It will be somewhat seen, we trust, from all this, how great was the care and skill expended by Fénelon on his most responsible and difficult task, and how near an approach he made to imparting a model education to his pupil. To his religious training, of course, as well as to that which was more intellectual, the greatest attention was given. It had a large place in the many conversations held and the many books put into his hands, chief among which were the Sacred Scriptures. The law of self-denial and self-restraint was continually inculcated, that one must learn to imitate the Divine Master if one would fulfill the purpose for which life was given. The early religious impressions thus imparted were so deeply wrought that they influenced his whole after life. He was prepared with greatest care for his first communion, taking it earnestly and devoutly, and for the rest of his life he was a regular and faithful communicant, receiving the sacrament with a recollection and humility of bearing which struck all beholders. A total transformation was wrought in the royal pupil under the training given, a transformation which amazed all who were conversant with it. The Duke de Saint-Simon, speaking of what a prodigy was wrought in a marvelously short space of time, how the most terrible qualities were changed into all the opposite virtues, says: “From the beast which I have described there arose a prince affable, gentle, moderate, patient, modest, humble, austere but only to himself, attentive to his duties and sensible of their great extent. His only object appeared to be to perform all his actual duties as son and subject, and to qualify himself for his future obligations.” Madame de Maintenon, in one of her letters, gives the same testimony: “We saw all those defects which alarmed us so much in the youth of the Duke of Burgundy gradually disappear. Every year produced in him a visible increase of virtue. So much had his piety changed him that, from being the most passionate of men, he became mild, gentle, and complying; persons would have thought that mildness was his natural disposition, and that he was innately good.” So great was the alteration in his character and conduct that, had he lived to ascend the throne, the whole world, as well as France in particular, would have been immensely the gainer. Hence the limitless devotion with which Fénelon gave five or six years of his life at the height of his powers entirely to the royal children and the routine of their schoolroom duties, was by no means a poor use of his great gifts and attainments. These years are extremely important, both in his own history and the history of his country.