The Existence of God | Page 2

of this office was inconsistent
with his duties as preceptor of the King's grandchildren. Louis replied
that he could live at Court only for three months in the year, and during
the other nine direct the studies of his pupils from Cambray.
Bossuet took part in the consecration of his friend Fenelon as
Archbishop of Cambray; but after a time division of opinion arose.
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe Guyon became in 1676 a widow at
the age of twenty-eight, with three children, for whose maintenance she
gave up part of her fortune, and she then devoted herself to the practice

and the preaching of a spiritual separation of the soul from earthly cares,
and rest in God. She said with Galahad, "If I lose myself, I save
myself." Her enthusiasm for a pure ideal, joined to her eloquence,
affected many minds. It provoked opposition in the Church and in the
Court, which was for the most part gross and self-seeking. Madame
Guyon was attacked, even imprisoned. Fenelon felt the charm of her
spiritual aspiration, and, without accepting its form, was her defender.
Bossuet attacked her views. Fenelon published "Maxims of the Saints
on the Interior Life." Bossuet wrote on "The States of Prayer." These
were the rival books in a controversy about what was called
"Quietism." Bossuet afterwards wrote a "Relation sur le Quietisme," of
which Fenelon's copy, charged with his own marginal comments, is in
the British Museum. In March, 1699, the Pope finally decided against
Fenelon, and condemned his "Maxims of the Saints." Fenelon read
from his pulpit the brief of condemnation, accepted the decision of the
Pope, and presented to his church a piece of gold plate, on which the
Angel of Truth was represented trampling many errors under foot, and
among them his own "Maxims of the Saints." At Court, Fenelon was
out of favour. "Telemaque," written for the young Duke of Burgundy,
had not been published; but a copy having been obtained through a
servant, it was printed, and its ideal of a true king and a true Court was
so unlike his Majesty Louis XIV. and the Court of France, and the
image of what ought not to be was so like what was, that it was
resented as a libel. "Telemaque" was publicly condemned; Fenelon was
banished from Court, and restrained within the limits of his diocese.
Though separated from his pupil, the young Duke of Burgundy (who
died in 1712), Fenelon retained his pupil's warm affection. The last
years of his own life Fenelon gave to his work in Cambray, until his
death on the 7th of January, 1715. He wrote many works, of which this
is one, and they have been collected into twenty volumes. The
translation here given was anonymous, and was first published in the
year 1713.
H. M.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

SECTION I. Metaphysical Proofs of the Existence of God are not
within Everybody's reach.
I cannot open my eyes without admiring the art that shines throughout
all nature; the least cast suffices to make me perceive the Hand that
makes everything.
Men accustomed to meditate upon metaphysical truths, and to trace up
things to their first principles, may know the Deity by its idea; and I
own that is a sure way to arrive at the source of all truth. But the more
direct and short that way is, the more difficult and unpassable it is for
the generality of mankind who depend on their senses and imagination.
An ideal demonstration is so simple, that through its very simplicity it
escapes those minds that are incapable of operations purely intellectual.
In short, the more perfect is the way to find the First Being, the fewer
men there are that are capable to follow it.
SECT. II. Moral Proofs of the Existence of God are fitted to every
man's capacity.
But there is a less perfect way, level to the meanest capacity. Men the
least exercised in reasoning, and the most tenacious of the prejudices of
the senses, may yet with one look discover Him who has drawn
Himself in all His works. The wisdom and power He has stamped upon
everything He has made are seen, as it were, in a glass by those that
cannot contemplate Him in His own idea. This is a sensible and popular
philosophy, of which any man free from passion and prejudice is
capable. Humana autem anima rationalis est, quae mortalibus peccati
poena tenebatur, ad hoc diminutionis redacta ut per conjecturas rerum
visibilium ad intelligenda invisibilia niteretur; that is, "The human soul
is still rational, but in such a manner that, being by the punishment of
sin detained in the bonds of death, it is so far reduced that it can only
endeavour to arrive at the knowledge of