“On Pure Love”[Pl. 1:656–671]

“On Pure Love” is one of many essays gathered by Fénelon’s editors under the heading Lettres et opuscules spirituels. This particular essay likely dates to the quietism controversy that reached its peak with the publication of Fenelon’s Maxims of the Saints in 1697. “On Pure Love” is properly a work of spirituality rather than political philosophy. Yet its theme—the concept of pure love untainted by self-love—represents Fénelon’s most extensive treatment of a core concept in his political and moral thought, and also presents an important source of reflection on self-love that synthesizes several seventeenth-century views and anticipates key eighteenth-century theories of self-love from Rousseau to Adam Smith.

Fables (selections)

The Fables are drawn from several short texts that Fénelon’s editors have previously gathered under the title Fables et opuscules pédagogiques. They comprise a range of writings that Fénelon composed for the political education of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV and Petit Dauphin, during his tenure as court tutor. Important contributions to a genre pioneered by Aesop and La Fontaine, they have long been regarded as significant literary achievements as well as key vehicles for lessons in the virtues necessary for just rule and the means of establishing political order.

Introduction

The introduction provides an overview of Fénelon’s life and works to order to familiarize readers with his context and the range of his intellectual contributions. It is organized into three sections. The first section offers a brief overview of the key events of Fénelon’s life and times. The second surveys Fénelon’s writings, and aims to provide readers with information on the dates and circumstances of Fénelon’s written texts in order to clarify their intentions and significance. The third section provides a brief introduction to the core themes of Fénelon’s political philosophy. Also included alongside the introduction in the front matter are suggestions for further reading, a chronology of Fénelon’s life, and a translator’s note.

Political Memoranda

Fénelon’s previous editors have gathered together under the heading Mémoires politiques several of his short writings on the political events of his day. These Political Memoranda provided Fénelon with an opportunity to apply his political theory to practical political questions. Dating to the first two decades of the eighteenth century, some of the most noteworthy of these focus on the disastrous effects of Louis XIV’s foreign policy in the course of the War of Spanish Succession. Also included here are the “Plans of Government,” a set of notes that emerged from Fénelon’s conversations in November 1711 with several of his fellow reformers. They are generally thought to have been prepared to provide Burgundy—who, in the wake of his father’s death earlier that year, had become the expected successor to Louis XIV—with a practical guide for the reform of the government of France on his ascension to the throne.

Correspondence

Chapter 4 presents three of Fénelon’s letters. The Letter to Louis XIV is a striking excoriation of both the character and rule of Louis XIV. An enduring model of what it looks like to speak truth to power, the Letter offers an uncompromising critique of the obsession with grandeur and glory that led Louis to privilege his image and the image of his court over the well-being of his people. Alongside it appear two further selections from Fénelon’s extensive correspondence—a letter to the chief advisor to the King of Spain and a letter to the Duke of Burgundy grown to adulthood—that likewise offer insight into his views on the responsibilities of advisors to and holders of executive authority.

Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Elector of Cologne[Pl. 2:945–971]

The Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Elector of Cologne is a transcript of Fénelon’s sermon on the occasion of the 1707 consecration of Joseph-Clément of Bavaria, Elector and ultimately Archbishop of Cologne. Fénelon used this occasion to present his core lessons on what was at once a central theme of his political philosophy and a principal theme of early modern philosophy, one that indeed received particular attention in the seventeenth century in the wake of the writings of Hobbes and Spinoza: the proper relation of church and state, and the ways in which civil authorities ought to be disposed to ecclesiastical authorities.

The Adventures of Telemachus (selections)

Telemachus, first published in 1699, was the centerpiece of Fénelon’s education for Burgundy. Its initial publication is said to be owed to the theft of the manuscript by an unfaithful copyist. But it soon became a publishing phenomenon and a principal source of Fénelon’s enduring fame. For students of moral and political philosophy, it is important not only for its allegorical critique of the absolutism of Louis XIV, but also for its articulation of a vision of an alternative form of civic flourishing and its innovative proposals on themes ranging from free trade and taxation, international relations and just war, and the virtues of statesmen and ministers.

Examination of Conscience on the Duties of Kingship[Pl. 2:973–1009]

The Examination of Conscience on the Duties of Kingship (c. 1709–1711) is one of Fénelon’s most important contributions to political theory. Prior to receiving the sacrament of penance, Catholics have been traditionally expected to make an examination of conscience. Here Fénelon uses this genre to present the mature Duke of Burgundy with a probing inquiry into the psychology of political rule and the ways in which a ruler can transcend his pride to work for the well-being of the people he serves. The text is especially noteworthy for its conclusion, which sets forth what has been seen by some of the most prominent experts in international relations as the first modern articulation of balance-of-power theory.

Dialogues of the Dead Composed for the Education of a Prince (selections)

The Dialogues—which bear the full title of Dialogues des morts composés pour l’éducation d’un prince—were, like the Fables, written for Burgundy, and are thought to date to 1692–1695. Contributions to a popular genre made famous by Lucian and Fontenelle, the Dialogues present a series of reformist lessons on governance and statecraft as well as the morality of virtue and its relationship to happiness. Included here are selections from the nearly eighty dialogues that Fénelon composed for the Duke. These selections especially emphasize the core themes of Fénelon’s political education.