F l R 
FI'RABUS, a town of Perfia, in the province of Me. 
cran : forty-five miles weft-fouth-weft of Kidge. 
FI'RAM, a final 1 ifiand in the Red Sea, about fix 
leagues from the coaft of Arabia. Lat. 17. 13. N. Ion. 
41.30. E. Greenwich. 
FIRAN'DO, an ifiand and kingdom of Japan, with a 
good harbour, in the fea of Corea. 
FIRE, f. [ pyp, Sax. fetor, Germ.] The igneous 
clement: 
The force of fire afcended fit-ft on high. 
And took its dwelling in the vaulted (ky ; 
Then air fucceeds, in lightnefs next to fire. Dryden. 
Any thing burning: 
A little fire is quickly trodden out, 
Which, being fuffered, rivers cannot quench. Skakefpeare. 
A conflagration of towns or countries : 
Though fafe thou think’ft thy treafure lies. 
Conceal’d in cherts from human eyes, 
A fire may come, and it may be 
Bury’d, my friend, as far from thee. Glanyille. 
Flame; light; luftre: 
Stars hide your fires! 
Let not night fee my black and deep defires, Shakefpeare. 
Torture by burning: 
Did Shadrach’s zeal my glowing breaft infpire, 
To weary tortures, and rejoice in fire ? Prior. 
The punifliment of the damned.—Who among us fhall 
dwell with the devouring ^/ - *? Who among us fnall dwell 
with everlafting burnings? ifa. xxxiii.—Any thing pro- 
voking ; any thing that inflames the pafiions : 
What fife is in my ears ? Can this be true ? 
Stand I condemn’d for pride and fcorn fo much ? Skakefp. 
Ardour of temper ; violence of pafiion.—He had fire in 
his temper, and a German bluntnefs; and, upon provo¬ 
cations, might drain a phrafe. Atterbury. —Livelinefs of 
imagination; vigour of fancy ; intellectual activity ; force 
of expreflion ; fpirit of fentiment : 
He brings, to make us from our ground retire. 
The reafoner’s weapons, and the poet’s fire. Blackmore. 
Oh may fome fpark of your celertia! fire. 
The laft, the meaneft of your foils infpire. Pope. 
The pafiion of love : 
Love various hearts does varioufly infpire, 
It ftirs in gentle bofoms gentle fire, 
Like that of incenfe on the altar laid ; 
But raging flames tempeftuous fouls invade, 
A fire which every windy pafiion blows, 
With pride it mounts, and with revenge it glows. Dryden. 
Eruption or impofthumation : as, St. Anthony’s fire. 
To fiet Fire on, or Jet on Fire. To kindle ; to inflame. 
•—Hermofilla courageoufly fet upon the horfemen, and 
ft fire alfo upon the (table's where the Turks’ horfes flood. 
Knolles. 
To fet a-FiRE. To inflame : 
So inflam’d by my defire, 
It may fet her heart a-fire. Carcw. 
“ He who will enjoy the Fire, muft bear with the 
fmoke.”—The Latins fay, Commoditas quavis fua fieri in- 
commoda fecirn ; Every conveniency carries its inconve- 
niency with it. Hence, like a rterling guinea, there can 
be no enjoyment without fome alloy; nor no pleafure 
but what by excefs may terminate in pain. All, there¬ 
fore, that a wife man can do, is to be prudent in the choice, 
and moderate in the enjoyments, of the comforts of his 
life; and never give juft caufe for imputations tm his chs- 
raifler or conduft: remembering that, “ There is no Fire 
without fome fmoke.”— Nul feu fans fume'e. fay the French, 
Vol. VII. No.435. 
F I R 385 
To FIRE, v. a. To fet on fire; to kindle.—They fpoil- 
ed many parts of the city, and fired the houfes of thole 
whom they efteemed not to be their friends. Hayward. 
A fecond Paris, diff’ring but in name, 
Shall fire his country with a fecond flame. Dryden 
To inflame the pafiions; to animate : 
Yet, if defire of fame, and third: of pow’r, 
A beauteous princefs with a crown in dow’r, 
So fire your mind, in arms artert your right. Dryden 
To drive by fire : 
He that parts us, (hall bring a brand from heav’n 
And fire us hence. S/ia/teJpeare . 
To FIRE, v. n. To take fire ; to be kindled. To be 
inflamed with pafiion. To difeharge any fire-arms : 
The fainting Dutch remotely fire. 
And the fam’d Eugene’s troops retire. Smith. 
Fire is an agent of fuch high importance in the govern, 
ment of the natural world, and of fo much utility in all 
the concerns of life, that it has ever attracted the admira¬ 
tion of mankind, and influenced their moft ferious fpecu. 
lations. We find, accordingly, that the ancient heathens 
not only admitted it into their philofopliy, filling the uni- 
verfe with its fubftance, and deducing therefrom all the 
greateft effedts in nature; but they were fo (truck with 
its power and ufe in the world, that they paid divine ho¬ 
nours to what they conceived to be the grand fource of 
fire,—the Sun. 
The far greater part of thofe philofophers who have 
confidered the fubjedt, believe fire to be a fubtile, adlive, 
and elaftic, fluid, univerfally difleminated through the 
univerfe, penetrating all bodies with more or lefs facility ; 
having a conftant tendency to diffttfe itfelf uniformly, fo 
as to maintain an equilibrium ; dilating the feveral fub- 
ftances it penetrates, and making them afliune the (fate 
of fluidity, and afterwards that of vapour. Hence it fol¬ 
lows that fire is a real and material fubftance.—Fire can 
drive out other matter from any given fpace; and cer¬ 
tainly that which can expel other bodies, and take the 
place of them, muft itfelf be body. If the ball of a ther- 
mometrical tube be filled with air, fpirits, or mercury, 
fire applied underneath will expel them all in their turns ; 
which it cannot do, but in virtue of its own proper ex¬ 
tension; and if it be extended, it is a bodily fubftance.—. 
Whatever occupies fpace and refills the touch, we have a 
right to call a material fubftance, whether we can fee it 
and weigh it, or npt: thus air, which is invifible, and not 
very eafily ponderable, is univerfally allowed to be a fub¬ 
ftance, and not a quality.—Light is an emanation, perhaps 
a branch, of fire ; the decompofition of the rays of light 
proves their materiality : what is light on the furface of 
a burning-glafs, is fire at its focus : whatever, therefore, 
proves the materiality of light, is applicable to fire. —A 
fluid, fubjedt to the like laws with the elaftic air, muft 
be as material as the air is. Fire, in common with air, 
is fubjedt to be confined by an incumbent preflure, and 
releafed when that preflure is withdrawn. Fire would 
make water boil much fooper if it were not refilled by the 
preflure of the atmofphere on its furface ; and therefore 
it boils in a very low degree of heat in the vacuum of an 
air-pump.—Fire evaporates alfo from an heated liquor 
more (lowly, when counteradled by the preflure ot the 
air: thus, if two equal velfels of water, equally heated, 
be fet to cool, one under the exhaufted receiver of an 
air-pump, the other in the open air, the water under the 
receiver will cool fooner : thus proving, that fire is con¬ 
fined by an incumbent preflure, and that it evaporates 
with greater freedom where there is lefs refiftance. — For 
an inveftigation of thefe feveral properties and principles 
of fire, fee the article Chemistry, vol. iv. p, 179-190; 
and Astronomy", vol. ii. p. 350. 
The Perfians worfliipped fire, yet not abfolntely as a 
divinity, but as the brighteft emblem of the Supreme 
5 F Being. 
