stoning the poor stranger; and, after having duly performed that murderous ceremony, they resume fighting upon the everlasting subject of the nails and little finger.*

FANCY.

FANCY formerly signified imagination, and the term was used simply to express that faculty of the soul which receives sensible objects.

Descartes and Gassendi, and all the philosophers of their day, say that "the forms or images of things are painted in the fancy." But the greater part of abstract terms are, in the course of time, received in a sense different from their original one, like tools which industry applies to new purposes.

Fancy, at present, means" a particular desire, a transient taste:" he has a fancy for going to China; his fancy for gaming and dancing has passed away.

An artist paints a fancy portrait, a portrait not taken from any model. To have fancies is to have extraordinary tastes, but of brief duration. Fancy, in this sense, falls a little short of oddity (bizarrerie) and caprice.

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Caprice may express a sudden and unreasonable disgust." He had a fancy for music, and capriciously became disgusted with it."

Whimsicality gives an idea of inconsistency and bad taste, which fancy does not; he had a fancy for building, but he constructed his house in a whimsical taste.

There are shades of distinction between having fancies and being fantastic; the fantastic is much nearer to the capricious and the whimsical.

The word fantastic expresses a character unequal and abrupt. The idea of charming or pleasant is excluded from it; whereas there are agreeable fancies.

We sometimes hear used in conversation" odd fancies," (des fantasies musquées); but the expression was

This happy illustration is very pleasantly employed in Candide.-T.

VOL. III.

never understood to mean what the Dictionary of Trevoux supposes,"The whims of men of superior rank which one must not venture to condemn;" on the contrary, that expression is used for the very object and purpose of condemning them; and musquée, in this connection, is an expletive adding force to the term fancies, as we say, Sottise pommée, folie fieffée, to express nonsense and folly.

FASTI.

Of the different Significations of this Word.

THE Latin word fasti signifies festivals, and it is in this sense that Ovid treats of it in his poem entitled the Fasti.

Godeau has composed the Fasti of the Church on this model, but with less success. The religion of the Roman pagans was more calculated for poetry than that of the Christians; to which it may be added, that Ovid was a better poet than Godeau.

The consular fasti were only the list of consuls.

The fasti of the magistrates were the days in which they were permitted to plead; and those on which they did not plead were called nefasti, because then they could not plead for justice.

The word nefastus in this sense does not signify unfortunate; on the contrary, nefastus and nefandus were the attributes of unfortunate days in another sense, signifying days in which people must not plead; days worthy only to be forgotten: "ille nefasto te posuit die."

Besides other fasti, the Romans had their fasti urbis, fasti rustici, which were calendars of the particular usages and ceremonies of the city and the country.

On these days of solemnity, every one sought to astonish by the grandeur of his dress, his equipage, or his banquet. This pomp, invisible on other days, was called fastus. It expresses magnificence in those who by their station can afford it, but vanity in others.

Though the word fastus may not be always injurious, the word pompous is invariably so. A devotee who

makes a parade of his virtue, renders humility itself pompous.

FATHERS-MOTHERS-CHILDREN-(THEIR DUTIES.)

THE Encyclopædia has been much exclaimed against in France; because it was produced in France, and has done France honour. In other countries, people have not cried out: on the contrary, they have eagerly set about pirating or spoiling it, because money was to be gained thereby.

But we, who do not, like the Encyclopædists of Paris, labour for glory; we, who are not, like them, exposed to envy; we, whose little society lies unnoticed in Hesse, in Wirtemberg, in Switzerland, among the Grisons, or at Mount Krapak; and have therefore no apprehension of having to dispute with the doctor of the Comédie Italienne, or with a doctor of the Sorbonne; we, who sell not our sheets to a bookseller, but are free beings, and lay not black on white until we have examined to the utmost of our ability, whether the said black may be of service to mankind; we, in short, who love virtue-shall boldly declare what we think.

"Honour thy father, and thy mother, that thy days may be long

I would venture to say, "Honour thy father and thy mother, though this day should be thy last.”

Tenderly love and joyfully serve the mother who bore thee in her womb, fed thee at her breast, and patiently endured all that was disgusting in thy infancy. Discharge the same duties to thy father, who brought thee up.

What will future ages say of a Frank, named Louis the Thirteenth, who, at the age of sixteen, began the exercise of his authority with having the door of his mother's apartment walled up, and sending her into exile, without giving the smallest reason for so doing, and solely because it was his favourite's wish!

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But, Sir, I must tell you in confidence, that my

father is a drunkard, who begot me one day by chance, not caring a jot about me; and gave me no education but that of beating me every day when he came home intoxicated. My mother was a coquette, whose only occupation was love-making. But for my nurse, who had taken a liking to me, and who, after the death of her son, received me into her house for charity, I should have died of want."

ส Well, then, honour thy nurse; and bow to thy "father and thy mother when thou meetest them. It is said in the Vulgate, Honora patrem tuum et matrem tuam,'-not dilige."

"Very well, Sir, I shall love my father and my mother, if they do me good; I shall honour them, if they do me ill. I have thought so ever since I began to think, and you confirm me in my maxims."

"Fare thee well, my child, I see thou wilt prosper, for thou hast a grain of philosophy in thy composition." "One word more, Sir. If my father were to call himself Abraham and me Isaac, and were to say to me, My son, thou art tall and strong; carry these faggots to the top of that hill, to burn thee with after I have cut off thy head; for God ordered me to do so when he came to see me this morning'-what would you advise me to do in such critical circumstances?". "Critical indeed! But what wouldst thou do of thyself? for thou seemest to be no blockhead."

I own, Sir, that I should ask him to produce a written order, and that from regard for himself, I should say to him- Father, you are among strangers, who do not allow a man to assassinate his son without an express permission from God, duly signed, sealed, and delivered. See what happened to poor Calas, in the half French, half Spanish town of Toulouse. He was broken on the wheel; and the procureur-général Riquet decided on having madame Calas the mother burned,—all on the bare and very ill-conceived suspicion, that they had hung up their son Mark Antoine Calas, for the love of God. I should fear that his conclusions would be equally prejudicial to the well-being of yourself and your sister or niece,

madame Sarah, my mother. Once more I say, show me a lettre-de-cachet for cutting my throat, signed by God's own hand, and countersigned by Raphael, Michael, or Belzebub. If not, father-your most obedient: I will go to Pharoah of Egypt, or to the king of the desert of Gerar, who have both been in love with my mother, and will certainly be kind to me. Cut my brother Ishmael's throat, if you like; but rely upon it, you shall not cut mine."

"Good; this is arguing like a true sage. The Encyclopedia itself could not have reasoned better. I tell thee, thou wilt do great things. I admire thee for not having said an ill word to thy father Abraham-for not having been tempted to beat him. And tell me:— hadst thou been that Cram, whom his father the Frankish king Clothaire had burned in a barn; a Don Carlos, son of that fox Philip the Second; a poor Alexis, son of that czar Peter, half hero half tiger." "Ah! Sir, say no more of those horrors; you make me detest human nature."

FAVOUR.

Of what is understood by the Word.

will

FAVOUR, from the Latin word favor, rather signifies a benefit than a recompense.

We earnestly beg a favour: we merit and loudly demand a recompense. The god Favor, according to the Roman mythologists, was the son of Beauty and Fortune. All favour conveys the idea of something gratuitous; he has done me the favour of introducing me, of presenting me, of recommending my friend, of correcting my work. The favour of princes is the effect of their fancy, and of assiduous complaisance. The favour of the people sometimes implies merit, but is more often attributable to lucky accident.

Favour differs much from kindness. That man is in favour with the king, but he has not yet received any kindnesses from him. We say that he has been received into the good graces of a person, not he has been received into favour; though we say to be in favour,