Cf. La Rochefoucauld, Maxim

66. Cf. ]. J. Rousseau : ' Les gens qui savent peu parlent beaucoup et les gens qui savent beaucoup parlent peu. Il est naturel de croire qu'un ignorant trouve important tout ce qu'il sait, et le dit à tout le monde ; mais un homme instruit n'ouvre pas aisément son répertoire ; il aurait trop à dire, et comme il voit encore plus à dire après lui, il se tait.'

FÉNELON

Life and Works. — François de Salignac de la Motte Fénelon was born in 1651. After brilliant studies at the Collège of Cahors and at Paris, he entered the ministry, and preached with great success. In 1685 Louis XIV. commissioned Fénelon to go into Saintonge and Poitou to allay the irritation and discord caused by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which aimed at the expulsion of the Protestants from France. Fénelon accepted the mission, but refused the armed escort which was sent to ' aid ' him in the work of conversion. He preferred to rely upon his exceptional tact, and events justifîed his décision. He wrote (1687) the Traité de V Éducation des filles, and was appointed (1689) tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of the King. His patience and tact, his firmness and dévotion to principle, made him an idéal teacher, and enabled him to achieve marked success in transforming and disciplining the passionate and wayward character of his pupil. Some of his writings, like the Histoire universelle of Bossuet, owe their origin to his preceptorial duties. Thèse are the Fables, the Dialogues des Morts, and the famous Aventures de Télémaquc. It was in 1697 that Fénelon, who had for two years been Archbishop of Cambrai, wrote the book V Explication des

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maximes des Saints sur la vie intérieure, which brought him into conflict with Bossuet. It was to some extent a defence of the doctrine of quietism, a form of mysticism taught by the famous Madame Guyon, and according to which ' inward peace may be found by what may be called contemplative or passive prayer, by obédience, by fréquent communion, and by inward mortification.' Its central idea is that of passive repose of mind, and hence the word quietism. It was combated rather for political, not to say Jesuitical, than religious reasons. Fénelon lost the favour of Louis XIV., and was condemned by the Pope. He submitted, and spent the rest of his life in good works, in strict attention to the affairs of his diocèse, and in writing religious and literary works, of which the most important are the Dialogues sur V Eloquence , Traité de V Existence de Dieu, and the Lettre sur les occupations de VA cadémie française.

Fénelon is, perhaps, better remembered for the charm of his personality and the beauty of his literary style than for his powers as a thinker. St. Simon has left us the best account of him : ' Ce prélat était un grand homme maigre, bien fait, pâle, avec un grand nez, des yeux dont le feu et l'esprit sortaient comme un torrent, et une physionomie telle que je n'en ai point vu qui y ressemblât, et qui ne se pouvait oublier quand on ne l'aurait vue qu'une fois. Elle rassemblait tout, et les contraires ne s'y combattaient point. Elle avait de la gravité et de la galanterie, du sérieux et de la gaieté, elle sentait également le docteur, l'évêque et le grand seigneur ce qui surnageait, ainsi que dans toute sa personne, c'était la finesse, l'esprit, les grâces, la décence et surtout la noblesse. Il fallait effort pour cesser de le regarder. Tous ses portraits sont parlants, sans toutefois avoir pu attraper la justesse de l'harmonie qui frappent dans

xl 11 X Kl. ON

final, et la délicatesse de chaque caractère que ce visage rassemblait ' (Mémoires, tom. xxii., p. 135, 1840). The ' grâce ' of Fénelon has sometimes been compared to the ' force ' of Bossuet, the cygne of Cambrai to the aigle of Meaux. The comparison is striking but deceptivi-. St. Simon is probably correct when he shows the iron liand under the velvet glove. Fénelon, he says, ' s'était accoutumé à une domination qui dans sa douceur ne voulait point de résistance. Aussi n'aurait-il pas longtemps souffert de compagnon, s'il fut revenu à la cour et entré dans le conseil, qui fut toujours son grand but, et une fois ancré et hors de besoin des autres, il eût été bien dangereux, non seulement de lui résister, mais de n'être pas toujours pour lui dans la souplesse et dans l'admiration.'

Fénelon's style is singularly attractive. It is pure, clear, and ail ' perfumed ' with the odour of classical antiquity. It is in the Lettre à l'Académie française (1 7 14), of which a portion is given in the text, that he exposed his théories of literary art. The ■ Letter ' was written in answer to a circular sent by the Secretary of the Academy to its members requesting their advice as to what work should be undertaken on the completion of the second édition of the Dictionary. Fénelon's Mémoire was the most complète, and in a revised form was published as a Letter. It deals with several subjects — a scheme for an academical grammar, work on rhetoric, treatises on tragedy, comedy, history, and so on ; and he exposes in it some of the first principles of art. A contemporary writer, La Motte, writing to Fénelon, résumes the opinion of his time : ' Je passe au Discours que vous avez envoyé à l'Académie française. Tout le monde fut également charmé des idées justes que vous y donnez de chaque chose : il n'appartient qu'à vous d'unir tant de solidité

FÉNELON xli

à tant de grâces.' The Letter is not without serious defects, but thèse are to be found, not in its style, but in the limitations of Fénelon's œsthetic théories.

EDITIONS. — Œuvres, edit. Lebel, 22 vols. The Lettre à l 'Académie is in vol. xxi. ; Correspondance, edit. Leclerc, 12 vols. Also Lettre à l'Académie, edit. Caben, 1899. Hachette, 1*50. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM.— De Bausset, Histoire de Fénelon, 1808-9, 4 vols. P. Janet, Fénelon ; Faguet, Dix-Septième Siècle ; De Broglie, Fénelon â Cambrai, 1884 ; Brunetière, Revue de Deux Mondes, 1er Sept., 1884. and, in particular, his article in the Grande Encyclopédie, vol. xvii.

NOTES

1. Allusion to the ' querelle des anciens et des modernes,' two parties into which the literary world were divided during the seventeenth century. Fénelon tried to act as a conciliator. See Introduction, xiv.

2. Arcadians, inhabitants of Arcady, a province of Old Greece, in Peloponnesus. They were regarded as rather stupid by their neighbours.

3. Scythians, inhabitants of Scythia, a région to the north of the Black Sea, and to the east of the Caspian Sea (S. Russia, Siberia, Tartary). They led the usual life of nomads.