FOR 
contempt all those who, to gratify their pas- 
sions, or imitate the prevailing fashion, 
made a jest of the most sacred and reputa- 
ble feelings of mankind. His moral feelings 
were equally animated; he was attracted 
with irresistible force by whatever was 
true, good, or excellent. Great characters 
inspired him with an esteem which he some- 
times expressed with incredible ardour.” 
His works, besides those above mention- 
ed, are, for the most part, compilations and 
translations. He was the author also of se- 
veral papers published in the “ Philosophi- 
cal Transactions,” the “ Memoirs of the 
Academy of Sciences” at Petersburgli, and 
those of other learned societies. 
FORSTERA, in botany, a genus of 
Gynandria Diandria class and order. Es- 
sential character : perianth double, outer 
inferior, three-leaved; inner superior, six- 
cleft ; corolla tubular. There is but one 
species. 
FORT, in the military art, a small forti- 
fied place, environed on all sides with a 
moat, rampart, and parapet. Its use is to 
secure some high ground or the passage of 
a river, to make good an advantageous 
post, to defend the lines and quarters of a 
siege, Sec. 
Forts are made of different figures and 
extents, according as the ground requires. 
Some are fortified with bastions, others 
with demi-bastions. Some again are in 
form of a square, others of a pentagon. 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 pos- 
sessions of their neighbours, the only fences 
in use were such as sufficed to restrain 
the depredations of wild beasts, and to 
prevent cattle, &c.. from straying among 
the scattered patches of cultivation, or in- 
to the wildernesses. In proportion, how- 
ever, as commerce, or communication with 
others, and the pleasures of society, induced 
men to build towns and to congregate more 
generally, the various passions inducing to 
the commission of that variety of trespas- 
ses, which have even, within our own 
time, increased rapidly, rendered it pru- 
dent for each individual to secure his own 
habitation from clandestine or open assault, 
and caused the little communities, which 
every where began to appear, to adopt ge- 
neral means for personal defence, and for 
FOR 
the curj) of whatever encroachments might 
be attempted by others in their vicinity. 
At a time when the great simplicity 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 reason- 
ably conclude, that the means of control 
and of resistance, then in use, were nei- 
ther costly, laborious, nor very effectual 1 . 
The details furnished in scripture prove in- 
contestibly, 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, ambus- 
cades, and treasonable 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 opinion 
of the ancients having knowledge of forti- 
fication. The few places that made any 
resistance appear to have been principally, 
maintained by the personal prowess of their 
defenders. Their walls were, indeed, some- 
times of great moment, as we see in the 
instance of Troy ; which, if existing in the 
eighteenth century, would probably capitu- 
late at the first summons. 
It was not to be expected that where the 
powers of demolition were insignificant, 
the means of resistance would be extended 
beyond the quantum absolutely necessary. 
The catapulta, the battering ram, the tow- 
er, and such devices, were opposed by 
heavy masses of stone, or of other ade- 
quate materials, on which the besieged 
mounted to repel the assault. The various 
contrivances whereby those machines re- 
ceived 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 introduc- 
tion of projections 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 circumvallation, and, 
like the modern bastion, rested on the 
terra firma. It however seems doubtful, 
whether the former mode was not the best, 
