endeavor to rescue from the musty record of the misty past, a lifelike image of this many-sided, multiple, versatile personality. François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon was born August 6, 1651, at the castle, or chateau, of Fénelon, about three miles from the town of Sarlat, in the department of Southern France, formerly called Perigord, now Dordogne, north of the river Garonne. The De Salignacs were of an ancient and distinguished family, counting in their long pedigree many of the best names of France—bishops, governors, generals, and ambassadors. But it is safe to say that they have derived more luster from the single name of the Archbishop of Cambrai than from all the rest who through several centuries filled lofty stations in camp and court and Church. Very little is known about his parents or his early life. Pons de Salignac, Count of La Mothe Fénelon, father of Francis, was twice married, having fourteen children by his first wife and three by his second. The eldest of the three was Francis. His mother, Mademoiselle Louise de la Cropte de Saint-Arbre, sister of a celebrated lieutenant who served under Marshal Turenne, is said to have been unusually pious, which we can well believe, and to have perpetuated some of her other traits in her famous son. From his father’s side he doubtless inherited his diplomatic temperament and a goodly degree of worldly wisdom. His peculiar situation in the household could hardly fail to have had something to do with his character. The numerous grown-up sons and daughters of his father’s first marriage took umbrage at the second; hence the precocious and sensitive child had abundant occasion to practice all possible arts of ingratiation to obtain forgiveness for having intruded his existence upon them, and to make it pleasant for his mother. His constitution was delicate, and he had a sickly childhood; once at least in his early days his life was despaired of, and he only recovered to be for years the victim of sleeplessness and kindred ailments. He was the idol of his old father, who, recognizing his unusual talents, took special pains with his education. It was intrusted at first to a private preceptor, who seems to have been well fitted for his task, and gave to his pupil in a few years a better knowledge of Greek and Latin than is commonly obtained at so early an age, doubtless laying thus the foundation of his exquisitely finished style. At twelve he left the paternal roof for the neighboring University of Cahors (a town about sixty miles north of Toulouse, containing now an obelisk of Fénelon), where he pursued for some three years philosophical and philological studies and took his degrees in the arts.