The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 196

FARR, WILLIAM, statistician, born at Kenley, Shrops.h.i.+re; 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 G.o.ddesses 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, d.u.c.h.eSNE (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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.sumed the t.i.tle 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 G.o.d, grandson of Saturn, who figures in the early history of Latium, first as the G.o.d 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 s.h.i.+powner; he served with distinction as a volunteer in the Franco-German War; entered the a.s.sembly 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 circ.u.mstances."

FAUSTA, the wife of Constantino the Great.