Fig. 20.

out.

When M. Vauban fortified near rivers, he made always the exterior side near the water much longer than any of the others; such as Hunninghen on the Rhine, and Sarrelouis on the Sarre; but for what reason he fortified these places in that manner, has not been told by any author.

But it is plain that the sides which terminate at the river are the weakest; because the besiegers trenches being secured by the river, they may draw most of their troops off, and act therefore with more vigour and strength on the other side: besides, as the strength of a side increases in proportion as the angle of the polygon is greater, by making the side next the river longer, the angles of the extremities become wider, and consequently the adjacent sides stronger.

There are other advantages, besides those mentioned already, which arise from the lengthening that side: for if the river is pretty deep, so as not to be fordable, that side is not liable to be attacked; and by increasing its length, the capacity of the place increases much more in proportion to the expence, than if more sides were made; the centre of the place will be likewise nearer the river, which makes it more convenient for transporting the goods from the water side to any part of the

town.

To illustrate this method of M. Vauban's, we shall give the plan of Hunninghen: this place was built for the sake of having a bridge over the Rhine, for which reason, he made it only a pentagon; the side AB next to the river is 200 toises, and each of the others but 180.

About the space a bc, which lies before the front

tion.

AB, is a stone wall; and the passages xx are shut up Of with sluices, to retain the water in the ditches in dry trregular seasons and to prevent an enemy from destroying the Fortificasluice near the point c, whereby the water would run out and leave the ditches dry, the redoubt y was built in the little island hard by, in order to cover that CCXXI sluice; without which precaution the place might be insulated from the river side, where the water is shallow in dry seasons.

The hornwork K beyond the Rhine was built to cover the bridge; but as this work cannot be well defended across the river, the hornwork H was made to support the other.

Before finishing the description of this plan, we shall show how to find the long side AB.

After having inscribed the two sides GE, GF, in a circle, draw the diameter CD, so as to be equally distant from the line joining the points EF that is parallel to it. On this diameter set off 100 toises on each side of the centre; from these points draw two indefinite perpendiculars to the diameter; then if from the points EF, as centres, two arcs are described with a radius of 180 toises, their intersections A and B, with the said perpendiculars, will determine the long side AB, as likewise the other two FB and EA. In like manner may be found the long or short side of any polygon whatsoever.

When a place near a river is to be fortified for the safety of commerce, particular care should be taken in leaving a good space between the houses and the water side, to have a quay or landing place for goods brought by water; it should also be contrived to have proper places for ships and boats to lie secure in stormy weather, and in time of a siege; and as water-carriage is very advantageous for transporting goods from one place to another, as likewise for bringing the necessary materials, not only for building the fortifications, but also the place itself, the expences will be lessened considerably when this convenience can be had; for which reason, places should never be built anywhere else but near rivers, lakes, or the sea; excepting in extraordinary cases, where it cannot be avoided.

Plate

Fortin

FOR

FORTIN, FORTELER, or Field-fort, a sconce, or D little fort, whose flanked angles are generally 120 faFortitude. thoms distant from one another.

The extent and figure of fortins are different, according to the situation and nature of the ground; some of them having whole bastions, and others demi-bastions. They are made use of only for a time, either to defend the lines of circumvallation, or to guard some passage or dangerous post.

FORTISSIMO, in Music, sometimes denoted by FFF, or fff, signifies, to sing or play very loud or

FOR

circumstances; fortitude is always a virtue: we speak Fortitude. of desperate courage, but not of desperate fortitude. A contempt or neglect of danger, without regard to consequences, may be called courage; and this some brutes have as well as we: in them it is the effect of natural instinct chiefly; in man it dependa partly on habit, partly on strength of nerves, and partly on want of consideration. But fortitude is the virtue of a rational and considerate mind, and is founded in a sense of honour and a regard to duty. There may be courage in fighting a duel, though that folly is more frequently the effect of cowardice; there may be courage in an act of piracy or robbery: but there can be no fortitude in perpetrating a crime. Fortitude implies a love of equity and of public good; for, as Plato and Cicero observe, courage exerted for a selfish purpose, or E without

Fortitude, without a regard to justice, ought to be called audacity rather than fortitude.

This virtue takes different names, according as it acts in opposition to different sorts of evil; but some of those names are applied with considerable latitude. With respect to danger in general, fortitude may be termed intrepidity; with respect to the dangers of war, valour; with respect to pain of body or distress of mind, patience; with respect to labour, activity; with respect to injury, forbearance; with respect to our condition in general, magnanimity.

Fortitude is very becoming in both sexes; but courage is not so suitable to the female character; for in women, on ordinary occasions of danger, a certain degree of timidity is not unseemly, because it betokens gentleness of disposition. Yet from those of very high rank, from a queen or an empress, courage in emergencies of great public danger would be expected, and the want of it blamed; we should overlook the sex, and consider the duties of the station. In general, however, masculine boldness in a woman is disagreeable; the term virago conveys an offensive idea. The female warriors of antiquity, whether real or fabulous, Camilla, Thalestris, and the whole community of AMAZONS, were unamiable personages. But female courage exerted in defence of a child, a husband, or a near relation, would be true fortitude, and deserve the highest encomiums.

The motives to fortitude are many and powerful. This virtue tends greatly to the happiness of the individual, by giving composure and presence of mind, and keeping the other passions in due subordination. To public good it is essential; for without it, the independence and liberty of nations would be impossible. It gives to a character that elevation which poets, orators, and historians, have in all ages vied with one another to celebrate. Nothing so effectually inspires it as rational piety; the fear of God is the best security against every other fear. A true estimate of human life; its shortness and uncertainty; the numberless evils and temptations to which by a long continuance in this world we must unavoidably be exposed; ought by no means to discourage or to throw any gloom on our future prospects: they should teach us, that many things are more formidable than death; and that nothing is lost, but much gained, when, by the appointment of Providence, a well spent life is brought to a conclusion.

Let it be considered too, that pusillanimity and fearfulness can never avail us any thing. On the contrary, they debase our nature, poison all our comforts, and make us despicable in the eyes of others; they darken our reason, disconcert our schemes, enfeeble our efforts, extinguish our hopes, and add tenfold poignancy to all the evils of life. In battle, the brave soldier is in less danger than the coward; in less danger even of death and wounds, because better prepared to defend himself; in far less danger of infelicity; and has before him the animating hope of victory and honour. So in life, the man of true fortitude is in less danger of disappointment than others are, because his understanding is clear, and his mind disencumbered; he is prepared to meet calamity without the fear of sinking under it and he has before him the near prospect of ano

FORTUNATE ISLANDS, in Ancient Geography, certain islands (concerning the situation of which au thors are not agreed), famous for the golden apples of the HESPERIDES.-The common opinion is, that they are the CANARY Islands.

FORTUNE (Tvxn), a name which among the ancients seems to have denoted a principle of fortuity, whereby things came to pass, without being necessitated thereto; but what and whence that principle is, they do not seem to have ever precisely thought. Hence their philosophers are often intimating, that men only framed the phantom Fortune to hide their ignorance; and that they call Fortune whatever befals a man without his knowing for what purpose. Hence Juvenal (sat. x. ver. 366.) affirms, they were men who made a deity of fortune.

Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia; sed te Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam, cæloque locamus. The ingenious Mr Spence gives another reading of this passage:

Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia; sed te

Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam, cæloque locamus. This reading, he thinks, agrees best with the context: Juvenal says, ver. 356, that the two things we should pray for are good health and good sense; that we might be the authors of our own happiness if we pleased, ver. 363.; that virtue is the only way to true happiness, ver. 364.; that if we ourselves are prudent, Fortune has no power over us; and that, in truth, she is no goddess at all, and has only usurped a seat in heaven from the folly of mankind, ver. 366. Fortune was not considered as a deity by the old Romans, but was made so by the devotion and folly of the vulgar; and Mr Spence says, that he has seen an ancient gem, in which Cybele, the mother of the gods, is represented as turning away her head from Fortune, in an attitude of disowning and rejecting her; (Polymetis, p. 150, 154, &c.)

According to the opinion of the heathens, therefore, fortune in reality was only the arrival of things in a sudden and unexpected manner, without any apparent cause or reason: so that the philosophical sense of the word coincides with what is vulgarly called chance.

But in religion it had a farther force; altars and temples in great numbers were consecrated to this Fortune, as a deity. This intimates, that the heathens had personified, and even deified, their chance; and conceived her as a sort of goddess, who disposed of the fate of men at her pleasure. Hence that invocation of Horace, O diva, gratum quæ regis Antium, in the 35th ode of the first book, where he recommends Augustus, then preparing for a visit to Britain, to her protection. From these different sentiments it may be inferred, that the ancients at one time took Fortune for a peremptory cause, bent upon doing good to

some,

Fortune, some, and persecuting others; and sometimes for a blind inconstant cause, without any view or determination at all.

Forty.

If then the word fortune had no certain idea in the mouth of those who erected altars to her, much less can it be ascertained what it denotes in the minds of those who now use the word in their writings. They who would substitute the name Providence in lieu of that of Fortune, cannot give any tolerable sense to half the phrases wherein the word occurs.

Horace paints the goddess, preceded by Necessity, holding nails and wedges in her hands, with a crampiron, and melted lead to fasten it; rarely accompanied with Fidelity, unless when she abandons a family; for in that case Fidelity never fails to depart with her, as well as friends.

She is disrespectfully spoken of by most of the Roman writers, and represented as blind, inconstant, unjust, and delighting in mischief, (Ovid. ad Liv. ver. 52, ver. 374. (Hor. lib. i. od. 34. ver. 26. lib. iii. od. 29. ver. 15. Statius, Theb. xii. ver. 505.). However they had a good as well as a bad Fortune, a constant and inconstant Fortune; the latter of which was represented with wings, and a wheel by her, (Hor. lib. iii. od. 29. ver. 56.). Juvenal alludes to a statue of Fortune, which exhibited her under a very good character, as the patroness of the poor infants that were exposed by their parents in the streets, (Sat. vi. ver. 605.).

The painters represent her in a woman's habit, with a bandage before her eyes, to show that she acts without discernment; and standing on a wheel, to express her instability. The Romans, says Lactantius, represented her with a cornucopia, and the helm of a ship, to shew that she distributes riches, and directs the affairs of the world. In effect, it is with such characters that we see her represented on so many medals, with the inscription, FORTUNA AVG. FORTUNA REDVX, FORTVNE AVG. or REDVCIS, &c. Sometimes she is seen pointing at a globe before her feet, with a sceptre in one hand, and holding the cornucopia in the other.

The Romans had a virile as well as a muliebrian Fortune, for the objects of their adoration: the Fortuna virilis was honoured by the men, and the Fortuna muliebris by the women. They honoured fortune also under a variety of other appellations.

The Romans derived the worship of Fortune from the Greeks, under the reign of Servius Tullius, who dedicated the first temple to her in the public market. Nero also built a temple to Fortune. The Fortune worshipped at Antium was probably of the most exalted character of any among the Romans; if we may judge by the account which Horace gives us of the great solemn processions that were made to her, (Hor. lib. 1. od. 35. ver. 22.). But the most celebrated temple of Fortune was at Præneste. Statius speaks of several Fortunes there, and calls them the Prænestina sorores, (lib. i. Sylv. iii. ver. 80.).

FORTUNE-Tellers. Persons pretending to tell for tunes are to be punished with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times on the pillory. Stat. ix. Geo. II. c. 5.

FORTY DAYS Court, the court of attachment or woodmote, held before the verderors of the forest once every forty days, to inquire concerning all offenders against vert and venison. See ATTACHMENT.

FORUM, in Roman antiquity, a public standing Foruni. place within the city of Rome, where causes were judicially tried, and orations delivered to the people.

FORUM was also used for a place of traffic, answering to our market-place. These were generally called fora venalia; in contradistinction to the former, which were called fora civilia.

The fora civilia were public courts of justice, very magnificent in themselves, and surrounded with porticoes and stately edifices; of these there were six very remarkable: 1. Forum Romanum. 2. Julianum. 3. Augustum. 4. Palladium. 5. Forum Trajani. 6. Forum Salustii. The Forum Romanum was the most noted, and is often called simply Forum, by way of eminence. Here was the pleading place called Rostra, the Comitium, the sanctuary of Saturn, temple of Castor, &c. See ROSTRA, COMITIUM, &c.

The fora venalia, or market-places, were very numerous. The chief of them were the forum boarium for oxen or beef; suarium for swine; pistorium for bread; cupedinarium for dainties; olitorium for garden stuff.

The Grecian Agogas, exactly correspond with the Roman fora, being places where courts and markets were held. At Athens they had many fora, but the chief of them were the old and the new.

FORUM Indicere, was the act of the prætor appointing the place in Rome where causes were to be tried. Agere forum denoted the bringing on causes out of Rome, in a Roman province (Cicero, Suetonius); the same with agere conventum (Florus.)

The term forum added to a proper name, denoted some town or market borough ; as,

FORUM Allieni, a place mentioned only by Tacitus ; and, from what he says of it, thought to be Ferrara, capital of the duchy of that name in Italy. E. Long. 12. 5. N. Lat. 44. 46.

FORUM Appi (Cicero, Luke); a town of the Volsci, in Latium, on the Via Appia; a little beyond the Tres Tabernæ; set down in the Jerusalem Itinerary as situated near the river Nymphæus: now entirely extinct.

FORUM Cornelii, a town of the Cispadana, built by Sylla: Now Imola, a city in Romagna, and territory of the Pope. E. Long. 12. 12. N. Lat. 44. 30.

FORUM Domitii, a town of Gallia Narbonensis; probably built by Domitius Ahenobarbus, who commanded in those parts: Now Frontignan, or Frontigniac, in Languedoc, near the Mediterranean. E. Long. 3. 30. N. Lat. 43. 30.

FORUM Fulvii, a town of Liguria, surnamed Valentinum: from which it is conjectured that it it is now Valenza, in the duchy of Milan; which is confirmed by Peutinger's distances. E. Long. 9°. N. Lat. 45°.

FORUM Gallorum, a small town of the Cispadana, on the Via Emilia, eight miles from Mutina, beyond the river Scultenna. Here Antony defeated Pansa, and was in his turn defeated by Hirtius: Now Castelfranco, in the territory of Bologna.-Another Forum Gallorum, a town of the Vascones in the Hither Spain: Now Gurrea, a small town of Arragon.

FORUM Julium. There are several towns of this name; as a Forum Julium of Gallia Narbonensis; or Forojulium: Now Frejus, or Frejules, in Provence, at E 2

the

FORUM Livii, a town of the Semnones, in the Cispadana: Now Forli, in Romagna. E. Long. 12. 45. N. Lat. 44. 25.

FORUM Segusianorum, situated on the east side of the Liger, in Gallia Celtica: now Feurs, on the Loire, in the Lyonnois, capital of the territory of Forez. E. Long. 4. 15. N. Lat. 45. 44.

FORUM Tiberii, a town of the Pagus Tigurinus, in Belgica, on the left or south side of the Rhine: Now Kayserstull; literally the tribunal of Tiberius, which he held there when commander in the Rhetian war. FORUM Volcani (Strabo); the Campi Phlegrai of Pliny; a place in Campania encompassed with rocky eminences, near Puteoli, and distant from it two miles towards Naples, emitting smoke, and in some places flame, like a large extensive furnace, and yielding sulphur: Now called Solfatara, in the Terra di Lavoro. FORUM is also used, among casuists, &c. for jurisdiction; thus they say, In foro legis, &c.

FOSS, or FOSSE, in Fortification, &c. a ditch or moat. The word is French, formed of the Latin participle fossum, of the verb fodio, "I dig."

Foss, Fossa, in Anatomy, a kind of cavity in a bone, with a large aperture, but no exit or perforation. When the aperture is very narrow, it is called a sinus.

Foss is particularly used for the cavity or denture in the back part of the neck.

FOSSA MAGNA, or NAVICULARIS, is an oblong cavity, forming the inside of the pudendum muliebre, and which presents itself upon opening the labia; and in the middle whereof are the carunculæ myrtiformes. See ANATOMY.

FOSSA, in our ancient customs, was a ditch full of water, where women committing felony were drowned; as men were hanged: Nam et ipsi in omnibus tenementis suis omnem ab antiquo legalem habuere justitiam, videlicet ferrum, fossam, furcas, et similia. In another sense it is taken for a grave, as appears by these old verses:

Hic jacent in fossa Beda venerabilis ossa: Hic est fossatus, qui bis erat hic cathedratus. Foss Way was anciently one of the four great Roman highways of England: so called, according to Camden, because it was ditched on both sides, which was the Roman method of making highways.

FOSSARII, in antiquity, a kind of officers in the eastern church, whose business was to inter the dead.

Ciaconius relates, that Constantine created 950 fossaries, whom he took out of the divers colleges or companies of tradesmen: he adds, that they were exempted from taxes, services, burdensome offices, &c.

F. Goar, in his notes on the Greek Euchologion, insinuates that the fossarii were established in the times of the apostles; and that the young men, who carried off the body of Ananias, and those persons full of the

fear of God who interred St Stephen, were of the num- Fossarii ber. B Fossi!.

St Jerome assures us, that the rank of fossarii held the first place among the clerks; but he is to be understood of those clerks only who had the direction and intendance of the interment of the devout.

FOSSE, the Roman military way in South Britain, begins at Totness, and passes through Exeter, Ivelchester, Shepton Mallet, Bath, Cirencester, Leicester, the Vale of Belvoir, Newark, Lincoln, to Barton upon the Humber, being still visible in several parts, though of 1400 years standing. It had the name from the fosses or ditches made by the sides of it.

FOSSIL, in Natural History, denotes, in general, every thing dug out of the earth, whether it be a native thereof, as metals, stones, salts, earths, and other minerals; or extraneous, reposited in the bowels of the earth by some extraordinary means, as earthquakes, the deluge, &c.

Native fossils are substances found in the earth, or on its surface, of a simple structure, exhibiting no appearances of organization; and these are included under the general names of simple and compound, earthy or metallic minerals. See MINERALOGY.

Extraneous fossils are bodies of the vegetable or animal kingdoms accidentally buried in the earth. Of the vegetable kingdom, there are principally three kinds; trees or parts of them, herbaceous plants, and corals: and of the animal kingdom there are four kinds; sea shells, the teeth or bony palates and bones of fishes, complete fishes, and the bones of land animals. See GEOLOGY.

These adventitious or extraneous fossils, thus found buried in great abundance in divers parts of the earth, have employed the curiosity of several of our latest naturalists, who have each their several system to account for the surprising appearances of petrified sea fishes, in places far remote from the sea, and on the tops of mountains; shells in the middle of quarries of stone; and of elephants teeth, and bones of divers animals, peculiar to the southern climates, and plants only growing in the east, found fossil in our northern and western parts.

Some will have these shells, &c. to be real stones, and stone plants, formed after the usual manner of other figured stones; of which opinion is the learned Dr Lister.

Another opinion is, that these fossil shells, with all the foreign bodies found within the earth, as bones, trees, plants, &c. were buried therein at the time of the universal deluge; and that, having been penetrated either by the bituminous matter abounding chiefly in watery places, or by the salts of the earth, they have been preserved entire, and sometimes petrified.

Others think, that those shells, found at the tops of the highest mountains, could never have been carried thither by the waters, even of the deluge; inasmuch as most of these aquatic animals, on account of the weight of their shells, always remain at the bottom of the water, and never move but close along the ground. They imagine, that a year's continuance of the waters of the deluge, intermixed with the salt waters of the sea, upon the surface of the earth, might well give occasion to the production of shells of divers kinds in different climates;