Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/313

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FAI. FAL.
291

was to triumph over the tempter which had deceived her. She was not only to be delivered from the power of the curse, but from her was to come the deliverer of her earthly ruler, man.

After the sentence was promulgated, we find instant acknowledgment that the mysterious union, which had made this first man and woman one being in Adam, was altered. There was no longer the unity of soul; there could not be where the wife had been subjected to the husband. And then it was that Adam gave to woman her specific name—Eve or the Mother.

Thus was motherhood predicated as the true field of woman's mission, where her spiritual nature might be developed, and her intellectual agency could bear sway; where her moral sense might be effective in the progress of mankind, and her mental triumphs would be won. Eve at once comprehended this, and expressed its truth in the sentiment, uttered on the birth of her first-born, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." When her hopes for Cain were destroyed by the fratricidal tragedy, she, woman-like, still clung to the spiritual promise, transferring it to Seth. The time of her death is not recorded.

According to Blair's chronology, Adam and Eve were created on Friday, October 28th., 4004 B.C.

FAINI, DIAMANTE,

Whose maiden name was Medaglia, one of the most noted Italian poets, was born in Roako, a village in the neighbourhood of Breschia. Her poetic talent developed itself while she was yet quite a child. When she reached her fifteenth year, she was well acquainted with the ancient languages, and had written several poems, which excited the admiration of the literary world. The academies of Unanimi in Italy, of Ardetti in Padua, and that of the Arcadi of Rome, were proud to inscribe her name among their members. But she was not only a poetess,—philosophy, mathematics, theology, and astronomy, all found in her a devoted admirer and a close student. She died the 13th. of July, 1770, at Salo.

FALCONBERG, MARY,

Third daughter of Oliver Cromwell, and second wife of Thomas Lord Viscount Falconberg, was distinguished for her talents, her spirit, and her beauty. Bishop Burnet, who styles her "a wise and worthy woman," adds, "that she was more likely to have maintained the post of protector than either of her brothers; according to an observation respecting her, that those who wore breeches deserved petticoats better; but if those in petticoats had been in breeches, they would have held faster." After the deposition of Richard, of whose incapacity his sister was aware, she exerted herself in favour of Charles the Second, and is said to have greatly contributed towards the Restoration. It is certain that her husband was, by the committee of safety, sent to the Tower a short time before the return of Charles, in whose favour he held a distinguished place. Lady Falconberg was a member of the established church, and respected for her munificence and charity.