e first who
shall have the insolence to say, that a man cannot think without his
head; for, some bachelor will tell him, the soul is a pure spirit, the
head is nothing but matter: God can place the soul in the nails, as well
as in the skull, therefore I proscribe you as impious."

During the persecution raised against him, Helvetius visited England in
1764. In 1765 he visited Prussia, being well received by Frederick,
in whose place he lodged. Voltaire strongly advised Helvetius to leave
France in these words:--"In your place, I should not hesitate a moment
to sell all that I have in France; there are some excellent estates in
my neighborhood, and there you might cultivate in peace the arts you
love." About this period Hume became acquainted with Helvetius, whom
he styles, in writing to Dr. Robertson, "a very fine genius and worthy
man." In 1765, Helvetius returned from Prussia, and retired to his
estate at Vore. The sight of misery much affected him; and when
relieving distress, he enjoined strict secrecy. Sometimes, when told he
relieved those undeserving his aid, he would say, "If I were a king I
would correct them, but as I am only rich and they are poor, I do my
duty in relieving them." An attack of gout in the head and stomach
terminated his life in December, 1771, in the fifty-sixth year of his
age.

In "De L'Esprit, or, Essays on the Mind," chap. I.. Helvetius makes the
following remarks on the "Mind considered in itself":--

"We hear every day disputes with regard to what ought to be called the
Mind; each person delivers his thoughts, but annexes different ideas to
the word; and thus the debate is continued, without understanding each
other. In order, therefore, to enable us to give a just and precise idea
of the word Mind, and its different acceptations, it is necessary first
to consider the Mind in itself. We consider the Mind either as the
effect of the faculty of thinking, and in this sense the Mind is no
more than an assemblage of our thoughts, or, we consider it as the very
faculty of thinking. But in order to understand what is meant by
the Mind, in the latter acceptation, we ought previously to know the
productive causes of our ideas. Man has two faculties; or, if I may be
allowed the expression, two passive powers whose existence is generally
and distinctly acknowledged. The one is the faculty of receiving the
different impressions caused by external objects, and is called Physical
Sensibility. The