"NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF FENELON." (By a Protestant Writer.) FRANCIS Fenelon de Salignac de la Motte, Archbishop of Cambray, was born of an illustrious family, at the Castle of Fenelon, in Querci, on the 6th August, 1651. He was educated at Cahors, and afterwards finished his studies at Paris, and began early to acquire popularity as a preacher. At the age of 24, he received Holy Orders, after making the best preparation for ordination, under the direction of L'Abbé Tronson, Superior of St. Sulpice, at Paris. In 1686, he was sent at the head of the Missionaries, to convert the Protestants on the coast of Saintonge and the Pays des Aunis. Simple, and profound at the same time, and joining to his amiable manners, a noble eloquence, he had the good fortune to draw back to his Church, a multitude of dissenting brethren. In 1689, he was appointed tutor to the Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berri, and he displayed such abilities in the education of these princes, that the king, in gratitude for his services, gave him the Abbey of St. Valery, and soon after, the Pope transmitted to him bulls for the See of Cambray, to which he was consecrated by Bossuet, 1695. In 1697, he published his explanation of "The Maxims of the Saints, concerning the interior life:" a work which exposed him to the censure of his brethren. Fenelon was urged to sign a recantation of his opinions, but, at first, refused. The decision was then referred to the Pope, who, in condemning the Archbishop's book, declared, that he had erred from excess of love of God, and his opponents from excess of love of their neighbour. Fenelon, with true christian meekness, submitted to the decision of the Pope, and read the sentence, and his recantation in his own diocess, where, by his exemplary life, he gave lustre to the Episcopal office. He afterwards assisted the Jesuits, in their successful attack against the Jansenists, and procured the disgrace of Noialles, their patron, and the condemnation of their writings. The work principally from which Fenelon derives literary immortality, is his "Telemachus," which every man of taste, must read with the greatest pleasure. It was indeed exposed to the jealousy of Louis and his courtiers, who pretended to see the character of Madame de Montespan in Calypso, of Mademoiselle de Fontanges, in Eucharis, of the Dutchess of Burgundy, in Antiope, of Louvois, in Protesilaus, of James II., in Idomeneus, and of Louis XIV., in Sesostris; but though its publication was prohibited in France, yet it appeared in Paris surreptitiously, in 1699, and in a correct form at the Hague, 1701. Such indeed is the merit of the work, that it ranks, though in prose, among epic poems; and by the elegance of its style, and the sublimity of its moral, it has secured universal applause, and has been translated into all the modern languages of Europe. The last part of Fenelon's life was spent in the conscientious discharge of the pastoral office in his diocess, where his benevolence and goodness of heart, gained him the affection and gratitude of his people; and his reputation, the respect even of his enemies. For Marlborough, when victorious in that country, ordered the lands of the great and good Fenelon to be spared. This amiable prelate died 7th Jan. 1715, aged 63. Besides his "Telemachus," he wrote many valuable works and treatises on Education, Dialogues on the dead, on Eloquence, Spiritual works, Sermons, &c. &c. &c. SILK. TO THE EDITORS OF THE "METROPOLITAN:" Gentlemen,-Having been presented not many days ago, with a copy of the new, and interesting little work written by Mr. D'homergue, and our eminent and patriotic civilian, M. Duponceau, on the culture and manufacture of silk, I was insensibly led away from the consideration of the resources and comforts of which it is likely to be a fruitful source to our increasing population; to meditate on the wonders of Providence, displayed in that very industrious and truly singular insect, the silk-worm. Never did the observation of the deep thinking St. Augustine "Creavit in cœlo Angelos in terra vermiculos, nec major in illis nec minor in istis” present itself to my mind, with more truth and beauty--and I doubted for a moment whether the heavens with all their glory, challenged a hymn of praise from man to God, more effectually, than the least and humblest works of a terrestrial nature. Iron and steel in their ore-or silk in an insect so little able to guess at its own 1 importance, while amidst the foliage of the mulberry, he busied himself with so much ardour, unconscious of what he does-and for whose use he ultimately spins his lovely tissue. My thoughts and my feelings were in a pleasing mood. These charming lines. of Vida occurred to me, descriptive of the little emmett's useful mazes. "Mille legens, relegensque vias atque orbibus orbes Sponte sua; tanta est edendi gloria fili!" I felt my whole soul kindling into gratitude to Him, in obedience to whose orders, the beneficent insect works-thus works for man, the under lord of the creation—and I thought that as gold and gems of marble, and all the rich offerings of bounteous nature, had been presented by the High-priest of the universal Temple to the God that made him such, it was right, that the little toiling labourer, crawling and enjoying himself silently, through his folded leaves, should reach the fulness of his destiny and share with flowers, with the pure wheat, and with the thread of grass-with humbler, and with nobler things-the honor of adorning for man, the altars and the exterior worship of his God. It has been so and if I am not much mistaken, enamoured of my investigations on this subject, an essay on the matter will both instruct, and amuse your readers. But hark! already does the murmuring of some austere minds strike on my ear, "Dicite, pontifices, in sancto quid facit Aurum?" Shall an article on the use of silk in religious worship be now credited by one of the sons of the great Dame in scarlet? Why not? This should not stir your bile; 'tis but a peccadillo, that may relieve your melancholy amidst the gloom that her greater abominations oft inspire, when threatening to overflow the land we live in. Besides, the writers of severe panegyrics should rather favour than condemn, whatever might promote the contemplated cultivation; for they should find themselves cushioned and pillowed, with more comfort and less cost, when from pulpit or from cabinet, they inveigh against the fondness of old mother Church for the beautiful and magnificent, Quid quod libelli Stoici inter sericos Quarrel with Horace if you please for a hint which surely he did not aim at, a Puritan, and permit your humble writer to proIceed with his harmless observations on silk. Were not the robes from the silk-worm, as well as the flowers from the field, for the pleasure of man? Must they not find their use somewhere? And to what better use can they be turned, than to the decoration of the altar of God, and of the functions of his pontiffs. "Silk, (long ago said the humble and penitent Augustine, so little inclined to forget himself before his God)—silk may not become poor Augustine and still become the pontiff of God." I was proceeding in earnest-but "Cinthius vellit Aurem." Beware, not to treat on a subject so great a reproach to Rome.-See the notes on Revelations, chapt. xviii., in any commentator but your own-for instance, see those of the celebrated author of a numerous society already nearly a century in existence, and so full of respect for her patriarch enumerating the rich "objects of the commerce of Babylon." (N. 12.) "Almost all these, he wisely observes, are still in use at Rome, both in their idolatrous service and in common life"-and lo! silk is in the number! Will you proceed? Yes, and safely enough, although not so conspicuously, if that innocent stuff is admitted into the appendages of other worships that are not idolatrous, at least "in common life." And is it not? It is an usual remark familiar with Catholics, and acceptable to liberal Protestants, that the Church at all times, has exercised her influence to patronize the arts and commerce, by her zeal to any but sickly minds, praiseworthy zeal, for the decency and splendour of Divine worship; as well as by the interest which as a mother, or if you please, in the true spirit of Pastorship, she felt to multiply the resources of the laborious classes-it is in this spirit that she has every where promoted agriculture and the manufactures and the raising of villages, and the formation and embellishment of cities. It is then no wonder, that she has acted in conformity with the dictates of the same benevolent spirit in every thing that relates to the growing, working, and trading of silk. Whether that magnificence of the ancient worship, with which the Almighty inspired his people could have been enhanced by the various productions of the silk-loom, remains uncertain among the commentators. Yet that such had been the fact, is highly probable,-for, although silk originated in China, or as Gosselin seems to establish, in the regions west of that Empire, it was known not only over India, but in Persia, in a very remote antiquity. It is then most likely that it had reached west of the Euphrates and Assyria. The old Testament, according to the Vulgate, mentions it in Esther, chap. 8, v. 15, and in Ezechiel, chap. 27, v. 16; but, as the sense of the Hebrew cannot be easily ascertained by other parallel passages, it remains doubtful, whether the substance so called is our silk. They, who reformed the Bible, the better to reform the church, eagerly took even this little opportunity to differ. The latin word Sericum has not always itself, a very specific sense, in the earliest Latin authors. They had not, in their days, a very distinct idea of the nature and texture of some of the most precious stuffs, which at an immense expense were brought to Rome from the most remote regions of the east, "Ingenti summâ ab ignotis etiam ad commerciùm gentibus accersuntur," wrote Seneca, de Benif-but certain, at least, it is, that every thing most precious had been recommended to the Israelites for their worship-and this by no less an authority than the Divine inspiration itself. The first disciples of our Lord preserved the hallowed impression-They heard him commend the tender piety of Magdalen and reprove the preposterous objections of Judas-they treated his own precious body at its sepulture, with the same honourable feelings and when after his resurrection, they believed that they possessed the same glorified body, concealed under the sacramental veil on their altars, they considered that they only yielded to the most laudable piety, when they devoted to its worship all that was precious in nature or in art, and they found that this manifestation of respect and gratitude for the Divine presence excited the best of impressions on the senses and the imagination, while it elevated above common use, and called in to the aid of higher faculties, the gift of nature's Lord. They did not conceive that the cause of the poor could suffer by it. For all that expands the narrow dispositions of our naturally selfish |