FATALISM 



2141 



FATHER 



and fraudulent. It may be said, in general, 

 that the amount of fat can be reduced by 

 decreasing the food and increasing one's phys- 

 ical activity, or both. The principle used in 

 dieting is that the diet should be so regulated 

 that the body is compelled to draw on its 

 reserve stores of fat. According to one system, 

 the total quantity of food is reduced, liquids 

 are taken in limited amounts, and fats and 

 carbohydrates are eliminated. Another method 

 excludes carbohydrates, but retains fats. Each 

 person must follow the method best adapted 

 to his particular case. J.H.K. 



FATALISM, fa't'lizm, the belief that all 

 events are always prearranged and determined 

 by fate, implying either divine will or physical 

 causes as the underlying force. In other words, 

 a fatalist is disposed to accept every event in 

 human life or in nature as preordained and 

 controlled by fate, thus eliminating freedom 

 of will. 



THE THREE FATES 

 * * * And sing to those that hold the vital 



shears ; 



And turn the adamantine spindles round. 

 On which the fate of gods and men Is wound. 



MILTON : Arcades. 



FATES, jaytz, three goddesses who were 

 supposed by the Greeks and Romans to pre- 

 side over human destinies and spin the thread 

 of life. Originally the three were said to ex- 



ercise their powers collectively, but later leg- 

 ends divided them, alloting certain tasks to 

 each. Clotho, the spinner, spun the thread of 

 life; Lachesis traced the fate of man; Atropos 

 cut the thread of life with the shears of des- 

 tiny. In ancient art Clotho was usually dis- 

 tinguished by a spindle, Lachesis by reds held 

 in her hand, from which she drew the lot of 

 man; Atropos held in her hand a roll or tab- 

 let on which she recorded the fate, or de- 

 picted by pointing to a sun-dial the hour at 

 which man must meet his death. The accom- 

 panying illustration shows a more modern con- 

 ception of the Fates. Clotho stands spinning 

 the thread, which is passed to Lachesis, who 

 is to twist it and decide how long it shall be. 

 Atropos waits with shears ready to cut the 

 thread. The Fates were gloomy, unsympa- 

 thetic goddesses, inflexible in purpose, wor- 

 shiped and propitiated as beings who punished 

 man but never conferred blessings. 



FATHER, a title of honor bestowed upon 

 those of an earlier day who distinguished 

 themselves as creators in some form of human 

 endeavor, or who were associated in an ex- 

 ceptional way with important historic events. 

 It is a title decreed by custom only. The fol- 

 lowing list is representative of the eminent 

 men on whom the title of Father has been 

 conferred : 



Father of America. Samuel Adams, one of 

 the most energetic of the American patriots in 

 the movement for independence. 



Father of Angling. Izaak Walton, the author 

 of a charming discourse on the delights of fishing, 

 entitled The Compleat Angler (1653). 



Father of Comedy. Aristophanes, the greatest 

 of the Greek writers of comedy. 



Father of English History. The Venerable 

 Bede, author of an Ecclesiastical History of the 

 English People. 



Father of English Poetry. Geoffrey Chaucer, 

 whose celebrated Canterbury Tales gave English 

 verse a standard literary form. 



Father of English Pottery. Josiah Wedgwood, 

 who made the manufacture of pottery in England 

 an art. See WEDGWOOD WARE. 



Father of English Printing. William Caxton, 

 who introduced printing into England in 1476. 



Father of English Prose. Alfred the Great, 

 who inspired and partly wrote the first English 

 history which appeared in the native language. 



Father of Epic Poetry. Homer, the traditional 

 author of the celebrated Greek epics, the Iliad 

 and the Odyssey. 



Father of Greek Tragedy. Aeschylus, the first 

 great writer of Greek tragedy. 



Father of His Country. George Washington is 

 the "Father of his Country" to every American. 

 This title has been conferred upon various other 

 men of historic importance ; Cicero was hailed as 

 the Father of his Country when he saved the 



