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The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood

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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).