surface as a player in any of his debates with the french, with the -- [inaudible] let alone the physiocrat, he does not play at all. but that does not mean that voltaire is not there. smith owned and bought -- he met voltaire, he talked with voltaire, and he once told one of his pupils who started to criticize voltaire, he said, sir, there is no -- there is only one voltaire. and he bought a magnificent bust of him. and what that reminds me is this is smith on the voltaire as the anticlerical. it's very interesting that in this classic, um, confrontation between the enlightenment and religion and all the classic implications, all of that, that does not appear on the pages of smith at all in the way it does with hume. hume's anticlericalism, his religious skepticism is constantly resurfacing in his writing. smith it her is. and -- it never is. and i think one of the very interesting things, questions to ask about smith is why when he has adopted a philosophy which is, which, in fact, argues for the irrelevance, the philosophical irrelevance of theology, why, in in fact -- and when there is

you have to help me out here, there was a movement physiocrats, thank you. and this idea that you can guarantee individual liberty but you can't guarantee the results. and there's this delightful numbers in the musical, you know, the best of all possible worlds which he makes outrageous fun of, voltaire did of disbelief, to him, reduces belief that came out of the enlightenment, this is the best of all possible worlds where there's an earthquake in lisbon. people died. what's the use of all this dishonest endeavor at being so clever if you just have to pass the law, pass it along, pass it along, that's all it is, just pass it along. .. >> i think it's a pretty free go at voltaire. what voltaire himself would have said about it, i dare not think. it would have, undoubtedly, been memorable. but the point was adam smith, adam smith -- i think it's important to remember -- although voltaire does not appear on the surface as a player in any of his debates with the french, let alone the physiocrat, he does not play at all. that does not mean voltaire is not there.