Articles listed under letter "F"

[1907 edition]

 
FABER, FREDERICK WILLIAM, a Catholic divine and hymn-writer, born at
Calverley, Yorkshire; at Oxford he won the Newdigate Prize in 1836; for
three years was rector of Elton, but under the influence of Newman joined
the Church of Rome (1845), and after founding a brotherhood of converts
at Birmingham in 1849, took under his charge a London branch of the
Oratory of St. Philip Neri; wrote several meritorious theological works,
but his fame chiefly rests on his fine hymns, the "Pilgrims of the Night"
one of the most famous (1814-1863).



FABER, GEORGE STANLEY, an Anglican divine, born in Holland; a
voluminous writer on theological subjects and prophecy (1773-1854).


FABIAN, ST., Pope from 236 to 251; martyred along with St. Sebastian
during the persecution of Decius.


FABIAN SOCIETY, a middle-class socialist propaganda, founded in
1883, which "aims at the reorganisation of society by the emancipation of
land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership, and
vesting of them in the community for the general benefit"; has
lectureships, and issues "Essays" and "Tracts"; it watches and seizes its
opportunities to achieve Socialist results, and hence the name. See
FABIUS QUINTUS (1).


FABII, a family of ancient Rome of 307 members, all of whom perished
in combat with the Veii, 477 B.C., all save one boy left behind in Rome,
from whom descended subsequent generations of the name.


FABIUS PICTOR, the oldest annalist of Rome; his annals of great
value; 216 B.C.


FABIUS QUINTUS, (Maximus Verrucosus), a renowned Roman general, five
times consul, twice censor and dictator in 221 B.C.; famous for his
cautious generalship against Hannibal in the Second Punic War, harassing
to the enemy, which won him the surname of "Cunctator" or delayer; _d_.
203 B.C.


FABIUS QUINTUS (Rullianus), a noted Roman general, five times consul
and twice dictator; waged successful war against the Samnites in 323 B.C.


FABIUS, THE AMERICAN, General Washington, so called from his Fabian
tactics. See FABIUS QUINTUS (1).


FABLE OF THE BEES, a work by Mandeville, a fable showing how vice
makes some people happy and virtue miserable, conceived as bees.


FABLIAUX, a species of metrical tales of a light and satirical
nature in vogue widely in France during the 12th and 13th centuries; many
of the stories were of Oriental origin, but were infused with the French
spirit of the times; La Fontaine, Boccaccio, and Chaucer drew freely on
them; they are marked by all the vivacity and perspicuity, if also
lubricity, of their modern successors in the French novel and comic
drama.


FABRE, JEAN, a French Protestant, celebrated for his filial piety;
he took the place of his father in the galleys, who had been condemned to
toil in them on account of his religious opinions (1727-1797).


FABRE D'EGLANTINE, a French dramatic poet, born at Carcassonne;
wrote comedies; was a member of the Convention and of the Committee of
Public Safety, of the extreme party of the Revolution; falling under
suspicion, was guillotined along with Danton (1752-1794).


FABRICIUS, CAIUS, a Roman of the old school, distinguished for the
simplicity of his manners and his incorruptible integrity; his name has
become the synonym for a poor man who in public life deals honourably and
does not enrich himself; was consul 282 B.C.


FABRICIUS or FABRIZIO, GIROLAMO, a famous Italian anatomist,
born at Aquapendente; became professor at Padua in 1565, where he gained
a world-wide reputation as a teacher; Harvey declares that he got his
first idea of the circulation of the blood from attending his lectures
(1537-1619).


FABRONI, ANGELO, a learned Italian, born in Tuscany; wrote the Lives
of the illustrious literati of Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, and
earned for himself the name of the "Plutarch" of his country (1732-1803).


FACCIOLATI, JACOPO, lexicographer, born at Torreglia; became a
professor of Theology and Logic at Padua; chiefly interested in classical
literature; he, in collaboration with an old pupil, Egidio Forcellini
(1688-1768), began the compilation of a new Latin dictionary, which was
completed and published two years after his death by his colleague; this
work has been the basis of all subsequent lexicons of the Latin language
(1682-1769).


FACIAL ANGLE, an angle formed by drawing two lines, one horizontally
from the nostril to the ear, and the other perpendicularly from the
advancing part of the upper jawbone to the most prominent part of the
forehead, an angle by which the degree of intelligence and sagacity in
the several members of the animal kingdom is by some measured.


FAERIE QUEENE, the name of an allegorical poem by Edmund Spenser, in
which 12 knights were, in twelve books, to represent as many virtues,
described as issuing forth from the castle of Gloriana, queen of England,
against certain impersonations of the vices and errors of the world. Such
was the plan of the poem, but only six of the books were finished, and
these contain the adventures of only six of the knights, representing
severally Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and
Courtesy.


FAED, JOHN, a Scottish artist, son of a millwright, born at Barley
Mill, Kirkcudbright; was elected an A.R.S.A. in 1847, and R.S.A. in
1851; his paintings are chiefly of humble Scottish life, the "Cottar's
Saturday Night" among others; _b_. 1820.


FAED, THOMAS, brother of the preceding, born at Barley Mill;
distinguished himself in his art studies at Edinburgh; went to London,
where his pictures of Scottish life won him a foremost place among those
of his contemporaries; was elected R.A. in 1864 and honorary member of
the Vienna Royal Academy; _b_. 1826.


FAENZA (14), an old Italian cathedral town, 31 m. SE. of Bologna;
noted for its manufacture of majolica ware, known from the name of the
town as "faience."


FAGEL, GASPAR, a Dutch statesman, distinguished for his integrity
and the firmness with which he repelled the attempts of Louis XIV.
against his country, and for his zeal in supporting the claims of the
Prince of Orange to the English throne (1629-1688).


FAGOT VOTE, a vote created by the partitioning of a property into as
many tenements as will entitle the holders to vote.


FAHRENHEIT, GABRIEL DANIEL, a celebrated physicist, born at Danzig;
spent much of his life in England, but finally settled in Holland;
devoted himself to physical research; is famed for his improvement of the
thermometer by substituting quicksilver for spirits of wine and inventing
a new scale, the freezing-point being 32 deg. above zero and the boiling 212 deg.
(1686-1736).

 
FAINEANT, LE NOIR, Richard Coeur-de-Lion in "Ivanhoe."


FAINEANTS (i. e. the Do-nothings), the name given to the kings of
France of the Merovingian line from 670 to 752, from Thierry III. to
Childeric III., who were subject to their ministers, the mayors of the
palace, who discharged all their functions.


FAIR CITY, Perth, from the beauty of its surroundings.


FAIR MAID OF KENT, the Countess of Salisbury, eventually wife of the
Black Prince, so called from her beauty.


FAIR MAID OF NORWAY, daughter of Eric II. of Norway, and
granddaughter of Alexander III. of Scotland; died on her way from Norway
to succeed her grandfather on the throne of Scotland, an event which gave
rise to the famous struggle for the crown by rival competitors.


FAIR MAID OF PERTH, a beauty of the name of Kate Glover, the heroine
of Scott's novel of the name.


FAIR ROSAMOND, the mistress of Henry II.; kept in a secret bower at
Woodstock, in the heart of a labyrinth which only he could thread.


FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW M., able and thoughtful theologian, born in
Edinburgh where he also graduated (1839); received the charge of the
Evangelical Church at Bathgate, and subsequently studied in Berlin. In
1878 became Principal of the Airedale Congregational College at Bradford;
was Muir Lecturer on Comparative Religions in Edinburgh University in
1881-83, and five years later was elected Principal of Mansfield College
at Oxford; author of "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," and
several other scholarly works; _b_. 1838.


FAIRBAIRN, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent engineer, born at Kelso; served
an apprenticeship in N. Shields, and in 1817 started business in
Manchester, where he came to the front as a builder of iron ships;
improved upon Robert Stephenson's idea of a tubular bridge, and built
upwards of 1000 of these; introduced iron shafts into cotton mills, and
was employed by Government to test the suitability of iron for purposes
of defence; created a baronet in 1869 (1789-1874).


FAIRFAX, EDWARD, translator of Tasso, born at Denton, Yorkshire,
where he spent a quiet and studious life; his stately translation of
Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata" was published in 1600, and holds rank as
one of the best poetical translations in the language; he wrote also a
"Discourse" on witchcraft (about 1572-1632).


FAIRFAX, THOMAS, LORD, a distinguished Parliamentary general, nephew
of the preceding, born at Denton, Yorkshire; served in Holland, but in
1642 joined the Parliamentarians, of whose forces he became general
(1645); after distinguishing himself at Marston Moor and Naseby, was
superseded by Cromwell (1650), and retired into private life until
Cromwell's death, when he supported the restoration of Charles II. to the
English throne (1612-1671).


FAIRIES, imaginary supernatural beings conceived of as of diminutive
size but in human shape, who play a conspicuous part in the traditions of
Europe during the Middle Ages, and are animated more or less by a spirit
of mischief out of a certain loving regard for, or humorous interest in,
the affairs of mankind, whether in the way of thwarting or helping.


FAIRSERVICE, ANDREW, a shrewd gardener in "Rob Roy."


FAIRY RINGS, circles of seemingly withered grass often seen in lawns
and meadows, caused by some fungi below the surface, but popularly
ascribed in superstitious times to fairies dancing in a ring.


FAITH, in its proper spiritual sense and meaning is a deep-rooted
belief affecting the whole life, that the visible universe in every
section of it, particularly here and now, rests on and is the
manifestation of an eternal and an unchangeable Unseen Power, whose name
is Good, or God.


FAITH, ST., a virgin martyr who, in the 4th century, was tortured on
an iron bed and afterwards beheaded.


FAKIR (lit. poor), a member of an order of monkish mendicants in
India and adjoining countries who, from presumed religious motives,
practise or affect lives of severe self-mortification, but who in many
cases cultivate filthiness of person to a disgusting degree.


FALAISE (8), a French town in the dep. of Calvados, 22 m. SW. of
Caen; the birthplace of William the Conqueror.


FALCONER, HUGH, botanist and palaeontologist, born at Forres,
Elginshire; studied at Aberdeen and Edinburgh; joined the East India
Company's medical service; made large collections of fossils and plants;
became professor of Botany in Calcutta; introduced the tea-plant into
India, and discovered the asafoetida plant; died in London (1808-1865).


FALCONER, ION KEITH, missionary and Arabic scholar, the third son of
the Earl of Kintore; after passing through Harrow and Cambridge, his
ardent temperament carried him into successful evangelistic work in
London; was appointed Arabic professor at Cambridge, but his promising
career was cut short near Aden while engaged in missionary work;
translated the Fables of Bidpai; a noted athlete, and champion cyclist of
the world in 1878 (1856-1887).


FALCONER, WILLIAM, poet, born in Edinburgh; a barber's son; spent
most of his life at sea; perished in the wreck of the frigate _Aurora_,
of which he was purser; author of the well-known poem "The Shipwreck"
(1732-1769).


FALCONRY, the art and practice of employing trained hawks in the
pursuit and capture on the wing of other birds, a sport largely indulged
in by the upper classes in early times in Europe.


FALK, ADALBERT, Prussian statesman, born at Metschkau, Silesia; as
Minister of Public Worship and Education he was instrumental in passing
laws designed to diminish the influence of the clergy in State affairs;
retired in 1879; _b_. 1827.


FALKIRK (20), a town in Stirlingshire, 26 m. NW. of Edinburgh, noted
for its cattle-markets and the iron-works in its neighbourhood; Wallace
was defeated here in 1298 by Edward I.


FALKLAND (2), a royal burgh in Fifeshire, 10 m. SW. of Cupar; has
ruins of a famous palace, a royal residence of the Stuart sovereigns,
which was restored by the Marquis of Bute in 1888.


FALKLAND, LUCIUS GARY, VISCOUNT, soldier, scholar, and statesman,
son of Sir Henry Cary, Viscount Falkland; was lord-deputy of Ireland
under James I.; entered the service of the new Dutch Republic, but soon
returned to England and settled at Tew, Oxfordshire, where he indulged
his studious tastes, and entertained his scholarly friends Clarendon,
Chillingworth, and others; after joining Essex's expedition into Scotland
he sat in Parliament, and in 1642 became Secretary of State; suspicious
of Charles's weakness and duplicity, he as much distrusted the
Parliamentary movement, and fell at Newbury fighting for the king
(1610-1643).


FALKLAND ISLANDS (2), a group of islands in the S. Atlantic, 240 m.
E. of Tierra del Fuego; discovered in 1592 by Davis; purchased from the
French in 1764 by Spain, but afterwards ceded to Britain, by whom they
were occupied in 1833 and used as a convict settlement until 1852;
besides E. and W. Falkland there are upwards of 100 small islands, mostly
barren; wheat and flax are raised, but sheep-farming is the main
industry.


FALL, THE, the first transgression of divine law on the part of man,
conceived of as involving the whole human race in the guilt of it, and
represented as consisting in the wilful partaking of the fruit of the
forbidden tree of the _knowledge_ of both good and evil. The story of the
Fall in Genesis has in later times been regarded as a spiritual allegory,
and simply the Hebrew attempt, one amongst many, to explain the origin of
evil. It is worthy of note that a narrative, similar even to detail,
exists in the ancient religious writings of the Hindus and Persians.


FALLOPIUS, GABRIELLO, anatomist, born at Modena; professor of
Anatomy at Pisa and at Padua; the Fallopian tubes which connect the
ovaries with the uterus, first accurately described by him, are called
after his name, as also the duct which transmits the facial nerve after
it leaves the auditory nerve (1523-1562).


FALLOUX, FREDERIC ALFRED PIERRE, VICOMTE DE, author and statesman,
born at Angers; member of the House of Deputies; favoured the
revolutionaries of 1848, and under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon
became Minister of Public Instruction; retired in 1849, and became a
member of the French Academy (1857); author of a "History of Louis XVI."
and a "History of Pius V.," both characterised by a strong Legitimist
bias (1811-1886).


FALMOUTH (13), a seaport on the Cornish coast, on the estuary of the
Fal, 18 m. NE. of the Lizard; its harbour, one of the finest in England,
is defended E. and W. by St. Mawes Castle and Pendennis Castle; pilchard
fishing is actively engaged in, and there are exports of tin and copper.


FALSTAFF, SIR JOHN, a character in Shakespeare's "Henry IV." and the
"Merry Wives of Windsor"; a boon companion of Henry, Prince of Wales; a
cowardly braggart, of sensual habits and great corpulency. See
FASTOLF.


FAMILIAR SPIRITS, certain supernatural beings presumed, agreeably to
a very old belief (Lev. xix. 31), to attend magicians or sorcerers, and
to be at their beck and call on any emergency.


FAMILISTS, or the Brotherhood of Love, a fanatical sect which arose
in Holland in 1556, and affected to love all men as brothers.


FAMILY COMPACT, a compact concluded in 1761 between the Bourbons of
France, Spain, and Italy to resist the naval power of England.


FAN, a light hand implement used to cause a draught of cool air to
play upon the face; there are two kinds, the folding and non-folding; the
latter, sometimes large and fixed on a pole, were known to the ancients,
the former were invented by the Japanese in the 7th century, and became
popular in Italy and Spain in the 16th century; but Paris soon took a
lead in their manufacture, carrying them to their highest pitch of
artistic perfection in the reign of Louis XIV.


FANARIOTS, the descendants of the Greeks of noble birth who remained
in Constantinople after its capture by Mahomet II. in 1453, so called
from Fanar, the quarter of the city which they inhabited; they rose at
one time to great influence in Turkish affairs, though they have none
now.


FANDANGO, a popular Spanish dance, specially in favour among the
Andalusians; is in 3/4 time, and is danced to the accompaniment of guitars
and castanets.


FANS, an aboriginal tribe dwelling between the Gaboon and Ogoway
Rivers, in western equatorial Africa; are brave and intelligent, and of
good physique, but are addicted to cannibalism.


FANSHAWE, SIR RICHARD, diplomatist and poet, born at Ware Park,
Hertford; studied at the Inner Temple, and after a Continental tour
became attached to the English embassy at Madrid; sided with the
Royalists at the outbreak of the Civil War; was captured at the battle of
Worcester, but escaped and shared the exile of Charles II.; on the
Restoration negotiated Charles's marriage with Catharine, and became
ambassador at the court of Philip IV. of Spain; translated Camoens's
"Lusiad" and various classical pieces (1608-1666).


FANTINE, one of the most heart-affecting characters in "Les
Miserables" of Victor Hugo.


FANTIS, an African tribe on the Gold Coast, enemies of their
conquerors the Ashantis; fought as allies of the British in the Ashanti
War (1873-74), but, although of strong physique, proved cowardly allies.


FARAD, the unit of electrical energy, so called from Faraday.


FARADAY, MICHAEL, a highly distinguished chemist and natural
philosopher, born at Newington Butts, near London, of poor parents;
received a meagre education, and at 13 was apprenticed to a bookseller,
but devoted his evenings to chemical and electrical studies, and became a
student under Sir H. Davy, who, quick to detect his ability, installed
him as his assistant; in 1827 he succeeded Davy as lecturer at the Royal
Institution, and became professor of Chemistry in 1833; was pensioned in
1835, and in 1858 was allotted a residence in Hampton Court; in chemistry
he made many notable discoveries, e. g. the liquefaction of chlorine,
while in electricity and magnetism his achievements cover the entire
field of these sciences, and are of the first importance (1791-1867).


FARAIZI, a Mohammedan sect formed in 1827, and met with chiefly in
Eastern Bengal; they discard _tradition_, and accept the Koran as their
sole guide in religious and spiritual concerns, in this respect differing
from the Sunnites, with whom they have much else in common; although of a
purer morality than the main body of Mohammedans, they are narrow and
intolerant.


FAREL, WILLIAM, a Swiss reformer, born at Dauphine; introduced, in
1534, after two futile attempts, the reformed faith into Geneva, where he
was succeeded in the management of affairs by John Calvin; he has been
called the "pioneer of the Reformation in Switzerland and France"
(1489-1565).


FARIA Y SOUSA, MANUEL DE, a Portuguese poet and historian; entered
the diplomatic service, and was for many years secretary to the Spanish
embassy at Rome; was a voluminous writer of history and poetry, and did
much to develop the literature of his country (1590-1649).


FARINATA, a Florentine nobleman of the Ghibelline faction, whom for
his infidelity and sensuality Dante has placed till the day of judgment
in a red-hot coffin in hell.


FARINELLI, CARLO, a celebrated singer, born in Naples; his singing
created great enthusiasm in London, which he visited in 1734 (1705-1782).


FARINI, LUIGO CARLO, an Italian statesman and author, born at Russi;
practised as a doctor in his native town; in 1841 was forced, on account
of his liberal sympathies, to withdraw from the Papal States, but
returned in 1846 on the proclamation of the Papal amnesty, and afterwards
held various offices of State; was Premier for a few months in 1863;
author of "Il Stato Romano," of which there is an English translation by
Mr. Gladstone (1812-1866).


FARMER, RICHARD, an eminent scholar, born at Leicester;
distinguished himself at Cambridge, where he became classical tutor of
his college, and in the end master (1775); three years later he was
appointed chief-librarian to the university, and afterwards was
successively canon of Lichfield, Canterbury, and St. Paul's; wrote an
erudite essay on "The Learning of Shakespeare" (1735-1797).


FARMER GEORGE, George III., a name given to him from his plain,
homely, thrifty manners and tastes.


FARMERS-GENERAL, a name given in France prior to the Revolution to a
privileged syndicate which farmed certain branches of the public revenue,
that is, obtained the right of collecting certain taxes on payment of an
annual sum into the public treasury; the system gave rise to corruption
and illegal extortion, and was at best an unproductive method of raising
the national revenue; it was swept away at the Revolution.


FARNE or FERNE ISLES, THE, also called the Staples, a group of
17 isles 2 m. off the NE. coast of Northumberland, many of which are mere
rocks visible only at low-water; are marked by two lighthouses, and are
associated with a heroic rescue by GRACE DARLING (q. v.) in
1838; on House Isle are the ruins of a Benedictine priory; about 50
people have their homes upon the larger isles.


FARNESE, the surname of a noble Italian family dating its rise from
the 13th century.


FARNESE, ALESSANDRO, attained the papal chair as Paul III. in 1534;
the excommunication of Henry VIII. of England, the founding of the Order
of the Jesuits (1540), the convocation of the Council of Trent (1542),
mark his term of office (1468-1549).


FARNESE, ALESSANDRO, grandson of the following, and 3rd duke of
Parma, a famous general; distinguished himself at the battle of Lepanto;
was governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and fought successfully against
France, defeating Henry IV. before the walls of Paris, and again two
years later at Rouen, where he was mortally wounded (1546-1592).


FARNESE, PIETRO LUIGI, a natural son of Pope Paul III., who figures
in Benvenuto Cellini's Life; received in fief from the Papal See various
estates, including the dukedom of Parma; he ill requited his father's
trust and affection by a life of debauchery and finally suffered
assassination in 1549.


FAROE ISLANDS (13), a group of 22 islands of basaltic formation,
about 200 m. NW. of the Shetlands; originally Norwegian, they now belong
to Denmark; agriculture is limited, and fishing and sheep-farming chiefly
engage the natives; there is an export trade in wool, fish, and wild-fowl
leathers. The people, who still speak their old Norse dialect, although
Danish is the language of the schools and law courts, are Lutherans, and
enjoy a measure of self-government, and send representatives to the
Danish _Rigsdag_.


FARQUHAR, GEORGE, comic dramatist, born at Londonderry; early famous
for his wit, of which he has given abundant proof in his dramas, "Love
and a Bottle" being his first, and "The Beaux' Stratagem" his last,
written on his deathbed; died young; he commenced life on the stage, but
threw the profession up in consequence of having accidentally wounded a
brother actor while fencing (1678-1707).


FARR, WILLIAM, statistician, born at Kenley, Shropshire; studied
medicine, and practised in London; obtained a post in the
Registrar-General's office, and rose to be head of the statistical
department; issued various statistical compilations of great value for
purposes of insurance (1807-1883).


FARRAGUT, DAVID GLASGOW, a famous American admiral, of Spanish
extraction, born at Knoxville, Tennessee; entered the navy as a boy; rose
to be captain in 1855, and at the outbreak of the Civil War attached
himself to the Union; distinguished himself by his daring capture of New
Orleans; in 1862 was created rear-admiral, and two years later gained a
signal victory over the Confederate fleet at Mobile Bay; was raised to
the rank of admiral in 1866, being the first man to hold this position in
the American navy (1801-1870).


FARRAR, FREDERICK WILLIAM, a celebrated divine and educationalist,
born at Bombay; graduated with distinction at King's College, London, and
at Cambridge; was ordained in 1854, and became head-master of Marlborough
College; was for some years a select preacher to Cambridge University,
and held successively the offices of honorary chaplain and
chaplain-in-ordinary to the Queen; became canon of Westminster, rector of
St. Margaret's, archdeacon, chaplain to the House of Commons, and dean of
Canterbury; his many works include the widely-read school-tales, "Eric"
and "St. Winifred's," philological essays, and his vastly popular Lives
of Christ and St. Paul, besides the "Early Days of Christianity,"
"Eternal Hope," and several volumes of sermons; in recent years have
appeared "Darkness and Dawn" (1892) and "Gathering Clouds" (1895); _b_.
1831.


FASCES, a bundle of rods bound round the helve of an axe, and borne
by the lictors before the Roman magistrates in symbol of their authority
at once to scourge and decapitate.


FASCINATION, the power, originally ascribed to serpents, of
spell-binding by the eye.


FASTI, the name given to days among the Romans on which it was
lawful to transact business before the praetor; also the name of books
among the Romans containing calendars of times, seasons, and events.


FASTOLF, SIR JOHN, a distinguished soldier of Henry V.'s reign, who
with Sir John Oldcastle shares the doubtful honour of being the prototype
of Shakespeare's Falstaff, but unlike the dramatist's creation was a
courageous soldier, and won distinction at Agincourt and at the "Battle
of the Herrings"; after engaging with less success in the struggle
against Joan of Arc, he returned to England and spent his closing years
in honoured retirement at Norfolk, his birthplace; he figures in the
"Paston Letters" (1378-1459).


FATA MORGANA, a mirage occasionally observed in the Strait of
Messina, in which, from refraction in the atmosphere, images of objects,
such as men, houses, trees, etc., are seen from the coast under or over
the surface of the water.


FATALISM, the doctrine that all which takes place in life and
history is subject to fate, that is is to say, takes place by inevitable
necessity, that things being as they are, events cannot fall out
otherwise than they do.


FATES, THE, in the Greek mythology the three goddesses who presided
over the destinies of individuals--CLOTHO, LACHESIS, and
ATROPOS (Q. V.). See PARCAE.


FATHER OF COMEDY, ARISTOPHANES (q. v.).


FATHER OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, EUSEBIUS (q. v.).


FATHER OF FRENCH HISTORY, DUCHESNE (q. v.).


FATHER OF GERMAN LITERATURE, LESSING (q. v.).


FATHER OF HISTORY, HERODOTUS (q. v.).


FATHER OF TRAGEDY, ESCHYLUS (q. v.).


FATHER PAUL, PAUL SARPI (q. v.).


FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, the early teachers of Christianity and
founders of the Christian Church, consisting of live _Apostolic
Fathers_--Clement of Home, Barnabas, Hermes, Ignatius, and Polycarp, and
of nine in addition called _Primitive Fathers_--Justin, Theophilus of
Antioch, Irenaeus, Clemens of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Origen,
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Tertullian. The
distinctive title of _Apostolic Fathers_ was bestowed upon the immediate
friends and disciples of the Apostles, while the _patristic_ period
proper may be said to commence with the 2nd century, but no definite date
can be assigned as marking its termination, some closing it with the
deaths of Gregory the Great (601) and John of Damascus (756), while
Catholic writers bring it down as far as the Council of Trent (1542);
discarded among Protestants, the Fathers are regarded by Catholics as
decisive in authority on points of faith, but only when they exhibit a
unanimity of opinion.


FATHOM, a measure of 6 ft. used in taking marine soundings,
originally an Anglo-Saxon term for the distance stretched by a man's
extended arms; is sometimes used in mining operations.


FATHOM, COUNT FERDINAND, a villain in the novel of Smollett so
named.


FATIMA, the last of Bluebeard's wives, and the only one who escaped
being murdered by him; also Mahomet's favourite daughter.


FATIMIDES, a Mohammedan dynasty which assumed the title of caliphs
and ruled N. Africa and Egypt, and later Syria and Palestine, between the
10th and 12th centuries inclusive; they derived their name from the claim
(now discredited) of their founder, Obeidallah Almahdi, to be descended
from Fatima, daughter of Mahomet and wife of Ali; they were finally
expelled by Saladin in 1169.


FAUCHER, LEON, a political economist, brought into notice by the
Revolution of 1830; edited _Le Temps_; opposed Louis Philippe's minister,
M. Guizot; held office under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon, but threw
up office on the _coup d'etat_ of 1851 (1803-1854).


FAUCHET, ABBE, a French Revolutionary, a Girondin; blessed the
National tricolor flag; "a man of _Te Deums_ and public consecrations";
was a member of the first parliament; stripped of his insignia, lamented
the death of the king, perished on the scaffold (1744-1793).


FAUCIT, HELEN, a famous English actress; made her _debut_ in London
(1836), and soon won a foremost place amongst English actresses by her
powerful and refined representations of Shakespeare's heroines under the
management of Macready; she retired from the stage in 1851 after her
marriage with THEODORE MARTIN (q. v.); in 1885 she published a
volume of studies "On Some of Shakespeare's Female Characters"
(1820-1899).


FAUNS, divinities of the woods and fields among the Romans, and
guardians of flocks against the wolf.


FAUNTLEROY, HENRY, banker and forger; in his twenty-third year
became a partner in the bank of Marsh, Sibbald, & Co., London; was put on
trial for a series of elaborate forgeries, found guilty, and hanged; the
trial created a great sensation at the time, and efforts were made to
obtain a commutation of the sentence (1785-1824).


FAUNUS, a god, grandson of Saturn, who figures in the early history
of Latium, first as the god of fields and shepherds, and secondly, as an
oracular divinity and founder of the native religion, afterwards
identified with the Greek Pan.


FAURE, FRANCOIS FELIX, President of the French Republic, born in
Paris; carried on business in Touraine as a tanner, but afterwards
settled in Havre and became a wealthy shipowner; he served with
distinction as a volunteer in the Franco-German War; entered the Assembly
in 1881, where he held office as Colonial and Commercial Minister in
various Cabinets; was elected President in 1895 (1841-1899).


FAUST, JOHANNES. See FUST.


FAUST, or DOCTOR FAUSTUS, a reputed professor of the black art,
a native of Germany, who flourished in the end of the 15th century and
the beginning of the 16th century, and who is alleged to have made a
compact with the devil to give up to him body and soul in the end,
provided he endowed him for a term of years with power to miraculously
fulfil all his wishes. Under this compact the devil provided him with a
familiar spirit, called Mephistopheles, attended by whom he traversed the
world, enjoying life and working wonders, till the term of the compact
having expired, the devil appeared and carried him off amid display of
horrors to the abode of penal fire. This myth, which has been subjected
to manifold literary treatment, has received its most significant
rendering at the hands of Goethe, such as to supersede and eclipse every
other attempt to unfold its meaning. It is presented by him in the form
of a drama, in two parts of five acts each, of which the first, published
in 1790, represents "the conflicting union of the higher nature of the
soul with the lower elements of human life; of Faust, the son of Light
and Free-Will, with the influences of Doubt, Denial, and Obstruction, or
MEPHISTOPHELES (q. v.), who is the symbol and spokesman of
these; and the second, published in 1832, represents Faust as now
elevated, by the discipline he has had, above the hampered sphere of the
first, and conducted into higher regions under worthier circumstances."


FAUSTA, the wife of Constantino the Great.


FAUSTINA, ANNIA GALERI, called Faustina, Senior, wife of Antoninus
Pius, died three years after her husband became emperor (105-141).


FAUSTINA, ANNIA, JUNIOR, wife of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
daughter of the preceding. Both she and her mother are represented by
historians as profligate and unfaithful, and quite unworthy the affection
lavishly bestowed upon them by their husbands.


FAUSTULUS, the shepherd who, with his wife Laurentia, was the
foster-parent of Romulus and Remus, who, as infants, had been exposed on
the Palatine Hill.


FAVART, CHARLES SIMON, French dramatist, born at Paris, where he
became director of the Opera Comique; was celebrated as a vivacious
playwright and composer of operas; during a temporary absence from Paris
he established his Comedy Company in the camp of Marshal Saxe during the
Flanders campaign; his memoirs and correspondence give a bright picture
of theatrical life in Paris during the 18th century (1710-1792).


FAVONIUS, the god of the favouring west wind.


FAVRE, JULES CLAUDE GABRIEL, a French Republican statesman, born at
Lyons; called to the Paris bar in 1830; a strong Republican, he joined
the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848; held office as Minister of the Interior
in the New Republic, and disapproving of the _coup d'etat_, resumed
practice at the bar; defended the Italian conspirator ORSINI (q. v.),
and in 1870, on the dissolution of the Empire, became Minister of
Foreign Affairs; mistakes in his negotiations with Bismarck led to his
resignation and resumption of his legal practice (1809-1880).


FAWCETT, HENRY, statesman and political economist, born at
Salisbury; though blind, it was his early ambition to enter the arena of
politics, and he devoted himself to the study of political economy, of
which he became professor at Cambridge; entering Parliament, he became
Postmaster-General under Mr. Gladstone in 1880; he wrote and published
works on his favourite study (1832-1884).


FAWKES, GUY, a notorious English conspirator, born of a respected
Yorkshire family; having spent a slender patrimony, he joined the Spanish
army in Flanders; was converted to the Catholic faith; and on his return
to England allied himself with the conspirators of the GUNPOWDER
PLOT (q. v.), and was arrested in the cellars of the House of
Commons when on the point of firing the explosive; was tried and executed
(1570-1606).


FAY, ANDREAS, Hungarian dramatist and novelist, born at Kohany;
studied law, but the success of a volume of fables confirmed him in his
choice of literature in preference; wrote various novels and plays; was
instrumental in founding the Hungarian National Theatre; was a member of
the Hungarian Diet (1786-1804).


FAYAL (26), a fruit-bearing island among the AZORES (q. v.),
exports wine and fruits; Horta, with an excellent bay, is its chief town.


FAYYUM (160), a fertile province of Central Egypt, lies W. of the
Nile, 65 miles from Cairo, is in reality a southern oasis in the Libyan
desert, irrigated by means of a canal running through a narrow gorge to
the Nile valley; its area is about 840 sq. m., a portion of which is
occupied by a sheet of water, the Birket-el-Kern (35 m. long), known to
the ancients as Lake Moeris, and by the shores of which stood one of the
wonders of the world, the famous "Labyrinth."


FEASTS, JEWISH, OF DEDICATION, a feast in commemoration of the
purification of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar by Judas
Maccabaeus in 164 B.C., after profanation of them by the Syrians: OF THE
PASSOVER, a festival in April on the anniversary of the exodus from
Egypt, and which lasted eight days, the first and the last days of solemn
religious assembly: OF PENTECOST, a feast celebrated on the fiftieth
day after the second of the Passover, in commemoration of the giving of
the law on Mount Sinai; both this feast and the Passover were celebrated
in connection with harvest, what was presented in one in the form of a
sheaf being in the other presented as a loaf of bread: OF PURIM, a
feast in commemoration of the preservation of the Jews from the wholesale
threatened massacre of the race in Persia at the instigation of Haman:
OF TABERNACLES, a festival of eight days in memory of the wandering
tentlife of the people in the wilderness, observed by the people dwelling
in bowers made of branches erected on the streets or the roofs of the
house; it was the Feast of Ingathering as well.


FEBRUARY, the second month of the year, was added along with January
by Numa to the end of the original Roman year of 10 months; derived its
name from a festival offered annually on the 15th day to Februus, an
ancient Italian god of the nether world; was assigned its present
position in the calendar by Julius Caesar, who also introduced the
intercalary day for leap-year.


FECAMP (13), a seaport in the dep. of Seine-Inferieure, 25 m. NE. of
Havre; has a fine Gothic Benedictine church, a harbour and lighthouse,
hardware and textile factories; fishing and sugar refineries also
flourish; exports the celebrated Benedictine liqueurs.


FECHNER, GUSTAV THEODOR, physicist and psychophysicist, born at
Gross-Saerchen, in Lower Lusatia; became professor of Physics in Leipzig,
but afterwards devoted himself to psychology; laid the foundations of the
science of psychophysics in his "Elements of Pyschophysics"; wrote
besides on the theory of colour and galvanism, as well as poems and
essays (1801-1887).


FECHTER, CHARLES ALBERT, a famous actor, born in London, his father
of German extraction and his mother English; made his _debut_ in Paris at
the age of 17; after a tour through the European capitals established
himself in London as the lessee of the Lyceum Theatre in 1863; became
celebrated for his original impersonations of Hamlet and Othello; removed
to America in 1870, where he died (1824-1879).


FECIALES, a college of functionaries in ancient Rome whose duty it
was to make proclamation of peace and war, and confirm treaties.


FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, in modern parlance is the political system which
a number of independent and sovereign States adopt when they join
together for purposes of domestic and especially International policy;
local government is freely left with the individual States, and only in
the matter of chiefly foreign relations is the central government
paramount, but the degree of freedom which each State enjoys is a matter
of arrangement when the contract is formed, and the powers vested in the
central authority may only be permitted to work through the local
government, as in the German Confederation, or may bear directly upon the
citizens throughput the federation, as in the U.S. of America, and since
1847 in Switzerland.


FEDERALIST, a name in the United States for a supporter of the Union
and its integrity as such; a party which was formed in 1788, but
dissolved in 1820; has been since applied to a supporter of the integrity
of the Union against the South in the late Civil War.


FEDERATION, THE CHAMPS-DE-MARS, a grand fete celebrated in the
Champs-de-Mars, Paris, on July 14, 1790, the anniversary of the taking of
the Bastille, at which deputies from the newly instituted departments
assisted to the number of 80,000, as well as deputies from other nations,
"Swedes, Spaniards, Polacks, Turks, Chaldeans, Greeks, and dwellers in
Mesopotamia," representatives of the human race, "with three hundred
drummers, twelve hundred wind-musicians, and artillery planted on height
after height to boom the tidings all over France, the highest recorded
triumph of the Thespian art." Louis XVI. too assisted at the ceremony,
and took solemn oath to the constitution just established in the interest
of mankind. See Carlyle's "French Revolution."


FEHMGERICHT. See VEHMGERICHTE.


FEITH, a Dutch poet, born at Zwolle, where, after studying at
Leyden, he settled and died; his writings include didactic poems, songs,
and dramas; had a refining influence on the literary taste of his
countrymen (1753-1824).


FELICITE, ST., a Roman matron, who with her seven sons suffered
martyrdom in 164. Festival, July 10.


FELIX, the name of five popes: F. I., ST., Pope from 269 to
274, said to have been a victim of the persecution of Aurelius; F.
II., Pope from 356 to 357, the first anti-pope having been elected in
place of the deposed Liberius who had declined to join in the persecution
of ATHANASIUS (q. v.), was banished on the restoration of
Liberius; F. III., Pope from 483 to 492, during his term of office
the first schism between the Eastern and Western Churches took place; F.
IV., Pope from 526 to 530, was appointed by Theodoric in face of the
determined opposition of both people and clergy; F. V., Pope from
1439 to 1449. See AMADEUS VIII..


FELIX, CLAUDIUS, a Roman procurator of Judaea in the time of Claudius
and Nero; is referred to in Acts xxiii. and xxiv. as having examined the
Apostle Paul and listened to his doctrines; was vicious in his habits,
and formed an adulterous union with Drusilla, said by Tacitus to have
been the granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra; was recalled in A.D. 62.


FELIX HOLT, a novel of George Eliot's, written in 1866.


FELL, JOHN, a celebrated English divine; Royalist in sympathy, he
continued throughout the Puritan ascendency loyal to the English Church,
and on the Restoration became Dean of Christ Church and a royal chaplain;
was a good man and a charitable, and a patron of learning; in 1676 was
raised to the bishopric of Oxford; was the object of the well-known
epigram, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, The reason why I cannot tell"
(1625-1686).


FELLAH, the name applied contemptuously by the Turks to the
agricultural labourer of Egypt; the Fellahin (pl. of Fellah) comprise
about three-fourths of the population; they are of good physique, and
capable of much toil, but are, despite their intelligence and sobriety,
lazy and immoral; girls marry at the age of 12, and the children grow up
amidst the squalor of their mud-built villages; their food is of the
poorest, and scarcely ever includes meat; tobacco is their only luxury;
their condition has improved under British rule.


FELLOWS, SIR CHARLES, archaeologist, born at Nottingham; early
developed a passion for travel; explored the Xanthus Valley in Asia
Minor, and discovered the ruins of the cities Teos and Xanthus, the
ancient capital of Lycia (1838); returned to the exploration of Lycia in
1839 and again in 1841, discovering the ruins of 13 other ancient cities;
accounts of these explorations and discoveries are fully given in his
various published journals and essays; was knighted in 1845 (1799-1861).


FELLOWSHIP, a collegiate term for a status in many universities
which entitles the holder (a Fellow) to a share in their revenues, and in
some cases to certain privileges as regards apartments and meals in the
college, as also to a certain share in the government; formerly
Fellowships were usually life appointments, but are now generally for a
prescribed number of years, or are held during a term of special
research; the old restrictions of celibacy and religious conformity have
been relaxed.


FELO-DE-SE, in English law the crime which a man at the age of
discretion and of a sound mind commits when he takes away his life.


FELONY, "a crime which involves a total forfeiture of lands or goods
or both, to which capital or other punishment may be superadded,
according to the degree of guilt."


FELTON, CORNELIUS CONWAY, American scholar, born at West Newbury,
Massachusetts; graduated at Harvard in 1827, and became professor of
Greek there, rising to the Presidency of the same college in 1860; edited
Greek classics, and made translations from the German; most important
work is "Greece, Ancient and Modern," in 2 vols. (1807-1862).


FELTON, JOHN, the Irish assassin of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.


FEMMES SAVANTES, a comedy in five acts by Moliere, and one of his
best, appeared in 1672.


FENELLA, a fairy-like attendant of the Countess of Derby, deaf and
dumb, in Scott's "Peveril of the Peak," a character suggested by Goethe's
Mignon in "Wilhelm Meister."


FENELON, FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE, a famous French prelate
and writer, born in the Chateau de Fenelon, in the prov. of Perigord; at
the age of 15 came to Paris, and, having already displayed a remarkable
gift for preaching, entered the Plessis College, and four years later
joined the Seminary of St. Sulpice, where he took holy orders in 1675;
his directorship of a seminary for female converts to Catholicism brought
him into prominence, and gave occasion to his well-known treatise "De
l'Education des Filles"; in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes, he conducted a mission for the conversion of the Huguenots of
Saintonge and Poitou, and four years later Louis XIV. appointed him tutor
to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, an appointment which led to his
writing his "Fables," "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of the
Ancient Philosophers"; in 1694 he became abbe of St. Valery, and in the
following year archbishop of Cambrai; soon after this ensued his
celebrated controversy with BOSSUET (q. v.) regarding the
doctrines of QUIETISM (q. v.), a dispute which brought him into
disfavour with the king and provoked the Pope's condemnation of his
"Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie interieure"; the
surreptitious publication of his most famous work "Telemache," the MS. of
which was stolen by his servant, accentuated the king's disfavour, who
regarded it as a veiled attack on his court, and led to an order
confining the author to his own diocese; the rest of his life was spent
in the service of his people, to whom he endeared himself by his
benevolence and the sweet piety of his nature; his works are extensive,
and deal with subjects historical and literary, as well as philosophical
and theological (1651-1715).


FENIANS, an Irish political organisation having for its object the
overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic
there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the
great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh
exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from
their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the
English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a
republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called
the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the
U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents
to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at
home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in
the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the
_Skirmishing Fund_ for the use of the _Dynamitards_ and the institution
of the _Clan-na-Gael_ leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park
murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule
and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is
taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn,
said to have been instituted in Ireland in 300 B.C.


FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and
III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in
1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one
sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the
annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank
amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America,
and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power
crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in
his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the
kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire
Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler,
whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were,
however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a
characteristic expression in the institution of the notorious
Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful
engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years
after (1452-1516).


FERDINAND I., emperor of Germany (1556-64), born at Alcala, in
Spain, son of Philip I., married Anna, a Bohemian princess, in 1521; was
elected king of the Romans (1531), added Bohemia and Hungary to his
domains (1503-1564).


FERDINAND II., emperor of Germany (1619-37), grandson of the
preceding and son of Charles, younger brother of Maximilian II., born at
Graetz; his detestation of the Protestants, early instilled into him by
his mother and the Jesuits, under whom he was educated, was the ruling
passion of his life, and involved the empire in constant warfare during
his reign; an attempt on the part of Bohemia, restless under religious
and political grievances, to break away from his rule, brought about the
Thirty Years' War; by ruthless persecutions he re-established Catholicism
in Bohemia, and reduced the country to subjection; but the war spread
into Hungary and Germany, where Ferdinand was opposed by a confederacy of
the Protestant States of Lower Saxony and Denmark, and in which the
Protestant cause was in the end successfully sustained by the Swedish
hero, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (q. v.), who had opposed to him the imperial
generals TILLY and WALLENSTEIN (q. v.); his reign is regarded as one of
disaster, bloodshed, and desolation to his empire, and his connivance at
the assassination of Wallenstein will be forever remembered to his
discredit (1578-1637).


FERDINAND III., emperor of Germany (1637-57), son of the preceding,
born at Graetz; more tolerant in his views, would gladly have brought the
war to a close, but found himself compelled to face the Swedes reinforced
by the French; in 1648 the desolating struggle was terminated by the
Peace of Westphalia; the rest of his reign passed in tranquillity
(1608-1657).


FERDINAND I., king of the Two Sicilies, third son of Charles III. of
Spain, succeeded his father on the Neapolitan throne (1759), married
Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria-Theresa; joined the Allies in the
struggle against Napoleon, and in 1806 was driven from his throne by the
French, but was reinstated at the Congress of Vienna; in 1816 he
constituted his two States (Sicily and Naples) into the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies, and in the last four years of his reign ruled, with the aid
of Austria, as a despot, and having broken a pledge to his people, was
compelled ere his return to grant a popular constitution (1751-1825).


FERDINAND II., king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding
and son of Francis I.; after the death of his first wife, a daughter of
Victor Emmanuel I., he married the Austrian princess Maria-Theresa, and
fell under the influence of Austria during the rest of his reign; in 1848
he was compelled to grant constitutional rights to his people, but was
distrusted, and an insurrection broke out in Sicily; with merciless
severity he crushed the revolt, and by his savage bombardment of the
cities won him the epithet "Bomba"; a reign of terror ensued, and in 1851
Europe was startled by the revelations of cruel injustice contained in
Mr. Gladstone's famous Neapolitan letters (1810-1859).


FERDINAND III., Grand-duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria, born
at Florence; succeeded to the government of Tuscany in 1790; introduced
many wise measures of reform, which brought peace and prosperity to his
State; reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in 1793, but two
years later entered into friendly relations with France, and in 1797, in
order to save his States being merged in the Cisalpine Republic,
undertook to make payment of an annual subsidy; later he formed an
alliance with Austria, and was by Napoleon driven from his possessions,
which were, however, restored to him in 1814 by the Peace of Paris
(1769-1824).


FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN, son of Charles IV. of Spain; too weak to
steer his way through the intrigues of the court, he appealed to Napoleon
in 1807 to support the king, his father, and himself; but his letter was
discovered, and his accomplices exiled; the following year the French
entered Spain, and Charles abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand; but
soon after, under Napoleon's influence, the crown was surrendered to the
French, and Joseph Bonaparte became king; in 1813 Ferdinand was
reinstated, but found himself immediately met by a demand of his people
for a more liberal representative government; the remaining years of his
reign were spent in an internecine struggle against these claims, in
which he had French support under Louis XVIII. (1784-1833).


FERDUSI. See FIRDAUSI.


FERETRUM, the shrine containing the sacred effigies and relics of a
saint.


FERGUS, the name of three Scottish kings: F. I., _d_. 356; F.
II., king from 411 to 427; and F. III., king from 764 to 767.


FERGUSON, ADAM, a Scotch philosopher and historian, born at
Logierait, Perthshire; after passing through the universities of St.
Andrews and Edinburgh, he in 1745 was appointed Gaelic chaplain to the
Black Watch Highland Regiment, and was present at the battle of Fontenoy;
in 1757 he became keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh; two
years later professor of Natural Philosophy, and subsequently of Moral
Philosophy in the university there; during his professorship he, as
secretary, was attached to the commission sent out by Lord North to bring
about a friendly settlement of the dispute pending between England and
the North American colonies; resigning his chair in 1785 he retired to
Neidpath Castle, to engage in farming at Hallyards, an estate in the same
neighbourhood; died at St. Andrews; his best-known works are "Institutes
of Moral Philosophy," "History of the Roman Republic," and "Principles
of Moral and Political Science" (1723-1816).


FERGUSON, JAMES, a popular writer on astronomy and mechanics, born
at Rothiemay, Banff, son of a labourer; his interest in astronomy was
first aroused by his observation of the stars while acting as a "herd
laddie," and much of his time among the hills was spent in the
construction of mechanical contrivances; compelled by circumstances to
betake himself to various occupations, pattern-drawing, clock-mending,
copying prints, and portrait sketching, he still in his leisure hours
pursued those early studies, and coming to London in 1743 (after a
residence of some years in Edinburgh), began lecturing on his favourite
subjects; a pension of L50 was granted him out of the privy purse, and in
1763 he was elected an F.R.S.; besides publishing lectures on mechanics,
hydrostatics, optics, &c., he wrote several works on astronomy, chiefly
popular expositions of the methods and principles of Sir Isaac Newton
(1710-1776).


FERGUSON, PATRICK, soldier and inventor of the breech-loading gun,
born at Pitfour, Aberdeenshire; served in the English army in Germany and
Tobago; brought out his new rifle in 1766, which was tried with success
in the American War of Independence; rose to be a major, and fell at the
battle of King's Mountains, in South Carolina (1744-1780).


FERGUSON, ROBERT, a notorious plotter, who took part in Monmouth's
invasion in 1685 and was prominent in the various plots against Charles
II. and James II., but after the Revolution turned Jacobite; published a
history of the Revolution in 1706; died in poverty (about 1637-1714).


FERGUSSON, JAMES, a writer on the history and art of architecture,
born at Ayr; went to India as an indigo-planter, but afterwards gave
himself up to the study of the rock-temples; published various works, and
in his later years interested himself in the fortifications of the United
Kingdom; his "History of Architecture," in 4 vols., is a standard work
(1808-1886).


FERGUSSON, ROBERT, a Scottish poet, born in Edinburgh; after a
university course at St. Andrews he obtained a post in the office of the
commissionary-clerk of Edinburgh; his first poems appeared in _Ruddiman's
Weekly Magazine_, and brought him a popularity which proved his ruin;
some years of unrestrained dissipation ended in religious melancholia,
which finally settled down into an incurable insanity; his poems,
collected in 1773, have abundant energy, wit, and fluency, but lack the
passion and tenderness of those of Burns; he was, however, held in high
honour by Burns, who regarded him as "his elder brother in the Muses."
"In his death," says Mr. Henley, "at four-and-twenty, a great loss was
inflicted to Scottish literature; he had intelligence and an eye, a right
touch of humour, the gifts of invention and observation and style,
together with a true feeling for country and city alike ... Burns, who
learned much from him, was an enthusiast in his regard for him, bared his
head and shed tears over 'the green mound and the scattered gowans,'
under which he found his exemplar lying in Canongate Churchyard, and got
leave from the managers to put up a headstone at his own cost there"
(1750-1774). See Mr. Henley's "Life of Burns" in the Centenary Burns,
published by the Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack.


FERGUSSON, SIR W., surgeon, born at Prestonpans; graduated at
Edinburgh; was elected to the chair of Surgery in King's College, London,
and in 1866 was made a baronet; was serjeant-surgeon to the Queen, and
president of the Royal College of Surgeons; Fergusson was a bold and
skilful surgeon; is the author, amongst other treatises, of a "System of
Practical Surgery," besides being the inventor of many surgical
instruments (1808-1877).


FERISHTAH, a Persian historian, born at Astrabad, on the Black Sea;
went at an early age, accompanied by his father, to India, where his life
was spent in the service, first of Murtaza Nizam Shah, in Ahmednagar, and
afterwards at the court of the prince of Bijapur; his famous history of
the Mohammedan power in India, finished in 1609, and the writing of which
occupied him for 20 years, is still a standard work, and has been
translated into English (about 1570-1611).


FERMANAGH (74), an Irish county in the SW. corner of Ulster, of a
hilly surface, especially in the W.; is well wooded, and produces
indifferent crops of oats, flax, and potatoes; some coal and iron, and
quantities of limestone, are found in it; the Upper and Lower Loughs Erne
form a waterway through its centre; chief town, Enniskillen.


FERMAT, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, born near Montauban; made
important discoveries in the properties of numbers, and with his friend
Pascal invented a calculus of probabilities; was held in high esteem by
Hallam, who ranks him next to Descartes (1601-1665).


FERNANDEZ, JUAN, a Spanish navigator, discovered the island off the
coast of Chile that bears his name; _d_. in 1576.


FERNANDO PO (25), a mountainous island, with an abrupt and rocky
coast, in the Bight of Biafra, W. Africa; the volcano, Mount Clarence
(9300 ft.), rises in the N.; is covered with luxuriant vegetation, and
yields maize and yams, some coffee, and palm-oil and wine; is inhabited
by the Bubis, a Bantu tribe; is the chief of the Spanish Guinea Isles.


FEROZEPORE (50), the chief town of the district of the same name in
the Punjab, India, a few miles S. of the Sutlej; is strongly fortified,
and contains a large arsenal; the present town was laid out by Lord
Lawrence. F. DISTRICT (887), lies along the S. bank of the Sutlej;
came into the possession of the British in 1835; cereals, cotton, sugar,
and tobacco are cultivated.


FERRAR, NICHOLAS, a religious enthusiast in the reign of Charles I.;
was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1610; afterwards
devoted himself to medicine and travelled on the Continent; subsequently
joined his father in business in London, and entered Parliament in 1624;
but a year later retired to the country, and at Little Gidding,
Huntingdonshire, founded, with some of his near relations, a religious
community, known as the "Arminian Nunnery," some account of which is
given in Shorthouse's "John Inglesant"; it was broken up by the Puritans
in 1647; he was the intimate friend of George Herbert; this community
consisted of some "fourscore persons, devoted to a kind of Protestant
monasticism; they followed celibacy and merely religious duties, employed
themselves in binding prayer-books, &c., in alms-giving and what
charitable work was possible to them in their desert retreat, kept up,
night and day, a continual repetition of the English liturgy, never
allowing at any hour the sacred fire to go out" (1592-1637).


FERRAR, ROBERT, an English prelate, born at Halifax, was prior of
the monastery of St. Oswald's, embraced the Reformation, and was made
Bishop of St. David's by Edward VI.; suffered martyrdom under Mary in
1555.


FERRARA, a broadsword bearing the name of Andrea Ferrara, one of an
Italian family famous in the 16th and 17th centuries for the quality of
their swords.


FERRARA (31), a fortified and walled Italian city, capital of the
province of the name, situated on a low and marshy plain between the
dividing branches of the Po, 30 m. from the Adriatic; it has many fine
ecclesiastical buildings and a university founded in 1264, with a library
of 100,000 vols., but now a mere handful of students; a fine old Gothic
castle, the residence of the Estes (q. v.), still stands; it was the
birthplace of Savonarola, and the sometime dwelling-place of Tasso and
Ariosto; once populous and prosperous, it has now fallen into decay.


FERRARI, GAUDENZIO, Italian painter and sculptor, born at Valduggia,
in Piedmont; studied at Rome under Raphael; many of his paintings and
frescoes are to be found in the Lombard galleries, and principally in
Milan; his work is characterised by bold and accurate drawing,
inventiveness, and strong colouring, but it somewhat lacks the softer
qualities of his art (1484-1550).


FERRARI, PAOLO, Italian dramatist, born at Modena; produced his
first play at the age of 25; his numerous works, chiefly comedies, and
all marked by a fresh and piquant style, are the finest product of the
modern Italian drama; in 1860 he was appointed professor of History at
Modena and afterwards at Milan; his dramatic works have been published in
14 vols. (1822-1889).


FERRIER, DAVID, a distinguished medical scientist, born at Woodside,
Aberdeen; graduated in arts there; studied at Heidelberg, and coming to
Edinburgh graduated in medicine with high distinction in 1868; in 1872
became professor of Forensic Medicine at King's College, London, and
afterwards physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and
Epileptic; his most notable work has been done in connection with the
brain, and his many experiments on the brains of living animals have
resulted in much valuable information, embodied in his various writings;
is editor and co-founder of the periodical _Brain_; _b_. 1843.


FERRIER, JAMES FREDERICK, a metaphysician of singular ability and
originality, born at Edinburgh; after graduating at Oxford was called to
the Scotch bar in 1832; but under the influence of Sir W. Hamilton,
metaphysics became his dominant interest, and he found an outlet for his
views in the pages of _Blackwood_ by a paper on "Consciousness," which
attracted the attention of Emerson; in 1842 was appointed professor of
History in Edinburgh University, and three years later of Moral
Philosophy in St. Andrews; published the "Institutes of Metaphysics," a
lucid exposition of the Berkleian philosophy, and "Lectures on Greek
Philosophy," and edited the works of his uncle and father-in-law,
Christopher North; "he belongs," says Dr. Stirling, "to an era of thought
that was inaugurated by Thomas Carlyle" (1808-1864).


FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTON, a Scottish novelist, aunt of the
preceding, born in Edinburgh, where her life was chiefly spent, her
father being Clerk in the Court of Session, and a colleague of Sir Walter
Scott; her novels, "Marriage," "The Inheritance," and "Destiny," &c., are
rich in humour and faithful in their pictures of Scottish life and
character; Scott held her in high esteem, and kept up a warm friendship
with her till his death (1782-1854).


FERROL (26), a strongly fortified seaport in Galicia, Spain, 10 m.
NE. of Coruna, on a narrow inlet of the sea which forms a splendid
harbourage, narrow at the entrance and capacious within, and defended by
two forts; it possesses one of the largest Spanish naval arsenals;
manufactures linen and cotton, and exports corn, brandy, and sardines.


FERRY, JULES FRANCOIS CAMILLE, a distinguished French statesman,
born at Saint Die, in the Vosges; called to the Paris bar in 1854, he
speedily plunged into the politics of the time, and offered
uncompromising opposition to the party of Louis Napoleon; as a member of
the _Corps Legislatif_ he opposed the war with Prussia, but as central
mayor of Paris rendered signal service during the siege by the Germans;
during his tenure of office as Minister of Public Instruction in 1879 was
instrumental in bringing about the expulsion of the Jesuits; as Prime
Minister in 1880 and again in 1883-85 he inaugurated a spirited colonial
policy, which involved France in war in Madagascar, and brought about his
own downfall (1832-1893).


FESCH, JOSEPH, an eminent French ecclesiastic, born at Ajaccio, the
half-brother of Napoleon's mother; was educated for the Church, but, on
the outbreak of the Revolution, joined the revolutionaries as a
storekeeper; co-operated with his illustrious nephew in restoring
Catholicism in France, and became in 1802 archbishop of Lyons, and a
cardinal in 1803; as ambassador at Rome in 1804 he won the Pope's favour,
and brought about a more friendly understanding between him and Napoleon;
later he lost favour with the emperor, and retired to Lyons, whence in
1814 he fled to Rome, there to end his life; was a lover of art, and left
a magnificent collection of pictures (1763-1839).


FESTUS, the name of a poem by Philip James Bailey (q. v.), first
published in 1839, but extended to three times its length since, a poem
that on its first production produced no small sensation.


FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPEIUS, a Latin grammarian of probably the 3rd
century; noted for an epitome of a great work by Verrius Flaccus on the
meaning and derivation of Latin words, which, although only a portion of
it exists, is regarded as an invaluable document, and is preserved at
Naples.


FETICHISM, the worship of a fetich, an object superstitiously
invested with divine or demonic power, and as such regarded with awe and
worshipped.


FEUDALISM, or the Feudal system, that system which prevailed in
Europe during the Middle Ages and in England from the Norman Conquest, by
which vassals held their lands from the lord-superior on condition of
military service when required, for "the extreme unction day" of which
see CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION," VOL. I. BK. 4.


FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS, German philosopher, son of the
succeeding, born at Landshut; studied theology at Hiedelberg, but coming
under the influence of Hegel went to Berlin and devoted himself to
philosophy; after failing in an attempt to support himself by lecturing
in Erlangen, he was fortunate in his marriage, and upon his wife's means
lived a retired and studious life at Bruckberg; in his philosophy, which
is a degeneracy and finally total departure from Hegel, he declines to
find a higher sanction for morality than man's own conception of right
and wrong as based on a doctrine of Hedonism (q. v.); his chief work,
on the nature of Christianity, which was translated into English by
George Eliot, is extravagant in its departure from orthodox lines of
thought; his influence has been trifling outside his own country; he
began with Hegel, but "descended at last from Hegel's logical idea to
naked sense," and what guidance for life might be involved in it
(1804-1872).


FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM VON, a highly distinguished criminal
jurist, born at Jena, where he studied philosophy and law; at 23 came
into prominence by a vigorous criticism of Hobbes's theory on civil
power; and soon afterwards, in lectures on criminal jurisprudence he set
forth his famous theory, that in administering justice judges should be
strictly limited in their decisions by the penal code; this new doctrine
gave rise to a party called "Rigorists," who supported his theory; he
held professorships in Jena and in Kiel, and in 1804 was appointed to an
official post in Muenich; in 1814 he became president of the Court of
Appeal at Anspach; his chief work was the framing of a penal code for
Bavaria, which became a model for several other countries (1775-1833).


FEUILLANS, a reformed brotherhood of Cistercian monks, founded in
1577 by Jean de la Barriere, abbot of the Cistercian monastery at
Feuillans, in Languedoc. The movement thus organised was a protest
against the laxity which had crept into the Church, and probably received
some stimulus from the Reformation, which was then in progress. The
Feuillans settled in a convent in the Rue St. Honore, Paris, which in
after years became the meeting-place of a revolutionary club, which took
the name of Feuillans; founded in 1790 by Lafayette, La Rochefoucauld,
&c., and which consisted of members of the respectable property classes,
whose views were more moderate than those of the Jacobins. They could not
hold out against the flood of revolutionary violence, and on March 28,
1791, a mob burst into their place of meeting and dispersed them.


FEUILLET, OCTAVE, a celebrated French novelist, born at Saint-Lo, in
La Manche; started his literary career as one of Dumas' assistants, but
made his first independent success in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ by a
series of tales, romances, &c., begun in 1848; in 1862 he was elected a
member of the Academy, and later became librarian to Louis Napoleon; his
novels, of which "Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre" and "Sibylle" are the
most noted, are graceful in style, and reveal considerable dramatic
force, but often lapse into sentimentality, and too often treat of
indelicate subjects, although in no spirit of coarseness (1812-1890).


FEZ (150), the largest city in Morocco, of which it is the second
capital; is surrounded by walls and prettily situated in the valley of
the Sebu, a stream which flows through its centre and falls into the
Atlantic 100 m. to the E. It has been for many centuries one of the most
important of the sacred cities of the Moslem; has many fine mosques, the
Sultan's palace, and an important university; is yet a busy commercial
centre, although signs of decay appear all over the city, and carries on
an active caravan trade with Central Africa.


FEZZAN (50), a Turkish province lying to the S. of Tripoli, to which
it is politically united; in character partakes of the desert region to
which it belongs, being almost wholly composed of barren sandy plateaux,
with here and there an oasis in the low valleys, where some attempt at
cultivation is made. The people, who belong to the Berber stock, are
Mohammedans, honest, but lazy and immoral. Murzuk (6) is the chief town.


FIARS, an expression in Scotch law given to the prices of grain
which are determined, by the respective sheriffs in the various counties
assisted by juries. The Court for "striking the fiars" is held towards
the end of February in accordance with Acts of Sederunt of the Court of
Session. The prices fixed are used in the settling of contracts where no
prices have been determined upon, e. g. in fixing stipends of ministers
of the Church of Scotland, and are found useful in other ways.


FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB, a celebrated German philosopher, born in
Upper Lusatia; a man of an intensely thoughtful and noble nature; studied
theology at Jena, and afterwards philosophy; became a disciple of Kant,
and paid homage to him personally at Koenigsberg; was appointed professor
of Philosophy at Jena, where he enthusiastically taught, or rather
preached, a system which broke away from Kant, which goes under the name
of "Transcendental Idealism," and which he published in his
"Wissenschaftslehre" and his "System der Sittenlehre"; obliged to resign
his chair at Jena on a charge of atheism, he removed to Berlin, where he
rose into favour by his famous "Address to the Germans" against the
tyranny of Napoleon, and after a professorate in Erlangen he became head
of the New University, and had for colleagues such men as Wolff,
Humboldt, Scheiermacher, and Neander; he fell a victim to the War of
Independence which followed, dying of fever caught through his wife and
her nursing of patients in the hospitals, which were crowded with the
wounded; besides his more esoterico-philosophical works, he was the
author of four of a popular cast, which are worthy of all regard, on "The
Destiny of Man," "The Nature of the Scholar," "The Characteristics of the
Present Age," and "The Way to the Blessed Life"; "so robust an intellect,
a soul so calm," says Carlyle, "so lofty, massive, and immovable, has not
mingled in philosophic discussion since the time of Luther ... the cold,
colossal, adamantine spirit, standing erect and clear, like a Cato Major
among degenerate men; fit to have been the teacher of the Stoa, and to
have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue in the groves of Academe"
(1762-1814).


FICHTELGEBIRGE, a mountain chain in North-East Bavaria, so called
from its having once been covered with pines, Fichtel meaning a pine. In
its valleys rise the Elbe, Rhine, and Danube; considerable quantities of
iron, copper, and lead are found, which give rise to a smelting industry,
while mother-of-pearl is obtained from the streams. The climate is cold
and damp, but the district has of late become a favourite resort of
tourists.


FICINO, MARSILIO, an eminent Italian Platonist, born at Florence; in
1463 became president of a Platonic school, founded by Cosmo de' Medici,
where he spent many years spreading and instilling the doctrines of
Plato, and, indeed, ancient philosophy generally; entered the Church in
1473, and under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici was appointed to the
canonry of Florence Cathedral; his religious beliefs were a strange blend
of Platonism and Christianity, but were the foundation of a pure life,
while his interest in classical studies helped considerably to further
the Renaissance (1433-1499).


FICK, AUGUST, a German philologist, born at Petershagan; spent his
life chiefly at Goettingen, where he first studied philology under Benfey;
became a teacher in the Gymnasium, and eventually in 1876 professor of
Comparative Philology in the university; in 1887 accepted a professorship
in Breslau, but retired four years later; author of a variety of learned
works on philology; _b_. 1833.


FIDELIO, a celebrated opera by Beethoven, and his only one.


FI`DES, the Roman goddess of fidelity, or steadfast adherence to
promises and engagements. Numa built a shrine for her worship and
instituted a festival in her honour; in later times a temple containing a
statue of her dressed in white adjoined the temple of Jupiter, on the
Capitol at Rome.


FIELD, CYRUS WEST, brother of the following, born at Stockbridge,
Massachusetts; was first a successful paper manufacturer, but turning his
attention to submarine telegraphy was instrumental in establishing cable
communication between England and America, and founded the Atlantic
Telegraph Company in 1856; on the successful laying of the 1866 cable,
since which time communication between the Old and New Worlds has never
been interrupted, he was awarded a gold medal and the thanks of the
nation; afterwards interested himself in developing the overhead railway
in New York (1819-1892).


FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, an eminent American Jurist, born in Haddam,
Connecticut; for 57 years a prominent member of the New York bar, during
which time he brought about judiciary reforms, and drew up, under
Government directions, political, civil, and penal codes; interested
himself in international law, and laboured to bring about an
international agreement whereby disputes might be settled by arbitration
and war done away with; was President of the London Peace Congress in
1890 (1805-1894).


FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, a plain near Guisnes, where Henry VIII.
had an interview with Francis I.; was so called from the magnificence
displayed on the occasion on the part of both sovereigns and their
retinue.


FIELDING, COPLEY, an eminent English water-colour painter; became
secretary and treasurer and finally president of the Society of
Water-Colour Painters (1787-1855).


FIELDING, HENRY, a famous novelist, who has been styled by Scott
"the father of the English novel," born at Sharpham Park, Glastonbury,
son of General Edmund Fielding and a cousin of LADY MARY WORTLEY
MONTAGU (q. v.); was educated at Eton and at Leyden, where he
graduated in 1728; led for some years a dissipated life in London, and
achieved some celebrity by the production of a series of comedies and
farces, now deservedly sunk into oblivion; in 1735 he married Miss
Charlotte Cradock, and after a brief experiment as a theatre lessee
studied law at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar; literature
was, however, his main pursuit, and in 1742 he came to the front with
"Joseph Andrews," a burlesque on Richardson's "Pamela," in which his
powers as a novelist first showed themselves; in 1743 followed three
volumes of "Miscellanies," including "Jonathan Wild"; after his wife's
death he turned again to law, but in 1745 we find him once more engaged
in literature as editor of the _True Patriot_ and afterwards of the
_Jacobite's Journal_; "Tom Jones," his masterpiece, appeared in 1749, and
three years later "Amelia"; journalism and his duties as a justice of the
peace occupied him till 1754, when ill-health forced him abroad to
Lisbon, where he died and was buried. Fielding is a master of a fluent,
virile, and attractive style; his stories move with an easy and natural
vigour, and are brimful of humour and kindly satire, while his characters
in their lifelike humanness, with all their foibles and frailties, are a
marked contrast to the buckram and conventional figures of his
contemporary Richardson; something of the laxity of his times, however,
finds its way into his pages, and renders them not always palatable
reading to present-day readers (1707-1754).


FIESCHI, COUNT, a Genoese of illustrious family who conspired
against Andrea Doria, but whose plot was frustrated on the eve of its
fulfilment by his falling into the sea and being drowned as he stept
full-armed from one of his ships into another (1523-1547).


FIESCHI, JOSEPH MARCO, a Corsican conspirator; served under Murat
and in Russia in 1812; obtained a government post in 1830, and in
consequence of his discharge from this five years later he, by means of
an infernal machine, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Louis
Philippe, for which, along with his accomplices, he was tried and
executed (1790-1836).


FIESOLE, a small town, 3 m. from Florence, where the wealthy
Florentines have villas, and near which Fra Angelico lived as a monk.


FIFE (190), a maritime county in the E. of Scotland, which juts out
into the German Ocean and is washed by the Firths of Tay and Forth on its
N. and S. shores respectively, thus forming a small peninsula; has for
the most part a broken and hilly surface, extensively cultivated however,
while the "How of Fife," watered by the Eden, is a fertile valley, richly
wooded; and valuable coal deposits are worked in the S. and W.; its long
coast-line is studded with picturesque towns, many of them of ancient
date, a circumstance which led James VI. to describe the county as "a
beggar's mantle fringed with gold"; it is associated with much that is
memorable in Scottish history.


FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN, a set of fanatics of extreme levelling
tendencies, who, towards the close of the Protectorate, maintained that
Jesus Christ was about to reappear on the earth to establish a fifth
monarchy that would swallow up and forcibly suppress all that was left of
the four preceding--the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the
Roman; their standard exhibited the lion of the tribe of Judah couchant,
with the motto, "Who will rouse him up?" some of them conspired to murder
the Protector, but were detected and imprisoned till after his death.


FIGARO, a name given by the French dramatist Beaumarchais to a
cunning and intriguing barber who figures in his "Barbier de Seville" and
his "Mariage de Figaro," and who has since become the type of all such
characters. The name has been adopted by various journals in England and
in France.


FIGARO, MARIAGE DE, a play by Beaumarchais, "issued on the stage in
Paris 1784, ran its hundred nights; a lean and barren thing; succeeded,
as it flattered a pruriency of the time and spoke what all were feeling
and longing to speak."


FIGUIER, LOUIS, a popular writer on scientific subjects, born at
Montpellier, where he became professor of Pharmacy in 1846, and
subsequently in Paris; his voluminous writings have done much to
popularise science, and they comprise a volume on alchemy and one in
defence of immortality; many of these have been received with favour in
England (1819-1894).


FIJI (125), a group of islands in the S. Pacific Ocean, known also
as the Viti Islands; they lie between 15 deg.-22 deg. S. lat. and 176 deg. E.-178 deg. W.
long., and are a dependency of Britain; sighted by Tasman in 1643, though
first discovered, properly speaking, by Cook in 1773, came first into
prominence in 1858, when the sovereignty was offered to England and
declined, but in 1874 were taken over and made a crown colony; they
number over 200 islands, of which Viti Leon and Vanua Leon are by far the
largest; Suva is the capital; sugar, cotton, vanilla, tea, and coffee are
cultivated, besides fruit.


FILDES, S. LUKE, artist, born in Lancashire; made his mark first as
a designer of woodcuts; contributed to various magazines and illustrated
books, notably Dickens's "Edwin Drood"; his most noted pictures are
"Applicants for a Casual Ward," "The Widower," and "The Doctor"; he was
made an R.A. in 1887; _b_. 1844.


FILIBUSTER, a name given to buccaneers who infested the
Spanish-American coasts or those of the West Indies, but more specially
used to designate the followers of Lopez in his Cuban expedition in 1851,
and those of Walker in his Nicaraguan in 1855; a name now given to any
lawless adventurers who attempt to take forcible possession of a foreign
country.


FILIGREE, a name given to a species of goldsmith's ornamental work
fashioned out of fine metallic (usually gold or silver) wire into
lace-like patterns; the art is of ancient date, and was skilfully
practised by the Etruscans and Egyptians, as well as in Central Asia and
India.


FILIOQUE CONTROVERSY, a controversy which ended in the disruption of
the Western from the Eastern Church on the question whether the Spirit
proceeded from the Father and the Son or from the Father only, the
Western maintaining the former and the Eastern the latter.


FILLAN, ST., a name borne by two Scottish saints: (1) the son of a
Munster prince, lived in the 8th century, was first abbot of the
monastery on the Holy Loch in Argyll, and afterwards laboured at
Strathfillan, Perthshire; some of his relics are to be seen in the
Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum; (2) or Faolan, known as "the leper," had
his church at the end of Loch Earn, Perthshire; a healing well and chair
are associated with his name.


FILLMORE, President of the United States from 1850 to 1853.


FINALITY JOHN, Lord John Russell, from his complacently pronouncing
the Reform Bill of 1832 a final measure.


FINCH, HENEAGE, first Earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor of
England, born in Kent, studied at Oxford, and was called to the bar in
1645; at the Restoration he was appointed Solicitor-General, and took an
active part in prosecuting the regicides; in 1670 he became
Attorney-General, and in 1675 Lord-Chancellor; he presided as Lord-High
Steward at the trial of Stafford in 1680, and pronounced judgment in a
speech of great eloquence (1621-1682).


FINDLATER, ANDREW, encyclopedist, born near Aberdour, in
Aberdeenshire, of humble parentage; graduated at Aberdeen, and became a
schoolmaster at Tillydesk, and afterwards held the post of head-master of
Gordon's Hospital in Aberdeen; in 1853 joined the staff of Messrs. W. &
R. Chambers, Edinburgh, and became eventually editor of the first edition
of their encyclopedia (1861-1868); amongst other work done for the
Messrs. Chambers were various manuals on astronomy, geography, &c.; was a
man of wide and accurate scholarship (1810-1877).


FINGAL or FIONN, the great hero of Gaelic mythology,
represented by OSSIAN (q. v.) to have ruled over the kingdom of
Morven, which may be said to have been then co-extensive with Argyllshire
and the West Highlands; in ballad literature he is represented as
belonging also to Ireland.


FINGAL'S CAVE, a remarkable cave of basaltic formation on the coast
of the ISLE OF STAFFA (q. v.); entrance to the cave is effected
in boats through a natural archway 42 ft. wide and 66 ft. high, and the
water fills the floor of this great hall to a distance of 227 ft.


FINISTERRE or FINISTERE (727), the most westerly department of
France, washed on the N. by the English Channel, and on the S. and W. by
the Atlantic; has a rugged and broken coast-line, but inland presents a
picturesque appearance with tree-clad hills and fertile valleys; the
climate is damp, and there is a good deal of marshy land; mines of
silver, lead, &c., are wrought, and quarries of marble and granite;
fishing is largely engaged in; and the manufacture of linen, canvas,
pottery, &c., are important industries, while large quantities of grain
are raised.


FINLAND (2,431), a grand-duchy forming the NW. corner of Russia; was
ceded by the Swedes in 1809, but still retains an independent
administration. The coast-line is deeply indented, and fringed with small
islands; the interior, chiefly elevated plateau, consists largely of
forest land, and is well furnished with lakes, many of which are united
by canals, one 36 m. connecting Lake Saima with the Gulf of Finland.
Various cereals (barley, oats, &c.) are grown, and there is a varied and
valuable fauna; fishing is an extensive industry, and no less than 80
kinds of fish are found in the rivers, lakes, and coast waters. The
country is divided into eight counties, and is governed by a Senate and
Diet, the reigning Russian emperor holding rank as grand-duke; education
is highly advanced; Swedish and Finnish are the two languages of the
country, Russian being practically unknown. There is an excellent Saga
literature, and the beginnings of a modern literature. The Finns came
under the dominion of the Swedes in the 12th and 13th centuries, and were
by them Christianised.


FINLAY, GEORGE, a distinguished historian, horn at Faversham, Kent,
but of Scotch parents; received a university training at Glasgow and
Goettingen, and in 1822 went to Greece, where he met Byron and fought in
the War of Independence; henceforth Greece became his home, and there,
after an unavailing effort to promote agriculture, he betook himself to a
studious life and to writing the history of his adopted country; his
valuable history, published in various parts, traces the national life of
Greece from 146 B.C. to A.D. 1864 (1799-1875).


FINMARK (29), a province of Norway, lying in the extreme N., with a
rocky and indented coast and a barren and mountainous interior; fishing
is the main industry of the inhabitants, who are chiefly Lapps.


FINNS, the native inhabitants of Finland, and originally of the
districts in Sweden and Norway as well, are of the Mongolian type, and
were settled in Europe before the arrival of the Slavic and Teutonic
races.


FIORDS, deep indentations forming inlets of the sea, especially on
the coast of Norway, overlooked by high mountains and precipitous cliffs.


FIRDAUSI or FIRDUSI, the pseudonym of Abu-'l Kasim Mansur, the
great poet of Persia, born near Tus, in Khorassan; flourished in the 10th
century B.C.; spent 30 years in writing the "Shah Nama," a national
epic, but having been cheated out of the reward promised by Sultan
Mahmud, he gave vent to bitter satire against his royal master and fled
the court; for some time he led a wandering life, till at length he
returned to his birthplace, where he died; a complete translation of his
great poem exists in French.


FIRE-WORSHIP, worship of fire, especially as embodied in the sun
viewed as the most express and emphatic exhibition of beneficent divine
power.


FIRMAMENT, a name given to the vault of the sky conceived as a solid
substance studded with stars, so applied in the Vulgate.


FIRMAN, a Persian word denoting a mandate or decree; among the Turks
the term is applied to such decrees as issue from the Ottoman Porte, and
also to passports, the right of signing which lies with the Sultan or a
Pasha; the word is also used in India to denote a permit to trade.


FIRMIN, ST., bishop of Amiens, who suffered martyrdom in 287.
Festival, Sept. 25.


FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE, George IV., from his fine style and
manners.


FISCHART, JOHANN, a German satirist; an imitator of Rabelais
(1545-1589).


FISCHER, ERNST KUNO BERTHOLD, a German historian of philosophy, born
at Sandewalde, Silesia; as a student of Erdmann at Halle he was smitten
with the love of philosophy, and gave his life to the study of it; after
graduating he went to Heidelberg and there established himself as a
private lecturer, in which capacity he was eminently successful, but in
1853 was deprived of his status by Government, probably on account of the
alleged Pantheistic trend of his teaching; in 1856, however, he was
elected to the chair of Philosophy in Jena, and 16 years later was called
back to Heidelberg as Zeller's successor; his chief work is a "History of
Modern Philosophy"; _b_. 1824.


FISHER, JOHN, bishop of Rochester, born at Beverley; was
distinguished at Cambridge, and became chaplain and confessor to the
Countess of Richmond, Henry VII.'s mother, who had him appointed
professor of Divinity at his _alma mater_; in 1504 he was elected
Chancellor of the University and made bishop of Rochester, but incurred
the royal displeasure by opposing Henry VIII.'s divorce of Catherine of
Aragon, and by upholding the Pope's supremacy; became involved in the
deceptions of Elizabeth Barton, maid of Kent, and was sent to the Tower
in 1534 for refusing to take the oath of succession; was created a
cardinal, but was beheaded by order of the king ere his hat arrived; was
beatified in 1886 (1469-1535).


FISKE, JOHN, American writer, born at Hartford, Conn., U.S.;
studied at Harvard; in 1869 lectured at his old university as a
Positivist, and was under-librarian from 1872 to 1879; he is the author
of a number of works on Darwinism, American history, philosophy, etc.;
_b_. 1842.


FITCH, JOHN, an American inventor, born in Connecticut; led a life
of adventure, at one time acting as gunsmith to the American
revolutionaries and at another falling into the hands of Indians whilst
trading in the West; in 1785 he brought out a model steamboat with side
wheels, and in 1788 and in 1790 constructed larger vessels, one of the
latter being for some time employed as a passenger boat; some of his
plans are said to have fallen into Robert Fulton's hands and given him
the idea of his steamship; disheartened by the ill-success of a trip to
France he committed suicide at Bardstown, Kentucky (1743-1798).


FITZ-BOODLE, GEORGE, Thackeray's pseudonym in _Fraser's Magazine_.


FITZGERALD, EDWARD, English scholar, born in Suffolk; at Cambridge,
where he graduated in 1830, he formed close friendships with James
Spedding and Thackeray, and afterwards was on intimate terms with Carlyle
and Tennyson; his life was quietly spent in his country residence in
Suffolk, varied by yachting expeditions and visits to London, where he
made the round of his friends; his first book, "Euphranor," a dialogue on
youth, appeared when he was 42, "Polonius" followed and some Spanish
translations, but his fame rests on his translations of Persian poetry,
and especially on his rendering of the 11th-century poet, Omar Khayyam
(1809-1883).


FITZGERALD, LADY, a daughter of Egalite and Mme. Genlis, called
Pamela; distinguished for her beauty and enthusiasm for liberty, and who
became the wife of LORD FITZGERALD, the Irish patriot (q. v.);
_d_. 1831.


FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD, the younger son of the Duke of Leinster,
born at Carlton Castle, near Dublin; spent his early years in France;
joined the English army and served with distinction in the American War;
in 1784 he was elected to the Irish Parliament, and opposed the English
Government; was attracted to France by the Revolution, but returned to
Ireland and joined the United Irishmen in 1796, and began plotting the
rising of 1798; his scheme was betrayed, and he was arrested in Dublin
after a determined resistance, during which he received wounds of which
he died in prison (1763-1798).


FITZHERBERT, MRS., a Roman Catholic lady, maiden name Maria Anne
Smythe, with whom, after her second widowhood, George IV., while Prince
of Wales, contracted a secret marriage in 1785, which, however, under the
Royal Marriage Act, was declared invalid (1756-1837).


FITZROY, ROBERT, admiral, navigator, and meteorologist, born at
Ampton Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds; entered the navy at 14, and in
1828-1830 conducted a survey of the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del
Fuego, a work he continued while commanding the _Beagle_ (1831-1836), in
which Darwin accompanied him; in 1843-1845 was governor of New Zealand;
in his later years devoted himself to meteorology, and, on the retired
list, rose to be vice-admiral; published accounts of his voyages, etc.;
under pressure of work his mind gave way, and he committed suicide
(1805-1865).


FITZWILLIAM, WILLIAM, EARL, a politician of George the Third's time;
the excesses of the French Revolution caused him to come over from the
Whigs and support Pitt; favoured Catholic emancipation during his
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, but was recalled; held office under
Grenville in 1806, and took some part in the Reform Bill agitation of the
day (1748-1833).


FIUME (29), a seaport of Hungary, on the Adriatic, at the rocky
entrance of the Fiumara, 40 m. SE. of Trieste; a new town of spacious and
colonnaded streets and many fine buildings, has grown up on the ground
sloping down from the old town; has an excellent harbour, and flourishing
industries in paper, torpedoes, tobacco, etc., besides being the entrepot
of an important and increasing commerce.


FLACIUS or VLACICH, MATTHIAS, surnamed Illyricus, a German
theologian, born at Albona, in Illyria; was the pupil of Luther and
Melanchthon; became professor of the Old Testament Scriptures at
Wittenberg, but four years later lost his position on account of certain
attacks he made on Melanchthon; subsequently he was elected professor at
Jena, but was again deposed for heterodox notions on original sin; died
in poverty; was author of an ecclesiastical history and other works
(1520-1575).


FLAGELLANTS, a set of medieval fanatics, who first arose in Italy in
1260, and subsequently appeared in other quarters of Europe, and who
thought by self-flagellation to atone for sin and avert divine judgment,
hoping by a limited number of stripes to compensate for a century of
scourgings; the practice arose at a time when it was reckoned that the
final judgment of the world was at hand.


FLAHAULT DE LA BILLARDERIE, AUGUSTE CHARLES JOSEPH, COMTE DE, a
French soldier and diplomatist, born at Paris; was aide-de-camp to
Napoleon, and for distinguished services in the Peninsular war and at
Leipzig was made a general and count; fought at Waterloo, and two years
later married Margaret Elphinston, who by inheritance became Baroness
Keith; he was ambassador at the Courts of Venice (1841-48) and at London
(1860) (1785-1870).


FLAMBARD, RANDOLPH, a Norman who came over with the Conqueror to
England and became chaplain to William Rufus, whom he abetted and
pandered to in his vices, in return for which, and a heavy sum he paid,
he was in 1099 made bishop of Durham.


FLAMBOYANT, the name given, from the flame-like windings of its
tracery, to a florid style of architecture in vogue in France during the
15th and 16th centuries.


FLAMENS, priests elected in Rome by the people and consecrated by
the chief pontiff to the service of a particular god, such as Jupiter,
Mars, &c.


FLAMINIUS, CAIUS, a Roman tribune and consul, who constructed the
Flaminian Way; perished at Lake Trasimene, where he was defeated by
Hannibal in the Second Punic War, 217 B.C.


FLAMINIUS, T. QUINTUS, a Roman consul, who defeated Philip of
Macedon and proclaimed the freedom of Greece, and it was his close
neighbourhood to Hannibal that induced the latter to take poison rather
than fall into his hands (230-174 B.C.).


FLAMMARION, CAMILLE, French astronomer, born at Montigny-le-Roi; he
was attached to the Paris Observatory in 1858, and by means of books and
lectures has spent a busy life in popularising his science; many of his
works have been translated into English; _b_. 1842.


FLAMSTEED, JOHN, the first astronomer-royal of England, born near
Derby; his devotion to astronomy gained him the favour of Sir Jonas
Moore, who was the means of getting him the appointment of
astronomer-royal in 1675; from the Observatory of Greenwich, specially
built for his use, he catalogued the fixed stars and supplied Newton with
useful information bearing on his lunar theory; in 1675 he took holy
orders, and was presented to the living of Burstow in Surrey, which he
held till his death (1646-1719).


FLANDERS, the land of the Flemings, borders upon the North Sea,
formerly extended from the Scheldt to the Somme, and included, besides
the present Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders, part of Zealand,
and also of Artois, in France; the ancient county dates from 862, in
which year Charles the Bold of France, as suzerain, raised it to the
status of a sovereign county, and bestowed it upon his son Baldwin I.; it
has successively belonged to Spain and Austria, and in Louis XIV.'s reign
a portion of it was ceded to France, now known as French Flanders, while
Zealand passed into the hands of the Dutch; the remainder was in 1714
made the Austrian Netherlands, and in 1831 was incorporated with the new
kingdom of BELGIUM (q. v.).


FLANDRIN, a French painter, born at Lyons; was a pupil of Ingres;
represented the religious movement in art in the 19th century
(1809-1864).


FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE, a realistic romancer, born at Rouen; author of
"Madame Bovary," a study of provincial life, which became the subject of
a prosecution, and "Salammbo," wonderful for its vigour and skill in
description; he indulged in repulsive subjects (1821-1880).


FLAVEL, JOHN, an English Nonconformist divine of spiritualising
tendencies, much read by pious people of his class; _d_. 1691.


FLAXMAN, JOHN, an eminent sculptor, born at York; was brought up in
London, where his father carried on business as a moulder of plaster
figures; his love of drawing and modelling soon marked him out as an
artist, and helped by friends he devoted himself to art; exhibited at the
age of 12, and won the silver medal of the Royal Academy at 14; for some
years he supplied the Wedgwoods with designs for their famous pottery,
and in 1787 he went to Rome, which for seven years became his home; in
1810 became professor of Sculpture to the Royal Academy; besides many
fine statues of eminent men and much exquisite work in bas-reliefs, he
executed a series of noble designs illustrating Homer, Dante, and
AEschylus; he was a Swedenborgian by religious creed (1755-1826).


FLECHIER, a famous French pulpit orator, bishop of Nimes; his
funeral orations compare with Bossuet's (1632-1710).


FLEET MARRIAGES, clandestine marriages, suppressed in 1754,
performed without license by the chaplains of Fleet Prison, London.


FLEET PRISON, a celebrated London jail in Farringdon Street; was a
debtor's prison as far back as the 12th century.


FLEETWOOD, CHARLES, a Cromwellian officer; fought as
lieutenant-general against the king at Worcester, and acted as
lord-deputy in Ireland; on the death of Cromwell advised the abdication
of Richard; _d_. 1692.


FLEGEL, African explorer, born in Wilna, of German descent; made
three journeys from Europe to explore the Niger territory, in which he
made important discoveries; was suddenly stricken down in the last
(1855-1886).


FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT, Orientalist, born at Schandau,
Saxony; after a university training at Leipzig he undertook a catalogue
of the Oriental MSS. in the royal library at Dresden, and in 1836 became
professor of Oriental Languages at Leipzig; did important work as a
critical editor of Oriental works and MSS. (1801-1888).


FLEMING, PAUL, a celebrated German poet, born at Hartenstein,
Vogtland; received a medical training at Leipzig, and was engaged in
embassies in Russia and Persia; settled in Hamburg in 1639, but died the
following year; as a lyrist he stood in the front rank of German poets
(1609-1640).


FLEMISH SCHOOL, a school of painting established in the 15th
century, and to which Reubens, Vandyck, and Teniers belonged.


FLESHLY SCHOOL, a name given by Robert Buchanan to a realistic
school of poets, to which Rossetti, William Morris, and Swinburne belong.


FLESSELLES, the last provost of the merchants of the Hotel de Ville,
Paris; "shot by an unknown hand at the turn of a street" after the fall
of the Bastille (1721-1789).


FLETCHER, ANDREW, of Saltoun, a Scottish patriot and politician;
after travelling on the Continent for four years he entered the Scottish
Parliament, but got into trouble through his opposition to James, Duke of
York, the Royal Commissioner in Scotland, and fled to Holland; his
estates were confiscated, and for the next seven years he was a political
refugee; he took part in the Rye House Plot and in Monmouth's invasion;
his estates were restored in 1688, and he again sat in the Scottish
Parliament; he was an active promoter of the abortive Darien Scheme, and
a strong opponent of the Union of 1707 (1653-1716).


FLETCHER, GILES, an English poet, born in London; was the
unappreciated rector of Alderton, in Suffolk, and author of a fervid and
imaginative poem, "Christ's Victory and Triumph," which won the
admiration of Milton (1588-1623).


FLETCHER, JOHN, English dramatist, the son of a bishop of London;
was left an orphan and in poverty; collaborated with BEAUMONT (q. v.)
in the production of the plays published under their joint names;
died of the plague (1570-1625).


FLETCHER, PHINEAS, poet, brother of preceding; was rector of Hilgay,
Norfolk; celebrated for his poem the "Purple Island, or the Isle of Man,"
an ingenious allegory descriptive of the human body--i. e. the Purple
Island--and its vices and virtues.


FLEURANT, MONSIEUR, a character in Moliere's "Malade Imaginaire."


FLEUR-DE-LIS (i. e. lily-flower), a badge of ultimately three
golden _fleurs-de-lis_ on a blue field, borne from the days of Clovis on
their arms by the kings of France.


FLEURY, ANDRE HERCULE DE. CARDINAL, French statesman, born at
Lodeve, in Languedoc; studied philosophy in Paris; became a doctor of the
Sorbonne and almoner to the Queen and King Louis XIV., who subsequently
made him bishop of Frejus and tutor to his son Louis; in 1726 he was
chosen Prime Minister by Louis XV., and created a cardinal; he carried
through a successful war with Germany, which resulted in the acquisition
of Lorraine by France, but although honest and cautious, he cannot be
styled a great statesman (1653-1743).


FLEURY, CLAUDE, ABBE, an ecclesiastical historian, born in Paris;
was at the outset of his career a successful advocate, but afterwards
entered the Church; as tutor he educated various princes, including an
illegitimate son of Louis XIV., who in reward appointed him to the priory
of Argenteuil; was chosen confessor to the young Louis XV., and in 1696
was elected to the Academy; his chief work is his great "Ecclesiastical
History" in 20 vols., on which he laboured for 30 years, and the
learning, ability, and impartiality of which procured for him the esteem
of all parties (1640-1723).


FLINDERS, MATTHEW, a naval officer, born in Lincolnshire; explored
the coast of Australia, experiencing not a few adventures, and adding
materially to our geographical knowledge (1760-1814).


FLINT, 1, a maritime county (77) of North Wales, between Lancashire
and Denbigh, of which a detached portion lies to the N. of Shropshire;
low stretches of sand form its foreshore, but inland it is hilly, with
here and there a picturesque and fertile valley in which dairy-farming is
extensively carried on. 2, a seaport (5), on the estuary of the Dee, 13
m. NW. of Chester; has ruins of a castle with interesting historical
associations; in the neighbourhood are copper-works and lead and coal
mines.


FLINT, ROBERT, a theologian, born in Dumfriesshire; professor of
Divinity in Edinburgh University; an eminent scholar, a vigorous thinker,
and a man of broad sympathies, who takes a deep interest in all the vital
questions of the times, and has contributed to the solution of them; has
written on Theism, the Philosophy of History, Socialism, &c.; _b_. 1838.


FLOATING ISLANDS are sometimes formed of masses of driftwood on
which debris, vegetation, &c., gradually form a soil, but are more
commonly portions of river banks detached by the force of the current
when swollen and drifted put, sometimes as much as 100 m., to sea,
carrying with them plants, reptiles, and larger animals, and thus
contributing to the distribution to distant shores of animal and
vegetable life; they are to be met with off the mouths of the larger
American, Asian, and African rivers, and sometimes in inland seas and
lakes; Derwent Lake, in England, has a notable one, which sinks, and
rises periodically; they are also made artificially in districts subject
to floods as asylums of refuge.


FLODDEN, BATTLE OF, fought on Flodden Hill, a low spur of the
Cheviots, 6 m. S. of Coldstream, between James IV. of Scotland and the
English under the Earl of Surrey on the 9th of September 1513, which
resulted in the crushing defeat of the Scots, who lost their king and the
flower of their nobility, an event celebrated in Jean Elliot's "Flowers
of the Forest"; a spirited account is given in the sixth canto of Scott's
"Marmion."


FLOOD, HENRY, an Irish Nationalist, trained at Dublin and Oxford
Universities; entering the Irish Parliament, he by his fervid oratory
soon won a place in the front rank of Irish politicians; in 1769 he was
put on trial for killing an opponent in a duel, but was acquitted; from
1775 to 1781 he was Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; to Grattan's Irish Bill of
Right he offered bitter opposition, holding it to be an altogether
inadequate measure; in 1783 he was returned to the English House of
Commons, but failed to make his mark (1732-1791).


FLORA, goddess of the blossom of flowers and the spring, an early
Roman divinity; had in the time of NUMA a flamen (q. v.) to
herself.


FLORENCE (137), a famous Italian city, situated 50 m. from the sea;
it lies in the valley of the Arno, and is built on both sides of the
river, but chiefly on the N.; the outlying suburbs are singularly
beautiful, and are surrounded by finely wooded hills, bright with gay
villas and charming gardens; the old city itself is characterised by a
sombre grandness, and is full of fine buildings of historic and artistic
interest; chief amongst these is the cathedral, or Duomo, begun in 1298,
with its grand dome and campanile (293 ft.), by Giotto. It is the city of
Dante, Petrarch, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio,
Machiavelli, Galileo and many more of Italy's great men, and has a
history of exceptional interest; it has many fine art galleries; is an
educational centre, and carries on a trade in straw-plaiting and silk.


FLORIAN, JEAN PIERRE DE, a French novelist and writer of fables; was
the friend of Voltaire, from whom he received his first literary impulse;
was the author of several romances plays, &c., but his finest work is
found in his Fables, in which department of literature he ranks next La
Fontaine (1755-1794).


FLORIDA (391), "Land of Flowers," the most southern of the American
States, forms a bold peninsula on the E. side of the Gulf of Mexico, and
has on its eastern shore the Atlantic; has a coast-line of 1150 m.; the
chief physical feature is the amount of water surface, made up of 19
navigable rivers and lakes and ponds to the number of 1200, besides
swamps and marshes; the climate is, however, equable, and for the most
part healthy; fruit-growing is largely engaged in; the timber trade
flourishes, also the phosphate industry, and cotton and the sugar-cane
are extensively cultivated; a successful business in cigar-making has
also of recent years sprung up, and there are valuable fisheries along
the coast; Florida was admitted into the Union in 1845; the capital is
Tallahassee.


FLORIO, JOHN, the translator of Montaigne, born in London, of
Italian parents; was a tutor of foreign languages for some years at
Oxford, and in 1581 became a member of Magdalen College and teacher of
French and Italian; published two works of a miscellaneous character,
called "First Fruits" and "Second Fruits," and an English-Italian
dictionary called a "World of Words," but his fame rests on his
translation of Montaigne, which Shakespeare used so freely (1553-1625).


FLORUS, a Latin historian, contemporary of Trajan.


FLUDD, ROBERT, physician and theosophist, born at Milgate, Kent;
studied at Oxford, and travelled on the Continent, where he came under
the influence of Paracelsus's writings; settled in London as a doctor,
and published a work embodying a vague theosophy (1574-1637).


FLUSHING (13), a Dutch seaport, strongly fortified, on the island of
Walcheren, at the mouth of the western Scheldt; has an active shipping
trade, docks, arsenals, &c.


FLUXIONS, a method, invented by Sir Isaac Newton, of determining the
rate of increase or decrease of a quantity or magnitude whose value
depends on that of another which itself varies in value at a uniform and
given rate. See CALCULUS, DIFFERENTIAL, AND INTEGRAL.


FLYING DUTCHMAN, a Dutch captain, fated for his sins to scour the
sea and never reach port, who appeared from time to time to sea-captains
as on a black spectral ship, and from the very terror he inspired made
them change their course; there are many versions of this fable in the
German mythology.


FO, the name in China for Buddha.


FO-HI, or FUH-HE, the mythical founder of the Chinese dynasty,
is said to have introduced cattle-rearing, instituted marriage, and
invented letters.


FOIX, GASTON DE, illustrious French captain, nephew of Louis XII.,
was from his daring exploits called the Thunderbolt of Italy; he beat the
Swiss, routed the Papal troops, captured Brescia from the Venetians, and
gained the battle of Ravenna against the Spaniards, but was slain when
pursuing the fugitives (1489-1512).


FOIX, GASTON III. DE, French captain, surnamed Phoebus on account of
his beauty and handsome presence; distinguished in the wars against the
English and in the Jacquerie revolt, in which he rescued the dauphin at
Meaux (1331-1391).


FOLEY, JOHN HENRY, an eminent sculptor, born in Dublin; his first
success was achieved in a series of classical figures, including some
Shakespearian subjects; statues of Hampden, Burke, J. S. Mill, Goldsmith,
&c., brought him further fame, and he was commissioned by the Queen to
execute the figure of Prince Albert in the Albert Memorial; his vigour
and genius were further revealed in the noble equestrian statues of
Hardinge and Outram (1818-1874).


FOLKESTONE (24), a seaport and watering-place on the coast of Kent,
7 m. SW. of Dover; has a fine harbour and esplanade; is much engaged in
the herring and mackerel fisheries, and is steam-packet station for
Boulogne; a fine railway viaduct spans the valley in which the old town
lies.


FONBLANQUE, ALBANY WILLIAM, journalistic editor, after serving on
the staff of the _Times_ and the _Morning Chronicle_ became editor of the
_Examiner_, which he conducted successfully from 1830 to 1847; Carlyle
was introduced to him on his visit to London in 1831, and describes him
as "a tall, loose, lank-haired, wrinkly, wintry, vehement-looking flail
of a man," but "the best of the Fourth Estate" then extant; "I rather
like the man," he adds, "has the air of a true-hearted Radical"
(1793-1872).


FONTAINEBLEAU, a town on the left bank of the Seine, 35 m. SE. of
Paris, and famous for a chateau or palace of the kings of France, and the
forest that surrounds it. This chateau, founded towards the end of the
10th century, was enlarged and embellished by successive kings, beginning
with Francis I., and was the place where Napoleon signed his abdication
in 1814.


FONTANES, LOUIS, MARQUIS DE, poet and man of letters, born at Niort,
Poitou; came to Paris and achieved some celebrity by his poems and
translations from Pope and Gray; changing from the Royalist side, he,
during the Revolution, edited two journals in the Republican interest,
and held the post of professor of Literature at the College of the Four
Nations; was for some time a refugee in England, but afterwards returned
and became a zealous supporter of Napoleon, on the downfall of whom he
embraced the Bourbon cause, and was raised to the peerage (1757-1821).


FONTENELLE, BERNARD LE BOVIER DE, a miscellaneous French writer,
born at Rouen, a nephew of Corneille, whose Life he wrote; was designed
for the bar, but under his uncle's patronage embarked on a literary
career in Paris; he vehemently upheld the moderns in the famous literary
quarrel of Moderns _versus_ Ancients, and brought upon himself the
satirical attacks of Boileau and Racine; became Secretary and then
President of the Academie des Sciences; died in his hundredth year; his
vigorous and versatile nature found vent in a wide variety of
writings--literary, scientific, and historical; author of "Dialogues of
the Dead," in imitation of Lucian, and "Conversations on the Plurality of
Worlds"; is credited with the saying, "A man may have his hand full of
truth, and yet only care to open his little finger," and this other, "No
man was ever written down but by himself" (1657-1757).


FONTENOY, a village in Belgium, 5 m. SW. of Tournay, where Marshal
Saxe beat the English, Dutch, and Austrians under the Duke of Cumberland
in 1745.


FOOCHOW (630), a Chinese city, the capital of the province of
Fu-chien, situated on the Min, 125 m. NE. of Amoy. Massive walls 30 ft.
high enclose the original town, but the extensive suburbs reach down to
the river, which is bridged, and is a convenient waterway for trading
with the interior; it was made a free port in 1842, and is the centre of
a busy trade in tea, timber, and textiles.


FOOLS, FEAST OF, a festival of wild mirth in the Middle Ages, held
on 1st January, in which the Ass of Scripture celebrity played a chief
part, and in which many of the rites and ceremonies of the Church were
travestied.


FOOT-POUND, the name given in mechanics to the force required to
raise 1 lb. through 1 foot, the unit of work.


FOOTE, SAMUEL, a celebrated English actor and playwright, born at
Truro, Cornwall, of a good family; was educated at Oxford, and studied
law, but ruined himself by gaming, and took to the stage; he became the
successful lessee of Haymarket Theatre in 1747, where, by his inimitable
powers of mimicry and clever comedies, he firmly established himself in
popular favour (1720-1777).


FORBES, ARCHIBALD, a noted war-correspondent, born in Morayshire;
was educated at Aberdeen University; served in a cavalry regiment, acted
as war-correspondent for the _Daily News_ during the Franco-German war,
and has since been the brilliant chronicler of war news in all parts of
the globe; has published several volumes; _b_. 1838.


FORBES, DUNCAN, of Culloden, a distinguished lawyer and patriotic
politician, born at Bunchrew; was trained at Edinburgh and Leyden, and
called to the Scotch bar in 1709; took an active part in putting down the
rebellion of 1715, and in 1722 entered Parliament; three years later he
was appointed Lord Advocate and Lord President of the Court of Session;
succeeded his brother in the estates of Culloden and Bunchrew; during the
1745 rebellion he was active in the Hanoverian interest, and did much to
quell the uprising; Forbes was a devoted Scot, and unweariedly strove to
allay the Jacobite discontent and to establish the country in peace, and
used his great influence and wealth to further these ends, services
which, in the end, impoverished him, and received little or no
recognition at the hands of Government (1685-1747).


FORBES, EDWARD, a noted naturalist, born at Douglas, in the Isle of
Man; studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he became smitten with the love
of natural science, to which he devoted his life; in 1841 he accompanied
the _Beacon_ as naturalist, and returning in 1843 found himself elected
to the chair of Botany in King's College, London; various geological
appointments followed, and in 1852 he became President of the Geological
Society, and two years later received the chair of Natural History in
Edinburgh; Forbes was a prolific author, and his writings cover the whole
field of natural science, to every section of which he has made
contributions of great value (1815-1854).


FORBES, JAMES DAVID, physicist, born at Edinburgh, the grandson of
Sir William, and the son of the first lady-love of Sir Walter Scott, and
very like her; was called to the bar in 1830; physical science, however,
was his ruling passion, and in 1833 he became professor of Natural
Philosophy in Edinburgh University, from which he was called in 1859 to
the Principalship of the United College, St. Andrews, in which he
succeeded Sir David Brewster, whom he had defeated in obtaining the
Edinburgh chair; he made some valuable contributions to natural science,
including discoveries in the polarisation of heat and in regard to the
motion of glaciers, to investigate which he travelled in Norway and in
the Alps (1809-1868).


FORBES, SIR JOHN, physician, born at Cuttlebrae, Banffshire; entered
the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1807, and became M.D. of Edinburgh ten
years later; practised at Penzance and Chichester, but finally settled at
London in 1840, where he became physician to the Queen; was for twelve
years editor of the _British and Foreign Medical Review_, which he
founded in 1836, and was joint-author of the "Cyclopaedia of Practical
Medicine"; first to use the stethoscope in England (1787-1861).


FORBES, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent banker, son of a Scotch advocate and
baronet, born in Edinburgh; became partner in the banking firm of Messrs.
John Coutts & Co.; two years later a new company was formed, of which he
rose to be manager, and which in 1830 became the Union Bank of Scotland;
he is author of a Life of his friend Beattie, the Scottish poet, and of
"Memoirs of a Banking-House" (1739-1806).


FORD, JOHN, dramatist, born at Islington, North Devon; studied at
Oxford, and entered the Middle Temple in 1602, but was never called to
the bar; in 1606 appeared his first poetic work "Fame's Memorial," an
elegy on the death of the Earl of Devonshire, and for the next 33 years
he was a prolific writer of plays, chiefly tragedies, collaborating in
some cases with Dekker and Webster; "The Broken Heart" was greatly
admired by Charles Lamb, and "Perkin Warbeck" is considered by Stopford
Brooke the best historical drama after Shakespeare; there is little of
the lighter graces about his work, and he is prone to go beyond the
bounds of nature in his treatment of the tragic, but his grip on the
greater human passions, and his power of moving presentment, are
undoubted (1586-1639).


FORDUN, JOHN OF, a Scottish chronicler; lived in the 14th century;
was a canon of Aberdeen Cathedral, and wrote a chronicle of Scottish
history, bringing the story up to 1153; materials for further volumes,
which he left, were utilised by Walter Bower, an abbot of Inchcolm, in
the Forth, who extended the account to 1437, but often tampered with
Fordun's narrative; the work is the chief authority in Scottish history
up to the time it treats of.


FORELAND, NORTH AND SOUTH, two rocky promontories on the E. coast of
Kent, which lie 16 m. apart; have the Downs and Goodwin Sands between
them; they are well marked with lighthouses.


FORENSIC MEDICINE, or MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, a branch of legal
science in which the principles of medicine are applied to the purposes
of the law, and originating out of the frequency with which medical
points arise in the administration of justice, e. g. in murder trials
and in cases where insanity is involved.


FOREST LAWS, laws enacted in ancient times for the purpose of
guarding the royal forest lands as hunting preserves, and which were up
to the time of Henry III. of excessive harshness, death being a not
infrequent penalty for infringement. The privileges of forest (at one
time the sole prerogative of the sovereign, but by him capable of being
vested in another), which might include the right to the wild animals in
the forests lying in the domains of a private estate, have now fallen
into abeyance, as also the special Forest Courts, while many of the royal
forests, which in Henry VIII.'s time numbered 69, have been
disafforested.


FORFAR (13), the county town of Forfarshire, 14 m. NE. of Dundee;
manufactures linen; was once an important royal residence, and was made a
royal burgh by David I.


FORFARSHIRE or ANGUS (278), a maritime county on the E. side of
Scotland, lying N. of the Firth of Tay; Strathmore and the Carse of
Gowrie are fertile valleys, where agriculture and cattle-rearing
flourish, and which, with the Braes of Angus in the N. and the Sidlaw
Hills to the S., make up a finely diversified county; jute and linen are
the most important articles of manufacture, of which Dundee and Arbroath
are centres; Forfarshire is a county particularly rich in
antiquities--Roman remains, castles, priories, &c.


FORMOSA (3,500), a large island off the coast of China, from which
it is separated by the Fukien Channel, 90 m. broad. Formosa was ceded to
Japan by the Chinese in 1895; it is an island of much natural beauty, and
is traversed N. and S. by a fine range of hills; is famed for its
bamboos, and exports coal, rice, tea, &c. Name also of a large territory
in the Argentine.


FORNARINA, a Roman lady of great beauty, a friend of Raphael's, and
who frequently posed as a model to him.


FORRES (3), a royal burgh in Elginshire, on the Findhorn, 2 m. from
the sea and 10 m. SW. of Elgin by railway; has ruins of a castle--once a
royal residence--and a famous "Stan'in Stane," Sueno's Stone, 25 ft.
high, placed in the year 900.


FORREST, EDWIN, a celebrated American actor, born in Philadelphia;
went on the stage at 14, and from the provinces made his way to New York,
where his rendering of Othello at the age of 20 raised him to the front
rank among actors; he made three tours in England, but during his last in
1845 he entirely lost the popular favour through his conduct in an
embittered quarrel with Macready; after his final appearance on the stage
in 1871 he continued for a short while to give Shakespearian readings; he
was a tragedian of the highest order, and in his profession amassed a
large fortune (1806-1872).


FORS CLAVIGERA, the name given by Ruskin to a series of letters to
workmen, written during the seventies of this century, and employed by
him to designate three great powers which go to fashion human destiny,
viz., _Force_, wearing, as it were, (_clava_) the club of Hercules;
_For_titude, wearing, as it were, (_clavis_) the key of Ulysses; and
_For_tune, wearing, as it were, (_clavus_) the nail of Lycurgus; that is
to say, Faculty waiting on the right moment, and then striking in. See
Shakespeare's "Time and tide in the affairs of men," &c., the "flood" in
which is the "Third Fors." The letters are represented as written at the
dictation of the Third Fors, or, as it seems to the author, the right
moment, or the occurrence of it.


FOeRSTER, ERNST, an art critic, brother of succeeding, author of a
number of elaborate and important works bearing on the history of art in
Germany and Italy; was the son-in-law of Jean Paul, whose works he
edited, and to whose biography he made contributions of great value
(1800-1885).


FOeRSTER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, German poet and historian; his poetic
gifts were first called into exercise during the war of liberation, in
which he served as a volunteer, and the series of spirited war-songs he
then wrote procured him a wide-spread fame; afterwards he lived in
Berlin, teaching in the school of artillery, and subsequently becoming
custodian of the Royal Art Museum; besides poems he wrote several
historical and biographical works (1791-1868).


FORSTER, JOHANN GEORGE ADAM, naturalist, son of the succeeding;
accompanied his father in the voyage with Cook, and contributed to the
literature anent the expedition; subsequently became professor of Natural
History at Cassel and at Wilna, and eventually librarian to the Elector
of Mayence in 1788; his works are published in 9 vols. (1754-1794).


FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD, a German naturalist and traveller, born in
Prussia; accompanied Captain Cook as a naturalist on his second
expedition to the South Seas, and in connection with which he wrote a
volume of observations; died professor of Natural History and Mineralogy
at Halle (1729-1798).


FORSTER, JOHN, a noted English writer, born at Newcastle; was
educated for the bar, but took to journalism, and soon made his mark as a
political writer in the _Examiner_; he subsequently edited the _Foreign
Quarterly Review_, the _Daily News_ (succeeding Dickens), and the
_Examiner_ (1847-56); he was the author of several historical sketches,
but his best-known works are the admirable biographies of Goldsmith,
Landor, and Dickens (1812-1876).


FORSTER, WILLIAM EDWARD, statesman, born at Bradpole, Dorset, son of
a Quaker; entered upon a commercial career in a worsted manufactory at
Bradford, but from the first politics engaged his paramount attention,
and in 1861 he became member of Parliament for Bradford; became in
succession Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Vice-president of the
Council of Education, and a Privy Councillor; his chief legislative
measure was the Elementary Education Bill of 1870, which, as a member of
Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet, he carried through Parliament, two years after
which the Ballot Act was introduced by him; in 1874 he visited the United
States, and on his return was elected Lord Rector of Aberdeen University;
as Irish Secretary in 1880 he made an earnest effort to grapple with the
Irish problem, but losing the support of his colleagues, over the
imprisonment of Mr. Parnell and other Land League leaders, he resigned;
he was married to Jane, eldest daughter of Dr. Arnold of Rugby; his
transparent honesty and rugged independence of character won him
universal esteem (1819-1886).


FORT AUGUSTUS, a small village on the Caledonian Canal, 33 m. SW. of
Inverness; the fort, built in 1716 and enlarged in 1730, was utilised as
a barrack during the disturbances in the Highlands, but after being
dismantled and again garrisoned down to 1857, it finally, in 1876, passed
into the hands of the BENEDICTINES (q. v.), who have converted
it into an abbey and college.


FORT GEORGE, a fortress on the Moray Firth, 12 m. NE. of Inverness;
was built in 1748, and is now the head-quarters of the Seaforth
Highlanders.


FORT WILLIAM, a small police-burgh in Inverness-shire, 66 m. SW. of
Inverness, near the southern end of the Caledonian Canal; the railway
station stands on the site of the old fort, which in 1655 was built by
Monk; a meteorological observatory was erected here in 1889.


FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN, an eminent English lawyer, born in
Somersetshire; flourished in the 15th century; was called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn, and in 1442 became Lord Chief-Justice of the Court of
King's Bench; he was a staunch Lancastrian during the Wars of the Roses,
and shared the exile of Queen Margaret and her son Edward, for whom he
wrote in dialogue form his famous "De Laudibus Legum," a treatise still
read; the fate of the Lancastrian cause was sealed on the field of
Tewkesbury, and he himself was taken prisoner; he died at the advanced
age of 90.


FORTH, a river of Scotland, formed by the junction of Duchray Water
and the Avondhu, streams which rise one on Ben Lomond and the other on
Ben Venue, and which, after 14 and 9 m., unite at Aberfoyle; the river
thence flows with many windings, called Links, through some of the
fairest country of the eastern lowlands to Alloa (511/2 m.), where begins
the Firth, which stretches 51 m. to the German Ocean, and which at
Queensferry is spanned by a massive railway bridge known as the Forth
Bridge (1882-1890).


FORTUNA, a Roman divinity, the goddess of luck, and especially good
luck, to whom Servius Tullius, in acknowledgment of her favours to him,
erected several temples in Rome; is represented in art as standing poised
on a globe or a wheel, to express her inconstancy.


FORTUNATUS, a character in a popular German legend, who possessed a
_purse_ out of which he was able to provide himself with money as often
as he needed it and _cap_, by putting on of which, and wishing to be
anywhere, he was straightway there; these he got, by his own free
election and choice, conceded to him by the Upper Powers, and they proved
a curse to him rather than a blessing, he finding out when too late that
"the god Wish is not the true God."


FORTY THIEVES, a fraternity in the "Arabian Nights" who inhabited a
secret den in a forest, the gate of which would open only to the magic
word "Sesame."


FORUM, a public place in Rome and Roman cities where the courts of
justice were held, and popular assemblies for civic business.


FORWARDS, MARSHAL, MARSHAL BLUeCHER (q. v.).


FOSCARI, a Doge of Venice from 1423 to his death; his reign was
distinguished by the glories of conquest, but his life was embittered by
the misfortunes of his sons, and the judicial tortures inflicted on one
of them which he was compelled to witness; he died at the age of 87,
broken-hearted (1370-1457).


FOSCOLO, UGO, an Italian patriot and author, born at Zante; his
literary career began in Venice with the successful performance of his
tragedy "Trieste," but on the Austrian occupation of the town he joined
the French army; disappointed in the hope that France would unite with
and free Italy, he returned to literary work in Milan, and in 1809 was
called to the chair of Eloquenco in Pavia; but the conquering Austrians
again forced him to become a refugee, first in Switzerland and finally in
England, where he died; he was the author of various essays, poems, etc.,
and of a translation of Sterne's "Sentimental Journey" (1778-1827).


FOSTER, BIRKET, a celebrated artist, born at North Shields; his
earliest work was done in wood-engraving under the direction of Landells,
and many of his sketches appeared in the _Illustrated London News_;
following this he executed, in collaboration with John Gilbert, a series
of illustrations for the works of Goldsmith, Cowper, Scott, and other
poets, in which he exhibited a rare skill in rural scenes; subsequent
work has been in water-colours, and in 1861 he was elected a member of
the Water-Colour Society (1825-1899).


FOSTER, JOHN, an English essayist, born in Halifax, Yorkshire; was
trained for the Baptist ministry, and for 25 years officiated in various
congregations, but met with little success; from 1817 he devoted himself
solely to literature, and became a contributor to the _Eclectic Review_,
for which he wrote no fewer than 184 articles; his best-known work is an
"Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance," in which he advocates a system
of national education (1770-1843).


FOTHERINGAY, a village in Northamptonshire, on the Nen, 9 m. SW. of
Peterborough; the ruined castle there was the scene of the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.


FOUCAULT, JOHN BERNARD, a French physicist, born in Paris;
distinguished for his studies in optics and problems connected with
light; demonstrated the rate of the rotation of the globe by the
oscillation of a pendulum (1819-1868).


FOUCHE, JOSEPH, Duke of Otranto, born at Nantes, a member of the
National Convention, and voted for the death of Louis XVI.; became
Minister of Police under Napoleon; falling into disfavour, was sent into
exile, but recalled to Paris in 1814; advised Napoleon to abdicate at
that time and again after Waterloo; served under Louis XVIII. for a time,
but was obliged at length to quit France for good; died at Trieste
(1763-1820).


FOULA, a high and rocky islet among the Shetlands, 32 m. W. of
Lerwick; its sandstone cliffs on the NW. are 1220 ft. in height, and rise
sheer from the water; it is sparsely peopled; fishing is the almost sole
pursuit.


FOULD, ACHILLE, French statesman, born at Paris; entered political
life in 1842; became an authority in finance, served in that capacity
under Louis Napoleon (1800-1865).


FOULIS, ROBERT and ANDREW, celebrated printers; were brought up
in Glasgow, where Robert, the elder, after practising as a barber, took
to printing, and in 1743 became printer to the university; his press was
far-famed for the beauty and accuracy of editions of the classics; Andrew
was trained for the ministry, but subsequently joined his brother; an
academy, started by the brothers in 1753 for engraving, moulding, etc.,
although a complete success artistically, involved them in expense, and
eventually financial ruin; they have been called the "Scottish Elzevirs"
(Robert, 1707-1776; Andrew, 1712-1775).


FOULON, a French financier, nicknamed the _Ame damnee_, Familiar
demon, of the parlement of Paris prior to the Revolution; "once, when it
was objected to some financial scheme of his, 'What will the people do?'
made answer, 'The people may eat grass,'" words which the people never
forgot; when attacked by them "he defended himself like a mad lion, but
was borne down, trampled, hanged, and mangled," his head thereafter
paraded through the city on a pike and the mouth stuffed with grass
(1715-1789).


FOUNDLING HOSPITALS are institutions for the rearing of children who
have been deserted by their parents, and exist with varying regulations
in most civilised countries; the first foundling hospital was established
at Milan in 787, and others arose in Germany, Italy, and France before
the 14th century; the Paris foundling hospital is a noted institution of
the kind, and offers every encouragement for children to be brought in,
and admits legitimate orphans and children pronounced incorrigible
criminals by the court; the London foundling hospital was founded by
Captain Thomas Coram, and supports about 500 illegitimates.


FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, a merciless revolutionary, born near Artois;
member of the Jacobin Club, Attorney-General of the Revolutionary
Tribunal, purveyor of the guillotine; was guillotined himself after the
fall of Robespierre (1747-1795).


FOURTH ESTATE, the daily press, so called by Edmund Burke, pointing,
in the House of Commons, to the reporters' gallery.


FOURTH OF JULY, the anniversary of the declaration of American
Independence in 1776.


FOWLER, SIR JOHN, K.C.M.G., civil engineer, born at Sheffield; was
actively engaged in the construction of numerous railways (notably the
London and Brighton), and in dock and bridge building; carried through
important works in Egypt in 1885, and, along with Sir B. Baker, he
designed the Forth Bridge, on the completion of which he received a
baronetcy (1817-1889).


FOX, CHARLES JAMES, an eminent Whig statesman, third son of Henry
Fox, first Lord Holland, born in London; was educated at Eton and Oxford,
and at the age of 19 sat in Parliament for Midhurst; under Lord North he
held office, but quarrelled with the premier and went over to the Whigs,
then led by Rockingham; here he came under the influence of Burke, and
with him offered uncompromising opposition to the American War; in the
Rockingham ministry which followed he was Foreign Secretary, and
subsequently joined North in the short-lived coalition ministry of 1783;
during the next 14 years he was the great opponent of Pitt's Government,
and his brilliant powers of debate were never more effectively displayed
than in his speeches against Warren Hastings and in the debates arising
out of the French Revolution, in which he advocated a policy of
non-intervention; his sympathy with the French revolutionaries cost him
the friendship of Burke; during a retirement of five years he wrote his
"History of James II."; on Pitt's death in 1806 he again came into office
as Foreign Secretary, but died shortly afterwards when about to plead in
the House of Commons the cause of slave abolition; Fox stands in the
front rank of our parliamentary debaters, and was a man of quick and
generous sympathies, but the reckless dissipation of his private life
diminished his popular influence, and probably accounts for the fact that
he never reached the highest office of State (1749-1806).


FOX, GEORGE, the first of the Quakers, born at Drayton,
Leicestershire; son of a poor weaver, and till his twentieth year plied
the trade of a shoemaker; conceived, as he drudged at this task, that he
had a call from above to withdraw from the world and give himself up to a
higher ministry; stitched for himself one day a suit of leather, and so
encased wandered through the country, rapt in his thoughts and bearing
witness to the truth that God had revealed to him; about 1646 began his
crusade against the religion of mere formality, and calling upon men to
trust to the "inner light" alone; his quaint garb won him the title of
"the man with the leather breeches," and his mode of speech with his
"thou's" and "thee's" subjected him to general ridicule; but despite
these eccentricities he by his earnestness gathered disciples about him
who believed what he said and adopted his principles, and in the
prosecution of his mission he visited Wales, Scotland, America, and
various parts of Germany, not without results; he had no kindly feeling
towards Cromwell, with whom he had three interviews, and who in his
public conduct seemed to him to pay no regard to the claims of the "inner
light" and the disciples of it (1624-1690). See "SARTOR RESARTUS,"
BOOK III. CHAP. I.


FOX, WILLIAM JOHNSON, religious and political orator, born near
Southwold, Suffolk; was trained for the Independent ministry, but seceded
to the Unitarians, and subsequently established himself as a preacher of
pronounced rationalism at Finsbury; as a supporter of the Anti-Corn-Law
movement he won celebrity as an impassioned orator, and from 1847 to 1863
represented Oldham in Parliament; he was editor of the _Monthly
Repository_, and a frequent contributor to the _Westminster Review_, and
published various works on political and religious topics (1786-1864).


FOXE, JOHN, martyrologist, born at Boston, Lincolnshire; in 1545 he
resigned his Fellowship in Magdalen College, Oxford, on account of his
espousing the doctrines of the Reformation, and for some years after he
acted as a private tutor in noble families; during Queen Mary's reign he
sought refuge on the Continent, where he formed acquaintance with Knox
and other leading Reformers; he returned to England on the accession of
Elizabeth, and was appointed a prebend in Salisbury cathedral, but his
Nonconformist leanings precluded his further preferment; his most famous
work is his "Book of Martyrs," first published in Latin on the Continent,
the noble English version appearing in 1563 (1516-1587).


FOYERS, FALL OF, a fine cascade, having a fall of 165 ft., on the
lower portion of the Foyers, a river of Inverness-shire, which enters
Loch Ness on the E. side, 10 in. NE. of Fort Augustus.


FRA DIAVOLO, chief of a band of Italian brigands, born in Calabria;
leader in sundry Italian insurrections; was hanged at Naples for
treachery, in spite of remonstrances from England; gave name to an opera
by Auber, but only the name (1760-1806).


FRACAS`TORO, GIROLAMO, a learned physician and poet, born at Verona;
became professor of Dialectic at Padua in his twentieth year;
subsequently practised as a physician, but eventually gave himself up to
literature (1483-1553).


FRAGONARD, JEAN HONORE, a French artist, born at Grasse; gained the
"prix de Rome" in 1752, and afterwards studied in Rome; was a member of
the French Academy, and during the Revolution became keeper of the Musee;
many of his paintings are in the Louvre, and are characterised by their
free and luscious colouring (1732-1806).


FRANC, a silver coin 835/1000 fine, the monetary unity of France
since 1799, weighs 5 grammes and equals about 91/2 d. in English currency
(L1 = 25.3 francs); has been adopted by Belgium and Switzerland, while
under other names a similar coin is in use in Spain (peseta), Italy
(lira), and Greece (drachma).


FRANCE (38,343), the land of the French; a nation standing in the
front rank among the powers of Europe. It occupies a geographical
position of peculiar advantage in the western portion of it, having a
southern foreshore on the Mediterranean and a western and northern
seaboard washed by the Atlantic and the English Channel, possessing
altogether a coast-line, rather undeveloped however, of upwards of 2000
m., while to the E. it abuts upon Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and
Italy. It is divided into 87 departments, including Corsica. It is mainly
composed of lowland and plateau, but has the Cevennes in the S., while
the Pyrenees and Alps (with the Vosges and Ardennes farther N.) lie on
its southern and eastern boundaries. Rivers abound and form, with the
splendid railway, canal, and telegraph systems, an unrivalled means of
internal communication; but there are singularly few lakes. It enjoys on
the whole a fine climate, which favours the vineyards in the centre (the
finest in the world), the olive groves in the S., and the wheat and
beetroot region in the N. The mineral wealth is inconsiderable, and what
of coal and iron there is lies widely apart. Her manufactures, which
include silk, wine, and woollen goods, are of the best, and in fine
artistic work she is without an equal. The colonies are together larger
in area than the mother-country, and include Algeria, Madagascar, and
Cochin China. The French are a people of keen intelligence, of bright,
impulsive, and vivacious nature; urbane, cultured, and pleasure-loving in
the cities, thrifty and industrious in the country; few races have given
so rich a bequest to the literature and art of the world. Roman
Catholicism is the dominant form of religion, but Protestantism and the
Jewish religion are also State supported, as also Mohammedanism in
Algiers. Free compulsory education is in vogue. The Government is a
Republic, and there are two chambers--a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.
Originally occupied by Celts, the country, then called Gallia, was
conquered by the Romans between 58 and 51 B.C., who occupied it till the
4th century, when it was overrun by the Teutons, including the Franks,
who became dominant; and about 870 the country, under Charles the Bald,
became known as France. The unsettling effects of the great cataclysm of
1789 have been apparent in the series of political changes which have
swept across the country this century; within that time it has been
thrice a monarchy, thrice an empire, and thrice a republic.


FRANCESCA, PISTRO DELLA, an Italian painter, sometimes called Piero
Borghese after his native place; did fresco-work in Florence and at
Loretto; painted pictures for the Duke of Rimini, notably "The
Flagellation"; was a friend of Raphael's father; some of his pictures are
in the London National Gallery (1420-1492).


FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, a beautiful Italian lady of the 13th century,
whose pathetic love story finds a place in Dante's "Inferno"; she was
betrothed by her father, the Lord of Ravenna, to Giovanni of Rimini, but
her affections were engaged by Paolo, his brother; the lovers were found
together by Giovanni and murdered by him.


FRANCESCO DI PAULA or ST. FRANCIS OF PAOLA, founder of the
order of the Minims, born at Paula, in Calabria; was trained in a
Franciscan convent, but at the age of 19 took up his abode in a cave,
where the severe purity and piety of his life attracted to him many
disciples; subsequently he founded an ascetic brotherhood, first called
the Hermits of St. Francis of Assisi, but afterwards changed to
Minim-Hermits of St. Francis of Paola; he eventually lived in France,
where convents were built for him and his brotherhood under royal
patronage (1416-1507).


FRANCHE-COMTE, an ancient province in the E. of France, added to the
crown of France in the reign of Louis XIV. at the peace of Nimeguen in
1671.


FRANCIA, DR. JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ DA, dictator of Paraguay, born
near Asuncion, in Paraguay; graduated as a doctor of theology, but
subsequently took to law, in the practice of which profession he was
engaged for 30 years, and won a high reputation for ability and
undeviating honesty; in the revolutionary uprising which spread
throughout Spanish South America, Paraguay played a conspicuous part, and
when in 1811 she declared her independence, Francia was elected secretary
of the first national junta, and two years later one of two consuls;
eventually, in 1814, he became dictator, a position he held till his
death; he ruled the country with a strong hand and with scrupulous, if
somewhat rough, justice, making it part of his policy to allow no
intercourse, political or commercial, with other countries; the country
flourished under his rule, but fell into disorder after his death; he is
the subject of a well-known essay by Carlyle, who finds him a man very
much after his own heart (1757-1840).


FRANCIS, ST., OF ASSISI, founder of the Franciscan order, born at
Assisi, in Umbria; began life as a soldier, but during a serious illness
his thoughts were turned from earth to heaven, and he devoted himself to
a life of poverty and self-denial, with the result that his enthusiasm
provoked emulation, and some of his neighbours associated with him and
formed a brotherhood, which gave rise to the order; St. Dominic and he
were contemporaries, "the former teaching Christian men how to behave,
and the latter what they should think"; each sent a little company of
disciples to teach and preach in Florence, where their influence soon
made itself felt, St. Francis in 1212 and St. Dominic in 1220.


FRANCIS, ST., OF SALES, bishop of Geneva, born In the chateau of
Sales, near Amiens, founder of the Order of the Visitation; was sent to
persuade the Calvinists of Geneva back to the Church of Rome, and applied
himself zealously to the reform of his diocese and the monasteries
(1567-1622).


FRANCIS JOSEPH, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary; succeeded to
the throne in 1848 on the abdication of his uncle, Ferdinand I.; the
Hungarian difficulty has been the chief problem of his reign, with which
he at first dealt in a spirit of harsh oppression, but since 1866 a
milder policy has been adopted, and the desire for national autonomy was
met by the creation of a dual monarchy in 1867, Francis being crowned
king of Hungary; other important events have been the cession of Lombardy
to Sardinia in 1859 and of Venetia in 1866, after an unsuccessful war
with Prussia; _b_. 1830.


FRANCISCANS, or MINORITES, an order of monks founded by St.
Francis of Assisi in 1208; according to Ruskin, they were the order that
preached with St James the gospel of Works as distinct from the
Dominicans, who preached with St. Paul the gospel of Faith, and their
gospel required three things: "to work without money and be poor, to work
without pleasure and be chaste, and to work according to orders and be
obedient"; these were the rules they were sworn to obey at first, but
they gradually forsook the austerity they enjoined, acquired great
wealth, instituted a highly sensuous ceremonial, and became invested with
privileges which excited the jealousy of the regular clergy; with the
order were associated a number of men eminent in the Church, and many no
less so in philosophy, literature, and art.


FRANCK, SEBASTIAN, early German writer, born at Donauwoerth; from a
Catholic priest became a Protestant, but fell into disfavour for
promulgating the doctrine that regeneration of life is of more importance
than reform of dogma, and in 1531 was banished from Strasburg;
subsequently he became a soap-boiler and eventually a printer; his most
noted work is his "Chronica," a rough attempt--the first in Germany--at a
general history (1499-1542).


FRANCKE, AUGUST HERMANN, a German religious philanthropist, born at
Luebeck; was professor of Oriental Languages and subsequently of Theology
at Halle; he founded various educational institutions and a large
orphanage, all of which still exist and afford education for some 3000
children annually; he was active in promoting PIETISM, q. v.
(1663-1727).


FRANCONIA, the name formerly applied to a loosely defined district
in Central Germany, which, as the home of the Franks, was regarded as the
heart of the Holy Roman Empire; the emperors long continued to be crowned
within its boundaries; subsequently it was divided into two duchies, East
Franconia and Rhenish Franconia; the latter was abolished in 1501 and the
former much diminished; from 1806 to 1837 the name had no official
existence, but in 1837 the names Upper, Middle, and Lower Franconia were
given to the three northern divisions of Bavaria.


FRANC-TIREURS (i. e. free-shooters), French volunteers, chiefly
peasants, who carried on a guerilla warfare against the Germans in the
Franco-German War; were at first denied the status of regular soldiers by
the Germans and mercilessly shot when captured, but subsequently, having
joined in the movements of the regular army, they were when captured
treated as prisoners of war.


FRANKENSTEIN, a monster of romance created without a soul, yet not
without craving for human sympathy, who found existence on these terms a
curse, as a man with high cravings might find science to be without God.


FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN (180), one of the old free cities of Germany,
a centre of importance under the Kaisers and the seat of the Diet of the
Germanic Confederation, and one of the great banking cities of the world;
it is the birthplace of the poet Goethe, and is associated with his early
history.


FRANKFORT-ON-THE-ODER (56), a town of Prussia, in the province of
Brandenburg, 51 m. SE. of Berlin, is a well-built town; has a university
incorporated with Breslau in 1811, and is actively engaged in the
manufacture of machinery, chemicals, paper, &c.


FRANKLAND, SIR EDWARD, an eminent chemist, born at Churchtown,
Lancashire; has held successively the chairs of Chemistry in Owens
College, in Bartholomew's Hospital, in the Royal Institution, in the
Royal College of Chemistry, and in the Normal School of Science, South
Kensington, the latter of which he resigned in 1885; has published
various works, and was engaged with Lockyer in researches on the
atmosphere of the sun; _b_. 1825.


FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, born in Boston, was the youngest son of a
tallow-chandler and one of a family of 17; received a meagre education,
and at the age of 12 became apprenticed to his brother, a printer and
proprietor of a small newspaper, to whose columns he began to contribute;
but subsequently quarrelling with him made his way almost penniless to
Philadelphia, where he worked as a printer; in 1724 he came to England
under promises of assistance, which were not fulfilled, and for 18 months
laboured at his printing trade in London, when he returned to
Philadelphia, and there, by steady industry, won a secure position as a
printer and proprietor of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_; in 1732 began to
appear his _Poor Richard's Almanac_, which, with its famous maxims of
prudential philosophy, had a phenomenal success; four years later he
entered upon a public career, rising through various offices to the
position of Deputy Postmaster-General for the Colonies, and sitting in
the Assembly; carried through important political missions to England in
1757 and 1764, and was prominent in the deliberations which ended in the
declaration of American independence in 1776; he visited France and
helped to bring about the French alliance, and made an unavailing effort
to bring in Canada, and, as American minister, signed the Treaty of
Independence in 1783; was subsequently minister to France, and was twice
unanimously elected President of Pennsylvania; his name is also
associated with discoveries in natural science, notably the discovery of
the identity of electricity and lightning, which he achieved by means of
a kite; received degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, and was
elected an F.R.S.; in 1730 he married Deborah Reid, by whom he had two
children (1706-1790).


FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN, a famous Arctic explorer, born at Spilsby,
Lincolnshire; entered the navy in 1800; was a midshipman; was present at
the battle of Copenhagen; shortly afterwards accompanied an expedition,
under Captain Minders, to explore and survey the coasts of Australia; was
wrecked, and returned home on board the _Camden_ as a signal-midshipman;
he subsequently distinguished himself at the battle of Trafalgar, and
took part in the attack on New Orleans; in 1818 he was second in command
of an expedition sent out under Captain Buchan to discover a North-West
Passage, which, although unsuccessful, contributed to reveal Franklin's
admirable qualities as a leader, and in 1819 he was chosen to head
another Arctic expedition, which, after exploring the Saskatchewan and
Copper-Mine Rivers and adjacent territory, returned in 1822; Franklin was
created a post-captain, and for services in a further expedition in
search of a North-West Passage was, in 1829, knighted; after further
services he was in 1845 put in command of an expedition, consisting of
the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, for the discovery of the North-West Passage;
the expedition never returned, and for many years a painful interest was
manifested in the various expeditions (17 in all) which were sent out to
search for the lost party; many relics of this unfortunate explorer were
found, demonstrating the discovery of the North-West Passage; but the
story of his fate has never been precisely ascertained (1786-1847).


FRANKS, the name given in the 3rd century to a confederation of
Germanic tribes, who subsequently grouped themselves into two main bodies
called the Salians and the Ripuarians, the former dwelling on the Upper
Rhine, and the latter on the Middle Rhine. Under their king, Clovis, the
Salians overran Central Gaul, subjugating the Ripuarians, and extending
their territory from the Scheldt to the Loire, whence in course of time
there generally developed the kingdom of France. The Franks were of a
tall and martial bearing, and thoroughly democratic in their political
instincts.


FRANZ, ROBERT, musical composer, born at Halle; his first songs
appeared in 1843, and were cordially appreciated by Mendelssohn and other
masters; in 1868 ill-health forced him to resign his musical appointments
in Halle, but by the efforts of Liszt, Joachim, and others, funds were
raised by means of concerts to ensure him a competence for life; he
published upwards of 250 songs (1815-1892).


FRANZENSBAD or FRANZENSBRUNN (2), a watering-place on the NW.
frontier of Bohemia, 3 m. NW. of Eger; is 1460 ft. above sea-level,
amidst a mountainous country; is much frequented by invalids for its
mineral springs.


FRANZ-JOSEF LAND, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, N. of Nova
Zembla; was discovered and partly explored in 1873-74 by Payer and
Weyprecht; consists of two main divisions, Wilczek Land to the E., and
Zichy Land to the W., between which runs Austria Sound. Arctic animals
are found in good numbers. It is considered an excellent base for
expeditions in quest of the North Pole.


FRASER, ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, philosopher, born at Ardchattan,
Argyllshire; after a university training at Edinburgh and Glasgow he
entered the Free Church; was for a brief term Free Church minister of
Cramond, from which he was transferred to a chair in the Free Church
College, but in 1856 succeeded Sir William Hamilton as professor of Logic
and Metaphysics at Edinburgh, a position he held till 1891, when he
resigned; his writings include the standard edition of Berkeley, with
notes and a life, monographs on Locke and Berkeley in the series of
"Philosophical Classics," and two vols. on the "Philosophy of Theism,"
being the Gifford Lectures delivered 1895-96; _b_. 1819.


FRASER, JAMES, bishop of Manchester, born near Cheltenham, became a
Fellow of Oriel after graduating with highest honours, and in 1847 was
appointed to a college living; he issued in 1862-1864 valuable reports on
education in Canada and the United States after visiting these countries;
and in 1870 was appointed bishop by Mr. Gladstone; his strong sense and
wide sympathy and interest in the labour questions won him universal
respect (1818-1885).


FRASER RIVER, the chief river of British Columbia, is formed by the
junction near Fort George of two streams, one rising in the Rockies, the
other flowing out of the Lakes Stuart and Fraser; it discharges into the
Georgian Gulf, 800 m. below Fort George. Rich deposits of gold are found
in the lower basin, and an active industry in salmon-catching and canning
is carried on.


FRATICELLI (i. e. Little Brethren), a religious sect which arose
in Italy in the 13th century, and continued to exist until the close of
the 15th. They were an offshoot from the FRANCISCANS (q. v.),
who sought in their lives to enforce more rigidly the laws of St.
Francis, and declined to accept the pontifical explanations of monastic
rules; ultimately they broke away from the authority of the Church, and
despite the efforts of various popes to reconcile them, and the bitter
persecutions of others, maintained a separate organisation, going the
length of appointing their own cardinals and pope, having declared the
Church in a state of apostasy. Their regime of life was of the severest
nature; they begged from door to door their daily food, and went clothed
in rags.


FRAUNHOFER, JOSEPH VON, German optician, born in Straubing, Bavaria;
after serving an apprenticeship as a glass-cutter in Muenich, he rose to
be manager of an optical institute there, and eventually attained to the
position of professor in the Academy of Sciences; his name is associated
with many discoveries in optical science as well as inventions and
improvements in the optician's art; but he is chiefly remembered for his
discovery of the dark lines in the solar spectrum, since called after him
the Fraunhofer lines (1787-1826).


FREDEGONDA, wife of Chilperic I. of Neustria; a woman of low birth,
but of great beauty and insatiable ambition, who scrupled at no crime to
attain her end; made away with Galswintha, Chilperic's second wife, and
superseded her on the throne; slew Siegbert, who had been sent to avenge
Galswintha's death, and imprisoned Brunhilda, her sister, of Austrasia,
and finally assassinated her husband and governed Neustria in the name of
her son, Clotaire II. (543-597).


FREDERICK I., surnamed Barbarossa (Red-beard), of the house of
Swabia, emperor of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (q. v.) from 1152 till
1190; "a magnificent, magnanimous man, the greatest of all the Kaisers";
his reign is the most brilliant in the annals of the empire, and he
himself among the most honoured of German heroes; his vast empire he
ruled with iron rigour, quelling its rival factions and extending his
sovereign rights to Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and Burgundy; the great
struggle of his reign, however, was with Pope Alexander III. and the
Lombard cities, whose right to independence he acknowledged by the treaty
of Constanz (1183); he "died some unknown sudden death" at 70 in the
crusade against Saladin and the Moslem power; his lifelong ambition was
to secure the independence of the empire, and to subdue the States of
Italy to the imperial sway (1123-1190).


FREDERICK II., called the Wonder of the World, grandson of the
preceding; he was crowned emperor in 1215, at Aix-la-Chapelle, having
driven Otto IV. from the throne; he gave much attention to the
consolidating of his Italian possessions, encouraged learning and art,
founded the university of Naples, and had the laws carefully codified; in
these attempts at harmonising the various elements of his empire he was
opposed by the Papal power and the Lombards; in 1228 he gained possession
of Jerusalem, of which he crowned himself king; his later years were
spent in struggles with the Papal and Lombard powers, and darkened by the
treachery of his son Henry and of an intimate friend; he was a man of
outstanding intellectual force and learning, but lacked the moral
greatness of his grandfather (1194-1250).


FREDERICK III., emperor of Germany, born at Potsdam; bred for the
army; rose to command; did signal service at Koeniggratz in 1860, and
again in 1870 in the Franco-German War; married the Princess Royal of
England; succeeded his father, but fell a victim to a serious throat
malady after a reign of only 101 days, June 18 (1831-1888).


FREDERICK V., Electoral Prince Palatine; succeeded to the Palatinate
in 1610, and three years later married Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of
England; an attempt to head the Protestant union of Germany and his
usurpation of the crown of Bohemia brought about his ruin and expulsion
from the Palatinate in 1620 by the Spaniards and Bavarians; he took
refuge in Holland, but two years later his principality was given to
Bavaria by the emperor (1596-1632).


FREDERICK III., of Denmark, succeeded to the throne in 1648; during
his reign the arrogance and oppression of the nobles drove the commons,
headed by the clergy, to seek redress of the king by proclaiming the
constitution a hereditary and absolute monarchy (1609-1670).


FREDERICK V., of Denmark, ascended the throne in 1746; during his
reign Denmark made great progress, manufactures were established,
commerce extended, while science and the fine arts were liberally
patronised (1723-1766).


FREDERICK VI., of Denmark, became regent in 1784 during the insanity
of his father, who died in 1808; his reign is noted for the abolishment
of feudal serfdom and the prohibition of the slave-trade in Danish
colonies, and the granting of a liberal constitution in 1831; while his
participation in the maritime confederation between Russia, Sweden, and
Prussia led to the destruction of the Danish fleet off Copenhagen in 1800
by the British, and his sympathy and alliance with Napoleon brought about
the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, and the cession of Norway to
Sweden in 1814 (1768-1839).


FREDERICK I., first king of Prussia, third elector of Brandenburg,
and son of the Great Elector Frederick-William, whom as elector he
succeeded in 1688; he extended his territory by purchase; supported
William of Orange in his English expedition, and lent assistance to the
Grand Alliance against France, for which he received the title of king of
Prussia, being crowned such in Koenigsberg in 1701; he was "an expensive
Herr, and much given to magnificent ceremonies, etiquettes, and
solemnities" (1657-1713).


FREDERICK II., king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, surnamed "The
Great," grandson of the preceding, and nephew of George I. of England,
born at Berlin; the irksome restraints of his early military education
induced him to make an attempt, which failed, to escape to England, an
episode which incensed his father, and nearly brought him to the
scaffold; after his marriage in 1733 he resided at Rheinsburg, indulging
his taste for music and French literature, and corresponding with
Voltaire; he came to the throne with the ambition of extending and
consolidating his power; from Austria, after two wars (1740-1744), he
wrested Silesia, and again in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and in
1778 by force of arms acquired the duchy of Franconia; as administrator
he was eminently efficient, the country flourished under his just, if
severe, rule; his many wars imposed no debt on the nation; national
industries were fostered, and religious toleration encouraged; he was not
so successful in his literary attempts as his military, and all he wrote
was in French, the spirit of it as well as the letter; he is accounted
the creator of the Prussian monarchy "the first," says Carlyle, "who, in
a highly public manner, announced its creation; announced to all men that
it was, in very deed, created; standing on its own feet there, and would
go a great way on the impulse it got from him and others" (1712-1786).


FREDERICK CHARLES, PRINCE, nephew of William I. of Germany; bred for
the army; distinguished himself in the wars against Denmark and Austria,
and in the Franco-German War (1828-1885).


FREDERICK-WILLIAM I., king of Prussia, born at Berlin, ascended the
throne in 1713; in 1720, at the peace of Stockholm, he received part of
Pomerania with Stettin for espousing the cause of Denmark in her war with
Russia and Poland against Sweden; the rest of his reign was passed in
improving the internal conditions of his country and her military
resources; in praise of him as a sternly genuine man and king, Carlyle
has much to say in the early volumes of his "Frederick"; "No Baresark of
them" ("the primeval sons of Thor"), among whom he ranks him, "no
Baresark of them, not Odin's self, I think, was a bit of truer human
stuff; his value to me in these times, rare and great" (1688-1740).


FREDERICK-WILLIAM II., king of Prussia, nephew of FREDERICK THE
GREAT (q. v.); succeeded to the throne in 1786, but soon lost
favour by indolence and favouritism; in 1788 the freedom of the press was
withdrawn, and religious freedom curtailed; he involved himself in a weak
and vacillating foreign policy, wasting the funds accumulated by his
uncle in a useless war with Holland; at the partition of Poland in 1793
and 1795 various districts were added to the kingdom (1744-1797).


FREDERICK-WILLIAM III., king of Prussia from 1797 till 1840; incited
by the queen and the commons he abandoned his position of neutrality
towards Napoleon and declared war in 1806; defeat followed at Jena and in
other battles, and by the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Prussia was deprived of
half her possessions; under the able administration of Stein the country
began to recover itself, and a war for freedom succeeded in breaking the
power of France at the victory of Leipzig (1813), and at the treaty of
Vienna (1815) her lost territory was restored; his remaining years were
spent in consolidating and developing his dominions, but his policy was
sometimes reactionary in its effects (1770-1840).


FREDERICK-WILLIAM IV., king of Prussia from 1840 till 1861; his
reign is marked by the persistent demands of the people for a
constitutional form of government, which was finally granted in 1850; a
year previous he had declined the imperial crown offered by the Frankfort
Diet; in 1857 he became insane, and his brother was appointed regent
(1795-1861).


FREDERIKSHALD, a fortified seaport of Norway, 65 m. SE. of
Christiania; was burnt in 1826, but handsomely restored in modern style;
timber is the main trade; in the immediate neighbourhood is the
impregnable fortress of Frederiksteen, associated with the death of
Charles XII. of Sweden, who fell fighting in the trenches before its
walls in 1718.


FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, an ecclesiastical body formed by those who
left the Established Church in 1843 on the ground that they were not free
in their connection with the State to enforce certain obligations which
they considered lay on them as a Church of Christ, to whom, and not to
the State, they held themselves as a Church subject.


FREE CITIES OF GERMANY, were cities which enjoyed sovereign rights
within their own walls, independent representation in the Diet, and owned
allegiance solely to the emperor. Their internal government was sometimes
democratic, sometimes the opposite. Their peculiar privileges were
obtained either by force of arms, by purchase, or by gift of the
emperors, who found in them a convenient means of checking the power of
their feudal lords. Most of them lost their privileges in 1803, and since
1866 only Luebeck, Bremen, and Hamburg remain in the category of free
cities.


FREE PORT, name given to a port at which ships of all nations may
discharge or load cargo without payment of customs or other duties, save
harbour dues. They were created in various Continental countries during
the Middle Ages for the purpose of stimulating trade, but Copenhagen and,
in a restricted sense, Hamburg and Bremen are now the only free ports in
Europe. The system of bonded warehousing has superseded them.


FREE SOILERS, a political party which arose in the United States in
1848 to oppose slave-extension. In 1856 their principles were adopted,
and the party absorbed in the newly-formed Republican party.


FREE TRADE, the name given to the commercial policy of England,
first elaborately set forth with cogent reasoning by Adam Smith in his
"Wealth of Nations," and of which the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was
the first step towards its adoption. Strictly used, the term is
applicable only to international or foreign trade, and signifies a policy
of strict non-intervention in the free competition of foreign goods with
home goods in the home markets. Differential duties, artificial
encouragements (e. g. bounties, drawbacks), to the home producer, all
of which are characteristic of a protective system of trading, are
withheld, the belief being entertained by free-traders that the
industrial interests of a country are best served by permitting the
capital to flow into those channels of trade into which the character and
resources of the country naturally dispose it to do, and also by bringing
the consumer as near as possible to the cheapest producer. But it is not
considered a violation of the Free Trade principles to impose a duty for
revenue purposes on such imported articles as have no home competitor,
e. g. tea.


FREEMAN, EDWARD AUGUSTUS, historian, born at Mitchley Abbey,
Staffordshire; was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford; examiner in the
School of Law and Modern History; in 1884 he was elected Regius Professor
of Modern History at Oxford; most of his life was spent in country
retirement at Somerleaze, varied by Continental travel; he is the author
of many scholarly works ranging over the whole field of history, his
fame, however, mainly resting on his great "History of the Norman
Conquest" (1823-1892).


FREEMASONRY, in modern times is the name given to a world-wide
institution of the nature of a friendly benevolent society, having for
its objects the promotion of social intercourse amongst its members, and,
in its own language, "the practice of moral and social virtue," the
exercise of charity being particularly commended. By a peculiar grip of
the hand and certain passwords members are enabled to recognise each
other, and the existence of masonic lodges in all countries enables the
freemason to find friendly intercourse and assistance wherever he goes.
Its origin is found in the masonic brotherhoods of the Middle Ages, and
some of the names, forms, and symbols of these old craft guilds are still
preserved. In an age when great cathedrals and monasteries were rapidly
springing up masons were in great demand, and had to travel from place to
place, hence signs were adopted by which true masons might be known
amongst each other and assisted. The idea of utilising this secret method
of recognition for general, social, and charitable purposes, without
reference to the mason's craft, seems to have originated in the Edinburgh
Lodge, where, in 1600, speculative or theoretical masons were admitted.
In its present form of organisation it dates back to 1813, when the
"United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England" was
formed, and of which, since 1874, the Prince of Wales has been
Grand-Master, and which has nearly 2000 local lodges under its
protection.


FREEPORT, SIR ANDREW, a London merchant; a member of the imaginary
club under whose auspices the _Spectator_ was issued.


FREIBERG (29), in the centre of the Saxon mining district, 20 m. SW.
of Dresden; is an old town, which arose upon the discovery of its silver
mines in 1163. It has a fine old cathedral, and a famous school of mines;
and the manufactures comprise gold and silver work, wire, chemicals, etc.


FREIBURG, 1, a Swiss canton (119) between Bern and Vaud, and having
three esclaves in the latter; the population consists chiefly of French
Catholics; is hilly; dairy-farming, watchmaking, and straw-plaiting are
the chief industries. 2, Capital (12) of the canton, is situated on the
Saane, 19 m. SW. of Bern; the river is spanned by a suspension bridge,
and there is an old Gothic cathedral with one of the finest-toned organs
in Europe.


FREIBURG (49), in Breisgau, an important town in Baden, at the W.
side of the Black Forest, and 32 m. NE. of Basel; has a Gothic cathedral
famous for its architectural beauty, a university with 87 professors and
teachers and 884 students; has important manufactures in silk, cotton,
thread, paper, etc.; is the seat of a Catholic archbishop, and is
associated with many stirring events in German history.


FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND, a popular German poet, born at Detmold; was
engaged in commerce in his early years, but the success of a small
collection of poems in 1838 induced him to adopt a literary career;
subsequently his democratic principles, expressed in stirring verse,
involved him in trouble, and in 1846 he became a refugee in London; he
was permitted to return in 1848, and shortly afterwards was the
successful defendant in a celebrated trial for the publication of his
poem "The Dead to the Living," after which fresh prosecution drove him to
London in 1851, where, till his return in 1868, he engaged in poetical
work, translating Burns, Shakespeare, and other English poets
(1810-1876).


FREISCHUeTZ (i. e. Freeshooter), a legendary hunter who made a
compact with the devil whereby of seven balls six should infallibly hit
the mark, and the seventh be under the direction of the devil, a legend
which was rife among the troopers in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has
given name to one of Weber's operas.


FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES, an American explorer, born at Savannah,
Georgia; at first a teacher of mathematics in the navy, subsequently took
to civil-engineering and surveying; in 1843 explored the South Pass of
the Rockies, and proved the practicability of an overland route; explored
the Great Salt Lake, the watershed between the Mississippi and Pacific,
and the upper reaches of the Rio Grande; he rendered valuable services in
the Mexican War, but was deprived of his captaincy for disobedience;
after unsuccessfully standing for the Presidency in the anti-slavery
interest, he again served in the army as major-general; a scheme for a
southern railway to the Pacific brought him into trouble with the French
government in 1873, when he was tried and condemned for fraud, unjustly
it would seem; from 1878 to 1882 he was governor of Arizona; he was the
recipient of distinctions from various geographical societies
(1813-1890).


FRENCH PHILOSOPHISM, an analysis of things conducted on the
presumption that scientific knowledge is the key to unlock the mystery
and resolve the riddle of the universe.


FRENCH REVOLUTION, according to Carlyle "the open violent revolt,
and victory, of disimprisoned Anarchy against corrupt, worn-out
Authority, the crowning Phenomenon of our Modern Time," but for which, he
once protested to Mr. Froude, he would not have known what to make of
this world at all; it was a sign to him that the God of judgment still
sat sovereign at the heart of it.


FRERE, SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD, a distinguished diplomatist and
colonial governor, born near Abergavenny; entering the East India Company
in 1834, he rendered important services as administrator in Mahratta and
as Resident in Sattara in 1847; as the chief-commissioner in Sind he did
much to open up the country by means of canals, roads, etc.; during the
Mutiny, which arrested these works of improvement, he distinguished
himself by the prompt manner in which he suppressed the rising in his own
province; from 1862 to 1867 he was governor of Bombay; in 1867 was
knighted, and five years later carried through important diplomatic work
in Zanzibar, signing the treaty abolishing the slave-trade; his last
appointment was as governor of the Cape and High-Commissioner for the
settlement of South African affairs; the Kaffir and Zulu Wars involved
him in trouble, and in 1880 he was recalled, having effected little
(1815-1884).


FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM, English politician and author, born in London,
uncle of the preceding; he was a staunch supporter of Pitt, and in 1799
became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs; a year later he was envoy to
Lisbon, and subsequently minister to Spain; in 1821 he retired to Malta,
where he devoted himself to scholarly pursuits, twice declining a
peerage; in his early days he was a contributor to the _Anti-Jacobin_,
and shares with his school-fellow Canning the authorship of the "Needy
Knife-Grinder"; but he is best known by his fine translations of some of
Aristophanes' plays (1769-1841).


FRESCO, the art of painting on walls freshly laid with plaster, or
which have been damped so as to permit of the colour sinking into the
lime; there were two methods, the _fresco secco_ and the _fresco buon_;
in the first the wall was sprinkled with water, and the colours were then
worked into the damp surface; in the second process, in which finer and
more permanent effects were obtained, the artist worked upon the fresh
plaster of the wall (which is laid for him as he proceeds), pouncing or
tracing his designs with a stylus; only colours which are natural earths
can be employed, as they require to be mixed with lime ere being applied,
and are subject to the destroying effect of that substance; as a method
of mural decoration it was known to the ancients, and some of the finest
specimens are to be seen in the Italian cathedrals of the 14th and 15th
centuries; the art is still in vogue, but can only be practised
successfully in a dry climate.


FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN JEAN, French physicist, born at Broglie, Eure; as
an engineer he rose to be head of the Department of Public Works at
Paris; in 1825 he was elected an F.R.S. of London; he made discoveries
in optical science which helped to confirm the undulatory theory of
light, also invented a compound lighthouse lens (1783-1827).


FRESNO (11), a town in California, on the Southern Pacific Railway,
207 m. SE. of San Francisco; the surrounding district, extensively
irrigated, produces abundance of fruit, and raisins and wine are largely
exported.


FREUND, WILHELM, German philologist, born at Kempen, in Posen;
studied education at Berlin and Breslau, and was chiefly occupied in
teaching till 1870, when he retired in order to devote himself to his
literary pursuits; besides classical school-books and some works on
philology, he compiled an elaborate Latin dictionary in 4 vols., which
has been the basis of the standard English-Latin dictionaries since; _b_.
1806.


FREYR, figures in the Scandinavian mythology as the god who rules
the rain and sunshine, and whose gifts were peace, wealth, and abundant
harvests; the wooing of Gerda, daughter of the giant Gymer, by Freyr is
one of the most beautiful stories in the northern mythology; his festival
was celebrated at Christmas, and his first temple was built at Upsala by
the Swedes, who especially honoured him.


FREYTAG, GUSTAV, an eminent German novelist and dramatist, born at
Kreuzburg, Silesia; from 1839 was teacher of German language and
literature at Breslau, and became editor of a journal, a position he held
till 1870; was a member of the North German Diet, and accompanied the
Crown Prince during the war of 1870-71; from 1879 resided at Wiesbaden;
his many novels and plays and poems, which reveal a powerful and
realistic genius, place him in the front rank of modern German
litterateurs; several of his novels have been translated into English,
amongst which his masterpiece, "Soll und Haben" (Debit and Credit)
(1816-1895).


FRIAR (i. e. brother), a name applied generally to members of
religious brotherhoods, but which in its strict significance indicated an
order lower than that of priest, the latter being called "father," while
they differed from monks in that they travelled about, whereas the monk
remained secluded in his monastery; in the 13th century arose the Grey
Friars or Franciscans, the Black Friars or Dominicans, the White Friars
or Carmelites, Augustinians or Austin Friars, and later the Crutched
Friars or Trinitarians.


FRIAR JOHN, a friar of Seville, in Rabelais' "Pantagruel," notorious
for his irreverence in the discharge of his religious duties and for his
lewd, lusty ways.


FRIAR TUCK, Robin Hood's chaplain and steward, introduced by Scott
into "Ivanhoe" as a kind of clerical Falstaff.


FRIDAY, the young savage, the attendant of Robinson Crusoe, so
called as discovered on a Friday.


FRIDAY, the sixth day of the week, so called as consecrated to
Freyia or Frigga, the wife of Odin; is proverbially a day of ill luck;
held sacred among Catholics as the day of the crucifixion, and the
Mohammedan Sunday in commemoration as the day on which, as they believe,
Adam was created.


FRIEDLAND, VALENTIN, an eminent scholar and educationist, born in
Upper Lusatia; friend of Luther and Melanchthon; his fame as a teacher
attracted to Goldberg, in Silesia, where he taught, pupils from far and
near; the secret of his success lay in his inculcating on his pupils
respect for their own honour; had a great faith in the intelligence that
evinced itself in clear expression (1490-1556).


FRIEND OF MAN, Marquis de Mirabeau, so called from the title of one
of his works, "L'Ami des Hommes."


FRIENDLY ISLANDS, islands of the S. Pacific, some 180 in number,
mostly of coral or volcanic origin, and of which 30 are inhabited; the
natives rank high among the South Sea islanders for intelligence. See
TONGA ISLANDS.


FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, associations of individuals for the purpose of
mutual benefit in sickness and distress, and of old and wide-spread
institution and under various names and forms.


FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF, a community of Christians popularly known as
Quakers, founded in 1648 by GEORGE FOX (q. v.), distinguished
for their plainness of speech and manners, and differing from other sects
chiefly in the exclusive deference they pay to the "inner light," and
their rejection of both clergy and sacrament as media of grace; they
refuse to take oath, are averse to war, and have always been opposed to
slavery.


FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE, an association formed as far back as 1792 to
secure by constitutional means parliamentary reform.


FRIES, ELIAS, Swedish cryptogamic botanist, professor at Upsala;
wrote on fungi and lichens (1794-1878).


FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH, a German Kantian philosopher; was professor
at Jena; aimed at reconciling the Kantian philosophy with Faith, or the
intuitions of the Pure Reason (1773-1843).


FRIESLAND, the most northerly province of Holland, with a rich soil;
divided into East and West Friesland; low-lying and pastoral; protected
by dykes.


FRIGGA, a Scandinavian goddess, the wife of Odin; worshipped among
the Saxons as a goddess mother; was the earth deified, or the Norse
Demeter.


FRISIANS, a Low German people, who occupied originally the shores of
the North Sea from the mouths of the Rhine and Ems; distinguished for
their free institutions; tribes of them at one time invaded Britain,
where traces of their presence may still be noted.


FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL, an English painter, born near Ripon,
Yorkshire; his works are numerous, his subjects varied and interesting,
and his most popular pictures have brought large sums; _b_. 1819.


FRITZ, FATHER, name given to Frederick the Great by his subjects
"with a familiarity which did not breed contempt in his case."


FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN, famous English sailor and navigator, born
near Doncaster; thrice over enthusiastically essayed the discovery of the
North-West Passage under Elizabeth; accompanied Drake to the West Indies;
was knighted for his services against the Armada; conducted several
expeditions against Spain; was mortally wounded when leading an attack on
Brest, and died on his passage home (1535-1594).


FROEBEL, FRIEDRICH, a devoted German educationist on the principles
of Pestalozzi, which combined physical, moral, and intellectual training,
commencing with the years of childhood; was the founder of the famous
_Kindergarten_ system (1782-1852).


FROGMORE, a royal palace and mausoleum in Windsor Park, the
burial-place of Prince Albert.


FROISSART, JEAN, a French chronicler and poet, born at Valenciennes;
visited England in the reign of Edward III., at whose Court, and
particularly with the Queen, he became a great favourite for his tales of
chivalry, and whence he was sent to Scotland to collect more materials
for his chronicles, where he became the guest of the king and the Earl of
Douglas; after this he wandered from place to place, ranging as far as
Venice and Rome, to add to his store; he died in Flanders, and his
chronicles, which extend from 1322 to 1400, are written without order,
but with grace and _naivete_ (1337-1410).


FROMENTIN, EUGENE, an eminent French painter and author, born at
Rochelle; was the author of two travel-sketches, and a brilliant novel
"Dominique" (1820-1876).


FRONDE, a name given to a revolt in France opposed to the Court of
Anne of Austria and Mazarin during the minority of Louis XIV. The war
which arose, and which was due to the despotism of Mazarin, passed
through two phases: it was first a war on the part of the people and the
parlement, called the Old Fronde, which lasted from 1648 till 1649, and
then a war on the part of the nobles, called the New Fronde, which lasted
till 1652, when the revolt was crushed by Turenne to the triumph of the
royal power. The name is derived from the mimic fights with slings in
which the boys of Paris indulged themselves, and which even went so far
as to beat back at times the civic guard sent to suppress them.


FROUDE, HURRELL, elder brother of the succeeding, a leader in the
Tractarian movement; author of Tracts IX. and LXIII. (1803-1836).


FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, an English historian and man of letters, born
at Totnes, Devon; trained originally for the Church, he gave himself to
literature, his chief work being the "History of England from the Fall of
Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada," in 12 vols., of which the
first appeared in 1854 and the last in 1870, but it is with Carlyle and
his "Life of Carlyle" that his name has of late been most intimately
associated, and in connection with which he will ere long honourably
figure in the history of the literature of England, though he has other
claims to regard as the author of the "Nemesis of Faith," "Short Studies
on Great Subjects," a "Life of Caesar," a "Life of Bunyan," "The English
in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," and "English Seamen in the
Sixteenth Century"; he ranks as one of the masters of English prose, and
as a man of penetration, insight, and enlarged views, if somewhat
careless about minor details (1818-1894).


FROUDE, WILLIAM, another brother, a civil engineer, assistant to
Brunel; made important discoveries in hydro-dynamics of great practical
avail (1810-1879).


FRY, MRS. ELIZABETH, philanthropist, born at Norwich, third daughter
of John Gurney, the Quaker banker; married Joseph Fry of Plashet, Essex;
devoted her life to prison reform and the reform of criminals, as well as
other benevolent enterprises; she has been called "the female Howard"
(1780-1845).


FUAD-MAHMED, PASHA, a Turkish statesman, diplomatist, and man of
letters; studied medicine, but soon turned himself to politics; was much
esteemed and honoured at foreign courts, at which he represented Turkey,
for his skill, sagacity, and finesse; became Minister of Foreign Affairs
in 1852; was hostile to the pretensions of Russia, and gave umbrage to
the Czar; published a Turkish grammar, which is received with favour
(1814-1869).


FUDGE FAMILY, THE, a satiric piece by Thomas Moore, published in
1818.


FUENTES, COUNT, a Spanish general and statesman, eminent both in war
and diplomacy; commanded the Spanish infantry at the siege of Rocroi when
he was eighty-two, borne on a litter in the midst of the fight, and
perished by the sword, the Great Conde having attacked the besiegers
(1560-1643).


FUERO-FUEGO, a Wisigoth Spanish law of the 7th century, a curious
monument of the legislation of the Middle Ages.


FUGGER, the name of a family of Augsburg who rose from the loom by
way of commerce to great wealth and eminence in Germany, particularly
under the Emperors Maximilian and Charles V., the real founder of the
wealth being Jacob, who died 1409.


FULHAM, a suburb of London, on the Middlesex bank of the Thames,
opposite Putney, with the palace and burying-place of the bishops of
London.


FULLAH, a people of the Upper Soudan whose territory extends between
Senegal and Darfur, a race of superior physique and intelligence, and of
a certain polish of manners, and with Caucasian type of feature.


FULLER, ANDREW, an eminent Baptist minister, born in Cambridgeshire,
was settled at Kettering, and a zealous controversialist in defence of
the gospel against hyper-Calvinism on the one hand and Socinianism on the
other, but he is chiefly distinguished in connection with the foundation
of the Baptist Missionary Society, to which he for most part devoted the
energies of his life (1754-1815).


FULLER, MARGARET, an American authoress, born at Cambridgepont,
Mass., a woman of speculative ability and high aims, a friend of Emerson,
and much esteemed by Carlyle, though he thought her enthusiasm
extravagant and beyond the range of accomplishment; she was one of the
leaders of the transcendental movement in America; visited Europe, and
Italy in particular; engaged there in the struggle for political
independence; married the young Marquis of Ossoli; sailed for New York,
and was drowned with her husband and child on the sand-bars of Long
Island (1810-1850).


FULLER, THOMAS, historian, divine, and wit, born in
Northamptonshire, son of the rector of Sarum; entering into holy orders,
he held in succession several benefices in the Church of England, and was
a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral; taking sides with the king, he lost
favour under the Commonwealth; wrote a number of works, in which one
finds combined gaiety and piety, good sense and whimsical fancy; composed
among other works the "History of the Holy War," a "History of the
Crusades," "The Holy and the Profane States," the "Church History of
Great Britain," and the "Worthies of England," the last his principal
work, and published posthumously; he was a man of great shrewdness, broad
sympathies, and a kindly nature; was an author much admired by Charles
Lamb (1608-1661).


FULTON, ROBERT, an American engineer, born in Pennsylvania; began
life as a miniature portrait and landscape painter, in which he made some
progress, but soon turned to engineering; he was one of the first to
apply steam to the propulsion of vessels, and devoted much attention to
the invention of submarine boats and torpedoes; he built a steamboat to
navigate the Hudson River, with a very slow rate of progress however,
making only five miles an hour (1615-1765).


FUM, a grotesque animal figure, six cubits high, one of four
presumed to preside over the destinies of China.


FUNCHAL (19), the capital of Madeira, at the head of a bay on the S.
coast, and the base of a mountain 4000 ft. high, extends a mile along the
shore, and slopes up the sides of the mountain; famous as a health
resort, more at one time than now.


FUNDY BAY, an arm of the sea between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia;
it is of difficult navigation owing to the strong and rapid rush of the
tides.


FUeNEN (221), the second in size of the Danish islands, separated
from Zealand on the E. by the Great Belt and from Jutland on the W. by
the Little Belt; is flat except on S. and W., fertile, well cultivated,
and yields crops of cereals.


FURIES. See ERINNYES.


FURNIVALL, FREDERICK JAMES, English barrister, born at Egham, in
Surrey; devoted to the study of Early and Middle English Literature;
founder and director of numerous societies for promoting the study of
special works, such as the Early English Text, Chaucer, Ballad, and New
Shakespeare Societies, and editor of publications in connection with
them; was in his early days a great authority on boating and
boat-building; _b_. 1825.


FUeRST, JULIUS, a distinguished German Orientalist, born in Posen, of
Jewish descent; a specialist in Hebrew and Aramaic; author of a Hebrew
and Chaldee Manual (1805-1873).


FUeRST, WALTER, of Uri, a Swiss patriot, who, along with William
Tell, contributed to establish the liberty and independence of
Switzerland; _d_. 1317.


FUSELI, HENRY, properly FUSOLI, a famous portrait-painter, born
at Zurich; coming to England at the age of 22, he became acquainted with
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who advised him to go to Rome; after eight years
spent in study of the Italian masters, and Michael Angelo in particular,
he returned to England and became an R.A.; he painted a series of
pictures, afterwards exhibited as the "Milton Gallery" (1741-1825).


FUST JOHANN, a rich burgher of Mainz, associated with Gutenberg and
Schoeffer, to whom along with them the invention of printing has been
ascribed; _d_. 1466.


FYNE, LOCH, an Argyllshire arm of the sea, extending N. from Bute to
Inveraray, and from 1 m. to 5 m. broad; famed for its herrings.


FYZABAD (78), capital of Oudh, in India, at one time, 78 m. E. of
Lucknow; much decayed.