Mr. Clément seems to think that it would be lacking respect to our masters if we delved into problems that they barely touched upon.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 1, pages 200 to 201 (in French)
July 4th, 1850

Further to a critical article about the Economic Harmonies by Ambroise Clément that Frédéric Bastiat does not consider constructive, he writes to Horace Say to explain his disagreement.

Today’s quote recaps his thought and we can find here the idea according to which perfection is never reached and that progress has a bright future. Adam Smith wrote a masterpiece that is still enlightening nowadays but into which some mistakes (the major one might be the labour value theory that Karl Marx would embrace a century later) slipped. He deserves therefore the respect he is still granted nowadays but it does not mean that questioning certain points or delving into others is disrespectful. Frédéric Bastiat courageously tells exactly this to Horace Say about the latter’s father and wished that he would be respected himself in the future, accepting however that the pursuit of truth he could only skim, kept being pursued by others.

I believe that, despite Joseph Schumpeter’s disdain, Frédéric Bastiat has been admired by others than me and notably notorious economists, not the least Milton Friedman. I dare to hope that the future will still respect him and that the themes he touched upon and could be developed after his death and during the 20th century will still be studied as well as better and better understood.