Account of Madame Guion
The Dial's edition: London, 1790
Listed in The Dial's 1843 catalog. No digital copy has been located.
Digital copy not available
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John Evelyn
Giles Fletcher
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François Fénelon(1651–1715)
French archbishop and influential spiritual writer whose career combined high politics with inward devotion. He became a central voice in controversies over prayer, 'pure love,' and spiritual passivity, and his writings circulated widely in translation.
Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading & Library) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)
6 titles in the Cabinet
Dialogues of the Dead
Full title: Dialogues of the dead By the late M. de Fenelon, ... A new translation
The Dial's edition: Berwick, 1770
Short, imaginative conversations between the famous dead (from myth and history) used as moral-philosophical thought experiments—testing ambition, power, virtue, and reputation under the cold light of posthumous perspective.
Full textSurvives at Houghton Library
Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading), Emerson (see Emerson's Library) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)
Dissertation on Pure Love
Full title[show]
The Archbishop of Cambray's dissertation on pure love : with an account of the life and writings of the lady, for whose sake the archbishop was banish'd from court, and the grievous persecutions she suffer'd in France for her religion : also two letters in French and English, written by one of the lady's maids, during her confinement in the castle of Vicennes ...
The Dial's edition: 1750
A concise defense of 'pure love' spirituality (loving God without calculation of reward) written in the heat of the Quietism controversy and aimed at defining a rigorous, orthodox interior devotion.
Justifications de Madame Guion
The Dial's edition: Precise edition unknown.
Fénelon's defense of Madame Guyon's spiritual writings during the Quietism controversy. No digital copy has been located.
Digital copy not available
Lives and Maxims of Ancient Philosophers
Full title: The lives and most remarkable maxims of the antient philosophers
The Dial's edition: 1726
A moralizing digest (associated with Fénelon's abridged 'Lives') presenting classical philosophy as a repertory of ethical exempla and concise maxims, meant to form character through memorable sayings and narrative portraits.
Full textSurvives at Houghton Library
Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)
Maxims of the Saints
Full title: The maxims of the saints explained, concerning the interiour life
The Dial's edition: 1698
"When the sun shines, the stars disappear. When God is in the soul, who can think of himself? So that we love God, and God alone; and all other things in and for God."
A controversial set of propositions on the mystical life—purification of self-love, detachment, and disinterested charity—seeking to articulate a disciplined interior path while policing spiritual excess.
