Single-source entries: F (39)

Fountain of Youth, The

The. See Ponce De Leon

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Fountain Spirits of Behmen

According to Jacob Behmen, there were in nature seven active principles, the "Fountain Spirits, or "Mothers of Existence." These were-the astringent quality; the sweet quality; the bitter quality; the quality of fire; the quality of love; the quality of sound; and the quality of essential substance. The reciprocal action of these antipathetic qualities resulted in Supreme Unity. Each is at once the parent and the child of all the rest, for they generate and are generated by each France other. They are typified by the seven golden candlesticks of the Apocalypse.

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Fouque'

foo-ka', Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Baron de la Motte (1777-1843), a German poet and novelist. He was the grandson of Heinrich August Fouque', Baron de la Motte, a Prussian general whose published correspondence with Frederick the Great is of interest. The "Younger Fouque'" served as lieutenant in the campaign of 1792. He is the author of many poems, but his short stories have won him fame. The best known of these is Undine. This story has been translated into every European language. It was founded on a tale told by Paracelsus in his Treatise on Elemental Sprites. Undine is a beautiful water spirit who, according to the laws of her race, can win a soul only by wedding a mortal. Should her husband prove untrue, she is forced to destroy him. Fouque's tale is told simply, but it is full of a dreamy beauty and weird charm which will ever make it a favorite.

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Fouquet

NICOLAS, a statesman; born in Paris in 1615. He Vaux, and was Viscount of Melun and of Marquis of Belle Isle, finance minister Attaching under Louis XIV. of France. himself closely to Mazarin, he received appointment of in 1650 the important procureur-général to the parliament of Paris, and three years later was advanced to be superintendent of finance. His rapid advance made him ambitious of succeeding Mazarin as first minister, and in order to secure himself friends and a party he distributed money with a lavish hand; but he had a formidable rival in Colbert. Fouquet's plans were, however, brought to naught; for, in the the reins first pla place, Louis himself took of power into his own hands when they slipped from the grasp of the dead cardinal, and, in the second place, instigated thereto by Colbert, he suddenly arrested Fouquet in September, 1661. After a years, Foutrial extending over three quet was sentenced to perpetual exile and the loss of all his property, but the altered to lifesentence was afterward long imprisonment. He died in the fortress of Pignerol, March 23, 1680.

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Fouquier-Tinville

ANTOINE QUENTIN, one of the most execrated ; born figures of the French Revolution His early in Hérovel, France, in 1747. was immoral, but insignificant. career On the outbreak of the Revolution, he figured as one of the fiercest democrats. ngu By Robespierre he was appointed, first, then director and public a member, accuser, of the revolutionary tribunal. or sense of justice Without education, , he executed the bloody orders of the Committee of Public Safety. Incapable of friendship, or of anything even remotely allied to generosity, he systematisuccessive coadjucally abandoned his tors in their hour of need, and sent to the scaffold, without the slightest com- , Robespunction, Danton and Herbert by pierre and St. Just. He himself died the guillotine, May 7, 1795.

FOUQUÉ, BARON FRIEDRICH DE LA MOTTE, a German author; born in Brandenburg, Germany, Feb. 12, 1777. His first contributions to literature were: "Romances from the Vale of Roncesval" (1805); "Story of the Noble Knight Galmy and a Fair Duchess of Brittany" (1806); "Alwin" (1808); followed by the hero-drama "Sigurd the Snake-Killer" (1808); the epic poem, "Bertram du Gueshe pubclin" (1821); etc. In 1840 lished an autobiography. The work by to-day is "Unwhich he is chiefly fly known " is also still dine" (1811); "Sintram . familiar. He died in Berlin, Jan. 23, 1843 French

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Fourierism

a system partly of cooperation, partly of socialism; advocated, and to a certain extent carried out, by François Marie Charles Fourier. Fourier's scheme was that what he called from the word phalanx, a phalanstery, consisting of about 400 families, 1,800 persons, should live together, or combining their labor, upon a district about a square league in extent. The buying and selling transactions requisite for the support of the community, were to be managed by a single person, which would save a multitude of peddling operations. If any brought capital into the concern, it was not confiscated, but he was allowed interest upon it. The labor being carried on in common, the profits were apportioned on the following system: First a minimum of mere subsistence money was assigned to every member of the society, including those incapable of labor. The remainder of the profits were then divided in proportions agreed on beforehand, to remunerate labor and talent, and pay interest on the capital received. The profits divided thus were then expended by the individual recipients as they pleased. An effort was made about 1852 to form an industrial colony on Fourier's plan, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

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Fourth Dimension of Space

There are three known dimensions in space typified in the three geometric figures-a line, having length, a surface, length and breadth, a cube, length, breadth and thickness. It has been conjectured that a fourth dimension may exist in addition to length, breadth, and thickness. Spiritualists have claimed to find proof of a fourth dimension in certain of the physical phenomena of the séance-room such as the tying of knots in endless cords, and the passage of matter through matter.

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Fowler

ELLEN THORNEY- CROFT, an English novelist, born in 1873. She published several volumes of verse and a volume of short stories. She first achieved fame by the publication of "Concerning Isabel Carnaby" (1898). This was followed by "A Double Thread" (1899); "Fuel of Fire" (1902); "Place and Power" (1903); and "Ten Degrees Backward" (1915).

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Fox (General the genus Vulpes)

in general, the genus Vulpes. The foxes differ from the dogs in having a long, bushy tail, and the pupil of the eye elliptical or nearly linear by day, but becoming circular or nearly so by night. This fits them to be nocturnal animals. The American or red fox is Canix fulvus. Many skins are annually exported from this country. V. lagopus is the Arctic fox. The Deccan fox is V. bengalensis, though Bengal and the Deccan are some distance apart. V. vulgaris, formerly and still by many called, after the example of Linnæus, Canis vulpes, is the common English species. Its cunning is proverbial. It is an inhabitant of nearly all Euope, as well as of western Asia and northern Africa. Other species are the black or silver gray, the cross-gray, and the cross-woods foxes. Also Callionymus lyra, the gemmeous dragonet, a fish, so called from its yellow color. In nautical language, a small strand of rope made by twisting several ropeyarns together. Used for seizings, mats, sennits, and gaskets. In mechanics, a wedge driven into the split end of a bolt to tighten it.

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