THE 



ENGLISH CYCLOPEDIA. 



ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



F. 



FACIA. 



V is a labiodental aspirate bearing the same relation to the other 

 - labio-dental aspirate V which the letters called tenue,p, t; I, bear 

 to the malice, It, </, d. It occupies the sixth place in the English as in 

 the Latin alphabet, thus corresponding with the digamma of the old 

 Greek alphabet, and the vau of the Hebrew. In power and form it is 

 likewis" closely related to those two letters. [ALPHABET.] 



The letter F in interchangeable with the other aspirates cA or A and 

 lit, and also with the lip-letters p and It. 



1 . F in Latin corresponds to A in Spanish, as Latin formoso, beau- 

 tit'ul, Spanish hermoiu ; Latin femina, female, Spanish Itemltra; Latin 



lly, Spanish Ituir. Other examples' may readily be found in a 

 > ry wilder the letter h. The same change prevail., 1 

 between the Latin of Koine and the Sabine dialect of that language. 



2. F in Latin corresponds to th in Greek, as Latin /era, a wild 

 beaut, Greek Blip. Latin Jlc, weep, Greek Spf, as seen in fynjroj. 

 Indeed this interchange prevailed among the dialects of the 



'If as in owpap and ovOap ; tf>\y and 6\w ; <p\i&t>i and 0\iftta. 

 ems to depend on the proximity of the letters 



/and <. is 



'>. F in Latin corresponds to i in German and English, as fro 

 brech-en, to break ; frater, bruder, brother; fuyo, buche, beecli 



I. F in English and German to p in Latin, as petli, fell, fell (comr>. 

 fcllmonger) ; /ftl, fuss, foot; jnui-na-re, fechten, to fight, &c. 



I ', \IH.K, Fabula in Latin, in ita general sense means a fictitious 

 narrative, but it also means more particularly a species of didactic 

 composition, consisting of a short fictitious tale inculcating a moral 

 truth or precept. As such it is divided into two sorts, the parable and 

 the apologue. The former narrates some incident, which, although it 

 may not have happened exactly as the narrator supposes, yet could 

 have happened at any time, there being nothing impossible or 

 improbable in it. Of this description are many of the parables con- 

 tained in the Scriptures, and especially in the New Testament, it 

 being a favourite mode with our Saviour of illustrating his precepts by 

 similitudes. When, for instance, he spoke of the master who, before 

 out on a long journey, intrusted certain talents or sums of 

 money to each of his three servants, he did not mean that such a fact 

 had occurred at any particular time, though it might have occurred, 

 but he chose this figure as presenting the ways of God with regard to 

 the mental or spiritual talents he has gifted men with, and which he 

 expect* them to cultivate and render useful in proportion to their 

 capacities. The second species of moral fable, called apologue, relate* 

 facts which are evidently untrue, and cannot have happened ; such as 

 animals, or even inanimate things, speaking, but which serve as com- 

 parisons for the actions of men. Such was the well-known apologue of 

 'iius Agrippa, addressed to the plebs of Rome, who had revolted 

 against the patricians, in which he told them of the various limbs of 

 the human l>ody having once revolted against the belly. (Livy, ii. 

 Most of the fables which are called vKsopian are apologues, 

 a'thrfiugh Home are of the parable kind; for example, that of Jfcsop 

 a id the villain who threw a stone at him. (I'tucdrus, iii. 5.) 



The apologue is one of the oldest forms of composition, being well 

 i il< ulated to strike the minds of men in a rude state. Hom< > 

 i f the Mice and the. Frogs in a composition of the nature of the 

 -ne; only living extended to a considerable length, and including 



succession of incidents, it is classed among the hcroico-comic poems, 

 ;ue, or fablw properly so called, points out only one 

 i ilar iii'.-kleiit from which it draws amoral. In the , anie 

 in in" 'In- ' Animali Parlanti,' or ' Court and Parliament of 



AI!T-> AND SCI. D1V. VOL. IV. 



Beasts' of Casti must be classed among the mock epic poems, although 

 it may be said to consist of a series of apologues, each pointing to 

 some particular error, or abuse, in the state of society, and in the 

 conduct of men. It is probable that the older and simpler mytho- 

 logical fables of the gods and heroes among the ancients were originally 

 intended by the early patriarchs or priests to illustrate by allegory the 

 attributes of the Creator, the phenomena of nature, and the progress 

 of social life ; but that in course of time people lost sight of the moral, 

 and believed the fiction in its literal sense. 



The oldest collection of fables in any European language is in 

 Greek prose : the fables arc attributed to ^Esop, but much doubt 

 exists as to the real author or authors of them. [^SOPUS, IN Bloc. 

 Drv.] Babrius wrote a metrical version of vEsopiaii fables, some of 

 which were used as materials for prose versions of the ..Esopiaii fables 

 by the meduuval writers ; a few were always common, and a large 

 addition to them was recovered by Minoides Minus, and published in 

 Paris in 1842. [BABIIIUS, i.v BHI. Div.] The fables called the 

 fables of Bidpai or Pilpay [PILPAY, IN Biou. Div.] are derived from a 

 collection in the Sanscrit language, and Lokman is said to have written 

 fables in Arabic ; but several of the fables attributed to the latter 

 appear to be the same as some of those attributed to ..Esop, and it has 

 been supposed that Lokman and ^isop were one and the same per- 

 sonage. [LOKMAN, IX BlOO. DlV.] 



Among the Latins, Phsedrus, who lived under Tiberius, is the most 

 celebrated : he professes to have taken his subjects from ^Esop. The 

 MS. of Phscdrus was not discovered before the end of the sixteenth 

 century. Avianus, or Avienus, who (supposing the two names to 

 mean the same individual) lived under the elder Theodosius, wrote 

 a collection of fables in Latin verse. (' Avieuus,' Leydeu, 1731, 

 with a ' Dissertation on the Identity of Avianus and Avienus.') 

 Faerno of Cremona, who lived about the middle of the sixteenth 

 century, made a collection of ./Esopian fables, which he turned into 

 Latin verse, and which were published at Rome after his death in 

 1564. He was accused of plagiarism, as having found a MS. of 

 I'haxlrus in some library, and borrowed his subjects from it. The 

 fables and fable narratives of the middle ages have been well described, 

 and their characteristics discussed, by Jacob Grimm, in a preface to 

 his edition of ' Reiuhart Fuchs,' published in 1840. 



Among the original writers of fables or apologues, in the modern 

 languages, La Fontaine may be fairly placed at the head. Among the 

 English, Gay and Moore hav- written fables. The Germans have had 

 Lessing, Gellert, and othe' , and the Spaniards Yriarte and Samaniego. 

 Among the Italians, Firenzuola, Crudeli, Baldi, Capaccio, in the Ib'th 

 and 1 7th centuries, wrote chiefly translations or paraphrases from the 

 Greek and Latin fabulists. In the 18th century Pignotti, a native of 

 Tuscany, wrote original fables in verse, which were published at Pisa 

 in 1782, and have been often reprinted since. Bertola also wrote fables 

 (Pavia, 1788), with an essay on fables. Luigi Fiacchi published, under 

 the name of ' Claaio," a collection of fables (Florence, 1807). 



FACADE, in architecture, a French term of modern introduction 

 into the English language. It expresses the face or front view of an 

 edifice, as the facade of the Louvre, or the facade of St. Peter's at 

 Rome. ]'"ur.ul>> as applied originally to denote the principal front of 

 a building. The Italians apply the term Facciata for the most part to 

 such fronts as have a principal entrance. 



FACIA, a term used in architecture, or in ornamental construction, 

 to express the subordinate bauds of an architrave or of a frieze. It is 

 worthy of notice that in the best examples of Grecian or of Roman 



B 



