vevekom his proteedings ; 
re In consequence of 
his own request, he ved permission to return to 
292 
sand 
Paris, where he gave an ‘account of his mission to the 
king in person ; and contentedly resuming his humble 
functions among the “ Nouvelles Catholiques,” he was 
more than two years without once appearing at court. 
He was too ind Gerent about his personal interests to 
employ the ordinary means of ion ; and even his 
ing character did not him from the 
machinations of envy and malevolence. He had been 
selected for the Bishopric of Poictiers, and his nomina- 
tion even sanctioned by the king, but it was revoked 
before Se public ; and at the earnest applica- 
tion of the Bishop of Rochelle, who had witnessed his 
fidelity in the Protestant provinces, he was on the eve 
of being nominated to assist and succeed that aged pre- 
late ; but means were found to prevent also the accom- 
plishment of this plan. In both these cases, his success 
was obstructed by the secret influence of Harlai, arch- 
bishop of Paris, who never forgave Fenelon the decided 
nee which he had shewn for his rival Bossuet’s 
iendship, and who is said to have gained his ends by 
rendering him suspected of a tendency to Jansenism, 
Having published, however, in 1688, his treatise on 
** the Education of a Daughter,” and another on “ the 
Ministry of Pastors,” which had both been long ap- 
proved by his friends in Manuscript, his merits became 
amore generally known; and an unforeseen event sud- 
denly placed him in a situation, which fully displayed 
the superior lustre of his character, His friend, the 
Duke de Beauvilliers, having been appointed by Louis 
XIV. governor to his grandson the Duke of Burgundy, 
and having been allowed to select his own jutors 
in this important trust, without a moment's delay, no- 
minated the Abbé de Fenelon p or to the 
‘prince. Fenelon, equally free in choice of those 
who were to act under his direction,’ selected as sub- 
ee a the Abbé de Langeron, Abbé Fleury, and 
‘his own nephew Abbé de Beaumont; and with these 
waluable friends, all men of talents and piety, he enter- 
.ed on his arduous office in September 1689. He had, 
‘indeed, no ordinary task to fulfil, the formation of a 
good king to twenty millions of people, and the most 
unpromising materials in the character of his pupil. 
‘The young Duke of Burgundy was naturally irritable, 
unfeeling, obstinate, proud, impatient of controul, the 
slave of sensual pleasure, and so furious in his’ 4 
that ‘ it was sometimes feared,” says St Simon, eae 
-very veins of his body would burst ;” yet the powers of 
his mind were of the highest order, acute, brilliant, 
profonnd. All who were entrusted with the of 
this i youth, acted as with one mind, and 
upon the same ; but Fenelon was the soul, which 
animated and their joint operations. A detail 
of their would furnish at once an interest- 
ing and instructive work ; and some idea of the method 
pursued may be formed from the Fables and Dialogues 
which Fenelon wrote for his pupil, and which were 
severally composed at the moment when the young 
prince required some fault to be corrected, or some use- 
maxim to be impressed upon his mind. Several 
curious particulars have been recorded by Bausset, but 
we have room only to state the result. So great’was 
the Duke’s proficiency in classical attainments, that in 
his tenth year he wrote Latin with elegance, and was 
eee tentiote tasinidat difficult authors with i 
sion ; and what was more important, his character was 
so radically changed by the instrumentality of his pree 
FENELON. 
ceptor, that his most fearful vices were succeeded by 
the ite virtues, and he was rendered mild, affable. 
pre patient, humble, and austere towards himself 
It was by religi inciple, that the sagacious p 
ceptor efaeand nc renainlte a transformation ; nik a0 
powerful was its influence over the mind of the 
prince, that his most imperious caprices were ofteit sub- 
dued in an instant by merely pronouncing to him the 
name of God. | ri so SRA tego 
Fenelon conducted, at the same time, and with equal 
attention, the education of the brothers of the Dake of 
two resolutions, from the observance of which he ne« 
ver deviated. The one was, to askno favour for him« 
self; and the other, to'ask none for his relatives and 
friends. It from his letters to his cousin, Mas 
dame de Saval, that, after he had been four years at 
some help. I will not suffer you to make: any efforts 
shojinennaitenh® & shall send back what 
you would lend me. I prefer to:suffer. Let them for- 
ward to me from Carenac as much money as they can, 
after having, however, distributed the mala 
alms; for I would+rather live upon ql in 
the strictest sense of the word, than suffer the’ poor 
of my benefice to be reduced to’ the extremity of 
want.” Fenelon,at this v ee 
est esteem and confidence of Madame de Maintenon, 
by whose influence he might easily have supplied his 
wants, and secured his promotion, In the year 1694, 
however, the king himself attended to the just claims 
of a servant, in whose behalf he received no solicitas 
tions ; and, with apologies for the delay, communicat- 
ed to him in person his nomination to the Abbé of St 
Valery. In 1693, he had been. admitted:a m of 
the French Academy, and was daily rising in reputa~ 
tion as a writer of SP rer me 
and honours were at length rewarding his merit, a 
storm was beginning to gather, which clouded: his fu- 
ture days. . ayes heal ay Madame on, who in 
1688 had been imprisoned, on account of her heretical 
notions, in a convent near Paris, had been released by 
the interposition of Madame de Maintenon, and by her 
introduced to Fenelon, who had expressed a 
idendh of, sesitizantite with Siar 1genérah dedteiabe aa a 
creasing influence of her tenets, and were part- 
commissioned, to confer tog’ on the subjects, and 
né disclose the opinions of church on: the difficult 
. 4 xe 
ints which it involved. These examinators, at. the 
ronson, the ealy and attached feendof Fenclon 
M. , the early an friend of. 3 
and Fenelon himself. who beget ta Sial how much he 
was concerned in the result, was frequently consulted 
preci- respecting Cele ne on the qués~ 
tion. In the mean time, his: supposed errors 
were made the subject of any meet he was nomi-« 
tayhont 
oe 
lhe 
