CO
F
F T r n \ £ X f Letter of the Alphabet, and the fourth Confonant. See Letter. ™ The letter F may be either confider'd abfolutely and in it feif; or with regard to the particular Lan- guages where it is found. In the firft view, F is placed by feme Grammarians among the Mutes, like the 4 among the Greet Grammarians : But others give it the Quality of Se- mi-vowel. See Mote, (gc.
Job. Conrad Aman, in his Differtation de Zoquela, divides the Conlonants into fingle and double; and the fingle into hilling and explofive. Among thofe called Hijing, there are fome pronoune'd by the Application of the upper Teeth to the lower Lip; and thefe are the f and the ph. The Reafon why fome account it a Semi-vowel, and Aman places it among the Hiffers, is, that one may produce a little Sound, without any other Motion of the Organs, than what is neceffary to the Pronunciation of the F.
This Letter is derived to us from the Romans, who bor- rowed it from the JEohans ; for the F does not at all differ from the JEohc Digamma, or double Gamma, thus call'd as refembhng twor'i, one over the other: and the Digam- ma Teems no other than the Greek 4, which being made at three Strokes, degenerated at length into the Figure F 1 ; for the Letter 4 being compounded of an o, Omicron, with a Perpendicular drawn through it: If that Perpendicular bs made firft, and the O at two Strokes afterwards, toss, firft the upper, then the under part ; it will happen, efpecially in writing fall, that the two Parts ihall not join ; and even inftead of two Arches of Circles, Hafte and Conveniency may naturally enough make two flraight Lines.
Thus it is that the tranfverfe Stroke of the Letter ¥, is frequently feen flraight; and the Letter, in form of a Crofs j. And what confirms this Tranfmutation of the 4 into F flill further, is, that on the Medals of Philip, and the Kings of Syria, in the Words EII I* ANO'TS and 41 AA A E A 4 O T, the 'Phi 4 is frequently feen in the Form juft mentioned, 'i. e. it has no Circle or Omicron ; but a-erofs the Middle of the Perpendicular, is a kind of Right-line, form'd only of two Dotts, the one on the right fide, and the other on the left, reprefenting a Crofs, f. Such appears to be the Origin of the Letter F ; which, of confequence is no other than a Corruption of the Greek 4 : And accordingly, on the Me- dals of the Falifci, the F is ordinarily put in lieu of the Greek 4 ; but it mult be added, that tho' the Greek and Latin Letter were thus the fame thing, yet the Sound was much fofter among the Zatins, than among the Greeks : As was long ago obferv'd by Terentianus.
The Romans, for fome time, ufed an inverted F, a, in lieu of an V confonant, which had no peculiar Figure in their Alphabet : thus in Infcriptions we meet with TER- MINAalT, DUI, (gc. ' Zipjius, in his Comment on the Annals of Tacitus, L. XI ; Covarrttvias, and T)aufquius in hisTreatife of Orthography, hold, that it was the Emperor Claudius, who firft introduced this Ufe of the inverted Di- gamma, or J ; which they call the Invention of a Letter, as being equivalent to the Invention of the Letter V. In effe£}, Tacitus, in the 4th Chapter of the faid Book, and Suetonius in his Life of Claudius, c. 4.1. affure us, that the Emperor invented three Letters ; one of which Zipjius ihews mu(> be the inverted Eolic Digamma : But, before Claudius, Varro made an Attempt to introduce the fame thing, but could not fucceed. All the Authority of an Em- peror was neceffary to make it take : Nor did it fubfift long ; for after Claudius's Death it was thrown by again ; as we are told by the fame Tacitus; and J^uintilian obferves, it did not fubfift in his time. So far is the Cuflom of a Language from being fubject even to the Mafters of the World. It may be added, that the Pronunciation of the F is almoil the fame with that of the V; as will be evident by attending to the manner of pronouncing the following Words, .Favour, Canity, Felicity, Kicc, Foment, Kogue, Zgc. The French particularly, in borrowing Words from other Languages, uuially turn the final © into an /, as Cheti/ of Cattiuo; Neu/ of Noaus ; Ne/ of Natiis, (gc.
In the later Roman Writers we find the Zatin F and Greek ph frequently confounded ; as in Falanx, for '.Pha- lanx: Filofophia, for Philofophia, (gc. Which Abufe is ftill retam'd by many French Writers, who write Filofophie, Filippc, Epifane, {gc. and even iometimes by the Englijb, as in Faiitafy, Fi 1 tie, (gc.
F, in the Civil Law. Two fFsjoin'd together, fignify T)i- geftj Sec ihe Reafon thereof under the Article Digest.
FAB
F, in Mufick, is one of the figned Clefs or Keys, plac'd at the Beginning of one of the Lines of a piece of Mufick. See Clef.
Fis the Bafs-clef, and is plac'd on the fourth Line up- wards. See Bass.
Indeed, the Character or Sign by which the/and c Clefs are mark d, bear no Referable to thofe Letters. Mr. Mal- colm, thinks it were as well if we ufed the Letters them-
- L T eS, & 9 uftom has carried i( otherwife. The ordinary
Charafler of the F or Bafs-clef is ): which Kepler takes a deal of pains to deduce, by Corruption, from the Letter F it ielf. See Character.
F, in our antient Cuftoms. He that Ihall maliciouiiy ftrike any Perfon with a Weapon in Church or Church-jard, or draw any Weapon there with Intent to flrike, Ihall have one of his Ears cut off; and if he have no Ears, he Ihall be markd on the Cheek with an hot Iron, having the Let- ter F, whereby he may be known for a Fray-maker or Fighter. J
F, in Phyfical Prefcriptions, flands for Fiat, let it be done; as F. S. A. denotes as much as fiat Secundum artem.
F, among fuch as give us the numeral Value of the Let- ters, fignifies 40, according to the Verfe,
Sexta quaterdenos gerit qu<e dijlat ab alpha.
And when a Dalh was added a-top, "F it fignified 40 thou- fand.
FA is one of the Notes of Mufic, being the fourth in rif- ing in this order of the Gamma, Ut, re, mi, fa. See Note.
FABIANS, Fabii, in Antiquity, a part of the Luperci. SeeLuPERci, and Lupercalia.
Thofe Priefts were divided into two Parts; one of which was called the Fabians, and the fecond the §>uin- tilians, from their refpeftive Chiefs. The Fabians were for Romulus, and the guintilians for Remus. See Quin-
TILIANS.
FABLE, a Tale, or feign'd Narration, defign'd either to inflma or divert : Or, Fable, as Monf. de la Mottc defines it, is an Inftruaion difguis d under the Allegory of an Aftion.
Fable feems to be the moft antient way of teaching : The principal Difference between the Eloquence of tho Antients, and that of the Moderns, confifts^ according to Pere Soffit, in this, that our manner of fpeaking is Am- ple and proper; and theirs, full of Myfleries and Allegories. The Truth was ufually difguis'd under thofe ingenious In- ventions, call'd by way of Excellence, ftu*«(, Fabulif, Fa- bles that is, Words ; as intimating that there was the fame Difference between thefe fabulous Difcourfes of the learned, ?? r T c °™ mon Language of the People, as between the Words of Men, and the Voices of Beafts.
At firft, fables were only employ'd in fpeaking of the Di- vine Nature, as then conceiv'd : Whence, the antient Theo- logy was all Fable. The Divine Attributes were feparated as into lo many Perfons; and all the Oeconomy of the God- head laid down in the feigned Relations and Aaions there- of ; either by reafon the human Mind could not conceive lo much Power and Aaion in a fingle indivifible Being • or perhaps, becaufe they thought fuch Things too great and high for the Knowledge of the Vulgar. And as they could not well fpeak of the Operations of this Almighty Caufe, without fpeaking, likewife of its Effbas ; natural Philofo- phy, and at length human Nature and Morality it felf came thus to be veil d under the fame fabulous aUegoricExpref- fion ; whence the Origin of Poetry, and particularly of Epic Poetry. See Epic •Poem.
, . T he Criticks, after Aphtonius and Them, reckon three kinds of Fables, Rational, Moral, and Mix'd
Rational Fables, call'd alfo •Parables, are Relations of Ihings luppofed to have been faid and done by Men; and which might poffibly have been faid, or done, though in "IP c y Were not ' Such ' in the Sacred Writings, are) thole of the ten Virgins; of Ttives and Lazarus ; the pro- digal Son, (gc. Of thefe Rational Fables we have likewife about a dozen in Phtedras. See Parable.
Moral Faeles, call'd alfo Apologues, are thofe wherein Beafts are introduced as Aflors, Speakers, (gc. Thefe Mo- ral Fables are alfo call'd Efopic Fables : not that Efop was their Inventor, for they were in ufe long before him, viz. in the times of Homer and Hefiod ; but becaufe he excell'd therein. In this kind not only Beafts, but even fomettmes
- A Trees,
