The French Materialists of the 18th century while waging relentless war against all the "infâmes" whose yoke weighed upon the French of this period, by no means scorned the search after what they called "perfect legislation," i. e., the best of all possible legislations, such legislation as should secure to "human beings" the greatest sum of happiness, and could be alike applicable to all existing societies, for the simple reason that it was "perfect" and therefore the most "natural."