FREINSHEIMIUS FRESCO PAINTING. 



321 



barrel, or other weight or measure, or so much per 

 cent, on the value of the cargo. See Charter- 

 Party. 



FREINSHEIMIUS, JOHN, born at Ulm, 1608, 

 displayed brilliant talents at an early age, and 

 entered the university in his fifteenth year. He 

 studied law in Marburg and Giessen. He afterwards 

 made use of the libraries in France, and became 

 acquainted with the learned men of that country. 

 A Latin eulogy on Gustavus Adolphus made him 

 favourably known by its vigorous eloquence and 

 fine style ; and he was invited to Sweden, in 1642, 

 as professor of political economy and of eloquence at 

 Upsal. His reputation induced queen Christine to 

 appoint him librarian and historiographer in Stock- 

 holm, in 1647. But, although his position was 

 agreeable, and he was in great favour with the 

 queen, the climate was so unfavourable to his health, 

 that he was obliged to return to Germany, where he 

 was appointed by the elector palatine honorary 

 professor in the university of Heidelberg, with the 

 title of electoral counsellor, and died there August 

 30, 1660. He showed himself a profound scholar, 

 particularly in ancient literature and history, by 

 editions of several classics, and by his excellent 

 supplements of the lost books and passages of Curtius 

 and of Livy. His German epic poem on Bernhard, 

 duke of Weimar, entitled The Descent and Deeds of 

 the modern Hercules, remains in deserved oblivion. 



FRENCH BEANS, or KIDNEY BEANS, the 

 haricots of the French, are the product of the phaseo- 

 lus vulgaris, supposed to be a native of the East 

 Indies, but now commonly cultivated in all parts of 

 the globe. This plant is an annual vine, bearing 

 alternate leaves, which are situated on footstalks, 

 and composed of three oval pubescent folioles. The 

 flowers are whitish, somewhat resembling those of 

 the pea, and have the carina, style, and stamens 

 twisted spirally. The seeds are more or less reni- 

 form, and are of all colours ; either pure white, yel- 

 lowish, red, cupreous, black of various shades, or 

 variegated. A great number of varieties are culti- 

 vated ; among which is that commonly called Lima 

 bean. Within the tropics, French beans maybe sown 

 at all seasons of the year, but in temperate regions 

 only in the spring, and usually near the latter part 

 of the season, as the plants are very tender, and 

 liable to be injured by frosts. A light, dry, and tole- 

 rably fertile soil is the most suitable, and, if they are 

 sown early, a warm situation should be selected. 

 Low and wet grounds are altogether unfit for them. 

 Throughout all Europe, and in America, they are an 

 important object of cultivation, and are eaten pre- 

 pared in various manners. 



FRENCH HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. See 

 France. 



FRERET, NICHOLAS, born at Paris, 1688, son of a 

 procureur to the parliament, abandoned his profession 

 of law to devote himself to the study of history and 

 chronology. In his sixteenth year, he had read and 

 made extracts from the principal works of Scaliger, 

 Usher, Petavius, and other distinguished chronolo- 

 gers. He made Rollin his model. The academy of 

 inscriptions elected him a member at the age of 

 twenty-five. On account of his discourse on his 

 admission into the academy, Sur I'Originedes Fran- 

 cais, which was as learned as it was bold, and con- 

 tained some opinions offensive to the government, 

 he was confined six months in the Bastile. The 

 Biographic Universelle contradicts the story, which 

 has been often repeated, that Bayle was almost the 

 only author that was allowed to him in his confine- 

 ment, and that he read him so often that he knew 

 him almost by heart. The Biographic says that he 

 read in his prison the greater part of the Greek and 



Latin writers, and that he devoted himself particularly 

 to the Cyropeedia of Xenophon. The frequent peru- 

 sal of Bayle in prison has been treated as the origin 

 of the atheistical opinions manifested in the Lettres 

 de Trasylule a Leucippe, and the Examen des 

 Apologistes du Christianisme ; but the Biographie 

 maintains that these works were not his, but were 

 falsely ascribed to him after his death. After he was 

 set at liberty, the marshal de Noailles confided to him 

 the education of his children, and he continued his 

 literary pursuits without interruption. He returned, 

 in 1723, to his father's house, and entered upon the 

 study of the chronology of the ancients. He found 

 that the Egyptian history, the earliest of all, begins 

 only 2900 years before Christ, and that the Chinese 

 precedes the Christian era only 2575 years. His 

 treatises and controversies on this subject, among 

 others with Newton, compose a great part of the 

 memoirs of the academy at that time. He studied 

 geography with the same diligence ; 1357 charts, 

 drawn by himself, were found among his papers. 

 He was a stranger to no science, and wrote with 

 great readiness. In 1742, he was appointed perpe- 

 tual secretary of the academy of inscriptions. He 

 died in 1749. An edition of his works appeared in 

 Paris, 1792, in 4 vols.; a second collection, 1795, in 

 20 vols. An augmented and well arranged collec- 

 tion ((Euvres completes de Freref), with annotations 

 and explanations, by Champollion-Figeac, has ap- 

 peared in Paris, commencing in 1825, in 20 vols. 



FRERON, ELIE CATHARINE, born at Quimper, 

 1719, received his education from the Jesuits, and 

 taught for some time in the college of Louis le 

 Grand, where Brumoy and Bougeant awakened his 

 taste for literature. He published, in 1746, a jour- 

 nal entitled Lettres de Madame la Comtesse de . 



The countess was to be the representative of sense 

 and good taste, and certainly displayed much talents 

 and wit in her correspondence. Some authors, whom 

 he had treated with little respect in his journal, suc- 

 ceeded in having it suppressed ; but, in 1749, it ap- 

 peared under a new title, Lettres sur quelqucs Ecrits 

 de ce Temps, the severe criticisms in which several 

 times caused interruptions in its publication, but 

 always to the displeasure of the public. King Stan- 

 islaus, of whom the author was a favourite, protected 

 the work, which he read with pleasure, and prevented 

 the arrest of Freron. After having published thir- 

 teen volumes of this journal, he continued it regularly 

 from 1754. under the title of Annee Litteraire, till 

 his death, 1776. Freron, on account of his severe 

 criticism of Voltaire's La Femme qui a Raison, had 

 a most violent contest with that satirist. His son, 

 Stanislaus Freron, commenced, 1789. the Orateur du 

 Peuple, and was, notwithstanding his mild temper, 

 for a long time the most zealous adherent of Robes- 

 pierre. 



FRESCO PAINTING ; a term of art, applied by 

 the Italian artists to pictures executed in distemper 

 or size colours. On the revival of the arts in Europe, 

 it became customary to decorate the outsides of 

 churches, palaces, cloisters, and convents, with his- 

 torical pictures ; and, as these were exposed to the 

 impressions of the atmosphere, the term al fresco 

 was applied to the species of painting itself. The 

 decorations and scenery in our modern theatres are 

 likewise executed in distemper, or fresco, but there 

 are certain peculiarities attending the Italian method, 

 which we shall attempt to describe. The size of the 

 wall to be decorated being ascertained by accurate 

 measurement, a finished drawing on paper, called a 

 cartoon, was first made, to serve as a model. The 

 artist, then, had a certain portion of the wall covered 

 over with a fine sort of stucco, or Roman cement, of 

 the thickness of an inch, or more, and upon this por- 



