philosophy, on the highest hill of Elysium, where the air is most pure
and most serene. I will conduct you to the fountain of wisdom, in which
you will see, as in your own writings, the fair image of virtue
perpetually reflected. It will raise in you more love than was felt by
Narcissus, when he contemplated the beauty of his own face in the
unruffled spring. But you shall not pine, as he did, for a shadow. The
goddess herself will affectionately meet your embraces and mingle with
your soul.

_Fenelon_.--I find you retain the allegorical and poetical style, of
which you were so fond in many of your writings. Mine also run sometimes
into poetry, particularly in my "Telemachus," which I meant to make a
kind of epic composition. But I dare not rank myself among the great
poets, nor pretend to any equality in oratory with you, the most eloquent
of philosophers, on whose lips the Attic bees distilled all their honey.

_Plato_.--The French language is not so harmonious as the Greek, yet you
have given a sweetness to it which equally charms the ear and heart. When
one reads your compositions, one thinks that one hears Apollo's lyre,
strung by the hands of the Graces, and tuned by the Muses. The idea of a
perfect king, which you have exhibited in your "Telemachus," far excels,
in my own judgment, my imaginary "Republic." Your "Dialogues" breathe
the pure spirit of virtue, of unaffected good sense, of just criticism,
of fine taste. They are in general as superior to your countryman
Fontenelle's as reason is to false wit, or truth to affectation. The
greatest fault of them, I think, is, that some are too short.

_Fenelon_.--It has been objected to them--and I am sensible of it
myself--that most of them are too full of commonplace morals. But I
wrote them for the instruction of a young prince, and one cannot too