The Eclectic Review was the only periodical with which he established a connexion; but his contributions to that journal, which were begun in 1807, number no fewer than 185 articles. On his marriage in May 1808 he removed to Bourton-on-the-Water, a small village in Gloucestershire, where he remained till 1817, when he returned to Downend and resumed his duties to his old congregation. Here he published in 1820 his Essay on Popular Ignorance, which was the enlargement of a sermon originally preached on behalf of the British and Foreign School Society. In 1821 he removed to Stapleton near Bristol, and in 1822 he began a series of fortnightly lectures at Broadmead chapel, Bristol, which were afterwards published. On the settlement of Robert Hall at Bristol this service was discontinued, as in such circumstances it appeared to Foster to be “altogether superfluous and even bordering on impertinent.” The health of Foster during the later years of his life was somewhat infirm, the result chiefly of the toil and effort of literary composition; and the death of his only son, his wife and the greater number of his most intimate friends combined with his bodily ailments to lend additional sombreness to his manner of regarding the events and arrangements of the present world—the “visage of death” being almost his “one remaining luminary.” He died at Stapleton on the 15th of October 1843.
The cast of Foster’s mind was meditative and reflective rather than logical or metaphysical, and though holding moderately Calvinistic views, his language even in preaching very seldom took the mould of theological forms. Though always retaining his connexion with the Baptist denomination, the evils resulting from organized religious communities seemed to him so great that he came to be “strongly of opinion that churches are useless and mischievous institutions, and the sooner they are dissolved the better.” The only Christian observances which he regarded as of any importance were public worship and the Lord’s Supper, and it so happened that he never administered the ordinance of baptism. His cast of thought is largely coloured by a constant reference to the “endless future.” He was a firm believer in supernatural appearances, and cherished a longing hope that a ray of light from the other world might sometimes in this way be vouchsafed to mortals. As a writer he was most painstaking and laborious in his choice of diction, and his style has its natural consequent defects, though the result is eloquent in its way.
Besides the works already alluded to, Foster was the author of a Discourse on Missions (1818); “Introductory Essay” to Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion (1825); “Observations on Mr Hall’s Character as a Preacher,” prefixed to the collected edition of Hall’s Works (1832); an “Introduction” to a pamphlet by Mr Marshman on the Serampore Missionaries; several political letters to the Morning Chronicle, and contributions to the Eclectic Review, published posthumously in 2 vols., 1844. His Life and Correspondence, edited by J. E. Ryland, was published in 1846.
FOSTER, SIR MICHAEL (1836–1907), English physiologist,
was born at Huntingdon on the 8th of March 1836. After
graduating in medicine at London University in 1859, he began
to practise in his native town, but in 1867 he returned to London
as teacher of practical physiology at University College, where
two years afterwards he became professor. In 1870 he was
appointed by Trinity College, Cambridge, to its praelectorship in
physiology, and thirteen years later he became the first occupant
of the newly-created chair of physiology in the university,
holding it till 1903. He excelled as a teacher and administrator,
and had a very large share in the organization and development
of the Cambridge biological school. From 1881 to 1903 he was
one of the secretaries of the Royal Society, and in that capacity
exercised a wide influence on the study of biology in Great
Britain. In 1899 he was created K.C.B., and served as president
of the British Association at its meeting at Dover. In the
following year he was elected to represent the university of
London in parliament. Though returned as a Unionist, his
political action was not to be dictated by party considerations,
and he gravitated towards Liberalism; but he played no
prominent part in parliament and at the election of 1906 was
defeated. His chief writings were a Textbook of Physiology
(1876), which became a standard work, and Lectures on the
History of Physiology in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries (1901),
which consisted of lectures delivered at the Cooper Medical
College, San Francisco, in 1900. He died suddenly in London
on the 29th of January 1907.
FOSTER, MYLES BIRKET (1825–1899), English painter,
was born at North Shields. At the age of sixteen he entered the
workshop of Ebenezer Landells, a wood engraver, with whom
he worked for six years as an illustrative draughtsman, devoting
himself mainly to landscape. During the succeeding fifteen
years he became famous as a prolific and accomplished illustrator,
but about 1861 abandoned illustration for painting, and gained
wide popularity by his pictures, chiefly in water colours, of
landscapes and rustic subjects, with figures, mainly of children.
He was elected in 1860 associate and in 1862 full member of the
Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. His work is memorable
for its delicacy and minute finish, and for its daintiness and
pleasantness of sentiment.
See Birket Foster, his Life and Work (extra number of the Art Journal) by Marcus B. Huish (1890), an interesting sketch; and Birket Foster, R.W.S., by H. M. Cundall (London, 1906), a very complete and fully illustrated biography.
FOSTER, STEPHEN COLLINS (1826–1864), American song
and ballad writer, was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the
4th of July 1826. He was the youngest child of a merchant of
Irish descent who became a member of the state legislature
and was related by marriage to President Buchanan. Stephen
early showed talent for music, and played upon the flageolet,
the guitar and the banjo; he also acquired a fair knowledge
of French and German. He was sent to school in Towanda,
Pennsylvania, and later to Athens, Pennsylvania, and when
thirteen years old he wrote the song “Sadly to Mine Heart
Appealing.” At sixteen he wrote “Open thy Lattice, Love”;
at seventeen he entered his brother’s business house, Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he remained about three years, composing meanwhile
such popular pieces as “Old Uncle Ned,” “O Susannah!” and
others. He then adopted song-writing as a profession. His chief
successes were songs written for the negro melodists or Christy
minstrels. Besides those mentioned the following attained
great popularity: “Nelly was a Lady,” “Old Kentucky Home,”
“Old Folks at Home,” “Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground,” &c.
For these and other songs the composer received considerable
sums, “Old Folks at Home” bringing him, it is said, 15,000
dollars. For most of his songs Foster wrote both songs and music.
In 1850 he married and moved to New York, but soon returned
to Pittsburg. His reputation rests chiefly on his negro melodies,
many of which have been popular on both sides of the Atlantic
and sung in many tongues. “Old Black Joe,” the last of these
negro melodies, appeared in 1861. His later songs were sentimental
ballads. Among these are “Old Dog Tray,” “Gentle
Annie,” “Willie, we have missed you,” &c. His “Come where
my Love lies Dreaming” is a well known vocal quartet. Although
as a musician and composer Foster has little claim to high
rank, his song-writing gives him a prominent place in the modern
developments of popular music. He died at New York on the 13th of January 1864.
FOSTORIA, a city, partly in Seneca, partly in Hancock, and
partly in Wood county, Ohio, U.S.A., 35 m. S. by E. of Toledo.
Pop. (1890) 7070; (1900) 7730 (584 foreign-born); (1910) 9597.
It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the New York, Chicago &
St Louis, the Ohio Central, the Lake Erie & Western, and the
Hocking Valley railways, and by two interurban electric lines.
The city is situated in an agricultural region, and oil abounds in
the vicinity. Among the city’s manufactures are glass, flour,
planing mill products, brass and iron, carriages, barrels, incandescent
lamps, carbons, wire nails and fences, automobile
engines and parts, railway torpedoes and muslin underwear.
The waterworks are owned and operated by the municipality.
In 1832, upon the coming of the first settlers, two towns, Rome
and Risdon, were laid out on the site of what is now Fostoria.
A bitter rivalry arose between them, but they were finally united
under one government, and the city thus formed was named in
