The famous axiom, _laissez faire_, and _laissez passer_, the subversive tendencies of which people affect to condemn, was not invented by Quesnay. He only gave a scientific bearing to what was the inspiration of a merchant called Legendre. The latter, consulted by Colbert on the best means of protecting commerce, dropped these words which have since become so celebrated. We must not lose sight of their real meaning, nor misunderstand the intention which dictated them. What Quesnay said was this: “Let everything alone which is injurious, neither to good morals, nor to liberty, nor to property, nor to personal security. Allow everything to be sold which has been produced without crime.” And he added: “Only freedom judges aright; only competition never sells too dear, and always pays a reasonable and legitimate price.” Far from being the absence of rule, liberty is the rule itself. To _laisser faire_ the good is to prevent evil.(42) There is need of institutions to complete the exercise of the independence acquired by labor, and of laws to regulate that exercise. The _laisser faire_ and _laisser passer_ of economists is, in no way, like the absolute formula, which some have denounced and others sought to utilize, as relieving authority of all care and all intervention. To understand this maxim aright, we must go back to the oppressive regime of ancient society. Quesnay’s formula was, first of all, a protest against the restraints which hampered the free development of labor. But it did not tend to abrogate the office of legislator, nor to deprive society or the individual of the support of the public power which watches over the fulfillment of our destiny. It may have seemed convenient to find in the gravity of a politico-economical principle, an excuse for the sweets of legislative and administrative _far niente_, but it is generally conceded that the role of authority has grown, rather than diminished, under the regime of the liberty of labor. The task is, in our days, a hard one, both for individuals and nations; for liberty dispenses its favors only to the masculine virtues of a laborious and an enlightened people.