that of Fénélon. In the ancient, that of Socrates competes with him.
It might be curious and useful to compare Christian humility with pagan
fortitude in these illustrious men. The death of Socrates crowned his
life with undying fame. Fénélon suffered no martyrdom for his faith,
but he was unchanged by the temptations of a court, and bore injustice
with cheerful resignation. Amidst the roughness and almost rusticity of
Socrates, there was something majestic and sublime, that inspired
awe:[103] the gentleness and charity of Fénélon, so simple and true in
all its demonstrations, excites a tender reverence. The soul of both was
love. Socrates mingled wisdom with his worship of the beautiful, which
to him typified the supreme Being. Fénélon, in adoring God, believed,
that to love the supreme Being was the first, and, if properly
accomplished, the only duty of human beings.
François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénélon, was born at the château of
Fénélon, in Périgord, on the 6th of August, 1651. His family was
ancient and illustrious. His father had been previously married, had
several children, and was advanced in years; which caused his relations
to oppose his second marriage, especially as the lady of his choice had
but small fortune. She was, however, of a high family, being of the
same, though a younger branch, as the countess of Soissons, wife of the
famous prince Eugène's elder brother. Mademoiselle de la Cropte added
beauty and merit to her distinguished birth. As the child of his old
age, the count de Fénélon educated his younger son carefully; his
gentle, affectionate nature soon displayed itself, and caused him to be
beloved. His constitution was delicate, even to being weakly; but such
care was taken to fortify it, that he became capable of great bodily and
mental labour. His lively, just, and penetrating mind,--his upright,
generous, and feeling heart,--his peculiarly happy dispositions, were
perceived by his father in childhood, and cultivated: he was early
taught to aspire to regulate his conduct by virtuous principles; and the
natural instinct for justice which distinguished him, inclined him to
listen and obey. His disposition being flexible and mild, he soon took
pleasure in fulfilling his duties, in order, and in attention. Anecdotes
are told of his display of reason and his gentleness, during childhood.
Religiously and kindly educated, he early learnt to examine his own
motives, and to restrain himself; docility was natural to him; but added
to this, he already showed toleration for the faults of others. His
health being delicate, it was resolved not to send him to any school; a
tutor was engaged, happily formed for the task. The young Fénélon was
treated neither with severity nor caprice; his lessons were made easy
and agreeable, and his capacity rendered the acquisition of knowledge
agreeable. At the age of twelve he wrote French and Latin with elegance
and facility, and was well advanced in Greek. He had studied with care,
and even imitated, the historians, poets, philosophers, and orators of
the ancient world. His mind was thus refined and enriched, and he never
lost his taste for ancient learning, while he carried into religious
studies the good taste, grace, and variety of knowledge he acquired.
Being early destined for the ecclesiastical state, no doubt care was
taken to direct his studies in such a way as best accorded with a taste
for retirement; and that submission and docility were inculcated as
virtues of the first order. Submission and docility he had, but they
were based on nobler principles than fear or servility. They arose from
a well-regulated mind, from charity, gentleness, and a piety that
animated rules and obedience with the warm spirit of love of God.
It was necessary for the purposes of a clerical education, that he
should quit his paternal roof. There was a university at Cahors, not far
distant, and the abbé de Fénélon (as he was then called) was sent
there, at the age of twelve. He did not at first enter on the course of
philosophy; although sufficiently advanced, it was feared that his young
mind was not as yet capable of the attention that it required, and that
he might be disgusted by its dryness, and the difficulties presented. He
began, therefore, with a course of rhetoric, which forced him to retread
old ground, and to relearn what he already knew. Being so well advanced,
he was, of course, greatly superior in knowledge to his equals in age:
but this excited no vanity; he felt that he owed the distinction to the
cares bestowed on his early years. By the age of eighteen, he had
finished his course of theology; he took his degree in the university of
Cahors, and returned to his family.
The marquis de Fénélon, his uncle, invited him to his house in Paris,
and treated him as his son. The marquis was lieutenant-general of the
armies of the king, a man of distinguished valour, and a friend of the
great Condé, who said of him, that "he was equally qualified to shine
in society, in the field, and in the cabinet." He added piety to his
more worldly qualities, and soon perceived and took pride in the
admirable dispositions of his nephew. At the age of nineteen, the abbé
preached sermons that were generally applauded. This success alarmed his
uncle. He perceived the pure and upright character of his nephew; but,
aware of his sensibility, he feared that public applause might spoil
him, and substitute vanity for the holy love of duty that had hitherto
actuated his conduct. From these reasons, he counselled him to retire
from the world, and to enter a seminary, where in solitude and silence
he might cultivate the virtues best suited to an ecclesiastic. Fénélon
yielded; he entered the seminary of Saint Sulpice, and put himself under
the direction of the abbé Tronson, who was its superior-general. The
house was celebrated for its piety, its simple manners, its pure faith,
and, added to these, its studious and laborious pursuits. He passed five
years in this retreat, devoted to his duties and to the acquirement of
knowledge. Thus were the ardent years of early youth spent in religious
silence and obedience--in study and meditation. There was no worldly
applause to flatter, no fame to entice; his happiness consisted in
loving his companions, and being attached to his duties. His mind became
strengthened in its purposes by example, and his virtues confirmed by
habit. At the age of twenty-four he entered holy orders; and his future
destiny as a priest was unalterably fixed.
[Sidenote: 1675.
Ætat.
24.]
A catholic priest's duties are laborious and strict. Fénélon fulfilled
them conscientiously; he visited the sick, he assisted the poor. He was
attentive at the confessional, and in catechismal examinations; the
obscure labours which, when sedulously followed up, amount to hardships,
but which are the most meritorious and useful of an ecclesiastic's
duties, were so far from being neglected, that Fénélon devoted himself
to them with zeal and assiduity. He had an exalted notion of the sacred
office which he had taken on himself, looking on it as that of mediation
between God and man. Humble, gentle, and patient, he never sought the
rich, nor disdained the poor; nor did he ever refuse his counsel and
assistance to any one who asked them. Content to be in the most useful,
but the humblest class of priests, he neither sought to rise, nor even
to be known.
His zeal, however, was not satisfied by his exertions in his native
country. He resolved to emigrate to Canada, and to devote his life to
the conversion of the savages; and when considerations of health
prevented the fulfilment of this plan, he turned his eyes to the East.
We read with interest his fervent expressions on this subject, which
show how deeply he was imbued with the love of the good and the
beautiful. "All Greece opens itself to me," he wrote to a friend; "the
sultan retires in affright; the Peloponnesus already begins to breathe
in freedom; again will the church of Corinth flourish; again will she
hear the voice of her apostle. I feel myself transported to these
delightful regions; and while I am collecting the precious monuments of
antiquity, I seem to inhale her true spirit. When will the blood of the
Turks lie mingled with the blood of the Persians on the plains of
Marathon, and leave Greece to religion, to philosophy, and the fine
arts, which regard her as their native soil!"--
"Arva beata!
Petamus Arva divites et insulæ!"
He was turned from this project by objects of infinite importance in his
native country.
M. de Harlay, archbishop of Paris, heard of his merits, and named him
Superior to the convent of new converts in Paris. The spirit of
proselytism was abroad in France, as the only excuse for the persecution
of the Huguenots; and missions were sent into various provinces. It was
important to select for missionaries men suited to the task, well versed
in controversy, benevolent, patient, and persuasive. Louis XIV. was
informed of the peculiar fitness of Fénélon to the office through his
sweetness and sincerity, and appointed him to the province of Poitou.
Fénélon accepted the office, making the sole request, that the
military should be removed from the scene of his mission. With a heart
penetrated by a love of God, and reverence for the church, he devoted
himself to his task with zeal and ability, treating his proselytes with
a gentleness and charity that gained their hearts. He listened to their
doubts and their objections, and answered all; consoling and
encouraging, and adopting, for their conversion, a vigilance, an
address, and a simplicity that charmed and persuaded. Do we not find in
this occupation the foundation for his toleration for all religious
sects? While hearing the ingenuous and sinless objections to Catholicism
raised by his young and artless converts, he must have felt that God
would not severely condemn a faith to which no blame could be justly
attached, except (as he believed) that it was a heresy.
During the exercise of this office, he became acquainted with the
celebrated Bossuet. This great man began his career by an engagement of
marriage with mademoiselle des Vieux, a lady of great merit, who
afterwards, impressed with a sense of the career which his eloquence
would procure him in the church, consented to give up the engagement. As
a priest, he became celebrated for his sermons, till his pupil
Bourdaloue surpassing him, he yielded his place to him. His reputation
as an orator rests on his funeral orations: these bear the impress of a
lofty and strong mind, and are full of those awful truths which great
men ought to hear and mark.[104] Louis XIV. named him governor of the
dauphin, on which he resigned his bishopric of Condom, that he might
apply himself more entirely to so arduous a task as the education of the
heir to the throne of France. He wrote his Discourse on Universal
History, which Voltaire and D'Alembert both pronounce to be a sketch
bearing the stamp of a vast and profound genius. He describes the
manners and government, the growth and fall of empires, with majestic
force, with a rapid pen, and an energetic conception of truth. When the
education of the dauphin was completed, the king made him bishop of
Meaux; and he employed himself in writing controversial works against
the protestants.
Fénélon became at once the friend and pupil of this great man. He
listened to him with docility: he admired his erudition and his
eloquence; he revered his character, his age, his labours. He visited
him at Germany, his country residence; where they had stated hours of
prayer, meditation, and conversation; and passed their days in holy and
instructive intercourse. Fénélon lived also in society with the most
distinguished and excellent men of the age. The duke de Beauvilliers,
governor of the duke of Burgundy, had begged him to write a treatise on
the education of girls; of which task Fénélon acquitted himself
admirably. His first chapters, which relate equally to both sexes, are
the foundation of much of Rousseau's theory on the subject of education.
He insists on the importance of the female character in society, and the
urgent reasons there are for cultivating their good sense, and giving
them habits of employment. "Women," he says, "were designed by their
native elegance and grace to endear domestic life to man; to make virtue
lovely to children, to spread around them order and grace, and give to
society its highest polish. No attainment can be above beings whose aim
it is to accomplish purposes at once so useful and salutary; and every
means should be used to invigorate, by principle and culture, their
native elegance." In addition to this treatise, he wrote one on the
ministry of pastors, the object of which was to prove the superiority of
the Roman catholic institution of pastors over the ministers of the
reformed religion.
The duke de Beauvilliers was fully aware of the greatness of his merit.
He was the governor of the sons of the dauphin; the elder, and apparent
heir to the crown, the duke of Burgundy, was a child of ardent
temperament and great talents; but impetuous, haughty, capricious, and
violent. The duke was a man of virtue; he added simplicity of mind to a
love of justice, a gentle temper, and persuasive manners; he felt the
importance of his task, and was earnest to procure the best assistance;
at his recommendation,
[Sidenote: 1689.
Ætat.
38.]
Fénélon was named preceptor to the princes.[105] Men of the first
talent were associated in the task of education; the duke de
Beauvilliers was governor; the abbé de Langeron reader; he was a man of
lively and amiable disposition, friendly and kind, with a mind
enlightened by study. The abbé de Fleury, under-preceptor, is
celebrated by his works. These men, and others, all united in a system
which had the merit of success, and was founded on a knowledge of the
human heart, joined to that of the peculiar disposition of their pupil:
pupil we say, because, though there were three princes, the eldest, who
was just seven years of age, was the chief object of their labours. They
excited his curiosity in conversation, and awakened a desire to become
acquainted with some portion of history, which led also to a
geographical knowledge of various countries. He was taught the principal
facts of ancient and modern history by dialogues; the knowledge of
morals was inculcated by fables. As at first the vehemence of his temper
frequently led him to deserve punishment, they contrived that the
privation of a walk, an amusement, or even of his accustomed tasks,
should take that form; added to these, when he transgressed flagrantly,
was the silence of his attendants; no one spoke to him; till at last
this state of mute loneliness became intolerable, and he confessed his
fault, that he might again hear the sound of voices. Candour, and
readiness to ask forgiveness, were the only conditions of pardon; and to
bind his haughty will more readily, all those who presided over his
education frankly acknowledged any faults which they might commit
towards him; so that the very imperfections of his masters served as
correctives of his own. This system was admirably adapted to the
generous and fervent nature of the young prince. He became gentle,
conscientious, and just. His love for his preceptor, under his wise
fosterage, was extended to a love for his fellow-creatures. Fénélon
had a deep sense of his responsibility to God and man in educating the
future sovereign of France. He studied his pupil's character; he adapted
himself to it. Nature had clone even more in fitting him: his
enthusiasm, joined to his angelic goodness, excited at once the love and
reverence of the prince, at the same time that he was the friend and
companion of his hours of pastime. He conquered his pride by gentleness,
by raillery, or by a dignified wisdom, which convinced while it awed.
When the boy insolently asserted his superiority, Fénélon was silent;
he appeared sad and reserved, till the child, annoyed by his change of
manner, was brought to a temper to listen docilely to his remonstrances.
His disinterestedness and truth gave him absolute power, and the boy
eagerly acknowledged his error. He spared no labour or pains. We owe his
fables, many of his dialogues, and his great work, Telemachus, to his
plan of forming the mind and character of his pupil.[106] Religion, of
course, formed a principal portion of his system. He often said that
kings needed religion more than their subjects; that it might suffice to
the people to love God, but that the sovereign ought to fear him. The
duke of Burgundy grew devout, and the charity that formed the essence of
his preceptor's soul passed into his. It is impossible to say what
France would have become if this prince had reigned. The energy of his
character gave hope that he would not have been spoilt by power, which,
in the course of nature, he would not have inherited till he was more
than thirty; when his views would have been enlightened by experience,
and his virtues confirmed by habit. He had none of the ordinary kingly
prejudices in favour of war and tyranny. He was high-minded, yet humble;
full of talent, of energy, and respect for virtue. His early death
destroyed the hope of France; and hence ensued the misrule which the
revolution could alone correct.
Fénélon continued long unrecompensed. The king bestowed a small
benefice on him; but he was passed over when other preferment presented
itself. On the death of Harlay, it was expected that he would be named
archbishop of Paris; but it was bestowed, on the contrary, on Noailles,
whose nephew had married madame Maintenons niece. Soon after, however,
he was named archbishop of Cambray. Madame de Coulanges, writing to
madame Sévigné, says that Fénélon appeared surprised at his
nomination; and, on thanking the king, represented to him that he could
not regard that gift as a reward, whose operation was to separate him
from his pupil; as the council of Trent had decided that no bishop could
be absent more than three months in the year from his diocese, and that
only from affairs important to the church. The king replied, by saying
that the education of the prince was of the greatest importance to the
church, and gave him leave to reside nine months of the year at Cambray,
and three at court. Fénélon, at the same time, gave up his two abbeys,
having a scruple of conscience with regard to pluralities.[107] We have
now arrived at the period when Fénélon's career was marked by
persecution instead of reward; and he himself became immersed in
controversies and defence, which, though admirable in themselves,
absorbed a talent and a time that might have been far more usefully
employed. We must go back a short time, to trace the progress of
circumstances that led to his disgrace and exile.
The characteristic of the French church during the reign of Louis XIV.
was its spirit of controversy and persecution. We do not speak of the
Huguenots; they were out of the pale of the church. But first came
jansenism, which declared that faith and salvation depended on the
immediate operation of the grace of God. This doctrine was supported by
the sublime genius of Pascal by the logic and virtues of Arnaud; and
boasted of the first men of the kingdom, Racine, Boileau, Rochefoucauld,
&c., as its disciples. The king was taught by the jesuits to believe
that the sect was dangerous, its supporters intriguers, and the whole
system subversive of true piety. Fénélon declared himself the opposer
of jansenism. He looked upon the free will of man as the foundation of
religion, and considered the elective grace of the jansenists as
contradictory of the first principles of Christianity. In his opinion,
love of God was the foundation of piety; and he found in the writings
and doctrines of madame Guyon the development and support of his ideas.
Madame Guyon, a lady of irreproachable life, who from the period of an
early widowhood had devoted herself to a life of piety, was an
enthusiast. Her soul was penetrated with a fervent love of God, and so
far she merited the applause of Christians; but by considering that this
heavenly love was to absorb all earthly affection, she impregnated the
language, if not the sentiment of divine love, with expressions of
ecstasy and transport that might well shock the simple-minded. In
exposing this objectionable part of her writings, Bossuet apostrophises
the seraphs, and entreats them to bring burning coals from the altar of
heaven to purify his lips, lest they should have been defiled by the
impurities he is obliged to mention. The language of love is
fascinating; and Fénélon, who believed the love of God to be the
beginning and end of wisdom and virtue, might well use expressions
denoting the dedication of his whole being to the delightful
contemplation of divine perfection; but that he should approve
expressions that diverge into bombast and rhapsody, is inexplicable,
except as a proof that the wisest and best are liable to error. It is
true that the catholic religion is open to such sentiment and
phraseology. Nuns, who are declared the spouses of Jesus, are taught to
devote the softer feelings of their hearts to their celestial husband;
but certainly a well-regulated mind will rather avoid mingling
questionable emotions and their expression with piety, even in their own
persons; and, above all, they ought to be on their guard against
misleading others, by inciting them to replace a reasonable sense of
devotion and gratitude to the supreme Being by ecstatic transports,
which defeat the chief aim of religion, which is to regulate the mind.
Madame Guyon thought far otherwise; at least, as regarded herself.
Living in solitude, and in distant provinces, she indulged her
enthusiastic turn, and wrote down effusions dictated by emotions she
believed to be praiseworthy. She wrote simply, and without art; but her
works were full of ardour. She allowed others to read them, and a
portion was copied and published. Some of her readers were edified;
others naturally recoiled from a style of sentiment and expression
which, however we may love God, is certainly not adapted to any
spiritual state of feeling. Her faith was, that we ought to love God so
entirely for himself alone, that our salvation or damnation becomes
indifferent to us, since we should be willing gladly to endure eternal
misery, if such were the will of God. A notion of this kind confounds at
once all true religion, since we ought to love God for his perfection;
and the infliction of pain on the just, cannot be the work of a perfect
Being. However, by reasoning on our imperfect state of ignorance and
error, madame Guyon was able to make some show of argument, while her
expressions are in many parts incomprehensible. She says, that "the soul
that completely abandons itself to the divine will, retains no fear or
hope respecting any thing either temporal or eternal,"--a doctrine
subversive of the Christian principle of repentance. She asserts that
man is so utterly worthless, that it scarcely deserves his own inquiry
whether he is to be everlastingly saved or not; that the soul must live
for God alone, insensible to the turpitude and debasement of its own
state. Added to this heresy, was her notion of prayer, which she made
consist, not in the preferment of our requests to God, such as Jesus
Christ taught, but in a state of mind embued with the sense of God's
presence, and an assimilation of the soul with God's perfection.
Her health suffered from the constant excitement of her mind. It was
considered that the climate of the province where she resided was
injurious, and she visited Paris to recover. She became acquainted
with the dukes de Beauvilliers and Chevreuse; her doctrines became known
and discussed in Paris; madame de Maintenon was struck and attracted;
Fénélon, his own heart full of love, became almost a convert; madame
Guyon herself was full of talent, enthusiasm, and goodness; Fénélon
became her friend, and denied the odious conclusions which her enemies
drew from her doctrines.