His ''Considérations sur l'éloquence française
(1638) procured him admission to the Académie française, and his De l'instruction de Mgr. le Dauphin'' (1640) attracted the attention of
Richelieu. In 1649
Anne of Austria entrusted him with the education of her second son and subsequently with the completion of
Louis XIV's education, which had been very much neglected. The outcome of his pedagogic labors was a series of books comprising the
Géographie, Rhétorique, Morale, Economique, Politique, Logique, and Physique du prince (1651–1658). The king rewarded his tutor by appointing him
historiographer of France and councillor of state. La Mothe Le Vayer inherited of
Marie de Gournay's library, itself transmitted from
Michel de Montaigne. Modest, skeptical, and occasionally obscene in his Latin pieces and in his verses, he made himself a persona grata at the French court, where
libertinism in ideas and morals was hailed with relish. Besides his educational works, he wrote
Jugement sur les anciens et principaux historiens grecs et latins (1646); a treatise entitled ''Du peu de certitude qu'il y a en histoire
(1668), which in a sense marks the beginning of historical criticism in France; and sceptical Dialogues'', published posthumously under the pseudonym of Orasius Tubero. An incomplete edition of his works was published at Dresden in 1756–1759. He was instrumental is popularizing
Skepticism and
Sextus Empiricus in particular whom he called "the divine Sexte" (a near blasphemy in Catholic France at the time of the Sun-King, which cost him a higher office of State).
Molière was his close friend and it is rumored that much of the iconoclastic satire of his plays were inspired by Le Vayer's erudite and savage (if carefully hidden) criticism of religious hypocrisy. This can be seen, for example, in the second version of his masterpiece
Tartuffe (1667) which, according to Robert McBride, La Mothe Le Vayer defended in a caustic and anonymous ''Lettre sur la comédie de l'Imposteur'' (1667) against the religious faction at Louis XIV's court.
Michel Foucault used this work as an important material in his famous essay "
Governmentality." ==Notes==