celebrity in the world; awoke
laughter and attention, among the adventurous of readers; astonishment
at the blazing madcap (a BON DIABLE, too, as one could see); and are
still known to Catalogue-makers,--though, with one exception, L'HOMME
MACHINE, not otherwise, nor read at all. L'HOMME MACHINE (Man a Machine)
is the exceptional Book; smallest of Duodecimos to have so much wildfire
in it, This MAN A MACHINE, though tumultuous La Mettrie meant nothing
but open-mouthed Wisdom by it, gave scandal in abundance; so that even
the Leyden Magistrates were scandalized; and had to burn the afflicting
little Duodecimo by the common hangman, and order La Mettrie to
disappear instantly from their City.

Which he had to do,--towards King Friedrich, usual refuge of the
persecuted; seldom inexorable, where there was worth, even under bad
forms, recognizable; and not a friend to burning poor men or their
books, if it could be helped. La Mettrie got some post, like D'Arget's,
or still more nominal; "readership;" some small pension to live upon;
and shelter to shoot forth his wildfire, when he could hold it no
longer: fire, not of a malignant incendiary kind, but pleasantly
lambent, though maddish, as Friedrich perceived. Thus had La Mettrie
found a Goshen;--and stood in considerable favor, at Court and in Berlin
Society in the years now current. According to Nicolai, Friedrich never
esteemed La Mettrie, which is easy to believe, but found him a jester
and ingenious madcap, out of whom a great deal of merriment could be
had, over wine or the like. To judge by Nicolai's authentic specimen,
their Colloquies ran sometimes pretty deep into the cynical, under
showers of wildfire playing about; and the high-jinks must have been
highish. [--Anekdoten,--vi. 197-227.] When there had been enough of
this, Friedrich would lend his La Mettrie to the French Excellency,
Milord Tyrconnel, to oblige his Excellency, and get La Mettrie out
of the way for a while. Milord is at Berlin; a Jacobite Irishman, of
blusterous Irish qualities, though with plenty of sagacity and rough
sense; likes La Mettrie; and is not much a favorite with Friedrich.

Tyrconnel had said, at first,--when Rothenburg, privately from
Friedrich, came to consult him, "What are, in practical form, those
'assis