FONTENOY FOOLS. 



227 



charm of natural ease. His Entretiens sur la Plura- 

 lile des Mondes (1G86) was the first book in which 

 astronomical subjects were discussed with taste and 

 wit It has now become obsolete, in consequence 

 of the advancement of science. Fontenelle distin- 

 guished himself as secretary of the academy of sci- 

 ences, by his Eloges, a class of writings which have 

 become so common since his time. No learned man 

 exerted a more decided influence on his age than 

 Fontenelle. He deserved it, not less on account of 

 his wisdom and purity of life, than of the elegance 

 and grace of his writings. Rivernois describes his 

 character in the following manner : " When Fonten- 

 elle appeared on the field, all the prizes were already 

 distributed, all the palms already gathered ; the 

 prize of universality alone remained. Fontenelle 

 determined to attempt it, and he was successful. He 

 is not only a metaphysician with Malebranche, a 

 natural philosopher and mathematician with Newton, 

 a legislator with Peter the Great, a statesman with 

 D'Argenson ; he is everything with every body." 



FONTENOY ; a village in the Netherlands, pro- 

 vince of Hainault, celebrated for the battle of May 

 11, 1745, in which the French, under marshal Saxe, 

 defeated the British, Austrian, and Dutch allied 

 forces. It contains 500 inhabitants. 



FONTEVRAULT, or FONTEVRAUD, a valley 

 on the borders of Poitou and Anjou, in the depart- 

 ment of Mayenne and Loire, was chosen, in 1099, 

 by Robert d'Arbrissel, celebrated for his extraordi- 

 nary penances, as the place for his religious society, 

 composed of penitent females. (See the article Fon- 

 tevrault, in Bay Us Dictionary.) The society received 

 the name of the order of Fontevrault from this cir- 

 cumstance. Robert gave his followers of both sexes 

 the rule of St Benedict, and a very singular consti- 

 tution, which made the nuns their superiors ; the 

 monks were subject to them. The abbess of Fon- 

 tevrault was the superior of the whole order, which 

 soon extended into Spain. She was generally a 

 lady of rank, and was subject to the pope only. 

 Disorders soon crept into the order, which began, in 

 consequence, to decline ; yet it had fifty- seven 

 monasteries in France before the revolution, when it 

 was suppressed. 



FONTINALIA; a Roman festival, celebrated in 

 honour of the nymphs of the fountains, during which 

 the fountains were adorned with flowers. Flowers 

 were also thrown into them. 



FOOD. From the structure both of his teeth and 

 his stomach, man seems adapted to live equally on 

 animal and vegetable food. Some nations subsist 

 entirely on milk and animal food, such are the Arabs 

 of the desert, while others exist chiefly on pulse and 

 rice. The Hindoos, however, are a much feebler 

 race of men, and seldom attain an advanced period 

 of life, whilst the Arabs not unfrequently exceed a 

 century. See Dietetics. 



An interesting report on the comparative nutritive 

 properties of food has lately been presented to the 

 French minister of the interior, by Messrs Percy and 

 Vauquelin, members of the institute. The result of 

 their experiments is as follows : In bread, every 

 100 Ibs. is found to contain eighty Ibs. of nutritious 

 matter ; butcher meat, averaging the different sorts, 

 contains only thirty-five Ibs. in 100 ; French beans 

 (in the grain), ninety-two Ibs. in 100; broad beans, 

 eighty-nine Ibs.; peas, ninety- three Ibs.; lentils (a 

 . species of half pea, little known in Britain), ninety- 

 four Ibs. in 100 ; greens and turnips, which are the 

 most aqueous of all vegetables used in culinary pur- 

 poses, furnish only eight Ibs. of solid nutritious sub- 

 stance in 100 ; carrots (from whence an inferior kind 

 of sugar is produced), fourteen Ibs. ; and what is 

 remarkable, as being opposed to the old theory, 100 



Ibs. of potatoes only yield twenty-five Ibs. of nutri- 

 ment ; one Ib. of good bread is equal to two and a- 

 half Ibs. of potatoes ; and seventy-five Ibs. of bread 

 and thirty Ibs. of meat are equal to 300 of potatoes ; 

 a half Ib. of bread and five oz. of meat are equal to 

 three Ibs. of potatoes ; one Ib. of potatoes is equal to 

 four Ibs. of cabbage, and three Ibs. of turnips ; and 

 one pound of rice bread or French beans is equal to 

 three Ibs. of potatoes. 



FOOL. See Jester. 



FOOLAHS. See Foulahs. 



FOOLS, FEAST OF. Festivals, under this name, 

 were regularly celebrated, from the fifth to the six 

 teenth century, in several countries of Europe, by 

 the clergy and laity, with the most absurd ceremo- 

 nies, and form one of the strangest phenomena in the 

 history of mankind. Among the heathen festivals, 

 which the Christians could not easily abolish, were 

 the Saturnalia, which, in the confusion of all distinc- 

 tions of ranks, and in extravagance of merriment, 

 exceeded the gayest carnivals. The feast of fools, 

 among Christians, was an imitation of the Saturnalia, 

 and, Tike this, was celebrated in December. The 

 chief celebration fell upon the day of the Innocents, 

 or upon new year's day ; but the feast continued 

 from Christmas to the last Sunday of Epiphany. At 

 first, only the boys of the choir, and young sacristans 

 played the principal part in them; but after- 

 wards all the inferior servants of the church, and 

 even laymen, engaged in them, whilst the bishop, or 

 the highest clergyman of the place, with the canons, 

 formed the audience. The young people, who 

 played the chief parts, chose from among their own 

 number, a bishop or archbishop of fools, or of unren> 

 son, as he was cabled, and consecrated him, with 

 many ridiculous ceremonies, in the chief church of 

 the place. This officer then took the usual seat of 

 the bishop, and caused high mass to be said, unless 

 he preferred to read it himself, and to give his bles- 

 sing to the people, which was done with the most 

 ridiculous ceremonies. During this time, the rest 

 of the performers, dressed in different kind of masks 

 and disguises, engaged in indecent songs and dances, 

 and practised all possible follies in the church.* 

 The order of ceremonies, according to which the 

 feasts of fools were celebrated in some places, are 

 still extant. According to the ritual of the feast of 

 fools, in the city of Sens, the priests played at dice 

 upon the altar, whilst the bishop of fools read mass ; 

 and they threw stinking incense into the holy cen- 

 ser. The origin of these extravagances is, probably, 

 to be looked for in France. In Germany, they are 

 only known to have been celebrated in the cities on 

 the Rhine ; but we must not conclude from this that 

 they were not found in other parts of the country. 

 They were condemned by popes and bishops, by 

 French and Spanish councils. The Sorbonne forbade 

 them in 1444. These prohibitions, however, do not 

 date earlier than the dawning of the new light which 

 shone bright in the sixteenth century. But, even at 

 the period of the prohibitions, defenders of these 

 festivals were not wanting, one of whom declared 

 them to be as sacred and as pleasing to God as the 



* Indecent gongs were very frequently sung among the 

 monks in the middle ages. Many writers, Catholics and 

 Protestants, and among them Luther, complained bitterly 

 of this abuse. Latin Psalms were often turned into merry 

 song*, sung by the canons, monks, &c., after dinner or sup- 

 per. Several Latin songs, still in existence among the 

 German students, originated from the convents, though 

 they are now much changed. The favourite Gaudcamu* 

 igittir of the German students was originally a psalm. 

 Some other customs of the German students call to mind 

 the gayety of convents and. ecclesiastical students in the 

 middle ages ; for instance, the ririnking-mais, no called.! 

 still fung with great glee by the students. 

 P 2 



