[106]Voltaire asserts that this idea is a mistake. He assures us (Siècle de Louis XIV., chap. 32.) that the marquis de Fénélon, the archbishop's nephew, declared the contrary, and related that the writing of Telemachus was his uncle's recreation, when exiled at Cambray. Voltaire considers this statement supported by his notion that no priest would have made the loves of Calypso and Eucharis the subject of a work to be placed in a young prince's hands. His assertion, however, is liable to many objections. Fénélon was exiled in 1697. Telemachus was put into a printer's hands in Paris in 1698; and was published in Holland in 1699, the year in which the brief of the pope, condemning the Maxims of the Saints, was issued. This interval, which did not include, when the months are numbered, more than a year and a half, was employed by the archbishop in composing replies to Bossuet's attacks; and we discover no moment of leisure for Telemachus. Nothing can be more futile than Voltaire's other objection. The loves of Calypso and Eucharis are, indeed, touched with the tenderness and warmth that characterised Fénélon, but are such as he would consider exemplifying the temptations and corruptions of a court, and suited both to warn his pupil against them, and to show him the path of escape. Fénélon was in the habit of composing fables for the instruction of the prince, while a child, and dialogues for the same purpose, as he advanced in age. There is every reason to believe that he prepared Telemachus to be put into his hands at the dawn of manhood. This idea is the great charm of the work. It excuses its monitorial tone; it explains the nature of the instruction it conveys. It is a monument of the principles of government and morals which he deemed adapted to the sovereign of a great kingdom. As merely a work written to amuse himself, it is pedantic, and, in parts, almost childish; as a manual for the young and ardent prince, who was destined to succeed Louis XIV., to consult when entering into life, it is the best book that was ever written.
[107]Le Tellier, archbishop of Rheims, remarked on this, that Fénélon did right, thinking as he did; and he did right, with his opinions. The worldly-mindedness of Le Tellier was so open as to cause him to say good things himself, and to be the cause of them in others. It was he who said of our James II., "There is a good man, who lost three kingdoms for a mass." He said no man could be honest under five hundred a year. Inquiring of Boileau concerning a man's probity, the satirist replied, "He wants an hundred a year of being an honest man."
[108]A letter of Fénélon is preserved, addressed to Louis XIV., and written before he was made archbishop. This letter predicts all the disasters that afterwards befel France; it speaks of the wrongs and sufferings of the people, and the misrule of the ministers, with freedom, vigour, and truth. There can be no doubt that the king never saw it. He would never have forgiven such interference with his measures or censures of the people about him. The language of truth would have been so odious that the speaker of it would never have been archbishop. The dislike of the king arose from another circumstance. After his elevation to the see of Cambray, Louis heard his peculiar sentiments discussed, and began to fear that the lessons of so good and pious a man would form a prince whose austere virtue and contempt for vain-glory would be a censure on his own reign—so filled with useless sanguinary wars—and magnificent pleasures, paid for by the misery of his people. That he might form a judgment on the subject, he had conversation with the new prelate upon his political principles. Fénélon, full of his own ideas, disclosed to the king a portion of that theory afterwards detailed in Telemachus. The king, after this conversation, said he had discoursed with the most clever, but most chimerical author in his kingdom This story is told by Voltaire in his "Age of Louis XIV." It was related to him by cardinal de Fleury, and M. Malezieux. The latter taught geometry to the duke of Burgundy, and learnt from his pupil the judgment of his royal grandfather. The letter to the king, alluded to above, is to be found in the notes to D'Alembert's "Éloge de Fénélon."
[109]Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, vol. VI.
[110]D'Alembert, in his Éloge de Fénélon, pronounces these works on quietism to be his best. "Let us pardon this active and tender mind," he says, "for having lavished so much fervour and eloquence on such a subject. He spoke of the delight of loving; as a celebrated writer says, 'I know not if Fénélon were a heretic in asserting that God deserved to be loved for himself, but I know that Fénélon deserves to be thus loved.'" Bossuet felt his power, and said of him, as Philip IV. had said of Turenne, "That man made me pass many a wakeful night." And a lady having asked him if the archbishop of Cambray had the talents that were attributed to him, Bossuet replied, "Ah, madam, he has sufficient to make me tremble." Nettled by this talent, Bossuet was driven to attack his adversary by abuse. "Monseigneur," replied Fénélon, "why do you use insults for argument? Do you then consider my arguments insults?" We must in justice record a noble reply of Bossuet to the king: "What should you have done," said Louis, "if I had not supported you in your outcry against Fénélon?" "Sire," replied the bishop, "my cry would have been yet louder."
[111]Poor madame Guyon, thus thrown over by both, suffered much persecution, and was frequently imprisoned. After her liberation from the Bastille she lived in obscurity; but Fénélon always regarded her with affection and respect. She was an enthusiast, full of imagination and talent, and though in error, yet ever declared herself an obedient daughter of the catholic church.
[112]His pastoral letter is, at length, as follows:—"Nous nous devons à vous sans réserve, mes très chers frères, puisque nous ne sommes plus à nous, mais au troupeau qui nous est confié: c'est dans cet esprit que nous nous sentons obligés de vous ouvrir ici notre cœur et de continuer à vous faire part de ce qui nous touche sur le livre des Maximes des Saints. Enfin notre très saint père le pape a condamné ce livre avec les vingt-trois propositions qui en ont été extraites, par un bref daté du 12 Mars. Nous adhérons à ce bref, mes très chers frères, tant pour le texte du livre que pour les vingt-trois propositions, simplement, absolument, et sans ombre de restriction.
"Nous nous consolerons, mes très chers frères, de ce qui nous humilie, pouvu que le ministère de la parole que nous avons reçu du Seigneur pour votre sanctification n'en soit point affobli, et que non obstant l'humiliation du pasteur, le troupeau croisse en grace devant Dieu.
"C'est donc de tout notre cœur que nous vous exhortons à une soumission sincère et à une docilité sans réserve, de peur qu'on n'altère insensiblement la simplicité de l'obéissance, dont nous voulons, moyennant la grace de dieu, vous donner l'exemple jusqu'au dernier soupir de notre vie.
"A Dieu ne plaise qu'il ne soit jamais parlé de nous, si ce n'est pour se souvenir qu'un pasteur a cru dévoir être plus docile que la dernière brebis de son troupeau, et qu'il n'a mis aucune borne à son obéissance. Donné à Cambrai, ce 9 Avril, 1699."