FAIRY RING 



3069 



FAITHORNE 



times friendly and beneficent, some- 

 times mischievous and malevolent. 



The term is occasionally em- 

 ployed as covering the whole field 

 of terrestrial supernatural beings, 

 hence Fairyland is a sort of fourth 

 dimensional world that coexists 

 with that in which we live, and the 

 term Fairy stories is applied to all 

 tales introducing earthly beings of 

 an extra - natural character. In 

 poetry and modern fairy stories the 

 fairy is generally represented as a 

 tiny dainty creature. Since fairy ori- 

 ginally meant enchantment, and 

 then fairy people collectively, a 

 single fairy is better called fay, 

 Fr. fie, Ital. fata, from late Lat. 

 fata, a fate or fay, the neut. pi. of 

 fatum being used as a singular. See 

 Brownie; Changeling; Elf; Folk- 

 lore ; Gnome ; Goblin ; Puck ; Sylph. 



Bibliography. Observations on 

 Popular Antiquities, J. Brand, rev. 

 ed. 1893; Fairy Legends of the 

 South of Ireland, T. Crofton Croker, 

 newed. 1862: Teutonic Mythology, 

 Jacob Grimm, 1835 (Eng. trans. 

 J. S. Stallybrass, 1880-88) : Fairy 

 Mythology, T. Keightley, 1847: 

 Science of Fairy Tales, E. S. Hart 

 land, 1889 ; The Childhood of Fic- 

 tion, J. A. MacCulloch, 1905 ; Myths 

 and Legends of the Celtic Race, T. 

 W. Rolleston, 1911. 



Fairy Ring. Ring ot a more 

 vivid green than the surrounding 

 grass of fields, fancifully ascribed 

 to fairies dancing in a circle at 

 night. They are really caused by 

 the growth of certain species of 

 fungi notably the fairy-ring cham- 

 pignon (Marasmius oreades) 

 which, starting from the centre, 

 extend their underground threads 

 (mycelium) in all directions, form- 

 ing a circle increasing every year. 



Faisans, ILE DBS (Fr., Pheas- 

 ants' Isle). Island in the river Bi- 

 dassoa, lying between France and 

 Spain, about 15 m. S.E. of St. Sebas- 

 tian. Its position, between two 

 frontiers made it on two notable oc 

 casions the meeting-place of French 

 and Spanish negotiators. Louis XI 

 and Henry IV of Castile met here in 

 1463, and Mazarin and Don Luis de 

 Haro here concluded the Treaty oi 

 the Pyrenees in Nov. 1659, by 

 which Spain ceded Artois and other 

 northern possessions, and gave up 

 her claims to Alsace and Lorraine, 

 while France gave up territory 

 taken in Italy and N.E. Spain. 



Faith (Lat. fides). In ordinary 

 speech a term used to denote the 

 leap of the mind from the known 

 to the unknown. In the sphere of 

 nature it signifies the acceptance 

 of fundamental assumptions which 

 in themselves are incapable of 

 logical demonstration. The law of 

 the Uniformity of Nature, for in- 

 stance, is an act of scientific faith 

 enunciating a universal principle 



on the basis of certain established 

 data. The fact that the sun has in- 

 variably risen at daybreak does not 

 in itself afford a demonstrative 

 proof that it will always rise, but it 

 justifies our faith that such will be 

 the case. In the sphere of human 

 relations the term is also employed 

 to denote the confidence which we 

 feel in other men whose character 

 and integrity are known to us. 



From ordinary usage the term 

 naturally passed into the religious 

 sphere to which it preeminently 

 belongs, and it is commonly used to 

 describe the faculty or organ of the 

 soul by which a man grasps the 

 realities of the unseen and divine 

 universe. What the eye is to the 

 body, faith is to the soul. It is the 

 medium or instrument by means of 

 which the soul enters into com- 

 munion with God. 



Philosophers and theologians 

 have made many attempts at a psy- 

 chological analysis of the faculty 

 of faith. Some have held that it 

 is a divine endowment a special 

 religious sense, created in the soul 

 for the purpose of the exercise of 

 spiritual functions. Others have 

 regarded it as an aspect of the emo- 

 tions analogous to the aesthetic 

 sense. A third school has made it a 

 department of the intellectual side 

 of human nature while a fourth 

 has located it in the activity of the 

 will. All these theories are inade- 

 quate, for intellect, feeling, and will 

 are all involved in the act of faith. 



Corresponding to these different 

 views as to the character of the 

 organ of faith, there are similar 

 divergences of opinion as to the 

 scope of its activity. Even in the 

 New Testament itself the term is 

 used in three different senses. In 

 the Epistle of James it is employed 

 to signify the intellectual assent of 

 the mind to the primary Christian 

 beliefs, and from this use of the 

 word has grown up the conception 

 which identifies faith with the ac- 

 ceptance of a creed. In the Epistle 

 to the Hebrews, on the other hand, 

 faith is defined as " the assurance 

 of things hoped for, the proving of 

 things not seen," words which Dr. 

 Moffatt has paraphrased, " Faith 

 means we are confident of what we 

 hope for, convinced of what we do 

 not see." It is out of this interpre- 

 tation of faith that Christian mys- 

 ticism developed. To the Apostle 

 Paul faith has still a deeper signifi- 

 cation. It implies nothing less than 

 the complete surrender of the soul 

 to Christ as its Redeemer and its 

 living Lord. And it is to this great 

 Pauline idea of faith that the Evan- 

 gelical interpretation of Chris- 

 tianity owes its genesis and in- 

 spiration. See Faith and its Psy- 

 chology, W. R. Inge, 1909. 



Faithfull, EMILY (1835-95). 

 British publicist. Born at Headley 

 Rectory, Surrey, daughter of Rev. 

 Ferdinand 

 Faithfull, and 

 educated at 

 Kensington, 

 she devoted 

 the greater 

 part of her life 

 to advocating 

 the claims of 

 women to re- 

 Emily Faithfull, munerative 

 British publicist employment. 



Douney j n j g'g Q ^ Jn 



Great Coram Street, London, she 

 founded a printing-office in which 

 women were employed as compo- 

 sitors, and for which she secured 

 the approval of Queen Victoria. 

 Later, in Farringdon Street, she 

 formed the Victoria Press, and was 

 appointed printer and publisher in 

 ordinary to the queen. In 1863 she 

 started a monthly entitled The Vic- 

 toria Magazine. In 1868 she issued 

 a novel, Change upon Change. Her 

 lectures in the U.S.A., 1872-73, 

 were described in her Three Visits 

 to America, 1884. She received a 

 civil list pension of 50 in 1889 and 

 died May 31, 1895 



Faith Healing. Cure of disease 

 by faith in the healing power of 

 God. In the early Church the prac- 

 tice of anointing the sick for the 

 purpose of curing them was a 

 normal function of the clergy, and 

 still survives in an altered form and 

 with different intention in Extreme 

 Unction. In medieval days the 

 touch of a saint or of his relics was 

 resorted to for healing ; and down 

 to the time of Queen Anne the 

 British sovereign used to touch 

 persons to cure them of scrofula. 



The practice of faith healing is 

 common among certain Protestant 

 bodies, such as the Peculiar People. 

 Most of the miracles at Lourdes 

 and elsewhere are probably ex- 

 amples of faith healing. Such cures 

 are usually effected in functional 

 and nervous complaints, not in 

 cases of organic lesion ; and 

 medical science attributes them to 

 the power of suggestion upon the 

 minds of persons who are at the 

 time in a state of strong religious 

 emotion. 



Faithorne, WILLIAM (1616-91). 

 English engraver. Born in London, 

 he studied painting and drawing 

 under Robert Peake, and engrav- 

 ing with John Payne. Made pris- 

 oner by the Roundheads in the 

 Civil War, he pursued his art in 

 Aldersgate prison, and on his liber- 

 ation proceeded to Paris, becoming 

 a pupil of Robert Nanteuil. Re- 

 turning to London in 1650, he set 

 up as a print-seller near Temple 

 Bar, retiring in 1680. He died in 



