m 
610 FOR 
FOR'TIN, f. [French.] A little fort raifed to defend 
a camp, particularly in a fiege. Hanmer. 
Thou haft talk’d 
Of palifadoes, fortius , parapets. Skakefpeare . 
FOR'TITUDE, f [ fortitudo , Lat.] Courage; bra¬ 
very; magnanimity ; greatnefs of mind; power of ailing 
or (offering well.— Fortitude is the guard and fupport of 
the other virtues ; and without courage a man will fcarce 
keep fteady to his duty, and fill up the character of a 
truly worthy man. Locke. 
The king-becoming graces, 
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude. Shakefpeare. 
The better fortitude 
Of patience, and heroic martyrdom. Milton. 
Fortitude takes different names, according as it ails 
in oppofition to different forts of evil. With refpeft to 
danger in general, fortitude may be termed intrepidity ; 
with refpeci to the dangers of war, valour ; with refpedi 
to pain of body or diftrefs of mind, patience ; with refpect 
to labour, aSivity, with refpeit to injury, forbearance ; 
with refpeit to our condition in general, magnanimity. 
Hence fortitude gives dignity of charaiter to both lexes ; 
but courage is not fo fuitable to females: for in women, 
on ordinary occafions of danger, a certain degree of timi¬ 
dity is not unfeemly, becaufe it betokens gentlenefs of 
mind. Yet from thofe of very high rank, from a queen 
or an emprefs, courage in emergencies of great public 
danger would be expeited, and the want of it blamed ; 
we are then to overlook the fex, and confider the duties 
oftheftation. In general, however, mafeuline boldnefs 
is highly incompatible with female delicacy. The wo¬ 
man warriors of antiquity, Camilla, Thaleftris, and the 
whole community of Amazons, were unamiable and un¬ 
feeling creatures. 
The motives to fortitude are many and powerful. This 
virtue tends greatly to the happinefs of the individual, 
by giving compofure and prefence of mind, and keeping 
the other paflions in due fubordination. To public good 
it is effential ; for without it, the independence and li¬ 
berty of nations would be impoftible. It gives to a cha¬ 
racter that elevation which poets, orators, and hiftoriuns, 
have in all ages vied with one another to celebrate. 
Nothing fo effectually infpires it as rational piety; the 
fear of God is the belt fecurity againft every other fear. 
A true eftimate.of human life; its (liortnefs and uncer¬ 
tainty; the numberlefs evils and temptations to which by 
a long continuance in this world we mu ft unavoidably be 
expofed : ought by no means to difeourage or to throw 
any gloom on our future profpeCts : they (hould teach us, 
that many things are more formidable than death. ; and 
that nothing is loft, but much gained, when, by the ap¬ 
pointment of Providence, a weil-fpent life is brought to 
an honourable conclufion. 
Fortitude, in fculpture and painting, is often repre- 
fented by the goddefs Pallas embracing a pillar. Chrijlian 
Fortitude is reprefented by a virgin in the habit of an Ama¬ 
zon, with an helmet on her head, eagles wings on her 
ftioulders, having in one hand a buckler upon which was 
the lign of the crofs, and in the other the.banner of Con- 
ftjntine ; confident with thofe mod beautiful lines in the 
Table of Cebes : 
See knowledge grafping a refulgent ftar; 
See' fortitude in panoply of war. 
FORT'LET,/. from fort. ] A little fort. 
FORT'NIGHT, f. [contracted from fourteen nights , 
peopjietvne nijlvc, Sax. It was the cuftom of the an¬ 
cient northern nations to count time by nights ; thus we 
fay, this day feven-night. . So Tacitus, Non dierum numeruni, 
ut nos, fed noElium computant. ] The fpac.e of two weeks.— 
About a forgklnight before I had finifhed it, his majefty’s 
declaration for liberty of confidence came abroad. Dryden. 
—He often had it in his head ; but never, with much ap- 
preheufion, ’till about a forghtnight before. Swift, 
FOR 
FORTO'RE, a river of Italy, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
ples, which runs into the Adriatic, about two miles eaft 
from Civita a Mare, in the province of Capitanata. 
FOR'TRESS,/. [ fortereJJe y Fr.] A ftrong hold; a for¬ 
tified place; a fort; a. cattle of defence. See Fort.— ■ 
Breaking forth like a hidden temped, lie over-ran all, 
breaking down all the holds and fortreffes. Spenfer. 
The trump of death founds in their hearing flu ill ; 
Their weapon, faith ; their fortrefs was the grave. Fairfax. 
God is our fortrefs, in whofe conqu’ring name 
Let us refolve to fcale their flinty bulwarks. Henry V. 
FORTRO'SE, a town of Scotland, in tlie county of 
Rofs, near the Frith of Murray, which is here only a 
mile broad : fix miles fduth-weft of Cromarty and ten 
north-eaft of Invernefs. 
FORTUITOUS, adj. [ fortuit , Fr. fortujtus, Lat.] Ac¬ 
cidental; cafual; happening by chance : 
If cafual concourfe did the world compofe, 
And things and acts fortuitous arofe, 
Then any thing might come from any thing; 
For how from chance can conftant order fpring. Blackmore „ 
FORTUITOUSLY, adv. Accidentally; cafually; by 
chance.—It is partly evaporated into air, and partly di¬ 
luted into water, and jortuiioufy (hared between all the 
elements. Rogers. 
FORTUITOUSNESS, f. Accident; chance; hit. 
FORTU'NA, in mythology, Fortune, a powerful 
deity among the ancients, daughter of Oceanus according 
to Homer, or one of the Parcae according to Pindar. She 
was the goddefs of fortune, and from her hand were de¬ 
rived tidies and poverty, pleafuresand misfortunes, b 1 ef¬ 
fing s and pains. She was vvorftiipped in different parts of 
Greece, and in Achaia her (lame held the horn of plenty 
in one hand, and had a winged Cupid at its feet. In 
Boeotia (he had a ftatue which' reprefented' her as holding 
Plutus the god of riches in her arms, to intimate that 
fortune is the fourcc whence wealth and honours flow. 
Bupalus was the fil'd who made a ftatue of Fortune for 
the people of Smyrna; and he reprefented her with the 
polar ftar upon her head, and the horn of plenty in her 
hand. The Romans pajd'particular attention to the god¬ 
defs, of Fortune, and 'liad no lefs than eight different 
temples ereCted to her' ’honour in thdir city. Ttillus 
Hoftilitis was the firft who built her a temple, and from 
that circumftance it is eulily known when h?r-worfliip 
was firft introduced among the Romans. Her nioft famous 
temple in Italy was at Antium, in Lafium, where pre- 
fents and offerings were regularly fent from every part of 
the'country. Fortune has bGeii called Pherepolis, the 
proteltrefs of cities, Acrea from her temple at Corinth 
onaneminence, axgvf. Sire was called Preneftine at Prse- 
nefte in Italy, where (he had alfo a temple. Befides (he 
was worfhipped among the Romans under different' names, 
fuch as Female fortune, Virile fortune, Equeftrian, Peace¬ 
ful, Virgin, See. On the firft of April, which was con- 
fecrated to Venus among the Romans, the Italian widows 
and marriageable virgins affembled in the temple of Virile 
fortune, and after burning incenfe and offering their gar¬ 
ments, they intreated the goddefs to hide from tiie eyes 
of their hu(bands whatever defeCts there might be on 
their bodies. The goddefs of Fortune is reprefented on 
ancient monuments with a horn of plenty, and fometimes 
two, in her hands. She is blind-folded, and generally 
holds a wheel in her hand as an emblem of her incon- 
ftancy. Sometimes die appears with wings, and treads 
upon the prow of a (hip, and holds a rudder in her hands. 
FORTUNA'TiE IN'SULvE, in ancient geography, 
ifiands at the weft of Mauritania in the Atlantic fea. 
They are fuppofed to be the Canary ifies of the moderns, 
thought to be only two in number, at a little diftance one 
from the other, and 10,000 ftadia from the (bores.of Libya. 
They were reprefented as the feats of the bleffed, where 
the fouls of the virtuous were placed after death. The 
air was wholefome and temperate, the earth produced an 
immenlc 
