f mind to envelop
them in old Grecian dress, and, without playing false for a moment to his
own Christianity, seek in the writings of heathen sages a wider and a
healthier view of humanity than was afforded by an ascetic creed.

No wonder that the appearance of "Telemaque," published in Holland
without the permission of Fenelon, delighted throughout Europe that
public which is always delighted with new truths, as long as it is not
required to practise them. To read "Telemaque" was the right and the
enjoyment of everyone. To obey it, the duty only of princes. No wonder
that, on the other hand, this "Vengeance de peuples, lecon des rois," as
M. de Lamartine calls it, was taken for the bitterest satire by Louis
XIV., and completed the disgrace of one who had dared to teach the future
king of France that he must show himself, in all things, the opposite of
his grandfather. No wonder if Madame de Maintenon and the court looked
on its portraits of wicked ministers and courtiers as caricatures of
themselves; portraits too, which, "composed thus in the palace of
Versailles, under the auspices of that confidence which the king had
placed in the preceptor of his heir, seemed a domestic treason." No
wonder, also, if the foolish and envious world outside was of the same
opinion; and after enjoying for awhile this exposure of the great ones of
the earth, left "Telemaque" as an Utopia with which private folks had no
concern; and betook themselves to the easier and more practical model of
"Gil Blas."

But there are solid defects in "Telemaque"--indicating corresponding
defects in the author's mind--which would have, in any case, prevented
its doing the good work which Fenelon desired; defects which are natural,
as it seems to me, to his position as a Roman Catholic priest, however
saintly and pure, however humane and liberal. The king, with him, is to
be always the father of his people; which is tantamount to saying, that
the people are to be always children, and in a condition of tutelage;
voluntary, if possible: if not, of tutelage still. Of self-government,
and education of human beings into free manhood by the exercise of self-
government, free will, free thought--of this Fenelon had surely not a
glimpse. A generation or two passed by, and then the peoples of Europe
began to suspect that they were no longer children, but come to manhood;
and determined (after the example of Britain and America) to assume the
rights and du