had perished in Fenelon:
"Here was a man who could have served us well under the disasters by
which my kingdom is about to be assailed!"

Fenelon's literary productions are various; but they all have the common
character of being works written for the sake of life, rather than for
the sake of literature. They were inspired each by a practical purpose,
and adapted each to a particular occasion. His treatise on the
"Education of Girls" was written for the use of a mother who desired
instruction on the topic from Fenelon. His argument on the "Being of a
God" was prepared as a duty of his preceptorship to the prince. But the
one book of Fenelon which was an historical event when it appeared, and
which stands an indestructible classic in literature, is the
"Telemachus." It remains for us briefly to give some idea of this book.

The first thing to be said is, that those are mistaken who suppose
themselves to have obtained a true idea of "Telemachus" from having
partly read it at school, as an exercise in French. The essence of the
work lies beyond those few opening pages to which the exploration of
school-boys and school-girls is generally limited. This masterpiece of
Fenelon is much more than a charming piece of romantic and sentimental
poetry in prose. It is a kind of epic, indeed, like the "Odyssey," only
written in rhythmical prose instead of rhythmical verse; but, unlike the
"Odyssey," it is an idyllic epic written with an ulterior purpose of
moral and political didactics. It was designed as a manual of
instruction,--instruction made delightful to a prince,--to inculcate the
duties incumbent on a sovereign.

Telemachus, our readers will remember, was the son of Ulysses. Fenelon's
story relates the adventures encountered by Telemachus, in search for
his father, so long delayed on his return from Troy to Ithaca.
Telemachus is imagined by Fenelon to be attended by Minerva, the goddess
of wisdom, masked from his recognition, as well as from the recognition
of others, under the form of an old man. Minerva, of course, constantly
imparts the wisest counsel to young Telemachus, who has his weaknesses,
as had the young Duke of Burgundy, but who is essentially well-disposed,
as Fenelon hoped his royal pupil would finally turn out to be. Nothing
can exceed the urbanity and grace with which the delicate business is
conducted by Fenelon, of teaching a bad prince, with a very bad example
set him by his grandfather, to be a good king