Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/819

 LAFITAU

739

LA FONTAINE

is clear, simple, lively; it shows no other trace of the affectation of the "Pr^cieuses" than a constant care to avoid any word or expression that iniglit seem vulgar. Besides these works should be mentioned: " Momoires de la Cour de France pour les annd-es 16S8, 1689" (Amsterdam, 1731).

HAU3SONVILLE, Les grands ecrivains fran^ais (Paris, 1S91); Anatole France, Introduction a I'histoire d'Henriette d'Angle- terre (Paris, 1882); Sainte-Beuve, Portraits de femmes ciiibres (Paris. 1868).

Pierre Mariqub.

Lafltau, JosEPH-FR.^NfOls, Jesuit missionary and writer, b. at Bordeaux, France, 1 Jan., 1681; d. there, 1746. He entered the Society in 1696, and the general, Tamburini, yielding to his entreaties, sent him to Canada in 1711. Appointed to the mis.sion of Sault Saint-Louis (Caughna waga), he made a thorough study of Iroquois character and usages, as a prepara- tion to his great work " Moeurs des Sauvages ara^ri- cains comparees aux moeurs des premiers temps", puljlished in 1724. It was then that he discovered ginseng, a root highly prized as a panacea in Cliina and Tartary, one ounce selling for as high as three ounces of silver. This discovery created an excite- ment comparable to that caused later by the finding of gold in California and Austraha; but the exporta- tion of the root, after promising immense profits to Canadian trade, rapidly decreased, owing to over-pro- duction and inferiority of quality due to hasty and artificial desiccation. Lafitau's treatise on ginseng (1718) drew pubhc attention to this apparent source of prosperity. In 1717, Lafitau returned to France in the interests of the mission, chiefly to obtain authoriza- tion from Court to transfer the Iroquois settlement to its present site, which was preferable to the former on account of its greater fertility. He likewise pleaded for the repression of the liquor traffic. In spite of his wish to return to Canada, where liis knowledge of Indian languages and customs rendered him so valu- able that Father Julien Garnier wished to have him re- called, he was retained in France, and there his later years were spent in writing several works, among which, besides those already mentioned, figures his " Histoire des decouvertes et des conquctes des Portu- gais dans le Nouveau-Monde" (1733). After Charle- voix, Lafitau was the most remarkable historian and naturalist ever sent to Canada by the Society of Jesus.

Verheau, Le P. Lajitauet leginseng (Montreal, 1858) ; Roche- MONTEix, Les Jesuites et la Nouvetle France (Paris, 1896).

Lionel Lindsay.

Lafieche, Louis- Francois Richer, French-Cana- dian bishop, b. 4 Sept., 1818, at Ste-Anne de la Perade, Province of Quebec; d. 14 July, 1898. He studied the classics and theology at Nicolet College. Having offered his services to the pioneer Bishop Pro- vencher of Red River, he was ordained in 1844, and travelled 750 leagues by canoe to reach St. Boniface. In 1846 he left with Father Tach6 for the mission of La Crosse island, 300 leagues distant. Besides the Sauteux language, he mastered those of the Crees and Montagnais prevalent in the North- West, and was the first to reduce the latter to grammatical form. In 1849 Pius IX preconized him Bishop of Arath in parti- bus infidelium. Five years of illness and suffering having left an infirmity in one of his limbs which he bore to the end of his life, he begged to be released from the burden of the episcopate and have Father Tache's name substituted in the Bulls of nomination. In 1851 he directed the almost incredible defence of 60 half-breeds against 2000 Sioux near Turtle Moun- tain, North Dakota. After a siege of two days (13 and 14 July), the assailants spied the missionary in sur- plice and stole, and withdrew, convinced that the Great Spirit protected the half-breeds. In 1856 he returned to Canada, where he taught mathematics, astronomy, and plulosophy at Nicolet College, of

which he was appointed presitlent in 1859. In 1866 Bishop Cook of Tlirec Rivers chose him for coadjutor, and in 1870, while at the Vatican (Council, Bishop Lafieche succeetled to the vacant see. He was no less an able administrator than an cloijuent orator. Be- sides his weekly sermons in his cathedral, where he often treated the great social and iiolitico-religious questions of the day, his voice was heard on many im- portant occasions. A dauntless exponent of Catholic truth and an ardent Ultramontane, his utterances were not always acceptable to the group of politicians who inclined towards Liberalism. When, in 1885, contrary to his wish, his diocese was divitled, he bowed sub- missively to the decree of the Holy See, and soon be- held the loss partly repaired by the creation and development of several prosperous industrial centres. Besides five volumes of pastoral letters. Bishop La- fieche published the following works: " Quelques con- siderations sur les rapports de la soci(t6 civile avec la religion et lafamille" (1866) ; " Confi^rences sur I'en- cyclique 'Humanum Genus' ".

Benoit, Vie de Mgr. Tache (.Montreal. 1904); Morice, Dic- tionnaire historique des Canadiens de I Quest (Quebec, 1908); Desaulniers, Gmcalogie des families Richer de la Fleche et Hamelin (Montreal, 1909).

Lionel Lindsat.

La Fontaine, Jean de, French poet, b. at Cha- teau-Thierry, 8 July, 1621; d. at Paris, 13 April, 1695.

He was the eldest son of Charles de la Fontaine, a

deputy-ranger, and

Frangoise Pidoux.

After hehad finished

his studies at the

college of his native

town, he entered the

Oratory (2 .\pril,

1641) and was sent

to the Seminary of

Saint-Magloire. At

the end of a novi- tiate of eighteen

months, he realized

that he was not fit^

ted for the religious

life and returned

to the world. He

studied law and was

admitted to the bar,

a fact now proved

by the title given

himinseveralofficial deeds. In 1647 he married Marie Ih'ricart, who gave him a son in 1653. Their married life proved un- happy, and they agreed to live apart (1658). From his childhood he had shown a strong fondness for poetry. W^hen a boy he used to write verses for his own pleasure. The first work he published was an imitation of Terence's "Eunuchus" (1654). Two years later he was introduced to Fouquet, who granted him a pension with the understand- ing that the poet should send every month, as a receipt to the financier, some httle piece of poetry — ode, madrigal, or rondeau. For six years he divided his time between Paris and Chateau-Thierry, giving six months to his official functions and six months to the pleasures of a courtier's life. In 1664 he was .">worn in as gentleman-in-waiting to the Dowager Duchess of Orleans, and was installed in the Luxem- bourg. It was at this time that he made the ac- quaintance of Moliere, Racine, Boileau, and Chapelle. Three series of "Contes",the first six books of his " Fables ", and " Psyche ", a novel, were published from 1665 to 1(371. The poet was in full possession of his genius and had acf|uired a great reputation. In 1672, having squandiTcd his fortune, he sold his rangership and settled in Paris. For the remainder of his life he had to depend on the generosity of his patrons. He