Excerpt from Fenelon: His Friends and His Enemies, 1651-1715 In spite of the many splendid qualities of which his earlier years gave proof, he was marked by destiny as one of those who may not come to full development save through the fire of suffering and humiliation. Great as was his celebrity, he was - as far as his own advantage was concerned - perpetually unsuccessful, and only the strenuous vitality of his temperament could have sup ported him against the pressure of misfortune. The courage thus aroused was a greater acquisition than the glory of success. If Fenelon had been unharmed by royal prejudice and tyranny, and impervious to dexterous slander, he might take a more prominent place in the annals of his country; but he would have missed his hold on the countless troubled human beings whom loneliness and sorrow taught him to encourage and direct. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.