Higgs writes in _The Physiocrats_ (1897) that Quesnay was the victim of much hyperbolical periphrase for which Mirabeau was usually responsible. He was in turn "the greatest genius of our age," "the Confucius of Europe," "the Socrates of our day," "the Moses of modern times." Well might Adam Smith say of the Physiocrats, "The admiration of this whole sect for their master, who was himself a man of the greatest modesty and simplicity, is not inferior to that of the ancient philosophers for the founders of their respective systems." Nicholas J. Theocarakis