him, there is a higher and far more exalted position within his
view; and the ways are infinite in which he occupies his thoughts
about the fears, or hopes, or expectations of a future life. I believe
that the truth of that future cannot be brought to his knowledge
by any exertion of his mental powers, however exalted they may
be; that it is made known to him by other teaching than his own,
and is received through simple belief of the testimony given. Let
no one suppose for an instant that the self-education I am about to
commend, in respect of the things of this life, extends to any considerations
of the hope set before us, as if man by reasoning could
find out God. It would be improper here to enter upon this subject
further than to claim an absolute distinction between religious
and ordinary belief. I shall be reproached with the weakness of
refusing to apply those mental operations which I think good in
respect of high things to the very highest. I am content to bear
the reproach. Yet even in earthly matters I believe that ‘the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead’; and I have never seen anything
incompatible between those things of man which can be known by
the spirit of man which is within him and those higher things concerning
his future, which he cannot know by that spirit.”
Faraday gives the following note as to this lecture:—
“These observations were delivered as a lecture before His Royal Highness the Prince Consort and the members of the Royal Institution on the 6th of May 1854. They are so immediately connected in their nature and origin with my own experimental life, considered either as cause or consequence, that I have thought the close of this volume not an unfit place for their reproduction.”
As Dr Bence Jones concludes—
“His standard of duty was supernatural. It was not founded on any intuitive ideas of right and wrong, nor was it fashioned upon any outward experiences of time and place, but it was formed entirely on what he held to be the revelation of the will of God in the written word, and throughout all his life his faith led him to act up to the very letter of it.”
Published Works.—Chemical Manipulation, being Instructions to Students in Chemistry (1 vol., John Murray, 1st ed. 1827, 2nd 1830, 3rd 1842); Experimental Researches in Electricity, vols. i. and ii., Richard and John Edward Taylor, vols. i. and ii. (1844 and 1847); vol. iii. (1844); vol. iii. Richard Taylor and William Francis (1855); Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics, Taylor and Francis (1859); Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (edited by W. Crookes) (Griffin, Bohn & Co., 1861); On the Various Forces in Nature (edited by W. Crookes) (Chatto & Windus, no date).
Biographies.—Faraday as a Discoverer, by John Tyndall (Longmans, 1st ed. 1868, 2nd ed. 1870); The Life and Letters of Faraday, by Dr Bence Jones, secretary of the Royal Institution, in 2 vols. (Longmans, 1870); Michael Faraday, by J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S. (Macmillan, 1872); Michael Faraday; his Life and Work, by S. P. Thompson (1898). (J. C. M.)
FARAH, a river of Afghanistan. It rises in the southern
slopes of Siah-Koh, which forms the southern wall of the valley
of Herat, and after a south-westerly course of about 200 m. falls
into the Seistan Hamun. At the town of Farah it has a width
of 150 yds. in the dry season with 2 ft. of water and a clear swift
stream. It is liable to floods, when it becomes impassable for
weeks. The lower valley of the Farah Rud is fertile and well
cultivated.
FARAH, a town of Afghanistan. It is situated on the river
that bears its name on the main road between Herat and
Kandahar, 160 m. S. of Herat and 225 m. W. of Kandahar.
It is a place of some strategical importance, as it commands the
approaches to India and Seistan from Herat. The town (2460 ft.
above sea-level) is a square walled enclosure standing in the
middle of the plain, surrounded with a walled rampart. Owing
to its unhealthiness it is now almost deserted, being only occupied
by the Afghan regiment quartered there. It is a place of great
antiquity, being probably the Phra mentioned by Isidore of
Charax in the 1st century A.D. It was sacked by the armies of
Jenghiz Khan, and the survivors transported to a position
farther north, where there are still great ruins. The population
returned to the original site after the destruction of the medieval
city by Shah Abbas, and the city prospered again until its bloody
siege by Nadir Shah. Subsequently under constant attacks it
declined, and in 1837 the population amounting to 6000 was
carried off to Kandahar. The sole industry of the town at
present is the manufacture of gunpowder. In the districts east
of Farah are to be found the most fanatical of the Durani Afghan
tribes.
FARAZDAQ [Hammām ibn Ghālib ibn Sa’sa’, known as
al-Farazdaq] (ca. 641–ca. 728), Arabian poet, was born at Basra.
He was of the Dārim, one of the most respected divisions of
the bani Tamīm, and his mother was of the tribe of Ḍabba.
His grandfather Sa’sa’ was a Bedouin of great repute, his father
Ghālib followed the same manner of life until Basra was founded,
and was famous for his generosity and hospitality. At the age
of fifteen Farazdaq was known as a poet, and though checked for
a short time by the advice of the caliph Ali to devote his attention
to the study of the Koran, he soon returned to making verse.
In the true Bedouin spirit he devoted his talent largely to satire
and attacked the bani Nahshal and the bani Fuqaim. When
Ziyād, a member of the latter tribe, became governor of Basra,
the poet was compelled to flee, first to Kufa, and then, as he
was still too near Ziyād, to Medina, where he was well received
by Sa‛īd ibn ul-Āsī. Here he remained about ten years, writing
satires on Bedouin tribes, but avoiding city politics. But he
lived a prodigal life, and his amorous verses led to his expulsion
by the caliph Merwan I. Just at that time he learned of the
death of Ziyād and returned to Basra, where he secured the
favour of Ziyād’s successor ‛Obaidallāh ibn Ziyād. Much of his
poetry was now devoted to his matrimonial affairs. He had
taken advantage of his position as guardian and married his
cousin Nawār against her will. She sought help in vain from
the court of Basra and from various tribes. All feared the poet’s
satires. At last she fled to Mecca and appealed to the pretender
‛Abdallah ibn Zobair, who, however, succeeded in inducing her
to consent to a confirmation of the marriage. Quarrels soon
arose again. Farazdaq took a second wife, and after her death
a third, to annoy Nawār. Finally he consented to a divorce
pronounced by Hasan al-Baṣrī. Another subject occasioned a
long series of verses, namely his feud with his rival Jarīr (q.v.)
and his tribe the bani Kulaib. These poems are published as
the Naka’id of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq (ed. A. A. Bevan, Leiden,
1906 ff.). In political life Farazdaq was prevented by fear from
taking a large part. He seems, however, to have been attached
to the house of Ali. During the reign of Moawiya I. he avoided
politics, but later gave his allegiance to ‛Abdallah ibn Zobair.
The fullest account of his life is contained in J. Hell’s Das Leben Farazdaq nach seinen Gedichten (Leipzig, 1903); Arabian stories of him in the Kitab ul-Aghāni and in Ibn Khallikān. A portion of his poems was edited with French translation by R. Boucher (Paris, 1870); the remainder have been published by J. Hell (Munich, 1900). (G. W. T.)
FARCE, a form of the comic in dramatic art, the object of
which is to excite laughter by ridiculous situations and incidents
rather than by imitation with intent to ridicule, which is the
province of burlesque, or by the delineation of the play of
character upon character, which is that of comedy. The history
of the word is interesting. Its ultimate origin is the Latin farcire,
to stuff, and with the meaning of “stuffing” or forcemeat it
appears in old cookery books in English. In medieval Latin
farsa and farsia were applied to the expansion of the Kyrie
eleison in litanies, &c., by interpolating words and phrases between
those two words; later, to words, phrases and rhymed
verses, sometimes in the vernacular, also interpolated in various
parts of the service. The French farce, the form to which we
owe our word, was originally the “gag” that the actors in the
medieval drama inserted into their parts, generally to meet
the popular demand for a lightening of humour or buffoonery.
It has thus been used for the lighter form of comic drama (see
Drama), and also figuratively for a piece of idle buffoonery,
sham, or mockery.
FAREHAM, a market town in the Fareham parliamentary
division of Hampshire, England, 76 m. S.W. from London by the
London & South Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901)
8246. It lies at the head of a creek opening into the north-western
corner of Portsmouth harbour. The principal industries
are the manufacture of sackings, ropes, bricks, coarse earthenware,
terra-cotta, tobacco-pipes and leather. Fareham has a
considerable trade in corn, timber and coal; the creek being
accessible to vessels of 300 tons. Three miles E. of Fareham,
on Portsmouth harbour, are the interesting ruins of Porchester
