A "bold atheist", a "renowned glutton", an "enemy of doctors", a "mad imagination", an "overly joyful man", a purveyor of "incoherent lunacy" - and that's just what Voltaire thought about him. Several times a refugee for his writings, a man who stood alone against both Christianity and the medical establishment, La Mettrie is a lost icon of free speech and moral courage. Instead, both during his life and for generations after death, La Mettrie became...