Such was the doctrine of the physiocratic school, of which FRANCOIS QUESNAY (1694-1774) was the chief. Let human institutions conform to nature; enlarge the bounds of freedom; give play to the spirit of individualism; diminish the interference of government--"laissez faire, laissez passer."[2] Agriculture is productive, let its burdens be alleviated; manufactures are useful but "sterile": honour, therefore, above all, to the tiller of the fields, who hugs nature close, and who enriches humankind! The elder Mirabeau--"ami des hommes"--who had anticipated Quesnay in some of his views, and himself had learnt from Cantillon, met Quesnay in 1757, and thenceforth subordinated his own fiery spirit, as far as that was possible, to the spirit of the master. From the physiocrats--Gournay and Quesnay--the noble-minded and illustrious TURGOT (1727-81) derived many of those ideas of reform which he endeavoured to put into action when intendant of Limoges, and later, when Minister of Finance. By his _Reflexions sur la Formation et la Distribution des Richesses_, Turgot prepared the way for Adam Smith. [Footnote 2: This phrase had been used by Boisguillebert and by the Marquis d'Argenson before Gournay made it a power. On D'Argenson (1694-1757), whose _Considerations sur le Gouvernement de la France_ were not published until 1764, see the study by Mr. Arthur Ogle (1893).] In 1770 the Abbe Galiani, as alert of brain as he was diminutive of stature, attacked the physiocratic doctrines in his _Dialogues sur le Commerce des Bles_, which Plato and Moliere--so Voltaire pronounced--had combined to write. The refutation of the _Dialogues_ by Morellet was the result of no such brilliant collaboration, and Galiani, proposed that his own unstatuesque person should be honoured by a statue above an inscription, declaring that he had wiped out the economists, who were sending the nation to sleep. The fame of his _Dialogues_ was perhaps in large measure due to the party-spirit of the Encyclopaedists, animated by a vivacious attack upon the physiocrats. The book was applauded, but reached no second edition.