his scepticism is subordinate to orthodox belief, the fundamental dogmas of the church seeming to him intuitively evident. His object was to reconcile his religious with his philosophical creed, and to remain a Christian without ceasing to be an academician. His writings against Malebranche were collected under the title Dissertations sur la recherche de la vérité, 1693.
See F. Rabbe, L’Abbé Simon Foucher (1867); C. Jourdain in Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques (1875), pp. 557-559.
FOUCQUET, JEAN, or Jehan (c. 1415–1485), French painter,
born at Tours, is the most representative and national French
painter of the 15th century. Of his life little is known, but it is
certain that he was in Italy about 1437, where he executed the
portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and that upon his return to
France, whilst retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted
the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during
his sojourn in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, which was
the basis of early 15th-century French art, and thus became
the founder of an important new school. He was court painter
to Louis XI. Though his supreme excellence as an illuminator
and miniaturist, of exquisite precision in the rendering of the
finest detail, and his power of clear characterization in work on
this minute scale, have long since procured him an eminent
position in the art of his country, his importance as a painter
was only realized when his portraits and altarpieces were for
the first time brought together from various parts of Europe
in 1904, at the exhibition of the French Primitives held at the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. One of Foucquet’s most
important paintings is the diptych, formerly at Notre Dame
de Melun, of which one wing, depicting Agnes Sorel as the
Virgin, is now at the Antwerp Museum and the other in the
Berlin Gallery. The Louvre has his oil portraits of Charles
VII., of Count Wilczek, and of Jouvenal des Ursins, besides a
portrait drawing in crayon; whilst an authentic portrait from
his brush is in the Liechtenstein collection. Far more numerous
are his illuminated books and miniatures that have come down
to us. The Brentano-Laroche collection at Frankfort contains
forty miniatures from a Book of Hours, painted in 1461 for
Etienne Chevalier who is portrayed by Foucquet on the Berlin
wing of the Melun altarpiece. From Foucquet’s hand again
are eleven out of the fourteen miniatures illustrating a translation
of Josephus at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The second volume
of this MS., unfortunately with only one of the original thirteen
miniatures, was discovered and bought in 1903 by Mr Henry
Yates Thompson at a London sale, and restored by him to France.
See Œuvres de Jehan Foucquet (Curmer, Paris, 1866–1867); A. de Champeaux and P. Gauchery, Œuvres d’art exécutées pour le duc de Berry; “Facsimiles of two histories by Jean Foucquet” from vols. i. and ii. of the Anciennetés des Juifs (London, 1902); Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles (introduction); and Georges Lafenestre, Jehan Fouquet (Paris, 1902).
FOUGÈRES, a town of north-western France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, 30 m.
N.E. of Rennes by rail. Pop. (1906) 21,847. Fougères is
built on the summit and slopes of a hill on the left bank of the
Nançon, a tributary of the Couesnon. It was formerly one of
the strongest places on the frontier towards Normandy, and it
still preserves some portions of its medieval fortifications,
notably a gateway of the 15th century known as the Porte St
Sulpice. The castle, which is situated in the lower part of the
town, directly overlooking the Nançon, is now a picturesque
ruin, but gives abundant evidence in its towers and outworks of
its former strength and magnificence. The finest of the towers
was erected in 1242 by Hugues of Lusignan, and named after
Mélusine, the mythical foundress of the family. The churches
of St Léonard and St Sulpice both date, at least in part, from
the 15th century. An hôtel de ville and a belfry, both of the 15th
century, are of architectural interest, and the town possesses
many curious old houses. There is a statue of General B. de
Lari Coisière (d. 1812), born in the town. Fougères is the seat
of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber
of commerce and a communal college. It is the chief industrial
town of its department, being a centre for the manufacture of
boots and shoes; tanning and leather-dressing and the manufacture
of sail-cloth and other fabrics are also important industries.
Trade is in dairy produce and in the granite of the
neighbouring quarries. Fougères frequently figures in Breton
history from the 11th to the 15th century. It was taken by the
English in 1166, and again in 1448; and the name of Surienne,
the captor on the second occasion, is still borne by one of the
towers of the castle. In 1488 it was taken by the troops of
Charles VIII. under la Trémoille. In the middle ages Fougères
was a lordship of some importance, which in the 13th century
passed into the possession of the family of Lusignan, and in
1307 was confiscated by the crown and afterwards changed
hands many times. In 1793, during the wars of the Vendée,
it was occupied by the insurgents.
FOUILLÉE, ALFRED JULES EMILE (1838– ), French
philosopher, was born at La Pouëze on the 18th of October
1838. He held several minor philosophical lectureships, and
from 1864 was professor of philosophy at the lycées of Douai,
Montpellier and Bordeaux successively. In 1867 and 1868 he
was crowned by the Academy of Moral Science for his work
on Plato and Socrates. In 1872 he was elected master of conferences
at the École Normale, and was made doctor of philosophy
in recognition of his two treatises, Platonis Hippias Minor sive
Socratica contra liberum arbitrium argumenta and La Liberté et le
déterminisme. The strain of the next three years’ continuous
work undermined his health and his eyesight, and he was compelled
to retire from his professorship. During these years he
had published works on Plato and Socrates and a history of
philosophy (1875); but after his retirement he further developed
his philosophical position, a speculative eclecticism through
which he endeavoured to reconcile metaphysical idealism with
the naturalistic and mechanical standpoint of science. In
L’Évolutionnisme des idées-forces (1890), La Psychologie des
idées-forces (1893), and La Morale des idées-forces (1907), is
elaborated his doctrine of idées-forces, or of mind as efficient
cause through the tendency of ideas to realize themselves in
appropriate movement. Ethical and sociological developments
of this theory succeed its physical and psychological treatment,
the consideration of the antinomy of freedom being especially
important. Fouillée’s wife, who by a previous marriage was the
mother of the poet and philosopher Jean Marie Guyau (1854–1888),
is well known, under the pseudonym of “G. Bruno,”
as the author of educational books for children.
His other chief works are: L’Idée moderne du droit en Allemagne, en Angleterre et en France (Paris, 1878); La Science sociale contemporaine (1880); La Propriété sociale et la démocratie (1884); Critique des systèmes de morale contemporains (1883); La Morale, l’art et la religion d’après Guyau (1889); L’Avenir de la métaphysique fondée sur l’expérience (1889); L’Enseignement au point de vue national (1891); Descartes (1893); Tempérament et caractère (2nd ed., 1895); Le Mouvement positiviste et la conception sociologique du monde (1896); Le Mouvement idéaliste et la réaction contre la science positive (1896); La Psychologie du peuple français (2nd ed., 1898); La France au point de vue moral (1900); L’Esquisse psychologique des peuples européens (1903); Nietzsche et l’ “immoralisme” (1903); Le Moralisme de Kant (1905).
FOULD, ACHILLE (1800–1867), French financier and politician,
was born at Paris on the 17th of November 1800. The son of
a rich Jewish banker, he was associated with and afterwards
succeeded his father in the management of the business. As
early as 1842 he entered political life, having been elected in
that year as a deputy for the department of the Hautes Pyrénées.
From that time to his death he actively busied himself with the
affairs of his country. He readily acquiesced in the revolution
of February 1848, and is said to have exercised a decided influence
in financial matters on the provisional government then formed.
He shortly afterwards published two pamphlets against the use
of paper money, entitled, Pas d’Assignats! and Observations
sur la question financière. During the presidency of Louis
Napoleon he was four times minister of finance, and took a
leading part in the economical reforms then made in France.
His strong conservative tendencies led him to oppose the doctrine
of free trade, and disposed him to hail the coup d’état and the
new empire. On the 25th of January 1852, in consequence of
the decree confiscating the property of the Orleans family,
