Lives of the most eminent literary and scientific men of France, Vol. 1 (of 2)Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Science
Lives of the most eminent literary and scientific men of France, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Authors, French -- Biography
[Footnote 115: Most of the applications made of the personages are
stupid enough, and we are convinced, that though Fénélon might have
referred to the Dutch, when he wrote of the Phenicians, and even have
shadowed forth an ideal likeness of Louis XIV. in Sesostris, and perhaps
of Louvois in Protesilaus, and of Pomponne in Philocles,--he had no
thought of the king's mistresses, Montespan and Fontanges, nor of madame
de Maintenon, when he wrote of Calypso, Eucharis, and Antiope. In
addition to these allusions, we are told that Pygmalion meant Cromwell;
Baleazer, Charles II.; Narbal, Monk; and Idomeneus, James II. The first
of these is absurd. Still, as we have said, without portraying
individuals, Fénélon very likely referred to certain questions of
policy, and to the actual state of some neighbouring countries, in
sketching the government and people of some of the lands which
Telemachus visited.]
[Footnote 116: The marquis de Fénélon was the archbishop's great
nephew. His uncle, who first brought him forward in Paris, left a
daughter, who married a brother of Fénélon by his father's first
marriage. The marquis in question was the grandson of this pair. He was
brought up at Cambray by his great uncle. The most affectionate and
intimate of Fénélon's letters are addressed to him. He was appointed
ambassador to Holland, and second plenipotentiary under cardinal Fleury
at the congress of Soissons. He was killed at the battle of Raucoux,
October 11. 1746. Voltaire knew him well, and says on this occasion,
"The only general officer France lost in this battle was the marquis de
Fénélon, nephew of the immortal archbishop of Cambray. He had been
brought up by him, and had all his virtue with a very different
character. Twenty years employed in the embassy to Holland had not
extinguished a fire and rash valour, which cost him his life. Having
been formerly wounded in the foot, and scarcely able to walk, he
penetrated the enemy's entrenchments on horseback. He sought death, and
he found it. His extreme devotion augmented his intrepidity. He believed
that to die for his king was the act most agreeable to God. We must
confess that an army composed of men entertaining this sentiment would
be invincible."]
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