FICINO FIELDING. 



1.89 





this name : 1. The Fichtelberg in the principality 

 of Bayreuth, from which several ridges of mountains 

 extend in all directions. This is covered with pines 

 (Fichten, hence its name), and is thirty-three miles 

 in length and nineteen in breadth. The principal of 

 the two ridges, of which this mountain consists, is of 

 granite ; but the lateral branches, in particular 

 towards the Regnitz, are of limestone. It is rich in 

 iron, vitriol, silver, lead, copper, marble. The 

 principal peaks are the Schneeberg, 3682 feet high; 

 the Ochsenkopf, 3621 ; the Fichtelberg, 3521. The 

 Saal, Eger, Naab, and the Maine, have their sources 

 in this mountain. The Naab empties its waters into 

 the Danube, the Maine into the Rhine, the Saal and 

 the Eger into the Elbe ; so that the waters of this 

 mountain flow into three different seas. 2. The 

 Little Fichtelberg, near Wiesenthal, the highest 

 mountain in the Saxon Erzgebirge, is 3731 feet in 

 height. 



FICINO, MARSILIO ; a celebrated physician at 

 Florence, who distinguished himself in Italy by his 

 study of the Platonic philosophy. His father was 

 the physician of Cosmo de' Medici, who held him in 

 high estimation. Ficino was born at Florence in 

 1433. His early display of talent attracted the 

 notice of Cosmo, who caused him to be instructed in 

 the ancient languages, and afterwards induced him 

 to translate the writings of Plato and of the New 

 Platonists into Latin ; he afterwards employed him 

 to aid in establishing a Platonic academy (about 

 1460) . Ficino engaged hi this plan the more readi- 

 ly, because he viewed the Platonic philosophy as a 

 sort of preliminary to, and confirmation of, the 

 Christian faith. In his accounts of this philosophy, 

 he did not always make an accurate distinction be- 

 tween Plato and the new Platonists, as appears from 

 his T/ieologia Platonica ; de Immortalitate Animorum 

 ac eeterna Felicitate (Platonic Theology ; on the 

 Immortality of the Soul and eternal Happiness), in 

 which he particularly defends the immortality of the 

 soul against the Aristotelians of his age. Mystic and 

 fanciful views are interwoven with this defence ; 

 astrological doctrines, for example, which he after- 

 wards rejected. He died 1499, after having laboured 

 zealously for the diffusion of the Platonic philosophy, 

 and having formed many excellent scholars by his 

 writing's and discourses. His Latin works were first 

 published complete at Basle, 1561, 2 vols. folio. 



FICTION, in law, is an assumption made for the 

 purposes of justice, though the same feet could not 

 be proved, and may be literally untrue. There are 

 many fictions in the civil law, and a fiction in law is 

 said by the civilians to be the assumption of an un- 

 truth for a truth, in a thing possible to have been 

 done, but which was not done. The declaring that a 

 note or bond, made in a foreign country, was made 

 in the county where a suit is commenced upon it, is 

 an instance of a very common fiction, adopted on the 

 ground that suits can be brought in the county only 

 on causes of action existing within its limits ; and 

 so the practice has been introduced of declaring that 

 the contract on which an action is brought, was 

 made in the county, though the fact seems to be 

 entirely immaterial ; for transitory actions follow the 

 person, and it is only of such that the fiction is ad- 

 mitted. But other fictions are more material. It is 

 a rule, that a fiction of law shall work no wrong ; 

 and the fictions in use generally come within this 

 rule. 



FIDEICOMMISSUM, in the civil law; a direction 

 of a testator, that his heir shall give a particular 

 thing (singulars fideicommissum), or a part or all of 

 the inheritance (universale fideicommissum) , immedi- 

 ately, or after a certain time, or on the occurrence 

 of certain circumstances, to another. The heir, who 



was thus obliged to cede the inheritance to another, 

 was called fiduciarius, the receiver fideicommissarius. 

 Under Vespasian, it was decreed, that tile fiduciaries 

 should be allowed to retain a quarter of the inheri- 

 tance at the time when he gave the rest to the fidei- 

 commissarius (senatusconsultum Pegasiannm ; quarto. 

 Trebellianica). The modern fideicommissa are very 

 different. They are establishments, by which an 

 amount of property is made unalienable, and the 

 order of inheritance prescribed. In most countries of 

 Europe, such fideicommissa cannot be established ex- 

 cept with the permission of government ; and in these 

 countries, the governments can also declare a fidei- 

 commissum dissolved, so that the estate shall follow 

 the common rules of inheritance. From such family 

 fideicommissa (fideicommissa successive) the quarto. 

 Trebellianica, of course, is not deducted. 



FIELD MOUSE. See Mouse. 



FIELDING, HENRY, an English novelist, emi- 

 nently distinguished for humour and knowledge of 

 life, was born at Sharpham park, in Somersetshire, 

 April 22, 1707. He was educated at Eton, whence 

 he removed to Leyden ; but the straitened circum- 

 stances of his father shortened his academical studies, 

 and the same cause, added to a dissipated disposi- 

 tion, turned his attention to the stage. His first 

 dramatic piece was entitled Love in several Masks, 

 which met with a favourable reception, as did like- 

 wise a second, called The Temple Beau. He did 

 not, however, generally succeed as a dramatist ; for, 

 although no man possessed a stronger feeling of the 

 ridiculous, or executed detached scenes with greater 

 humour, he took too little time to construct his dra- 

 mas, with a view to plot and effective development. 

 Many of his are little more than free translations 

 from the Freuch, as, for example, The Miser. In 

 some of these pieces, he touched upon politics, and 

 was one of the writers who gave Sir Robert Walpole 

 a pretext for his act to limit the number of theatres, 

 and submit dramatic performances to the license of 

 the lord chamberlain. In his twenty-seventh year, he 

 married Miss Craddock, a lady of some fortiuie, and, 

 at the same time, by the death of his mother, became 

 possessed of a small estate in Dorsetshire. He immedi- 

 ately commenced country gentleman, on a scale which, 

 in three years, reduced him to greater indigence than 

 ever, with a young family to support. He then, for 

 the first time, dedicated himself to the bar as a pro- 

 fession, and, for immediate subsistence, employed his 

 pen on various miscellaneous subjects ; and The 

 Champion, a periodical paper, An Essay on Conver- 

 sation, An Essay on the Knowledge and Characters 

 of Men, A Journey from this World to the next, and 

 The History of Jonathan Wild, were among the early 

 fruits of his literary industry. In 1742 appeared his 

 first novel, Joseph Andrews, in which the Cervantic 

 style of humour is admirably imitated. It immedi- 

 ately received the attention to which it was entitled ; 

 but success as a novel-writer was not very likely to 

 advance his practice at the bar ; nor was the emolu- 

 ment attached to it sufficient for a manner of life 

 never sufficiently regulated by the rules of prudence. 

 Soon after the appearance of Joseph Andrews, he 

 was further impeded in his profession by repeated 

 attacks of the gout, added to which, his domestic 

 affliction was greatly increased by the death of his 

 wife. In 1745, he published a periodical paper, en- 

 titled The True Patriot, which was followed by The 

 Jacobite Journal. These labours on the side of the 

 government were rewarded with the then not alto- 

 gether reputable office of a Middlesex justice. To 

 the credit of Fielding, however, he did much to ren- 

 der it more respectable, by attention to the preven- 

 tion of crimes, and to the regulation of the police. 

 He published more than one tract upon the subject ; 



