almost fast in the deep mud, had done the uttermost, he yielded himself. Knolles. Barbarossa left fourteen galleys in the lake; but the tacklings, sails, oars, and ordnance, he had laid up in the castle fast by. Id.

This love of theirs myself have often seen, Haply when they have judged me fast asleep. Shakspeare. Last night the very god shewed me a vision : I fast, and prayed for their intelligence.

A thousand men have broke their fasts to-day, That ne'er shall dine, unless thou yield the crown.

Id.

Thinking, by this face,

Id. King Lear.

To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage;
But 'tis not so.
Id. Julius Cæsar.
He fastened on my neck; and bellowed out,
As he'd burst heaven.
The king being fasthanded, and loth to part with a
second dowry, prevailed with the priace to be con-
tracted with the princess Catharine.
Bacon.

The prince groweth up fast to be a man, and is of a sweet and excellent disposition: it would be a stain upon you if you should mislead, or suffer him to be Inisled. Id. to Villiers. We have some meats, and breads, and drinks, which taken by men enable them to fast long after. Id. New Atlantis.

Such as had given the king distaste, did contend by their forwardness to shew it was but their fastness to the former government, and that those affections ended with the time. Id.

Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly, We learn so little, and forget so much. Davies. All the places are cleared, and places of fastness laid open, which are the proper walls and castles of the Irish, as they were of the British in the times of Agricola. Id. on Ireland.

She had all magnetick force alone, To draw and fasten sundred parts in one. Donne. Happy and innocent were the ages of our forefathers, who broke their fasts with herbs and roots; and, when they were permitted flesh, eat it only dressed with hunger and fire. Taylor.

Do not call it a fastingday, unless also it be a day of extraordinary devotion and of alms. Id.

He that was the meekest man upon earth, in a sudden indignation abandons that, which in cold blood he would have held faster than his life.

Bp. Hall's Contemplations.

It (piety) tieth all relations more fastly and strongly, assureth and augmenteth all endearments, enforceth and establisheth all obligations by the firm bands of conscience. Id.

A rope of fair pearl, which now hiding, now hidden by the hair, did, as it were, play at fast and loose each with other, giving and receiving richness. Sidney. A mantle coming under her right arm, and covering most of that side, had no fustening on the left side. Id.

There streams a spring of blood so fast, From those deep wounds, as all embrued the face. Daniel.

If she perceived by his outward cheer, That any would his love by talk bewray,

Sometimes she heard him, sometimes stopt her ear, And played fast and loose the live-long day.

Fairfax. This paucity of blood may be observed in other sorts of lizards, in frogs, and other fishes; and therefore an horse-leech will hardly fasten upon a fish. Browne's Vulgar Errours.

A man in a boat, who tugs at a rope that's fast to a
ship, looks as if he resolved to draw the ship to him.
Temple.
Let purling streams be in her fancy seen,
And flowery meads, and vales of cheerful green;
And in the midst of deathless groves
Soft sighing wishes lie,

And smiling hopes fast by,
And just beyond 'em ever-laughing loves.

Dryden.

Atterbury.

If they cohered, yet by the next conflict with other atoms they might be separated again; and so on in an eternal vicissitude of fast and loose, without ever consociating into the huge condense bodies of planets.

Bentley.

Being tried only with a promise, he gave full credit to that promise, and still gave evidence of his fidelity as fast as occasions were offered.

Hammond's Practical Catechism. Well-known to me the palace you inquire; For fast beside it dwells my honoured sire. Pope. Fast by the throne obsequious fame resides, And wealth incessant rolls her golden tides. Nor

Id.

prayers nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain; Nor tears, for ages, taught to flow in vain.

Id.

The heaviest muse the swiftest course has gone, As clocks run fastest when most lead is on. Id. You are to look upon me as one going fast out of the world. Swift.

In Don Alfonso's facts, which just now wore An awkward look; as he revolved the case The door was fastened in his legal face.

Byron. FASTS, RELIGIOUS. Religious fasting has been practised by most nations from the remotest antiquity. Some divines derive its origin from the terrestrial paradise, where our first parents were forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge. The Jewish church has observed fasts ever since its first institution; nor were the neighbouring heathens, viz. the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians, without their fasts. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a cow to Isis, after having prepared themselves by fasting and prayer: a custom which he likewise ascribes to the women of Cyrene. Porphyry affirms, that the Egyptians, before their stated sacrifices, always fasted many days, sometimes six weeks; during all which time the priests and devotees not only abstained from flesh, fish, wine, and oil, but even from bread, and some kinds of pulse. These austerities were communicated by them to the Greeks, who observed their fasts much in the same manner. The Athenians had the Eleusinian and Thesmophorian fasts, the observation of which was very rigorous, especially among the women, who spent one whole day sitting on the ground in a mournful dress, without taking any nourishment. In the island of Crete, the priests of Jupiter were obliged to abstain all their lives from fish, flesh, and baked meats. Apuleius informs us, that whoever wished to be initiated in the mysteries of Cybele, were obliged to prepare themselves by fasting ten days; and, in short, all the pagan deities, whether male or female, required this duty of those that desired to be initiated into their mysteries, of their priests and priestesses that gave the oracles, and of those that came to consult them. Among the heathens fasting was also practised before some of their military enterprises. Aristotle informs us that the Lacedemonians, having resolved to succour a city of the allies, ordained a fast throughout the whole extent of their dominions, without excepting even the domestic animals: and this they did for two ends; one to spare provisions in favor of the besieged; the other to draw down the blessing of heaven upon their enterprise. The inhabitants of Tarentum, when besieged by the Romans, demanded succours from their neighbours of Rhegium, who immediately commanded a fast throughout their whole territories. Their enterprise having proved successful, by their throwing a supply of provisions into the town, the Romans were obliged to raise the siege; and the Taren

tines, in memory of this deliverance, instituted a perpetual fast. At Rome fasting was practised by kings and emperors. Numa Pompilius, Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Vespasian, &c., had their stated fast days; and Julian the Apostate was so exact in this observance as to outdo the priests themselves, and even the most rigid philosophers. The Pythagoreans kept a continual lent; but with this difference, that they believed the use of fish to be equally unlawful with that of flesh. Besides their constant temperance, they also frequently fasted rigidly for a very long time. In this respect, however, they were all outdone by their master Pythagoras, who continued his fasts for no less than forty days together. The brahmins are very remarkable for their severe fastings; and the Chinese have also their stated fasts, with forms of prayer for preserving them from barrenness, inundations, earthquakes, &c. The Mahommedans are very remarkable for the strict observance of their fasts; and the exactness of their dervises in this respect is extraordinary. Fasting was often used by the heathens for superstitious purposes; sometimes to procure the interpretations of dreams; at others to be an antidote against their pernicious consequences. The modern Jews, though expressly forbidden to fast on Sabbath days, think themselves at liberty to dispense with this duty when they have frightful dreams the night preceding, that threaten them with great misfortunes. On these occasions, they observe a formal fast the whole day. They have also added several fasts to the law of Moses, particularly three, in memory of sore distresses their nation has suffered at different times. The abstinence of the ancient Jews commonly lasted twenty-seven or twentyeight hours at a time; beginning before sun-set, and not ending till some hours after sun-set next day. On these days they wore white robes in token of grief and repentance; covered themselves with sackcloth, or their worst clothes; lay on ashes; sprinkled them on their heads, &c. Some spent the whole night and day following in the temple or synagogue, in prayers and other devotions, barefooted, scourging themselves. To complete their abstinence, at night they were to eat nothing but a little bread dipped in water, with some salt for seasoning; except they chose to add to their repast some bitter herbs and pulse. The ancients, both Jews and Pagans, had also their fasts for purifying the body, particularly the priests, and such as were any way employed at the altars; for when nocturnal disorders happened to these, it was unlawful for them to approach all the next day, which they were bound to employ in purifying themselves. On this account, at great festivals, where their ministry could not be dispensed with, it was usual for them, on the eve thereof, not only to fast, but also to abstain from sleep. For this purpose the high-priest had under-officers to wake him, if overtaken with sleep.

FASTI, in Roman antiquity, a chronicle or register of time, wherein the several years were denoted by the respective consuls, with the principal events that happened during their consulates; these were called also fasti consulares.

or the greater and less.

I. FASTI KALENDARES, which were what was

properly and primarily called fasti, are defined by Festus Pompeius to be books containing a description of the whole year: i. e. Ephemerides, or diaries, distinguishing the several kinds of days, festi, profesti: fasti, nefasti, &c. The institutor was Numa, who committed the care and direction of the fasti to the Pontifex Maximus, whom the people used to go and consult on every occasion. This custom held till A. U. C. 450, when C. Flavius, secretary to the pontifices, exposed in the forum a list of all the days whereon it was lawful to work: which was so acceptable to the people, that they made him curule ædile. These less fasti were of two kinds, urbani and rustici. 1. Fasti rustici, the country fasti, expressed the several days, feasts, &c. to be observed by the country people; for as these were occupied in tilling the ground, fewer feasts, sacrifices, ceremonies, and holidays, were enjoined them than the inhabitants of cities; and they had also some peculiar ones not observed at Rome. These rustic fasti contain little more than the ceremonies of the kalends, nones, and ides; the fairs, signs of the zodiac, increase and decrease of the days, the tutelary gods of each month, and certain directions for rural works to be performed each month. 2. Fasti urbani, the fasti of the city, were those which obtained or were observed in the city. Some will have them thus called because they were exposed publicly in divers parts of the city; though, by the various inscriptions or gravings thereof on antique stones, one would imagine that private persons had them likewise in their houses. Ovid undertook to illustrate these fasti urbani, and comment on them, in his Libri Fastorum, whereof we have the first six books still remaining; the last six, if they were ever written, being lost.

II. FASTI MAGISTRALES, the greater fasti, expressed the several feasts, with every thing relating to the gods, religion, and the magistrates; the emperors, their birth-days, offices, days consecrated to them, and feasts and ceremonies

drinks, must be cured by starving. A squeamish fastidious niceness, in meats and L'Estrange. kindnesses of the fastidious and fallacious great ones All hopes, raised upon the promises or supposed of the world, shall fail.

South.

Their sole talent is pride and scorn: they look fastidiously, and speak disdainfully, concluding, if a man shall fall short of their garniture at their knees and elbows, he is much inferior to them in the furniture of his head. Government of the Tongue.

His diseases being fastidiosity, amerphy, and oscitation. Swift.

Proud youth! fastidious of the lower world! Man's lawful pride includes humility. Young. And to abate the fastidiousness of some critics, with respect to the Hebrew style of poetry, I shall produce a few similar instances, among many which occur in the Eneid itself. Archbp. Newcome.

FASTING. See ABSTINENCE. FASTOLFFE (Sir John), an English general who obtained some reputation in France, in the fifteenth century. He served in Ireland under Sir Stephen Scrope, and on his death, in 1408, married his widow, an heiress of the Tibtot family, of whose rich estates in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire he consequently became possessed. He soon after obtained the honor of knighthood and the order of the garter; and having been wounded at the battle of Agincourt, was rewarded with a grant of territorial property in Normandy. In 1429 he defeated 6000 Frenchmen with only 1500 English, and brought relief to the army before Orleans. But the same year he shamefully fled before Joan of Arc at the battle of Patay, for which he was deprived of his garter by the regent. He died in 1469. This officer has been supposed, by the resemblance perhaps of the names, to have been the prototype of Shakspeare's Falstaff. But he is introduced by name as fleeing at Patay, and his garter is torn off at the coronation scene in Henry VI., part 1, at which time the Sir John Falstaff of Henry IV. and V. was dead. Vide King Henry V., act 2, scene III. Nor does the character of Fastolfie appear to have been that of a debauchee.

Teut. vet or fett; Swed. fett; Belg. vet; Saxon, far, the past participle of rævan, to feed, says Mr. H. Tooke. The concrete oily matter of the flesh of

FAT WITTED. animals; metaphorically the best or choicest part of things. Fat, as an adjective, signifies well-fed; plump; fleshy; also rich; wealthy; coarse; dull. To fatten, signifies to make fat or plump; to feed abundantly or to excess. As a verb neuter, to grow fat or full-fleshed. Fat-brained; fat-kidneyed, fat-witted, are terms of reproach, importing dulness, stupidity, or vulgarity. A fatling is a young animal fed for slaughter. A fatner, that which causes fatness. Fatness, the quality or state of being fat in any way; fertility. Fatty, unctuous; oleaginous; greasy.

God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fat. ness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Gen. xxvii. 28. The calf and the young lion, and the fatling shall lie down together, and a little child shall lead them. Is. xi. 6.

Such traitery is in false curates, that given mede or hire to come into such wordly offices, and couchen in lord's courts for to get mo fatte benefices, and purposen not spedly to do their ghostly office.

Wickliffe on Symony.

In this ointment the strangest and hardest ingredients to come by, are the moss upon the scull of a dead man unburied, and the fats of a boar and a bear, killed in the act of generation. Bacon.

Earth and water, mingled by the help of the sun, gather a nitrous fatness. Id. Nat. Hist. The like cloud, if oily or fatty, will not discharge; not because it sticketh faster, but because air preyeth upon water, and flame and fire upon oil. Id.

The Caribbees were wont to geld their children, on purpose to fat and eat them. Locke.

An old ox fats as well, and is as good, as a young. Mortimer.

These were terrible alarms to persons grown fat and wealthy by a long and successful imposture.

South.

Spare diet and labour will keep constitutions, where this disposition is the strongest, from being fat: you may see in an army forty thousand foot soldiers without a fat man ; and I dare affirm, that by plenty and rest twenty of the forty shall grow fat. Arbuthnot.

The wind was west on which that philosopher bestowed the encomium of fatner of the earth. Id. Cattle fatted by good pasture, after violent motion, sometimes die suddenly. Id. on Diet.

The common symptoms of the muriatick scurvy are, a saline taste in the spittle, and a lixivial urine, sometimes with a fatty substance like a thin skin a-top. Id. on Alim.

Tygers and wolves shall in the ocean breed,
The whale and dolphin fatten on the mead,
And every element exchange its kind,
When thriving honesty in courts we find.

Granville.

A fat benefice is that which so abounds with an estate and revenues, that a man may expend a great deal in delicacies of eating and drinking. Ayliffe.

Burns.

Sheridan.

FAT, in medicine. A great number of fats have been kept in the shops, for making ointments, plasters, and other medicinal compositions; as hog's lard, the fat of the boar, the fox, hare, dog, wild cat, Alpine mouse, beaver; that of hens, ducks, geese, storks; of the whale, pike, serpents, viper, &c., as also human fat! These are now, of course, abandoned. To obtain fat pure, it must be cut into pieces, and melted with a gentle heat in a proper vessel with an equal quantity of water. It is afterwards to be put into an earthen pot, where the fat rises to the top, and becomes solid when cold. In this state it is exceedingly white, and sufficiently pure for the purposes of pharmacy or chemical examination. See PHARMACY. Fat thus purified has very little taste, and a weak but peculiar smell. The uses of fat in the animal economy have not been clearly ascertained. One of the chief probably is, to blunt and correct a great part of the acids of the aliments, and which are more than are requisite to the composition of the nutritive juice. This is certain, that animals which are castrated, which are not much exercised, or which are come to an age when the production and loss of the seminal fluid is less, and which at the same time consume much succulent aliment, generally become fatter, and sometimes exceedingly so. Although fat is very different from truly animalised substances, and appears not easily convertible into nutritive juices, it being generally difficult of digestion, and apt to become rancid, yet in certain cases it serves to the nourishment and reparation of the body. Animals certainly become lean, and live upon their fat, when they have too little food, and when they have diseases which prevent digestion and nutrition. In these cases the fatter animals hold out longer than the leaner. The fat appears to be then absorbed, and transformed into nutritive juice. In infancy it is white, insipid, and not very solid; in the adult it is firm and yellowish, and in animals of an advanced age its color is deeper, its consistence various, and its taste in general stronger.

FAT, in sea language, signifies the same with broad. Thus a ship is said to have a fat quarter, if the trussing in or tuck of her quarter be deep.

FAT likewise denotes an uncertain measure of capacity Thus a fat of isinglass contains from

34 cwt. to 4 cwt.; a fat of unbound books half a maund or four bales; of wire from 20 to 25 cwt.; and of yarn from 220 to 221 bundles.

The name,

FATA MORGANA, a very remarkable aerial phenomenon, which is sometimes observed from the harbour of Messina, and adjacent places, at a certain height of the atmosphere. which signifies Fairy Morgana, is derived from an opinion of the superstitious Sicilians, that the like visionary invisible beings. The populace whole spectacle is produced by fairies, or such are delighted whenever it appears, and run about the streets shouting for joy, calling every body out to partake of the glorious sight. This singular meteor has been described by various authors; but the first who mentioned it with any degree of precision was Father Angelucci, who gives the following account of it as quoted by Swinburne : On the 15th of August, 1643, as I stood at my window, I was surprised with a most wonderful delectable vision. The sea, that washes the Sicilian shore, swelled up, and became, for ten miles in length, like a chain of dark mountains; while the waters near our Calabrian coast grew quite smooth, and in an instant appeared as one clear polished mirror, reclining against the aforesaid ridge. On this glass was depicted, in chiaro scuro, a string of several thousands of pilasters, all equal in altitude, distance, and degree of light and shade. In a moment they lost half their height, and bent into arcades, like Roman aqueducts. A long cornice was next formed on the top, and above it arose castles innumerable, all perfectly alike. These soon split into towers, which were shortly after lost in colonnades, then windows, and at last ended in pines, cypresses, and other trees, even and similar. This is the Fata Morgana, which, for twenty-six years, I had thought a mere fable.'

As soon as the sun surmounts the eastern hills behind Reggio, and rises high enough to form an angle of forty-five degrees on the water before the city, every object existing or moving at Reggio is repeated 1000 fold upon this marine looking glass; which, by its tremulous motion, is as it were cut into facets. Each image passes rapidly off in succession as the day advances, and the stream carries down the wave on which it appeared. Thus the parts of this moving picture will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Sometimes the air is, at that moment, so impregnated with vapors, and undisturbed by winds, as to reflect objects in a kind of aerial screen, rising about thirty feet above the level of the sea. In cloudy heavy weather, they are drawn on the surface of the water, bordered with fine prismatical colors. The following is the account given by M. Houel: In fine summer days, when the weather is calm, there rises above the great current a vapor which acquires a certain density, so as to form in the atmosphere horizontal prisms, whose sides are disposed in such a manner that, when they come to their proper degree of perfection, they reflect and represent successively, for some time (like a moveable mirror), the objects on the coast or in the adjacent country. They exhibit by turns the city and suburbs of Messina, trees, animals, men, and mountains. They are