requirements of their station in life. Filicaja's sonnets are singularly beautiful, rivalling Petrarch's in style and versification; whilst, according to Muratori, the style and language of his "Canzones" are lofty and inimitable. The famous sonnet, "Italia, O tu cui feo la sorte," so beautifully interpreted by Byron, and translated into every European language; and the one on "Time," so elegantly put into English verse by Dr. J. F. Waller—"I gazed, in thought, on a fleet darkling tide"—have an indisputable claim to general admiration. It is, however, admitted by every impartial critic that, although a highly poetical tone pervades the works of Filicaja, many of his compositions are disfigured by tropes and far-fetched expressions, partaking still of that wearisome flippancy unhappily introduced by Marini at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Maffei does not hesitate to exclude Filicaja from the first rank of the lyric poets of Italy, but he admits, at the same time, that he is the first of the age in which he lived. Having occupied many high dignities in the state, and having been created a senator by Duke Cosmo III., Filicaja died 25th September, 1707.—A. C. M.
FILIPEPI, Sandro. See Botticelli.
FILLANS, James, sculptor, was born at Wilsontown, Lanarkshire, March 27, 1808. As a boy he kept sheep on a Renfrewshire farm, and when a youth was apprenticed to a Paisley weaver; but, disliking the loom and shuttle, he was transferred to a stone-mason with whom he completed his apprenticeship. In this craft, he for a while practised as a journeyman; but whilst yet an apprentice he had taught himself to model in clay, and now, by the advice and aid of the poet Motherwell, he cultivated his talents, and found purchasers of his efforts. After a while he was enabled to spend a few months in Paris, which he employed diligently in extending his technical knowledge. On his return in 1836 he settled in London; and seven busts (including a very clever one of Allan Cunningham), which he contributed to the Royal Academy exhibition of 1837, showed that he had found friends and patrons in his new home. From this time his name occurs in the catalogues as a pretty regular exhibitor, but his fame was mainly secured by a fine bust of the poet Wilson (1845), and a colossal statue of Sir James Shaw, executed for the town of Kilmarnock; both of which excited great admiration. Fillans was, however, ambitious of acquiring fame as a poetic sculptor, and he produced in succession a series of designs in high-relief illustrative of the poems of Burns; a bas-relief of Bacchus and Silenus (1842); and some other works of a similar class. His great work, however, was a marble group, the size of life, of "The Blind Teaching the Blind," which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1845. Other groups and statues were a "Boy and Fawn," a work of great ability; a "Madonna" (1847); and a "Rachel" (1849). He also designed a monument to the poet Motherwell, and some other monumental works. He died at Glasgow, September 12, 1852, having in consequence of failing health removed from London in the previous year. His colossal marble statue of "Rachel Weeping for her Children," was left unfinished, as well as a series of designs for bassi-relievi of "The Taming of the Wild Horse," a subject in which he had become greatly interested, and which he fancied would afford scope for originality of conception and character. A Memoir of James Fillans, by his friend James Paterson, was published in 1854. Besides the memoir, it contains engravings from many of Fillans' designs, and some poetical attempts from his pen.—J. T—e.
FILLEAU, Jean, Sieur de la Bouchetterie, born at Poitiers in 1600; died in 1682; doctor of laws, avocat at the parliament of Paris, afterwards professor of laws at the university of Poitiers, and king's advocate at the law courts there. In 1661 he received letters of noblesse. As magistrate and as pamphleteer he engaged in an active war against the Jansenists. Pascal replied to some of his charges in the Provincial Letters. Filleau published several works of temporary interest, chiefly in relation to the Jansenist disputes.—J. A., D.
* FILLMORE, Millard, ex-president of the United States, has risen from the humblest beginnings to the highest position attainable by an American citizen. He was born on the 7th of January, 1800, at Summer Hill, Cayuga county, in the state of New York, the son of a small farmer; and his education was restricted by the narrow circumstances of his father. Apprenticed to a wool-carder in his father's locality, he made amends by his zeal in the pursuit of knowledge for the scantiness of his means; and before he was of age, his talents and aptitude procured him the notice and esteem of Judge Wood, an eminent lawyer of his native county, who invited the young man to a desk in his office, and offered to defray his expenses while he qualified himself for the profession of the law. Fillmore accepted the offer to a certain extent, while he contrived, by teaching in a school, to press as lightly as possible upon the generosity of his benefactor. In 1821 he removed to Erie county, and pursued his legal studies in the city of Buffalo. In 1827 he was admitted as an attorney; in 1829 as a counsellor in the supreme court; and in 1830 he entered into partnership with an older member of the bar. It was in 1829 that he commenced his political career as a representative of Erie county in the state legislature, and in 1832 he was elected to the congressional house of representatives. For a number of years he alternated between political life and the exclusive practice of his profession, rising steadily in the general estimation as an able lawyer and consistent and promising leader of the whig party. Elected in 1847 to the important post of comptroller of the state of New York, he enjoyed in 1848 the still higher honour of being carried by his party as vice-president of the United States. The new president, General Taylor, entered upon his office in the March of 1849, and on his sudden death in July, 1850, Mr. Fillmore became in virtue of his office, president of the United States. He was installed in the White House, at what was in several respects a critical moment in the history of the Union. It was the era of the Lopez expedition against Cuba; and of a more than usual bitterness in the relations between north and south on the slavery question. Mr. Fillmore made Daniel Webster his secretary of state, an appointment which strengthened and popularized his administration—one distinguished generally by conciliation without weakness. President Fillmore's messages praised the fugitive slave law, and recommended a protective, but not a prohibitory tariff. Under his presidency, California was admitted as a new state into the Union. In his final message he had to deplore the death of Webster; and in the March of 1853 he yielded up his office to his successor, General Pierce. At the last presidential election, Mr. Fillmore was a candidate, but he received a very small minority of votes, the contest lying mainly between Mr. Buchanan and Colonel Fremont. At a comparatively recent date, Mr. Fillmore visited Europe, and was received in England by her majesty, with the distinction which his character and career claimed for him.—F. E.
FILMER, Sir Robert, son of Sir Edward Filmer of East Sutton in Kent, was born in the early part of the seventeenth century, and educated at Trinity college, Cambridge. During the civil war he became known as a political essayist and pamphleteer. In 1646 he published, in answer to Hunton, a treatise entitled "The Anarchy of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy," His more celebrated treatise, "Patriarcha," though written earlier, was first published in 1680. This work is less remembered on its own account, than because it furnished the text for Locke's two treatises on Government, published in 1694. Filmer maintains, in opposition not only to the puritan writers and the constitutionalists, but to the schoolmen and Bellarmine, that men are not naturally free, and therefore can claim no right to form compacts with their rulers, or make their consent necessary to the validity of their acts. He died in 1688.—T. A.
FIMBRIA, C. Flavius, a Roman of obscure birth, whose ability and merit won for him the highest offices in the state. He defeated Q. Lutatius Catulus at the consular elections, 105 b.c., and thus held office with Marius during the second consulate of the latter. The integrity of his provincial administration is questionable, since he was brought to trial for extortion by M. Gratidius, and was witnessed against by M. Æmilius Scaurus. He was, however, acquitted. As a jurist he is praised by Cicero. His oratorical reputation was but temporary.—R. B.
FIMBRIA, C. Flavius, possibly son of the preceding, a violent and unscrupulous partisan of Marius and Cinna. In 86 b.c., as legate or master of the horse, he accompanied the consul, L. V. Flaccus, to Asia. Availing himself of the disaffection of the troops caused by the consul's avarice and cruelty, he excited a mutiny against Flaccus, whom he defeated, and ultimately killed at Nicomedia, 85 b.c. He fought successfully against Mithridates and his allies, alienating, however, his own troops by his wanton cruelty. On the approach of Sulla his soldiers deserted; and he fled to a temple of Æsculapius, near Pergamus, and there terminated his existence, 84 b.c.—R. B.
