One thing worth noting is that of all the ideas and sentiments that paved the way for the Revolution, the idea of, and the taste for, political liberty in the strict sense were the last to appear and the first to vanish.

The old edifice of government had been shaky for some time. It was already tottering, and the question of political liberty had yet to arise. Voltaire scarcely thought about it: three years in England had shown him what freedom looked like but had not brought him to love it. The skeptical philosophy that was freely preached in England delighted him. English political laws left him unmoved; he noticed the flaws more than the virtues. In his letters on England, which are among his masterpieces, he has less to say about Parliament than about anything else. In reality, he envied the English mainly for their literary freedom but cared little for their political freedom, as if the former could ever exist for long without the latter.

Toward the middle of the century, writers who focused especially on questions of public administration began to appear, and since they shared certain similar principles in common, they were referred to collectively as “Economists” or “Physiocrats.” The Economists have left less of a mark on history than the philosophers. They may not have contributed as much to the advent of the Revolution. Yet I believe that the true nature of the event is best studied in their works.