Full Idea
From animals to man there is no abrupt transition. What was man before he invented words and learnt languages? An animal of a particular species, with much less natural instinct than the others.
Gist of Idea
There is no abrupt transition from man to animal; only language has opened a gap
Source
Julien Offray de La Mettrie (Machine Man [1747], p.13)
Book Reference
La Mettrie,Julien Offray de: 'Machine Man and Other Writings', ed/tr. Thomson,Ann [CUP 1996], p.13
A Reaction
This shows how strongly the evolutionary idea was in the air, a century before Darwin proposed a mechanism for it. This thought is the beginning of a very new view of man, and also of a very new view of animals.