94 ADAM SMITH. 



physician'" before he had matured his speculations so as 

 to publish any treatise on political subjects ; and though 

 he was eighteen years older than M. de Gournay, the 

 latter had been several years at the head of the com- 

 mercial administration before the doctor's first work 



* A very interesting work was published by my worthy friend 

 Mr. Quintin Crawford, inhis * Melanges d'Histoire et de Litterature,' 

 being the journal of Madame de Hausset, the waiting gentlewoman 

 of Madame de Pompadour. It contains some anecdotes of Dr. 

 Quesnay extremely curious and characteristic, and shows on what 

 an intimately familiar footing the great philosopher lived with the 

 royal voluptuary, who had the sense to relish his conversation, and 

 used to call him "his thinker," (mon penseur.) Mr. Crawford 

 gives an accurate sketch of his character ; and after mentioning 

 that his followers always termed him " Le Maitre," and decided 

 their disputes by " Le Maitre 1'a dit," like the disciples of Plato, 

 he tells us that, at his death, a funeral oration was pronounced by 

 M. de Mirabeau, before the assembled sect, all in deep mourning. 

 He adds, what may easily be believed, that this discourse was a 

 " chef-d'oeuvre de ridicule et d'absurdite:" A great discussion, as 

 it seems to me on a question very unimportant, has been raised by 

 political economists, not much to the credit of their philosophical 

 feelings, whether Quesnay's family were of as low a station as some 

 represent them, and whether it be really true that they couJd not 

 afford to have him taught to read in his boyhood. Surely the 

 Memoirs of the Academy must be reckoned a decisive authority on 

 this question. In the historical part of the volume for 1774, it is 

 distinctly stated, as a matter well known, (p. 122,) that his father 

 was an Avocat au Parlement de Montfort, and an intimate friend 

 of the Procureur du Roi. Grimm mentions Quesnay in a very dif- 

 ferent manner from most others. He thus speaks of the economists 

 and the great founder of their sect : " Depuis que 1'oeconomie 

 politique est devenue en France la science a la mode, il est forme 

 une secte qui a voulu dominer dans cette partie. M. Quesnay s'est 

 fait chef de cette secte." " Le vieux Quesnay est un cynique decide. 

 M. de Fobernais n'est pas tendre; ainsi cette querelle ne se passera 

 pas sans quelques faits d'armes." (CORR.) He repeatedly gives 

 him the same epithet of cynique ; probably the light conversation of 

 Grimm had not attracted his notice, or gained his respect. 



