Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/83

F N E L N 73 glorious scenes," redolent of the spirit of antiquity, which he had so often pictured in imagination, and " to seek out the Areopagus whence St Paul proclaimed the unknown God to heathen sages." But his delicate health, and the dissuasion of another uncle, the bishop of Sarlat, interfered with his missionary longings. He was induced to remain at home and accept the office of superior of the community of Nouvelles Catholiques, a community founded for the pro tection and instruction of women converted from Protes tantism. He spsnt ten years (1675-85) of quiet and successful labour in connexion with this institution, became intimately associated with a select circle, at the head of which was the Due do Beauvilliers, began his career as an author, and otherwise laid the foundation of his remarkable influence. It was at the request of the Duchesse de Beauvilliers that he is said to have written his first work, De V Education des Filles, which long maintained its reputation among the higher families of France, and may still be consulted with advantage. It contains many admirable precepts. To this same period belong a Refuta tion of Malebranche s Treatise of Nature and Grace, in which he was assisted with marginal notes by Bossuet, and a treatise on the Ministry of Pastors, in which he set forth the blessing of a divine order appointed in uninterrupted succession from the apostles to guard men from error, seeing that all experience proves how unable ordinary men are " to decide for themselves as to the details of dogmas." This treatise had a polemical aim against the Protestants, but was at the same time written with great moderation and fairness. In 1685 Louis XIV. carried out his infamous policy of expelling the Protestants from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Great disturbance arose in con sequence in the districts of Poitou and Saintonge. It was necessary, by firm yet gentle means, to do something to allay the violent irritation which had been caused. On the recommendation of Bossuet, Fe nelon was chosen as the head of a mission for this purpose. He made two conditions, that all troops should be withdrawn from the provinces, and that he should be allowed to choose his fellow workers. The result was that his mission was attended with consider able success, although he himself complains more than a year afterwards, " Our converts get on very slowly ; it is no easy matter to change the opinions of a whole people." On his return to Paris he had several interviews with the king to report the result of his labours, and afterwards resumed in comparative privacy his old duties among the Nouvelles Catholiques. M. de Harlay, the well-known brilliant but profligate archbishop of Paris, who had first advanced him to this position, withdrew his favour from him when he saw he could make no use of him. "It seems, M. 1 Abbe", that you wish to be forgotten, and you shall be," was his bitter speech on one occasion ; and he so far suc ceeded as to prevent Fe nelon s appointment to the see of Poitiers which had been contemplated by the king. Suddenly he was called to the responsible position of preceptor of the dauphin s son, the young duke of Bur gundy. This was the work especially of his friend the Due de Beauvilliers, who in 1689 was appointed governor of the royal grandson. But other friends warmly rejoiced in F^nelon s advancement, and amongst these Bossuet wrote to Madame de Montmorenci Laval congratulating her. " We shall not lose the Abbd Fe nelon," he says ; " you will be able to enjoy him, and, provincial as I am, I shall escape from time to time to embrace him." It is interesting to notice this renewed trace of hearty friendship between these two illustrious men, considering the unhappy relations which afterwards arose between them. No man probably was ever better fitted than Fe"uelon for the difficult position which he now assumed, and to which he mainly devoted himself during the next six years (1689- 95). He was a born teacher in the highest sense, gifted with the most charming qualities of patience, sweetness of temper, tact, and address, yet inflexible in principle, and severe and unbending in his methods of training. He had the manners of a fjrand seigneur, with all the intellectual refinements of an accomplished churchman. Saint Simon in his Mcmoires (t. xxii. p. 135) has left a portrait of him about this time which has been often quoted, and from which we extract only a few sentences. " He was a tall thin man, well made, pale, with a large nose, eyes whence fire and talent streamed like a torrent, and a physiog nomy the like of which I have never seen in any other man, and which once seen one could never forget. It combined everything, and the greatest contradictions produced no want of harmony. It united seriousness and gaiety, gravity and courtesy the prevailing characteristic, as in everything about him, being refinement, intellect, graceful ness, modesty, and above all noblesse. It was difficult to take one s eyes off him. All his portraits are speaking, and yet none of them have caught the exquisite harmony which struck one in the original, or the exceeding delicacy of every feature. His manner altogether corresponded to his appearance; his perfect ease was infectious to others, and his conversation was stamped with the grace and good taste which are only acquired by habitual intercourse with the best society and the great world." He had need of all his brilliant and solid qualities in the task which he had under taken. The young duke of Burgundy, as the same writer remarks, " was born with a naturel which made one tremble. He was so passionate that he would break the clocks which summoned him to some unwelcome duty, and fly into the wildest rage with the rain which hindered some pleasure." He was withal warm-hearted and clever, in fact, " danger ously quick in penetrating both things and people." Fe nelon had full scope for the exercise of his marvellous educational art, and the result was a success far beyond what is usual in such cases. - The impetuous but affection ate and bright child grew under his charge into an earnest, well-disciplined, and promising, if somewhat over-scrupu lous and timid youth, whose life if spared might have brought blessing to France. Fe nelon carefully planned all the details of his education, and has embodied in his well- known Telemaqne and other writings the principles on which he based it. It was his aim to train the young prince not merely in habits of self-control, to direct his scholarly acquirements and religious convictions, but, moreover, to awaken in him true and large political instincts fitted to qualify him for his high position. Fe nelon himself, while an aristocrat both by birth and feeling, and strongly favour able to the maintenance of these class distinctions which were especially marked in France in the 17th century, was at the same time essentially liberal in his recognition of the radical equality of all men, and the moral regards which should regulate the relation of classes to one another. His ideal was that of a limited monarchy, surrounded by national institutions, each having its due place and func tion in the body politic, and representing in due degree public opinion. A written constitution, one sovereign law for all, universal education provided by the state, the recip rocal independence of the temporal and spiritual powers, detestation of war, free industry in agriculture and trade, a people growing in intelligence and self-dependence round the throne and under the guidance of the church, such were the broad principles which he sought to instil into his pupil, and so to make him," in his own language, "a philosophic king," "a new Saint Louis." The task was a noble one, and it was pursued with all the fascina tion, patience, and quiet earnestness which distinguished him. IX. 10