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William E. Hutchinson - "Byways Around San Francisco Bay"

Le Sage - "La Tontine"

Joseph C. Lincoln - "Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse"

Charlotte M. Braeme (Bertha M. Clay) - "Wife in Name Only"

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The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood

E >> Edited by Rev. James Wood >> The Nuttall Encyclopaedia





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.).