‘Fontaine 
* oi 
—_—— 
FON 
Some time after that event, the generous and witty 
Madame de la Sabliere invited him to reside in her 
house, offering to provide him with an apartment and 
all necessaries. The invitation was accepted ; and he 
soon became so domesticated in his mp paniinens that 
» having once in a pet away er ser 
ea enes that she had an only her three ani- 
mals,—her dog, her cat, and La Fontaine., é‘ 
_ La Fontaine does not sppent to have any 
share of that lively sensibility, which has generally been 
considered as characteristic of the poetic tribe ; on the 
‘contrary, he seems to have been gifted with a very ex- 
traordinary d of apathy and indifference. Ir his 
conduct and behaviour, he was plain, artless, easy, open, 
and credulous ; he displayed no envy or ambition; he 
never took umbrage at any thing that was said or done ; 
and he lived long in habits of the most cordial intimacy 
with the most celebrated wits of Paris, He made no 
in company, but frequently exposed himself to 
icule, in consequence of his awkwardness ani ab- 
sence of mind. 
Upon the death of Madame de la Sabliere, with whom 
he had lived upwards of twenty years, he is said to have 
received very flattering invitations from several of the 
English nobility ; ut he was induced to decline them, 
in consequence of the liberality of the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, and the emulation excited'among his own coun- 
trymen byithe generous invitation of the English lords. 
“Although far from being either an infidel or a liber- 
tine, La Fontaine had lived in extreme carelessness 
with regard to religious concerns. However, when in 
1692 he was seized with a dangerous illness, the priest 
who attended him is said to have prevailed upon him 
to ress a ie piece, which was just going to 
be offered for representation, and to make a solemn 
apology, or palinode, in presence of a deputation of the 
members of the academy, for the publication of his 
tales. The singularity of his appearance and habits 
was such as to pass for stupidity among the vulgar, or 
with those who were not intimately acquainted with 
his character; The nurse, who attended him during 
his illness, observing the fervour of the priest in his 
exhortations to the sick man, exclaimed: “ Ah! my 
good Sir, don’t e him so ; he is rather stupid than 
wicked." He died at Paris in the year 1695. 
- La Fontaine is ly accounted one of the most 
original writers of France. His fables are esteemed as 
jae rye in that species of composition, and stand 
unrivalled by any writer of his own, or of any other 
« Ingenious thoughts are there unfolded with 
clearness and simplicity, clothed in 
at once easy and graceful, and adorned with t 
charms of a brilliant versification, while the most pro- 
found moral maxims and reflections are delivered in a 
style divested of tism, and seem to arise natu- 
rally and | t effort, out of the narrative. 
is tales, which are borrowed for the most part 
from the Italian novelists and romance writers, are 
nrg eps rid and vivacity ; but ae to 4 
regretted, that the subjects in are such as ad- 
mit of no moral application ; ead wie no art can di. 
Vest of a colouring offensive to delicacy. (z) 
_ FONTARABIA, or Fuenta Rabia in ish, and 
ri rapidus in Latin, is a town of Spain in the dis- 
trict of Guipiscoa. It was formerly called Ooaso.. It 
is situated in a small peninsula on the sea coast, on the 
left bank of the Bidassoa, and the town is built in the 
form of an amphitheatre, on a hill, which looks to the 
sea, on the south angle of the Gulf of Gascony, It is 
well fortified both by nature and art, being defended 
VOL. IX, PART IL. 
473 
_borde's View of Spnin, vol. ii, p. 349. 
FON 
by a strong fortress towards the sea, and on the land Fomtencile. 
side by the high mountains of Jasquevel. The har. “"\-——" 
bour would be good were it not left dry by the tide. 
Its position, according to trigonometrical observations, is, 
West Long, 1° 47’ 15", North Lat. 48° 21’ 36’. See La. 
(j 
' FONTENELLE, Bernanv ue rice De, a 
French author of considerable celebrity, was born at 
Rouen, in the month of February 1657, His mother 
was a sister of the famous Corneille; from whom he 
may be sup; to have inherited some portion of that 
literary genius for which he was distinguished. 
Fontenelle acquired the rudiments of learning at the 
school of the Jesuits at Rouen ; and at the age of thir~ 
teen, he produced a successful Latin prize-poem on the 
subject of the immaculate conception. At fifteen, he 
had completed his course of studies, His father in- 
tended that he should embrace the profession of the 
law, which he himself had prosecuted with success ; 
and Fontenelle actually pleaded a cause before the par- 
liament of Rouen. But the discipline and habits of the 
legal profession were not congenial with his easy and 
indolent disposition ; he resolved, therefore, to abandon 
these pursuits, and to devote himself entirely to litera. 
tare. With this view, he accompanied his uncle, Tho- 
mas Corneille, to Paris; and commenced his literary 
career by the production of a tragedy, which, however, 
was unsuccessful upon the stage. But he bore the dis- 
appointment without murmuring; and undismayed at 
the result of his first attempt, he turned his attention 
towards other subjects, in which he was better quali- 
fied to excel, 
The first preduction which contributed to bring him 
into notice as an author, was his Dialogues of the Dead; 
which, although written in an affected style, and ob- 
jectionable in many respects, acquired considerable po- 
pularity. His Letters of the: Chevalier d'Her**® are 
much inferior to those of Voiture, and might have been 
suppressed without any injury to his reputation ; in. 
deed, he never expressly avowed himself the author of 
these letters. In his Lelogues he departed from the 
peculiar style and character of that species of writing, 
and introduced ingenious thoughts and fine allusions, 
remote from the simplicity of pastoral life, 
The two works of Fontenelle which contributed most 
to establish the prputation of his literary character were, _ 
his Plurality of Worlds, and his treatise on Oracles. 
The A of both of these treatises was bor- 
rowed; but his luminous and methodical genius gave 
clearness to subjects that were previously involved in 
obscurity ; while the graces of his style, sometimes per~ 
haps a little too brilliant and flowery, rendered the 
principles of the abstract sciences acceptable to general 
readers, by bringing them down to the eygl of ordinary 
understandings, 
Fontenelle. a epi to have had a great desire to dis. 
tinguish himself as a writer for the stage ; and after ha- 
ving failed to obtain the success he expected from his 
tragedy, he attempted the composition of operas; but 
of all his dramatic productions, the opera of Peleus and 
Thetis, which was first represented in 1689, is the only 
one which had merit sufficient to preserveit from oblivion. 
While yet a young man, he took an active part in 
the'eontroversy which then agitated the literary world, 
respecting the comparative merit of the ancients and 
the moderns. Fontenelle declared himself an advo- 
cate for the latter; and his conduct in this dispute is 
thought to have proved an obstacle, for some time, to 
his admission into the Academy,—an honour which he 
at length obtained.in the year 169), During a pes 
So 
