FOR 



FOR 



feelings of mankind. His moral fe clings 

 were equally animated ; he was attracted 

 with irresistible force by whatever was 

 true, good, or excellent. Great charac- 

 ters inspired him with an esteem which 

 he sometimes expressed with incredible 

 ardour." 



His works, besides those above men- 

 tioned, are, for the most part, compila- 

 tions and translations. He was the author 

 also of several papers published in the 

 "Philosophical Transactions," the " Me- 

 moirs of the Academy of Sciences" atPe- 

 tersburgh, and those of other learned so., 

 cieties. 



FORSTERA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Gynandria Diandria class and order. Es- 

 sential character : perianth double, outer 

 inferior, three-leaved; innersuperior, six- 

 cleft ; corolla tubular. There is but one 

 species. 



FORT, in the military art, a small for- 

 tified place, environed on all sides with 

 a moat, rampart, and parapet. Its use is 

 to secure some high ground or the pas- 

 sage of a river, to make good an advan- 

 tageous post, to defend the lines and 

 quarters of a siege, &c. 



Forts are made of different figures and 

 extents, according as the ground re- 

 quires. Some are fortified with bastions, 

 others with demi-bastions. Some again 

 are in form of a square, others of a pen- 

 tagon. A fort differs from a citadel, as 

 this last is built to command some 

 town. 



FORTIFICATION. During the early 

 ages, when the property of individuals 

 was less valuable, or that, owing to the 

 little progress made by mankind in the 

 arts of despoliation and of seizing upon 

 the possessions of their neighbours, the 

 only fences in use were such as sufficed to 

 restrain the depredations of wild beasts, 

 and to prevent cattle, Sec. from straying 

 among the scattered patches of cultiva- 

 tion, or into the wilderness. In pro- 

 portion, however, as commerce, or com- 

 munication with others, and the plea- 

 sures of society, induced men to build 

 towns and to congregate more generally, 

 the various passions inducing to the com- 

 mission of that variety of trespasses, 

 which have even, within our own time, 

 increased rapidly, rendered it prudent 

 for each individual to secure his own 

 habitation from clandestine or open as- 

 sault, and caused the little communities, 

 which every where began to appear, to 

 adopt general means for personal de- 

 fence, and for the curb of whatever en- 



croachments might be attempted b'y 

 others in their vicinity. 



At a time when the great simpli city of 

 manners gave a limit to the ambition even 

 of the most aspiring, and when science 

 was yet in the womb of time, we may 

 reasonably conclude, that the means of 

 control and of resistance, then in use, 

 w ere neither costly, laborious, nor very 

 effectual. The details furnished in scrip- 

 ture prove incontestibly, that even the 

 circumvallations used at their date were 

 inadequate to the purposes of security 

 and duration. In fact, the events that 

 shone conspicuous in those times were, 

 with very few exceptions, pitched battles 

 in the open plain, ambuscades, and trea- 

 sonable conspiracies ! 



Nor do we find in the more recent his- 

 tories of Rome, of Greece, of Asia, or of 

 other parts then holding any rank in the 

 military world, much to support the opi- 

 nion of the ancients having knowledge 

 of fortification. The few places that 

 made any resistance, appear to have been 

 principally maintained by the personal 

 prowess of their defenders. Their walls 

 were indeed, sometimes of great mo- 

 ment, as we see in the instance of Troy ; 

 which, if existing in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, would probably capitulate at the 

 first summons. 



It was not to be expected that, where 

 the powers of demolition were insignifi- 

 cant, the means of resistance would be 

 extended beyond the quantum absolutely 

 necessary. The catapulta, the battering 

 ram, the tower, and such devices, were 

 opposed by heavy masses of stone or of 

 other adequate materials, on which the 

 besieged mounted, to repel the assault. 

 The various contrivances whereby those 

 machines received additional vigour, and 

 the necessity that arose for opposing to 

 their progress more resistance than could 

 be accumulated immediately in their 

 front, (of the tower in particular) first 

 gave rise to the introduction of projec- 

 tions from the even line of the wall, 

 whereby the besiegers could be annoyed 

 laterally, as well as immediately front to 

 front. 



Still the engineer confined himself to 

 small projections, generally semicircular, 

 which, for the most part, appear to have 

 been added to the old walls, impending 

 like our modern balcony windows. In 

 the sequel, these towers were built the 

 same as the other parts of the circum- 

 vallation, and, like the modern bastion, 

 rested on the tetra firma. It however 



