This class formed the Second Estate whose rank derived from holding judicial or administrative posts and were often hard-working professionals, unlike the aristocratic Noblesse d'épée or Nobles of the Sword.

They included negotiating an alliance with Prussia in 1743 and preparing terms for the 1746 Congress of Breda, which sought to agree a separate peace with Britain.

[3] Based on the recommendation of Françoise-Louise de Warens, in April 1740, Mably's older brother Jean employed the 28-year-old Jean-Jacques Rousseau as tutor for his two oldest sons.

These outline a proposed system of education for Jean de Mably's sons and also present one of his earliest public self-reflections and self-justifications.

The historian Leo Damrosch explains that at this time, Abbé de Mably had just published a treatise comparing Roman institutions of government with French ones and celebrating the progress of civilization ...

"[7] Constant further elaborated that Mably desired the law to reach beyond actions and into thoughts, even "the most fleeting impressions," advocating for a level of control that would leave no aspect of life free from legislative authority.

Rousseau’s metaphysics, in the middle of which there are sudden flashes of sublime truth, and passages of stirring eloquence; and Mably’s austerity: his intolerance, his hatred of all human passions, his eagerness to enslave everyone, his extravagant principles about what the law can achieve, the difference between what he recommended and what had previously existed, his denunciation of wealth and even of property;—all these things were bound to charm men who were lit up by a recent victory, and who, having gained control of the law’s power, were happy about the idea of extending this power to everything.

"[7]In essence, Mably's legacy, as interpreted by Constant and other contemporaries in France following the immediate aftermath of the revolution, is one of statism and despotism, where he mistook the liberty of ancient city-states for the principles of modern representative government.

Mably's most well-known work is Entretiens de Phocion, a dialogue first published in 1763, which introduced themes of his mature thought.