me his
guardian. Though delicate in health, the boy showed remarkable aptness
in learning. At the age of twelve he entered the college of Cahors, and
thence went to the university of Paris. He was destined by his parents
for the Church, for which, by natural temperament and pious zeal, he was
well fitted. He preached at fifteen with marked success, and took up a
theological course at St. Sulpice. At the age of twenty-four he was
ordained priest. He desired to enter the missionary field, first in
Canada, and later in Greece, but had to abandon this purpose on account
of ill health.

Saint-Simon, in his "Memoires," describes Fenelon as a man of striking
appearance, and says, "His manner altogether corresponded to his
appearance; his perfect ease was infectious to others, and his
conversation was stamped with the grace and good taste which are
acquired by habitual intercourse with the best society and the great
world."

For ten years Fenelon was at the head of the convent of the _New
Catholics_, an institution which sought to reclaim Protestant young
women to Catholicism. In this position, as well as in all his lifework,
though himself an ardent Catholic, Fenelon's course was so temperate and
just that he won the warmest admiration even of Protestants, who did not
accept his faith. Among his friends were the Duke and Duchess of
Beauvilliers, who had eight daughters and several sons. At their
suggestion, and for the purpose of helping them in educating their
daughters, he wrote his first and most important educational work, "The
Education of Girls." Compayre pronounces this "the first classical work
of French pedagogy." He further speaks of this book as "a work of
gentleness and goodness, of a complaisant and amiable grace, which is
pervaded by a spirit of progress."[111] It appeared in 1687.

In 1689, when thirty-eight years of age, Fenelon was chosen preceptor of
the grandson of Louis XIV., the young Duke of Burgundy. In this position
his remarkable powers as a teacher were brought to light, and he applied
the theories which he had promulgated. The young duke, who was eight
years of age, was of a passionate nature, hard to control, and yet,
withal, of warm-hearted impulses. It is said that "he would break the
clocks which summoned him to unwelcome duty, and fly into the wildest
rage with the rain which hindered some pleasure." The "Telemachus"[112]
of Fenelon, perhaps his greatest literary work, was composed at this
t