Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/529

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FATAL DOWRY. FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY. a number of years earlier. Ii was imitated by Rowe in his Fair Penitent. FATALISM (from fatal, from Lat. fatalis, relating to fate, from (alum, fate, fr fart, 6k. pirai, phanai, to speak. Ski. blul, to shine). The doctrine that the course of events is so deter- mined that what an individual wills can have no effeel upon that course. Fatalism must be care- fully distinguished from determinism (q.v.), as the confusion of these, two c leptions has been responsible for much of the popular prejudice existing against determinism. Fatalism, as lias been said, denies that will lias efficacy in shap- ing events; determinism in its scientific form asserts that will may and does shape events. Determinism maintains that this causally effi- cient will is itself to be causally accounted for; tin- is entirely different from the fatalistic asser- tion that will counts for nothing. In fact, de- terminism and fatalism are fundamentally an- tagonistic. Determinism asserts that events are determined by some of the events that imme- diately precede them; that if the latter were different the former would be different. Fatal- ism denies that immediately preceding events have anything to do with the origination of events immediately following: it asserts that the latter would occur even if the former were Changed. The fatalist means, when lie says that he is fated to die at a certain time, that no mat- ter how much the intervening events may be al- tered the death will, nevertheless, occur at the predetermined moment. To say that one's death is fixed by fate is to deny that it takes place by natural law. Or, more accurately, it is to say that, however much one varies the cause, one cannot vary the effect. For instance, the fatalist soldier does not fear the battle, for he argues that at a fixed moment be must die; hence a mortal wound received in battle does not shorten his life. Should he escape the wound by avoiding the battle, he might be poisoned at that appointed time; should he escape the poison by due precau- tion, lie might slip and crush his skull; should he avoid a fall by keeping quiet indoors, an assassin might attack him in his own apart- ments. Thus the death at an appointed hour is decreed, but not the particular means that shall bring it about. Hence the futility of the at- tempt to escape death ; for such an attempt con- sists always in the avoidance of the causes of death, but to avoid one cause exposes one to another. Tt can now be seen that the fatalist's position is that the end is predetermined, but not the means; the determinist's position is that the events now occurring lead by causality to other events, which are thus fixed because their causes are actually existent. Or, to put it in still an- other way, for the fatalist what actually deter- mines the event is not another event immediately preceding, but some mysterious decree issued by some mysterious agent ages before the event. This enables us to see that fatalism gives no scope to the will. But. determinism, which merely asserts that every event has its deter- mining conditions in its immediate antecedents, includes among the antecedents the human will, unless the determinism is of a materialistic type, and materialistic determinism is now generally discredited. (See Materialism.) Thus deter- minism is consistent with a belief in the effi- ciency of will, and fatalism is not. Consult Mill, Logic, itatiocination, and Induction, hook vi., i hapter ii. (London, lssl i . FATAL MARRIAGE, Tin.; on. TH1 ii i m i.ii.kv. A. tragedj by Southerne (1694), founded on Mrs, Behn's novel The Nun. the underplot, omitted in Sarrick's revival M757), was drawn from Fletcher's i;ilit W <///.•/ Thi pint dials with the trials of a young girl, 1-a heiia, who has unwittingly committed bigamy. .Mrs. Barry created the leading role. FATA MORGANA, f-i'ta inorga'na ill., fairy Morgana, who is supposed to cause the mi rage). A striking kind of mirage observed in the strait of Messina and elsewhere in Italy. A spec- tator on the shore sees images of men, houses, ship-, etc., sometimes in the water. SOtneti - in the air. the same object having frequently two images, one inverted. See Mirage. FATA MORGANA. A fairy, the sister of Arthur and pupil of Merlin, called also "Morgaine la Fee" and "Morgue la Fay," represented in Boiardo's Orlando Tnnamorato as dispensing riches from her home at the bottom of a lake. FATBIRD. See Sandpiper ; Oilbibd. FATEHPUR, fiit'i-poor'. See Fathipir. FATEHPTJR-SIKRI, sik'ri. An ancient cap- ital of the Mogul Empire, India, 2.'i miles east of Agra (Map: India, C 3). It is celebrated for its well-preserved remains of magnificent archi- tectural works, among which arc a mosque, sev- eral palaces, etc., inclosed by a stone wall, five miles in circuit. These date from 1570, and were built by the Emperor Akbar and his son Jehan- gir; but after the death of the latter the city was abandoned and the seat of power transferred to Agra. The small modern town of Fatehpur and its suburb Sikri, near the ruins, have a population of about 7000. FATES. See Parc.s. FATHEAD. The most common of the blunt- nosed minnows (Pimephales promelas) , numer- ous all over the warmer parts of the United States. It is 2 V 2 inches long, dusky-olivaceous, the head jet-black (in the male), and a black bar across the dorsal fin; but it. is highly variable. FATHER-LASHER (apparently from father + lasher; for father, in this usage, compare per- haps daddy longlegs). A small fish (Coitus bubalis) , the most common and spiny of the Brit- ish sculpins (Cottida?). armed with strong spines, on the back of the large head and on the gill- eovers. It is brown above, whitish beneath, curi- qjisly marbled and spotted, the fins marbled black and white, and repulsive in appearance: its flesh is good, but little eaten in Great Britain. When touched it distends its gill-eovers, sets out its spines, and assumes a very threatening ap- pearance. FATHER OF ANGLING. Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler. FATHER OF ECCLESIASTICAL HIS- TORY. The name given to Eusebius of Ca?sarea. FATHER OF ENGLISH CATHEDRAL MUSIC. A name generallv given to Thomas Talli- .,r Tallys (1515-85), organist of Waltham Abbey, gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and com- poser of Service in the Dorian Mode. FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY. A title applied by Dryden to Chaucer.