under Albrechtsberger in Vienna. He tried his fortune in many branches of musical composition, not excepting symphonies and the larger forma of church music; but his true vocation more and more developed itself in the sphere of musical learning and criticism. He published first, in 1823, his "Traité elémentaire d'Harmonie et d'Accompagnement;" afterwards, in 1824, a valuable treatise on counterpoint and fugue—"Traité du Contrepoint et de la Fugue"—which was adopted as the basis of instruction at the conservatoire. His next work was a memoir on the question—"What was the merit of the Flemish musicians in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries?" which received a prize from the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1829 he published his "Traité de l'Accompagnement de la Partition," and in 1830 his popular little work, which has been translated into English and German, "La Musique mise à la portée de tout le monde." In 1827 Fétis commenced the publication of his very valuable musical journal. La Revue Musicale, which he continued without interruption till November, 1835. Of the labour and responsibility of this task we may form some idea from his own description of it in his "Biographie Universelle des Musiciens." With the exception of ten or twelve articles, Fétis edited the first five years alone, making an amount of matter equal to about eight thousand octavo pages. During the first three years he gave every week twenty-four pages of small, close type, and in the fourth year thirty-two pages of a larger size. During this time he had to be present at all representations of new operas or revivals of old ones, at the débuts of singers at all kinds of concerts; to visit the schools of music; inquire into new systems of teaching; visit the workshops of musical instrument-makers, to render account of new inventions or improvements; analyze what appeared most important in the new music; read what was published, in France or foreign countries, upon the theory, didactics, or history of music; take cognizance of the journals relating to this art, published in Germany, in Italy, and in England, and even consult a great many scientific reviews for facts neglected in these journals; and, finally, keep up an active correspondence—and all this without neglecting his duties as a professor of composition in the conservatory, or interrupting other serious labours. At the same time M. Fétis edited the musical feuilleton in the journal Le Temps; and he says that several times he has written three articles upon a new opera on the same day, amounting in all to about twenty-five octavo pages—namely, one for his own Revue, one for the Temps, and one for the National; each article considered the opera under a different point of view, and all three appeared the day but one after the performance. Fétis commenced the collection of materials for his great biographical dictionary of musicians as early as 1806. The first volume appeared in 1837, Brussels, Meline, Cans, & Co.; and the continuation in 1844, Mayence, Schott & Sons. It is the most complete work of the kind in existence, filling eight large octavo volumes, under the title of "Biographie Universelle des Musicians et Bibliographie Générale de la Musique." It is a work invaluable for reference, though the Germans and English complain, with some justice, of the partiality displayed in this and other writings of Fétis. In the year 1833 Fétis was appointed director of the newly-established Belgium conservatoire at Brussels, which position he still holds. His musical journal has also been revived for some years past, under the title of Revue et Gazette Musicale, at Paris, and principally edited by himself and his son. He has also continued to compose music, to write and publish books and treatises—theoretic, critical, philosophical, and didactic—and to give historical concerts, and lectures upon music. For a fuller catalogue of his works, we must refer to the article "Fétis," in his "Biographie Universelle," &c. An interesting ceremony in connection with the subject of this memoir took place at Brussels during the last year, 1859—the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage. It was commemorated by the artists, the pupils of the musical conservatoire, and several of the principal state functionaries of Belgium. On the day appointed, a mass was sung in the church of the Sablon, the music of which, by the delicate attention of the ecclesiastical authorities, was of M. Fétis' own composition; after which the inauguration of his bust took place in the court of the conservatory, in presence of a large concourse of artists and functionaries. It is a bronze cast, after Geefs, and has the inscription, "To François Joseph Fétis, from the professors and pupils of the Conservatoire of Brussels." One of the expressions of the answer of M. Fétis to the address, is characteristic of the man and his career—"In choosing for this solemnity the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of my domestic happiness, you become the instruments of Providence which recompenses in a single day a life of devotion to the beautiful; for whatever opinion posterity may form of the value of my labours, I can conscientiously say that, as artist, theorist, historian, and critic, I have struggled at first with the ardour of youth, and have been subsequently taught by the lessons of experience, to realize the triumph of the beautiful, and the preservation of the soundest traditions of musical science." M. Fétis is now superintending a new and much enlarged edition of his "Biographie Universelle."—E. F. R.
FEU-ARDENT or FEVARDENTIUS, François, a famous controversialist, was born at Constance in Lower Normandy in 1539. He belonged to a good family, and might have inherited a large estate, but he became a Franciscan friar under the impression, it has been alleged, that as an ecclesiastic more than as a soldier, he would find scope for his fierce and ambitious temper. In the disturbances raised against Henri III. and Henri. IV., Feu-Ardent was one of the most violent of the seditious preachers, and he scrupled not to rebuke sharply the princes of Guise and other leaders of his own party, when he thought they were acting to prejudice the cause of the League. He was a furious persecutor of the protestants, and Daillé says of him, "he deserved his name—Feu-Ardent—perfectly well, for he was so transported with hatred, anger, and fury that he was seldom in his right senses." Feu-Ardent wrote various controversial treatises displaying much learning, but disfigured by an intolerance which even Roman Catholic critics have condemned. He is known also in connection with a valuable edition of the extant works of Irenæus. His death took place at Paris in 1610.—J. B. J.
FEUCHÈRES, Sophie, Baronne de—born at the Isle of Wight about 1795; died in 1841—daughter of a fisherman of the name of Dawes. Of her early life nothing is known with certainty. In 1817 she is found as mistress of the duke de Bourbon. In 1818 she married the baron de Feuchères—the duke settling on her an annuity of about three thousand pounds a year. In 1822 there was a formal separation between her and her husband. Her relations with the duke continued; her influence over him was considerable, and he proposed providing for her largely by will. She succeeded in getting him to become godfather to the duke d'Aumale, and to leave to him a large part of his property. This movement secured to her the interest of the Orleans branch of the Bourbons. The will by which the duke de Bourbon made dispositions in favour of his mistress and of his godson, bore date August, 1829. In the following July occurred the revolution which placed Louis Philippe on the throne. The revolution created in the mind of the duke de Bourbon a strong revulsion of feeling in favour of the exiled prince, whom he still regarded as rightful king of France. This was the state of affairs when, on the morning of the 27th of August, 1830, he was found dead, hanging from a curtain rod attached to the top of a window of his bedchamber. Suspicion fell on madame de Feuchères; but the persons who officially investigated the case, reported it as suicide. The princes de Rohan, the heirs of the duke, instituted proceedings, criminal and civil, to establish the fact of murder, and to invalidate the will. They failed in both. Suspicion continued to rest on madame de Feuchères, which was not diminished by her being received at court. Anxious litigations, connected with the duke de Bourbon's will, existed during the rest of her life. She died in England of angina pectoris.—J. A., D.
FEUCHTERSLEBEN, Ernst, Freiherr von, a German writer on mental philosophy, was born at Vienna, April 29, 1806; devoted himself to the study of medicine; was gradually promoted to a high rank in the administrative service of Austria; and died September 3, 1849. The most popular of his works is his "Zur Diätetik der Seele." His "Lehrbuch der ärztlichen Scelenkunde" has been translated into English for the Sydenham Society under the title of "Medical Psychology." Complete works ed. by Hebbel, Vienna, 1851-53, 7 vols.—K. E.
* FEUERBACH, Ludwig Andreas, fourth son of Paul Joseph Anselm Feuerbach (see the following article), was born July 28, 1804, at Anspach, Bavaria. He received his first education at the grammar-school of his native town, and
