I should not have been the great monarch that I was. But I mean not to
detract from the merit of a prince whose memory is dear to his subjects.
They are proud of having obeyed you, which is certainly the highest
praise to a king. My people also date their glory from the era of my
reign. But there is this capital distinction between us. The pomp and
pageantry of state were necessary to your greatness; I was great in
myself, great in the energy and powers of my mind, great in the
superiority and sovereignty of my soul over all other men.



DIALOGUE III.


PLATO--FENELON.

_Plato_.--Welcome to Elysium, O thou, the most pure, the most gentle, the
most refined disciple of philosophy that the world in modern times has
produced! Sage Fenelon, welcome!--I need not name myself to you. Our
souls by sympathy must know one another.

_Fenelon_.--I know you to be Plato, the most amiable of all the disciples
of Socrates, and the philosopher of all antiquity whom I most desired to
resemble.

_Plato_.--Homer and Orpheus are impatient to see you in that region of
these happy fields which their shades inhabit. They both acknowledge you
to be a great poet, though you have written no verses. And they are now
busy in composing for you unfading wreaths of all the finest and sweetest
Elysian flowers. But I will lead you from them to the sacred grove of