QUESNAY (FRANÇOIS)

QUESNAY (FRANÇOIS), a physician of considerable eminence, but who is chiefly known in the history of philosophy as a profound and ingenious inquirer into the constitution of society, and as the founder of the sect of the Economists.

The accounts of the life of this distinguished person—a life which, unlike that of most literary men, abounded in incident and adventure—are exceedingly meagre and contradictory.—Neither the place of his birth, nor the condition of his parents, is well ascertained; but the accounts apparently most enti-

tled to credit state that he was born at the village of Ecquivilly, in the Isle de France, in 1694; and that his father was either a common labourer, or a small proprietor, who cultivated his own little property.* His humble origin is indeed evident from the fact mentioned by all his biographers, of his early education being almost entirely neglected, and of his being constantly occupied, until his fourteenth or sixteenth year, in the sports or labours of the fields, without having been either sent to school or taught to read. But though placed in such unfavourable circumstances, young Quesnay was imbued with an ardent love of knowledge, and with a strong desire to emerge from the painful and obscure life in which he had been brought up. The Maison Rustique of Liebaud was the first book that came into his hands; and he is said to have learned to read it by the assistance of a few lessons he received from a gardener of the village! The perusal of this book, which seems to have had a material influence on his future studies, awakened his latent powers, and stimulated him to make further efforts to extend his information. Having acquired a competent knowledge of his vernacular tongue, by the eager reading of such French books as came within his reach, he next applied himself to the study of the dead languages; and speedily attained, partly by the slender assistance of a self-dubbed surgeon of the village, but chiefly by his own extraordinary industry and sagacity, to a tolerable proficiency in Latin and Greek.

Quesnay now resolved, in opposition to the wishes of his parents, and especially of his mother, to devote himself to the profession of surgery, and received the rudiments of his instruction in that art from the village doctor who had assisted him in his philological studies. But the pupil very soon surpassed the master; and when the latter applied to be admitted into the Maitrise, or Corporation of Surgeons, he presented, as testimonials of his skill in his profession, and of his capacity to practise it with advantage, some Essays which Quesnay had written, and which were received with very great applause. Quesnay was not privy to this ruse; but soon after its occurrence he left his paternal village, and set out to prosecute his studies at Paris. We are not informed by what means he supported himself in that city, nor how long he remained there: while, however, his indefatigable industry and zeal enabled him to make great progress in his studies, his merit and modesty procured him several friends. Besides attending the prelections on the various branches of surgery, and the

different hospitals, he found leisure to devote some portion of his time to metaphysical researches, and the study of philosophy, for which the perusal of the Recherche de la Verité of Malebranche had given him a very decided taste. Nay, such was the almost unparalleled activity and vigour of his mind, that having accidentally met, during his stay in Paris, with the celebrated M. Cochin, of the Royal Academy of Painting, he put himself under his tuition; and we are told, that he profited so well by the few lessons he received as to be able not only to take remarkably good likenesses, but to design and engrave, with his own hand, the various bones of the human skeleton, in a manner which would not have disgraced the most skilful artists!

On finishing his studies at Paris, Quesnay formed the design of establishing himself as a surgeon in Mantes, a considerable town in his native province, and presented himself to the surgeons of its Maitrise for examination. But they refused, from jealousy of his talents, to admit him to trial. He was thus laid under the necessity of returning to Paris, where he passed his examinations with eclat; and received letters ordering him to be admitted into the Maitrise of Mantes in 1718.

Having established himself at Mantes, his reputation soon extended itself. He was employed by some of the first families in the neighbourhood, and, among others, by that of the Marshall de Noailles, Duc de Villeroi, who persuaded him to leave his residence in the country, and to accompany him to Paris as his surgeon, as nearly as we can collect in 1729 or 1730. An incident not long after occurred, which had the most material influence on his future prospects and life. Having accompanied the Duc de Villeroi to the house of the Comtesse d'Es-trades, Quesnay remained behind in the carriage while the Duc went in to visit that Lady, who, during the interview, was suddenly seized with an epileptic fit. The Duc called in Quesnay, who, on perceiving the nature of the attack, with singular presence of mind instantly ordered the Duc and the other attendants out of the room, and managed so well as to succeed in concealing the malady. The Comtesse was so much pleased with the dexterity and address of Quesnay, that she lost no time in recommending him to her all-powerful friend, Madame d'Estioles, afterwards Marquise de Pompadour, who made him her physician: and, besides obtaining for him apartments at Versailles, procured him, in 1737, the place of Surgeon in Ordinary to the King.†

Quesnay. Quesnay was shortly after appointed Secretary to the Royal Academy of Surgery, established in 1731; and besides several articles on particular branches of surgery, he contributed the preface to the first volume of its Mémoires; which has always been reckoned peculiarly valuable for its profound and discriminating observations on the respective uses of theory and observation in the physical sciences, and on the assistance which they reciprocally lend to each other.

Having from an early period been much subject to the gout, and becoming, in consequence, less able to discharge his duties as a surgeon, Quesnay took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1744; and was soon after appointed, through the influence of his patroness, to the important place of consulting physician to his Majesty. In this capacity he attended Louis in the campaigns of 1744 and 1745; and amid the distractions of a camp, collected and prepared the greater part of the materials for his Traité de Fieures, published in 1753.

His appointment to the situation of Physician to the King was preceded by the grant of letters of nobility, issued on occasion of the recovery of the Dauphin from the small-pox. Louis, who was much struck with the justice and solidity of Quesnay's remarks, and who familiarly called him son penseur, gave him, in allusion to this title, three pansey flowers (in French pensées), for his arms, with the motto Propter cogitationem mentis.

The leisure Quesnay now enjoyed, enabled him to prosecute his studies with greater assiduity. In 1747, he republished an enlarged edition, in 3 tomes. 12mo, of his Essai Physique sur l'Economie Animale, originally published in 1736; in 1748, he published an Examen impartial des Contestations des Médecins et des Chirurgiens de Paris; in 1749, he published a Mémoire sur la Sagesse de l'Ancienne Legislation de la Chirurgie en France, and two separate treatises, in 12mo, the one on Suppuration, and the other, De la Gangrene; in 1750, he republished his Traité des Effets et de l'Usage de la Saigne, written during his residence at Mantes, and originally published in 1730; and in 1758, he published his Traité des Fieures Continues, in 2 tomes 12mo.

These works have been all held in very high estimation; and an excellent judge has lately given it as his opinion, that "the Traité de la Gangrene is by far the most valuable publication which we yet possess upon this subject." Every page of this work, he adds, "is distinguished by the same talent for accurate observation, and perspicuous arrangement,

which are so remarkable in all the other writings of this celebrated author." (Dr Thomson's Lectures on Inflammation, p. 502.) Quesnay.

The Traité des Fieures was the last of Quesnay's professional works. He appears to have henceforth comparatively abandoned his medical studies. At no period, indeed, had he allowed them exclusively to occupy his attention, and he now devoted himself, in preference, to other and, if possible, still more interesting inquiries. He had always entertained a strong predilection for agricultural pursuits, the effect, perhaps, of his situation in early life; and this, combined with the speculative and metaphysical cast of his mind, seems to have led him to those peculiar notions respecting the paramount importance of agriculture as a source of wealth, and the constitution of society, which have rendered his name so justly celebrated in the history of economical science. The articles "Fermier" and "Grains" in the Encyclopedie, published in 1756 and 1757, contain the earliest development of his views on this subject. Both articles are written with great ability, and display an intimate acquaintance with the subject, considerable reading, and great powers of analysis. In the article "Grains" the distinction between the produit total and the produit net, between the productiveness of agriculture, and the unproductiveness of all other employments, the doctrine of the unrestricted freedom of commerce, and most of the other leading principles in the theory of the economists, are distinctly stated and illustrated with much ingenuity and talent. The TABLEAU ÉCONOMIQUE, and the Maximes Générales du Gouvernement Économique, annexed to it, under the title of Extraits des Économies Royales, de M. de Sully, were printed, by the express command of the King, at Versailles in 1758, with the following very remarkable epigraph for a work brought forth under such auspices, Pauvres paysans, pauvre royaume; pauvre royaume, pauvre Souverain! The maxims, which contain a short but comprehensive abstract of Quesnay's system, were reprinted, together with an analysis of the Tableau, and a selection from various articles contributed by Quesnay, in defence of his peculiar doctrines, to the Journal d'Agriculture, and the Ephemerides du Citoyen,* in the collection of Quesnay's economical works, entitled Physiocratie, ou Constitution Naturelle du Gouvernement le plus Avantageux au Genre Humain, edited by his friend and scholar, Dupont, in 1767.

We have elsewhere entered at considerable length into an examination of the speculations of Quesnay and his followers, with respect to the constitution of po-

Quesnay. litical societies, and the sources of public wealth. (See the articles ECONOMISTS and POLITICAL ECONOMY.) That there is a good deal of error in them must be allowed; but this is far more than compensated by the many just, discriminating, and original views, and important discoveries, which they contain. Perhaps, however, the principal merit of Quesnay, and the sect of which he was the founder, does not consist so much in the discoveries they made, as in their having been the earliest philosophers who perceived that the institutions of society ought always to harmonize with the natural principles on which it is founded, or, as they termed it, with the Ordre naturel et essentiel des Sociétés Politiques. Economical science is defined by them to be, "L'étude et la démonstration des LOIX DE LA NATURE, relatives à la subsistence, et la multiplication du genre humain. L'observation universelle de ces loix est l'intérêt commun et général de tous les hommes. La connaissance universelle de ces loix est donc le préliminaire indispensable, et le moyen nécessaire du bonheur de tous." (Ephémérides du Citoyen, 1769, No. II. p. 13.) It is to be regretted that, in investigating these laws, they proceeded almost entirely on abstract and speculative principles, without sufficiently attending to the effects of particular institutions, and to the various phenomena manifested in the progress of society. But notwithstanding the defective mode in which the economists conducted their researches, they succeeded in establishing and elucidating many important principles; and there is certainly much more reason to wonder at the general correctness of their conclusions, than to feel surprised at the errors into which they fell. Quesnay and his disciples established, that society was formed for the purpose of securing the greatest possible advantage to its members; that the security of property and the freedom of industry were its essential bases; and that the proper business of the politician was not to interfere to regulate the pursuits of individuals, but to protect the equal rights and liberties of all, and to secure the utmost freedom of competition in all the departments of industry. And though it is undoubtedly true, that most of these principles had been pointed out by previous writers, Quesnay and his school have the unquestionable merit of being the first who showed their dependence on each other, who presented them in a systematic and consensual form, and who were thus enabled to give a scientific demonstration of the injustice and impolicy of such institutions as ignorance or mistaken views of national interest had established in opposition to them.

In our article on Political Economy we have shown the fallacy of Quesnay's opinion with respect to agriculture being the only source of wealth; and the experience of all ages sufficiently

proves that the despotisme legal, in the hands of an hereditary monarch, without contreforces of any kind, which he strangely supposed was the best of all possible governments, is about the very worst. *

Notwithstanding his great age, and the sufferings he experienced from the almost incessant attacks of the gout, the activity of Quesnay's mind continued unimpaired. Il a, said one of his friends, une tête de trente ans sur un corps de quatre-vingts. He contributed, subsequently, to the publication of the Physiocratie, many acute and able articles to the Ephémérides du Citoyen; and continued wholly occupied with these studies and mathematics, to which he had latterly begun to pay considerable attention, till his death, which took place at Versailles, in December 1774, in the 80th year of his age.

Quesnay was a man of the most inflexible integrity; the nicest sense of honour; and the greatest prudence and discretion. Though highly esteemed by the King, and long resident at Court, he never intermixed in the intrigues of which it was the constant theatre. No one ever scrupled to express himself freely in his presence, nor was the confidence placed in him ever betrayed. "Il recevoit chez lui des personnes de tous les partis, mais en petit nombre, et qui toutes avoient une grande confiance en lui. On y parloit très hardiment de tout; et ce qui fait leur éloge et le sien, jamais on n'a rien répété." † To the utmost frankness and sincerity, he added the easy address and polished manners of a courtier and the intelligence of a philosopher. No man was ever less solicitous of distinguishing himself, or more careful to offend the self-esteem of others. His conversation was animated, without the least effort at brilliancy. So much, indeed, was he averse to every appearance of pretension, that he was in the habit of veiling the most profound remarks and observations, under the form of apologues, which generally referred to some subject connected with rural affairs, to which he was always particularly attached. He was most indulgent to the faults and errors of others, provided they were unalloyed by any taint of artifice or baseness, for which he never hesitated, whatever might be the rank of the party, to express the utmost contempt. Quesnay was truly a patriot and a philosopher. And we doubt much whether another instance can be produced of one who had lived so long in a profligate and luxurious Court, unsullied by its vices, and aloof from its contentions; and who preserved, to an extreme old age, all those generous and kindly feelings, with that unobtrusive but ardent zeal in the cause of humanity, and that love of speculation and profound inquiry, which distinguished his earlier years.

Quesnay, says Madame du Hausset, "etoit un grand génie, suivant l'opinion de tous ceux qui

Quesnay
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Radnorshire. l'avoit connu et de plus un homme fort gai. Il aimoit causer avec moi de la campagne; j'y avois été élevée, et il me faisoit parler des herbages de Normandie et du Poitou, de la richesse des fermiers, et de la manière de cultiver. C'étoit le meilleur homme du monde, et la plus éloignée de la plus petite intrigue. Il étoit bien plus occupé à la cour de la meilleure manière de cultiver la terre que de tout ce que s'y passoit." (Melanges, p. 313.)

"Tandis," says Marmontel, "que les orages se formoient et se dissipoient au-dessous de l'entresol de Quesnay, il griffoissoit ses axiomes et ses calculs d'économie rustique, aussi tranquille, aussi indifférent à ces mouvemens de la cour, que s'il en eût été à cent lieues de distance. Là bas, on décidoit de la paix, de la guerre, du choix des généraux, du renvoi des ministres; et nous, dans l'entresol, nous raisonnions d'agriculture; nous calculions le produit net, ou quelquefois nous dinions gaiement avec Diderot, d'Alembert, Duclos, Helvétius, Turgot, Buffon; et M. de Pompadour, ne pouvant pas engager cette troupe de philosophes à descendre dans son salon, venoit elle-même les voir à table et causer avec eux."

Dr Smith was well acquainted with Quesnay. He frequently met with him during his residence at Paris in 1766; and while he bears the most honourable testimony to the "modesty and simplicity" of his character, he has pronounced his system to be, "with all its imperfections, the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published on the subject of Political Economy." (Wealth of Nations, Vol. III. p. 28.) So highly, indeed, was Dr Smith impressed with a sense of his merits, as a man and a philosopher, that it was his intention, had he not been prevented by Quesnay's death, to have inscribed to him the Wealth of Nations. (Mr Stewart's Account of the Life and Writings of Dr Smith.)

Quesnay had a son by his wife, to whom he was

united when at Mantes. He gave him an excellent education; and exhibited a striking proof of his disinterestedness, by constantly refusing to solicit for him any place or situation under government. This son ultimately settled in the country on an estate near Beauvoir. One of Quesnay's grandsons was appointed by Turgot to a place in the administration; and another entered the army, and acted as a captain of infantry at the battle of Jemappes.

No man was ever more esteemed by his friends than Quesnay, and none ever existed who was more ready to do all in his power to advance their interests. Mercier de la Riviere, the author of the work Sur l'ordre Naturel et Essentiel des Sociétés Politiques, and who had been Intendant at Martiniqne, seems to have occupied the chief place in his esteem, and was regarded by him as the only person in France who was qualified to conduct the administration of the Finances. He was also much attached to the Marquis de Mirabeau, Turgot, Dupont, the Abbé Baudeau, and the other leading economists, who willingly acknowledged him for their master, and enthusiastically exerted themselves to defend and propagate his doctrines. "The economists were in reality, and not merely in appearance, a sect of philosophers."

Secta fuit servare modum, finemque tueri
Naturamque sequi, ritamque impendere vero,
Nec sibi sed toto genitum se credere mundo.

They acted from honest zeal for the truth, and not from fashion, eccentric tastes, or the love of singularity; their sole object was to enlighten and improve mankind; and to them, among political inquirers, belongs the rare praise of having first pointed out the natural order of things, or the observed course of nature in the conduct of the world, as the example and guide of human policy." (s. s.)