CHARACTERS. 



591 



ing circumstances, a continuation 

 of such kind conduct towards 

 tlietn. 



As to the friends of Fenelon, it 

 were superfluous to say, in the 

 words of the duke de St. Simon, 

 •' that they were plunged into an 

 abyss of the most severe sorrow." 



When the news of his death 

 arrived in foreign countries, it was 

 perhaps felt with greater sensibi- 

 lity than in France itself, in which 

 the minds of men were incensed, 

 and divided by considerations of 

 party, in which a recent peace 

 still left the smart of a long and 

 calamitous war, in which the yoke 

 of authority had become irksome 

 to everyone, and in which the love 

 of innovation led every mind to 

 contemplate a future change of 

 things. But, in all the rest of 

 Europe, they were sensible only to 

 the loss of a man who had shed a 

 lustre upon the age in which he 

 lived, by his talents, his virtues, 

 and his writings, which will endure 

 . as long as the language in which 

 they are written. Such men had 

 begun to be rare in every country, 

 and the name of Fenelon was, per- 

 haps, the only one at thattime which 

 enjoyed a universal reputation. 



Pope Clement XI. shed sincere 

 tears of sorrow at his death, and 

 seemed to regret that he had not 

 nominated him a cardinal, from 

 the fear of displeasing Louis XIV. 

 It was the wish nearest his heart, 

 and he disclosed the wish to the 

 celebrated cardinal Quirini, at a 

 time when it was still in his 

 power to gratify it. The cardinal 

 himself has recorded this circum- 

 stance in his writings, where he 

 gives an account of a conversation 

 which he had with Clement XT, 

 before it was known at Rome that 



Fenelon had ceased toexist. " Eos 

 dedoctrina et pietateFeneloni sen- 

 susesanctissimopectoredepromp- 

 sit ; unde facile mihi innotesceret 

 cogitationem de iilo pra^sule ad 

 cardinalatum evehendo pontificia 

 mente jam repositam manere." 

 John Baptist Rousseau, who was 

 then retired to a foreign land, wit- 

 nessed the regret which was every 

 where expressed at the death of 

 Fenelon. He wrote to a Protest- 

 ant (Crousaz), eminent for the 

 works which he had published, 

 in the following manner, upon the 

 occasion : 



" Great talents are of all coun- 

 tries and of all persuasions, and I 

 am not surprised to find you so 

 grieved at the loss which the 

 church and the republic of letters 

 have sustained in the death of the 

 archbishop of Cambrai. In an 

 age when true merit is so rare, 

 there is no honest man who ought 

 not to mourn for so truly great a 

 personage. His reputation will 

 live as long as there shall be upon 

 the earth men who are sensible of 

 true genius and of true vitue; 

 and, to the shame of our nation be 

 it said, it will perhaps be among 

 us that his death will be least 

 mourned." 



It appeared to be so diflRcult to 

 appoint a successor to Fenelon 

 who was worthy of filling his 

 place, that Louis XIV. who sur- 

 vived him eight months, died with- 

 out having nominated any one to 

 the archbishopric of Cambrai. 



" Fenelon," says the duke de 

 St. Simon in his Memoirs, " was 

 a tall man, thin, well-made, and 

 with a large nose ; from his eyes 

 issued the fire and animation of 

 his mind like a torrent; and his 

 countenance was sucli) that I 



