544. 
F O N 
and wrote Latin verfes at thirteen which were thought 
worthy of being printed. At his father’s defire he ft tidied 
the law, and was admitted an advocate ; but having loft 
his firft caufe, he renounced the bar, and thenceforth 
devoted himfelf to literature and philofophy. He firft 
vifited Paris in 1674, and made himfelf known by feveral 
ingenious copies of verfes inferted in the Mercure Galant. 
He computed a great part of the operas of Pyfche and 
Bellerophon, publifhed under the name of his uncle 
Thomas Corneille. He tried his ftrength in tragedy, and 
brought on the ftage, in 1681, a piece called Afpar; but 
it did not fucceed. In 1683, lie publifhed Dialogues of 
the Dead, in 2 vols. which were well received, and gave 
a fpecimen of his talent of combining morality and litera¬ 
ture with the graces of elegant and ingenious writing. 
His Lettres du Chevalier d'Her —, publifhed anonymoufly in 
1685, difplayed wit and ingenuity, but joined with a de¬ 
gree of affectation, v. j#ich fliewed that he had not yet ob¬ 
tained the good tafte he afterwards difplayed. In 16S6, 
appeared one of the mod: celebrated of his works, Evtre- 
ticnsfur la Pluralite des Mondes , in which fcience and philo- 
phy were united with vivacity, gallantry, and delicate 
humour. It was univerfally read, and was tranflated 
into mod modern languages. His Hiftory of Oracles, in 
1687, was a bold attempt in another kind of philofophy. 
Its bafts was the elaborate work of Van Dale on the fame 
fubjedt ; but the art and elegance of Fontenelle were 
wanted to make a popular book from the materials that 
learned man had accumulated. As the principle fupport- 
ed in this piece, that the heathen oracles were mere cheats 
and forgeries, oppofed that of feveral fathers of the 
church, who had maintained that they were the fuper- 
uatural operations of evil fpirirs, and that their ceftation 
was the confequence of Chrift’s appearance upon earth, 
Fontenelle was expofed to the fufpicion of free thinking, 
g^is work was attacked by father Balthus, a jefuit ; and 
«« thought it prudent to make no reply. Omitting this 
dangerous path, he applied to phyfics, and at the fame 
time enlivened his feverer (iudies by poeticalcompofitions. 
He publiftted in 1688 Paftora! Poems, with a Difcourfe on 
the Eclogue, which met with confiderable fuccefs. His 
opera of Thetis and Peleus was reprefented with ap- 
plaufe in 1689 ; that of ./Eneas and Lavinia, in 1690, was 
lefs approved. In 1691 the doors of the French academy 
were opened to him. He had already made four attempts 
to be admitted among that learned body ; but had been 
excluded by a party headed by Boileau and Racine. 
Tliefe eminent men were alw’ays hoftile to Fontenelle, 
and gained no honour by their enmity. That of Boileau 
was founded on the part this wmiter took on the fide of 
Perrault in the famous controverfy concerning the com¬ 
parative merit of the ancients and moderns. Though the 
opinion of Fontenelle on the fubjedt was very moderate, 
the inexorable fatirift would allow him no quarter, but, 
in conjunction with Racine, peftered him with fatires and 
epigrams, which Fontenelle did not return, but never fop- 
got. In 1699, however, he was made fecretary of the 
Academy of Sciences, which poft he occupied forty-two 
years. He rendered it equally honourable to the aca¬ 
demy and to himfelf, by the excellent hiftory of that 
body, of which he publiftted a volume annually, contain¬ 
ing extracts and analytes of memoirs, and eulogies of de- 
ceafed members. Of his other works, the principal are— 
1. L’Hifoire du Theatre Francois jufqida Corneille ; a fliort 
but entertaining and mafterly view of the French ftage. 
2. Reflexions fur la Po'etique du Theatre & du Theatre Tragiqv.e ,; 
a piece of much depth and juftnefs of thinking. 3. Ele- 
mens de Geomctrie de ITnfini ; a tragedy in profe, and fix co¬ 
medies, not well calculated for the ftage, but ingenious 
and pleating in the clofet. 
After the death of Racine and Boileau, the fuccefsful 
labours of Fontenelle, as fecretary to the Academy of 
Sciences ; his judgment in confining himfelf folely to that 
province; the celebrity which he gained for it by his 
pleafmg memoirs, and his dill more charming eulogies j 
F O N 
the confideration which his places and his years attracted 
towards him; the protection of the regent, who lodged 
him in the Palais-Royal ; the friendihip of powerful 
men, and the homage of fociesy ; all concurred to raife 
him in public eftimation ; and he who formerly had been 
only an agreeable writer, not exceeding mediocrity, be¬ 
came, as Voltaire obferved in 1732, “ the firft among the 
learned who were not bleffed with the gift of invention, 
by the inftruCtive and attractive manner in which he re¬ 
lated the labours of others.” This high and neat com¬ 
pliment gave great offence to the literary veteran, and was 
never forgiven by .him. He lived in celibacy, and became 
rich for a man of letters ; but though economical, Ire w'as 
not avaricious. Nature was not lefs favourable to him 
than fortune. With aconftitution originally delicate, he 
reached to his ninetieth year with no other infirmity than 
deafnefs. His eyes afterwards failed him; but the frame 
held out till he had very nearly completed a century. 
He died on January 9, 1757. All the works of Fon¬ 
tenelle, except thofe on geometry and phyfics, have been 
collected in 11 vols. 12010. under the title of CEuvres 
Diverfes. 
FONTENOI'S LE CHATEAU', a town of France, 
in the department of theVofges: three leagues fouth-eaft 
of Darney, and three and a quarter weft of Plombieres. 
FONTENOY', a village of the Netherlands, in Hainaut, 
on the confines of Flanders, near which a battle was 
fought between the French and the allies, in May, 1745 ; 
as (fated under the article England, vol. vi. p. 717. 
FONTENOY', a town of France, in the department of 
the Meurte, and chief place of a canton, in the diftriCt of 
Toul : one league and a half north-ealt of Toul. 
FONTENOY', a town of France, in the department of 
the Aifne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridl of 
Soilfons, on the Aifne : five miles weft of Soiftons. 
' FONTES, a town of France, in the department of the 
Herault, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrict of 
Beziers : two leagues north-weft of Montagnac, and four 
and a half north-eaft of Beziers. 
FONTEVRAU'LD, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Mayne, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftriCt of Saumur : here is a celebrated abby, belonging 
to the religious order of Frontevauld, in the church of 
which feveral of the kings and queens of England lie 
buried : two leagues eaft of Saumur, and three and a half 
north of Loudun. 
FONTI'CULUS,/ in furgery, an iflue, adifeharge for 
the humours of the body. 
FONTI'GENOUS, adj. [forts, a fountain, and gigno, 
Lat. to beget. ] Breeding near wells, growing about foun¬ 
tains. Scott. Not much ufed. 
FONTILA'PATHUM, /. in botany. See Pota- 
MOGETON. 
FONTINA'LI A, or Fontanaua, / in antiquity, 
a religious feaft held among the Romans in honour of 
the deities who prefided over fountains or fprings. Varro 
fays it was the cuftom to vifitthe wells on thofe days, and 
to caft crowns into fountains. Scaliger, in his conjectures 
on Varro, takes this not to be a feaft of fountains in gene¬ 
ral, as Feftus infinuates, but of the fountain which had 
a temple at Rome, near the Porta Capena, called alio 
Porta Fontinalis : he adds, that it is of this fountain Cicero 
fpeaks in his fecond hook De legib. r l he fontinalia were 
held on the 13th of October. 
FONTINA'LIS, f. [« fonte ; thefe modes ufually 
growing in Fprings. J A genus of the cryptogamia nnifci, 
or modes. The generic characters are—Capiule oblong, 
with the mouth ciliate ; opening with an acuminate lid ; 
covered with a fedile, frnooih, conical veil; and included 
in a pitcher-duiped imbricate perichaetium. 
Only four fpccies are recited in Syft. Veget. They are 
all natives of England, and may be found in Hudfon’s 
Flora Anglica. The three firft, viz. Fontinalis antipy- 
retica, minor, and fquamola, are water modes : the laft, 
Fontinalis pennata, grows on trees. Several new fpecies 
have 
