Fénelon-Telemachus

Here are my notes to Fenelon’s Telemachus:

Messire François Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon

The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses

translated from the French by John Hawkesworth

Cooke’s Edition, London, c1799

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Text from Google books:

Fénelon’s Telemachus ranks with Bossuet’s Politics as the most important work of political theory of the French grand siecle, influencing Montesquieu and Rousseau in its attempt to combine monarchism with republican virtues. Telling the tale of Ulysses’ son Telemachus’ education by his tutor Mentor (the goddess Minerva in disguise), it shows him learning the qualities of patience, courage, modesty and simplicity, needed when he succeeds as King of Ithaca. It is a commentary on the bellicosity and luxuriousness of Louis XIV.

Scanned copy at Google, including a bio of Fenelon.

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? —- use this symbol in quotes in place of f for s.

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This red-figure vase shows the aged Nestor receiving the beardless youth Telemachus. Telemachus has borrowed a ship from Noemon, to visit Nestor and Menelaus on the mainland. He asks them for news of his father. Behind Nestor stands (scholars suspect) his daughter, Polycaste, who bathes Telemachus and rubs him with oil. Nice…

Vol 1

11 – [On Telemachus enjoying the rich clothes provided by Calypso: (as printed)] Mentor perceived his weaknefs, and reproved it. Are these then, faid he, ‘O Telemachus! Fuch thoughts as become the fon of Ulyffes? Be rather ftudious to appropriate the character of thy father, and to furmount the perfectutions of fortune. The youth who, like a woman, loves to adorn his perfon, has renounced all claim to wifdom and to glory: glory is due to thofe only who dare to affosiate with Pain, and have trampled Pleafure under their feet.’
Telemachus anfwered with a figh – ‘May the gods deftroy me, rather than fuffer me to be enflaved by voluptuous effeminacy!’
12 [In further advising Telemachus Mentor continues:] ‘…fhipwreck and death are lefs dreadful than thofe pleafures by which virtue is fubverted.’ [see p 30 too] [probably not the words of a pop song]
15 – mentor advises Telemachus not to go to Sicily in search of his father because of the dangers of the Cyclopes and the fleet of Aeneas ‘who were hovering about those coafts. “The Trojans,” faid he, “ are irritated against Ulyffes; whofe fon, therefore, they would rejoice to deftroy…”
“By the tranfient gleams of lightening we perceived other veffels that were expofed to the fame danger; and were foon convinced that they were part of the Trojan fleet, which [16] were not lefs to be dreaded by us than fhoals and rocks.”
16 “Juft as the clouds broke, and the light muft in a few minutes have difcovered us to the Trojans, who were very near, he remarked, that one of their veffels, which greatly refembled ours, except that the ftern was decorated with garlands of flowers, had been feparated from the reft of the fleet in the ftorm: he immediately placed ornaments of the [17] fame kind at the ftern of or vessel; and made them faft himself with bandages of the fame colour as thofe of the Trojans; he alfo ordered the rowers to ftoop over their feats as low as poffible, that our enemies might not difcover them to be Greeks. In this manner he proceeded through the midft of their fleet; and the Trojans, miftaking us for their veffel which had been miffing, fhouted as we paffed: we were fometimes forced irrefiftibly along with them; but at length, found means to linger behind; and, while they were driven by the empetuofity of the wind, towards Africa, we laboured at the oar, and made our utmoft effort to land on the neighbouring coaft of Sicility.”

Landing on Sicily they were captured by Acestes, who had founded a Trojan settlement there. When they are to be sacrificed, Mentor offers a warning of invasion of Acestes’ district in three days by Barbarians, asking for Telemachus and his own life in return, should the warning prove true. The invasion occurs, Mentor distinguishes himself in battle, as does Telemachus, and they are thus provided with a ship and advised to depart before Aeneas returns.

23 – In Egypt. Mentor says: “Happy are the people who are governed by fo wife a king!They flourish in perpetual plenty, and love him by whom that plenty is beftowed. Thus, O Telemachus! Ought thy government to fecure the happinefs of thy people…?
25 – happiness of the Egyptian subject.
27 – ‘to the unworthy there is no insult so intolerable as merit’
28 – flatterers and cheats surround the throne while integrity retires
29 – Princes who have not known adverfity are unworthy of happiness

30 - Minerva to Telemachus in a moment of despair: ‘…no man is great, but in proportion as he reftrains and fubdues his paffions’
Even Butis was swayed by Telemachus’s meekness
31 – Termosiris – treated those young with ‘a love for virtue’ with parental affection
31 – When Termof[s]iris was habited in his long white robes, and played upon his ivory lyre, the bears, lions, and tigers of the foreft fawned upon him, and licked his feet; the satyrs came from their receffes and danced round him; and it might almoft have been believed, that even the trees and rocks were influenced by the magic of his fong, in which he celebrated the majefty of the gods, the virtue of heroes, and the wifdom of thofe who prefer glory to pleafure.
34 – through music ‘captivate the favage with the charms of virtue’ (flute – cf use of flute in Tales of Alhambra – Legend of the Rose of the Alhambra)
35 – the rural simplicity and bliss = golden age
39 – king’s (Bocchoris) head cut off, refused to listen to reason, indulged in excess
43 – ‘By what means,’ said [Narbal], ‘could the habit of fecrecy be acquired by a child? I fhould rejoice to learn how that may be attained early, without which a prudent conduct is impossible, and every other qualification ufeless’

44 - Ulysses states: ‘He that is capable of a lie, deserves not the name of a man; and he that knows not how to be silent, is unworthy the dignity of a prince.’
44 – Phoenicians powerful through trade, = better than what other countries can supply for themselves
45 – wealth from trade = power sufficient to meet the most powerful enemy
45 – Dido has fled after her husband was killed by Pygmalion (bad), the current Phoenician ruler
46 – the sighs and groans of Pygmalion
47 – Pygmalion fails in ‘seeking happiness’ in wealth and power, better the ‘innocent’ pleasures of the shepherd
51 – [mercantilist thought?] “By what means,” faid I [Telemachus] to Narbal “have the Phoenicians monopolized the commerce of the world, and enriched themselves at the expence of every other nation?” [cf p18 vol 2]
51 - The success would all end ‘if jealousy and faction fhould break in among them: if they fhould be feduced by pleafure, or by indolence…”
53 – Pygmalion’s terrible rule threatens the prosperity of Tyre
54 – Proper reward, inc a form of social security that helps the sick, needy, attracts the talented and keeps them.
56-57 – virtue does not permit a lie [see also vol 2 , p134]
63 – suppress vanity, refrain from telling of incidents that do you honour when it is not fit to relate them
- now you have raised a poison in her heart

66 – wisdom virtue and honour resist the arrows of cupid
70 – At Cyprus, where pleasure reigned, ‘my innocence was univerfally derided; and my modefty and referve became the sport of impudence and buffoonery; every art was practifed to excite my paffions, to enfnare me by temptation, and to kindle the love of pleafure in my breaft.’ [Cyprus is the domain of Venus – see p 113]
74 – compared with resisting slavery at Sicily, now Telemachus seeks it willingly, as the rage of Fortune has so reduced him.
75 – Hazael – from Mentor (currently his slave) ‘I have found that wifdom which I fought; and to him I owe all the love of virtue that I have acquired.
76 – ‘Indeed, none are worthy the name of men but thofe who walk by the dictates of eternal Reafon, who lave and follow the guiding ray that is vouchsafed from above: it is by this reason that we are infpired, when our thoughts are good; and by this we are reporved, when they are evil…’
77 – dolphins with scales of azure and gold [dauphin?]
317.80 – ‘the greater number of inhabitants in any country, the greater plenty they enjoy, if they are not idle…’
81 – In Crete’Every man labours, and no man thinks of becoming rich; labour is thought to be sufficiently recompensed by a life of quiet and regularity’
82 – ‘the authority of the king over the fubject is absolute, but the authority of the law is abfolute over him; his power to do good is unlimited, but he is reftrained from doing evil.
86 – New Cretan king to be elected
91 – ‘…nothing fhould be held fo facred as thofe laws which promote wifdom, virtue, and happinefs: thofe who put thefe laws in execution for the government of others, fhould alfo, by thefe laws, govern themfelves; for it is the law that ought to reign, and not the man.’
92 – Who is the most free? the person who is free is him over whom fear and desire have no power, whois subject only to reason and the gods.
93 - Who is the most unhappy? Most unhappy is a king who thinks he will become happy by making others miserable, is ignorant, with sycophants to guide him who keep truth at a distance, slave to his own passions, stranger to his duty, never had pleasure of doing good, known virtue.
93-4 – Who is preferable – king of war or of peace? Peace
317.96 – A well governed kingdom will become rich and populous.
97 – ‘…the greater part of mankind, dazzled by the falfe luftre of victories and triumphs, prefer the tumult and fhew of fuccefsful joftilities to the uiet fimplicity of peace, and intrinfic advantages of good government.’
317.102 – ‘that hope of immortality which is derived from virtue’
103-4 – ‘and to the scorn of the brutal and the fordid, who consider nothing as merit [104] but riches.

105 – Arif[s]todemus – will accept kingship only if renewed term after 2 years [in effect demanding an election], can live frugally, no hereditary principle.
317.106 – ‘The gods,’ said Hazael, ‘are juft; and they know that the facred bond of our friendship is virtue; and therefore they will one day feftore us to each other; and thofe happy fields, in which the juft are faid to enjoy everlafting reft, fhall fee our fpirits reunited to part no more.’
107 – Venus is angry with them as they ‘pride themfelves in a frigid wisdom, which was never warmed with the rays of beauty; and they defpife, as folly, the delights of love.’
113 – ‘Venus burned with resentment againft Mentor and Telemachus for having treated the worfhip which fhe received at Cyprus with disdain.’
115-6 – be suspicious of beauty. Love is only good when virtue only has excited our love’
[here in Telemachus is developing that unknown, unfocussed, and untamed passion, love, or desire
117 – Series of lucky breaks and fortunate reverses proves the gods are on T’s side
‘the shameful obscurity of voluptuousness and sloth’
Mentor: ‘I hold as nothing…all that is contrary to the dictates of virtue, and to the commands of heaven. Virtue now calls you back to your courtry, to Ulysses, and to Penelope; Virtue forbids you to give up your neart to an unworthy passion…. Immortality! Alas, what is immortality without liberty, without virtue, and without honour? [telemachus is being exhorted to leave Calypso, despite gaining both immortality and the satisfactions of love if he remains.] [What is not on offer in the text is a temporary indulgence in these pleasures, until the first of their sheen wears off. To be seduced by them is to be seduced forever]
Telemachus: ‘If reason shall at length prevail over passion, I shall live; and my life shall be happy: but if, in the contest with passion, reason shall give way, my happiness is at an end, and I can live no longer.’
133- vice can only be conquered by flight
138 – cut him off = kill him
146 – Baleazar, as king of Tyre, ‘dispenses’ happiness through Tyre, by good government.
147 – lambent radiance of the moon
150 – voyage to Boetis, Tarsis – ie Spain
151 – When we traded with these people, we found gold and silver used for plough shares: and, in general, employed promiscuously with iron. As they carried on no foreign trade, they had no need of money; they were, almost all, either shepherds or husbandmen; for as they suffered no arts to be exercised among them, but such as tended immediately to answer the necessities of life, the number of artificers was consequently small: besides, a greater part, even of those that live by husbandry, or keeping of sheep, are skilful in the exercise of such arts, as are necessary to manners so simple and frugal.
152 – the sophisticated arts just bring unhappiness.
Artificial wants just bring unhappiness
153 – Live in common with no partition of land
No king
No fixed abode
No property
No blood spilt
155 …the husband and wife seem to be two bodies animated by one soul
157 – includes island of Gadira
mining silly as it brings no true happiness
158 – all = a ‘perfect conformity to the law of nature’ and thus ‘were so wise and so happy’
‘vanity and ambition’ are the qualities that upset this elsewhere
159-60 – Earth is a tiny thing, and what we fight over is insignificant – oceans = drops of water, multitutdes = insects
167 – Ulysses’ easy negligence, coldness and reserve in his voice which concealed so much vivacity and such various grace.
171 – sacred tripod
172 – falchion – broad short sword
Mentor to Idomeneus, re Telemachus: ‘be not jealous of his honour; but receive, with gratitude, what the gods shall give you by his hand.’
174 – building of many new colonies

177 – Though invincible Achilles lost his life under the walls of Troy, while Odysseus (Ulysses) survived and triumphed by use of prudence. ‘ A circumspect and sagacious valour is as much superior to a thoughtless and impetuous courage, as Minerva is to Mars…’
177 – confederate Greece
178 – coast was inhabited by a people subsisting on fruits of the land without culture (cultivation) – Mandurians. These people let us live- noble savage again, but this time without even having cultivation.
180 - ‘Those whose moderation inclines them to peace, are most to be dreaded, when compelled into a war’

180 – children of nature
182 – ‘but they fight all together, without order’

183 – false notions of honour and shame have deceived you into war
184 – A kingdom is bes fortified by justice, moderation, and good faith…
185 – by attempting to appear powerful, you have subverted your power…
187 – here use of word ‘confederacy’, and used not long before re the greek states that attacked Troy – Is this usage merely to indicate a temporaray alliance in an endeavour? Also 190,
188 – olive branch of peace held by Mentor
189 – war is the most dreadful of all evils
The Greek assault on Troy should not have been conducted
192 – ‘father’ is the dearest tie
198 – He [Mentor] appeared, in the midst of this rude impetuous multitude, like Bacchus surrounded by tigers, whose ferocity had been charmed away by the sweetness of his voice…
199 – ‘united nations’
201 - …let all nations that desire to secure happiness by humanity, follow the example of the people of Hesperia!

heifers and bulls, white, ‘their horns gilt and adorned with garlands of flowers, were sacrificed between the camp and the city.’
202 – ‘Let ambitious royalty no more pretend, that war is to be desired as the means of glory; for nothing can be glorious that is inhuman. He that would acquire glory at the expence of humanity, is a monster, not a man; nor can true glory be thus acquired: glory is nothing more than the radiance of virtue; and the virtue of a prince, is moderation and benevolence.’
‘He ought to be lightly esteemed of men, by whom men are so lightly esteemed, that, to gratify a brutal vanity, he will deluge the earth with their blood.’ Key concept
202 – state to be judged by its happiness
203 - felicity
204 – confederacy formed to fight ‘unite for our common defence’

Vol 2

 

Fenelon

6 – first thing to think of in new state are legislation and agriculture
‘if you can make these people loave you, you will be more powerful, more happy, and more glorious, than all the conquerors that have ravaged the earth.’
9 – Minerva’s Aegis

10 – ‘courage is a virtue only in proportion as it is directed by prudence’
11 – Be careful, my dear son, to avoid precipitation even in the pursuit of glory; for glory is to be acquired, only by waiting in patient tranquility for the moment of advantage. Virtue is more revered, in proportion as she appears to be quiet, placid, and unassuming.
11-12 - Be honest with your commanders, learn who can take it and who can’t. Don’t reveal to flatterers your displeasure of them.
14 – Prince is just a weak person like anyone else, [15] subject to their own human nature
17 – statistics / census, legislation, esp re commerce
bankruptcy to be punished
18 – association of capital

trade, both imports and exports, produces a benefit [is this a very non-mercantile statement? Cf p 51 vol 1],
no tarrifs?
19 – position by birth
20 – seven classes
21 – sumptuary laws
music ban
23 – lessen your wants to become rich ‘by reducing them to the necessities of virtue’ [French Revolution / virtue??]
24 – remove the ‘superfluous artificers’ [artisans] from the city and have them till the soil [wow, Cambodia etc here we come] [seealso p143]
25 – [rambles on about the wonders of a hideous rural existence of ignorance and hand to mouth survival.]
these people are ‘unambitious’

24-25 – a happy people will multiply if taxed little
26 – do not tax the industrious – this ‘oppresses virtue, rewards vice’
27 – the world will queue up to be under yr dominion
but won’t plenty bring corruption of manners?
We will keep life laborious
28 – everyone, inc nobles, to have only the land needed for them to subsist.
The population will so increase that colonies will need to be formed to be an ‘advantage to the mother country’
29 – establish public schools to teach preference for honour over life and over pleasure
Magistrates to be appointed to superintend every family, every person = unremitted vigilance, day and night, and punish infractions with severity, inc death. [nice place to live]
32 – Idomeneus gets pleasure from dispensing happiness
Greatness of prince is not best gained from dispensing fear, as often thought
35 – Kings are at once mistrustful and indolent
38 – ‘cut off’ =kill
40 – Philocles (good general) ‘thought himself not a mach for the malice of mankind and therefore determined no longer to struggle with it…’
43- it ended up that Idomeneus ‘was secretly afraid, that truth should burst through the cloud of flattery that surrounded me, and reach me with irresistible radiance’
48 – ‘…men of the worst principles, and disposition do good, when I serves their purpose, with the same facility as evil.’
‘…the success even of their vices, depends upon appearances of virtue, which they do not possess’
51 – ‘The fall of a favourite gives no pain to his master, if, as soon as he is undone, he is removed out of sight’ [as is case with Fenelon himself?]
57 – Philocles: by being removed from man, P says that ‘he has eventually done me good, in the highest degree’
59 – Naiad / nymphs [= mimi]
61 – education of children one the two most important things, the other = ‘the manner of life’
62 – [more on children’s education]
Parents not to interfere with sons’s choices of wives
63 – war is always bad for thestate
64 – to keep courage and military skills and virtues alive send your youth as auxiliaries to others’ wars [guess what we do…!], thus (with other things, such as being a peacemaker) make yourself essential to your neighbours.
65 - All for the happiness of the people and the honour of the prince.
67 – Hercules and Omphale

69 – purple blood
75 – Atrides
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles
76 – Ulysses unjust, but the story is a deception (77)
79 - Jove
82 – Helenus, son of Priam, says Troy must fall
83 – Philoctetus’ grotto
84 – killsParis. Illium = Troy
85 – Telemachus = self important
88 – Telemachus as rather a poor role model for the book! Previous couple of pages note that it is only when under the influence of Mentor that he behaves well.
90 – a kind of animal ardour, Telemachus regrets this
92 – Tarentines, Cretants
94 – keeping secrets essential
95 – Eurymachus could adjust his outward personality at whim

97 – to those who can dare and suffer, nothing is impossible.
99-100 – the gods themselves appear primarily interested in the leaders, the main characters
100 – decorations on the armour: ‘In another compartment, Minerva appeared to be giving the branch of an olive, a tree of her own planting, to the inhabitants of her new city; the branch, with its fruit, represented that plenty and peace which wisdom cannot fail to prefer before the disorders of war, of which the horse was an emblem.’ [Minerva = Athena = Athens]. Minerva friend of liberal arts
101 [though she is no stranger to assisting in war]
102 – [armour still:] wolves with sheep, lions with lambs, happy = golden age
aegis [?] dict
103 – [similes of battle]
105 – Telemachus laments war
106 – wars need not only be just, but also for the greater good
108 – sickness often enough from immoderation, lack of virtue
Telemachus = golden age
108 – Telemachus = affable
109 – it is a fault to have excessive regard for oneself and indifference to others
109 – It is good to mistrust oneself
112 – death is better than life

112 – Telemachus affable (3rd time in 3 pages)
112 – irremeable [dict]
115 – ‘he began to lose the softer graces, which may be considered as the flower of youth; his complexion became browner and less delicate, and his limbs more muscular and firm.’
117 – ‘for what is youthful beauty, to whom a thousand youthful beauties are equal…’ (re Orpheus)
119 – Telemachus goes to Hades, Styx, Acheron via a cave
120 – the fate of bad kings - Nabopharzan
‘No man contradicted me without instant punishment’. Pleasure and luxury. Bad time in afterlife.
121 - Not happy in life, no tranquility, always wanted more pleasures
‘enervated by good fortune; unacquainted with with adversity’ thus no fortitude
121 - His slaves now held him in chains ‘ “As men” said one of them “had we not the same nature with thee? How couldst thou [122] be so stupid as to imagine thyself a god, and forget that thy parents were mortal?” He was a monster, not human.
123 – the various underworld characters inc Avarice, Ambition, Envy,
125 – virtue is the best gift of heaven. Those who affected a zeal for religion and ‘played upon the credulity of others’ to gratify their ambition, and thus who had ‘abused virtue itself’ were the worst treated in Hades.
125 – included in Hades are all who ‘judge rashly of what they know but in part’ injuring the innocent
125-6 – ingratitude to gods punished, even those good to fellow man
126 – [MORAL CONDUCT BASED ON PLEASURE AND PAIN CF GOD’S LAW] Learn, now at least, that piety is that virtue of which the gods are objects; and that, without this, no virtue can deserve the name. The false luster of that, with which thou hast long dazzled the eyes of men, who are easily deceived, will deceive no more: men distinguish that only from which they derive pain or pleasure, into virtue and vice; and are, therefore, alike ignorant both of good and evil:but here, the perspicacity of Divine wisdom discerns all things as they are: the judgment of men, from external appearance, is reversed; what they have admired, is frequently condemned; and what they have condemned approved.’
127 – he was no longer the same being
all that he had beheld with pleasure became odious in his eyes
next are kings who abused their power
128 [in Hades, it appears, one enters a state of objective rationality, and are also judged by an objective truth (whether rational or not, it is hard to say, but which, apparently is acceptable to this objective reasoning [or something]]
Look into the mirror and see something monstrous (cf Robert Jordan), fire too!
Kings pretended that the whole species [of mankind] was created for their own use
[effectively do unto others…]
129 – kings as criminals
‘labour for the good of others, which, to royalty, is a duty of indispensable obligation.’
130 – avarice, insatiable of wealth, … effeminate luxury, a deceitful daemon, that aggravates every evil, and bestows only imaginary good’
To kings also are imputed all the disorders that arise from pomp, luxury, and every other excess, which excites irregular and impetuous passions, that cannot be gratified, but by the violation of the common rights of mankind.
For the non-king the practice of virtue is comparatively easy, cf kings
133 – lambent light
132 – reward for good in afterlife.
133 - Light is different here – a celestial light that satiates the hunger of the soul
Lofty mountains of Thrace
134 – Here joy is calm, fruit of truth and virtue [see also vol 1, 44 and 57]
they experience permanent happiness [rather like a good drug, I suspect - soma]
gladness of wine [ah, there you are, wine]
something ineffable and divine is continually poured into their hearts; something like an efflux of divinity itself, which incorporates with their own nature. They see, they feel, that they are happy; and are secretly conscious that they shall be happy forever.
135 – they reign in themselves
[neat inversion] the shadow of happiness is on earth cf here [with the shadows, see next p L7 for ‘shade’] [see also p147 L10 for perfect quote re inversion]
136-7 – we all grow old
139 – reward of courage and prowess less than that of wisdom, integrity, benevolence
141 – the heroes at Troy were neither amiable nor virtuous
142 – Good laws of Athens came from Egypt with Cecrops
143 – Ericthon invented silver money – but only for limited use – he feared it would corrupt virtue and excite lusts [see also p23] Money makes you look with contempt upon agriculture who wonders why people are so obsessed with owning land. [See 144 too.]
Triptolemus brought effective agriculture
Agriculture brought civil society
144 – simple farming and agriculture, no desires
Greek downfall was to begin to admire false riches
Lead your people back to agriculture
145 – divine radiance, etc, in afterlife is the reward of virtue
146 – more lambent light
147 – life is in the underworld, shades are on earth – all is inverted [his word!] [see also p135]
149 – one should not fight using fraud
151 – must be truthful in negotiations and acts between states
157 – Telemachus tries to out-virtue his opponent to win the peace. Adrastus remains a warrior.
Competitive virtue
157 – L14 - Morion [dict]
159 – L13 - hetacomb [dict]
160 – Pholoe, daughter of the god that pours the river Liris from his urn, is promised to one who delivers her from a winged serpent. Eleanthus achieved this. He died, she cried, and became the stream, with bitter waters
163 – Nestor (old) ‘I am now feeble and despised’
164 – divine justice, punishment of man [eeek]
Amphimachus, more beautiful than Nireus.
170 – ‘cut him off’
176 – Telemachus says – ‘…under [my father, Ulysses], I may learn to subdue my own passions, till I know how to restrain those of a whole nation.’
Fight in just cause, liberty
177 – [Peace not war]‘Is it not better to sit down in peace, with justice and moderation, than to follow ambition, where all is tumult, danger and calamity? Is not perfect tranquility and blameless pleasure, a plentiful country and friendly neighbours, the glory that is inseparable from justice, and the authority that must result from an integrity, to which foreign nations refer their contests for decision, more desirable, that the idle vanity of lawless conquest?’
178-9 – Diomede arrives seeking to build a town in the lands, and live according to their own laws. [!]
[Telemachus knows the stories of the war – we are supposed to know the Ilaid, thus to refer to it would be fine]
181 – Polydamus, counseling virtue, appeared to have timid prudence, and ‘forsaw nothing but difficulty and danger’.
182 – Polydamus lived simply, with two slaves to cultivate the ground [!!]
the soil repaid his efforts with usury [?] [note this use of the term simply as interest [I suppose] in 1800]
183 – choice of Daunian king
185 – no-one will attack you because if a state took you the other states would fear your power and destroy you [more or less – is this the balance of powers doctrine?]
186 – Salentum swarmed like a hive in prosperity
187 – Salentum no longer grand, but the cultivation of land is at a height – this is good – grand city =bad, cultivation = good.
Strength of country = number of people and amount of provisions, not vainglorious buildings and things
Only those truly skilled practice the arts
189 – despotic power in prince is bad for government
190 – and luxury is bad for the people
‘A deviation from the simplicity of nature is sometimes so general, that a whole nation considers the most trifling superfluities as the necessaries of life; these factitious necessaries multiply every day; and people can no londer subsist without things which thirty years before had never been in being.’
190 – middle class
by luxury the nation is undone
you can have any noble quality or achievement, but if you have no money you wil be obscure
191 - to make laws against these excesses the good king must be ‘at once a philosopher and a prince’ [philosopher king]
[peace] T to Mentor: ‘The success of war is always fatal and horrid: but all here is the work of celestial wisdom; all is gentle, pure and lovely; all indicates an authority more than human. When man is desirous of glory, why does he not seek it by works of benevolence like these? O how false are their notions of glory, who hope to acquire it by ravaging the earth, [192] and destroying mankind.’
192 – Kings should not try to do everything themselves but should create a system, he should not attend to the details but to the whole
193 – the king governs those that govern
194 – king, musician, architect
‘…the presiding mind, the genius that foverns the state, is he, who doing nothing, causes every [195] thing to be done…’
198 – ideal woman ignorant of her own talents
203 – ‘ “Decide,” said Mentor “all new questions of right, by which some general maxim of jurisprudence will be established, or some precedent given for the explanation of laws already in force…’
king as marriage broker
your’s
205 – get an umpire to decide on disputed territory, this a form of international justice/law/ [206] arbitration
boar hunt
208 – T refers to himself as ‘the son of Ulysses’ in place of ‘I’
209 – virtue and glory: ‘Thus, the life of Telemachus being every moment regulated by the wisdom of Mentor, with a view to the sonsummation of his glory, he was suffered to remain no longer at any place, than was necessary to exercise his virtues, and add experience to knowledge.’
Idomeneus sulks, cf with tree
210 – virtue requires sympathy with others, but not excessive
children of royalty learn that everything should be managed in accordance with their desires, and they dislike others’ misfortune
212 – heroes in battle are often enough timid in ordinary affairs – bad
Idomeneus: “Why should we seek virtue, since those who find her are thus wretched!’
220 – ‘Men are continually talking of virtue and merit: but there are few, who know, precisely, what is meant by either.’
220 – ‘the sole end of all government is to render mankind virtuous and happy…. He whose eye is not invariably fixed upon this great end, the public good, if in any instance he attains it, will attain it by chance; he will float in the stram of time, like a ship in the ocean, without a pilot, the stars unmarked, and the shores inknown: in such a situation, is it possible to avoid a shipwreck?’
221 – self-interested individuals surround the king
222 - …do not endanger their [men of virtue and abilities] virtue, by trusting them with absolute power; for many men, who have stood against common temptations, have fallen, when unlimited authority, and boundless wealth, have brought their virtue to a severe test.’
223 – to be ungrateful , even to the wicked, is to be like them
224 – public service positions according to merit, holders having been trained in virtue
226-7 – king is subordinate to his people
227 – king must submit to the authority of the laws
if king follows virtue and etc he will be ‘expecting an eternal recompense from the gods’
228 – ingratitutde and rejection are often the reward for virtue, but virtue is done in obedience to the gods
the multitude inconstant and capricious
virtue / disinterestedness [cf happiness and self interest]
229 - Prince teaches his people by example
230 – the person of ultimate talent is, by an oracle, an outcast – his favourite activity is agriculture [the ideal]
235 – man desires what he does not have, and disdains what he once so desired once he has it.
Patience is the greatest virtue ‘Impatience, which appears to be the force and vitour of the soul, is, indeed, a weakness; the want of fortitude to suffer pain.
‘An impatient man is … precipitated to ruin , by the violence of impetuous and ungoverned desire.’
236 – sacrifice to Minerva
[dawn described]
237 - Minerva appears, inc with lance which makes even Mars tremble
[It is not Venus and Mars, it is Minerva and Mars = Telemachus and Aeneas]
Minerva’s speech – I have illustrated, by experiment, all the maxims of government
238 - Restore the golden age
Those who cannot be ruled by love to be ruled by fear, but use fear to be used with reluctance
239 - Avoid judging by projection

[in this book note generally that the demands of being virtuous are only made upon the hero, cf the citizen, for whom happiness is to be provided by the virtuous nobility – note speech at 174, 171, The whole concentration of the book is the virtue of the nobility, who are set above ordinary men, being, in fact, descended from the gods. Virtue, then, is a concept of nobility. For contra see Vol 2, p130]

? —- use this symbol in used quotes in place of f for s.