FASHION-FAST. Americans pants-were generally worn after 1815, many elderly persons still held out in knee-breeches against all innovations, and to the present day an aged gentleman may occasionally be seen clinging to this 18th c. piece of dress. The general use of white neckcloths continued, notwithstanding the introduction of the standing collar, till the reign of George IV., when this monarch's taste for wearing a black silk kerchief or stock, and also the use of black stocks in the army, caused a remarkably quick abandonment of white neckcloths, and the adoption of black instead. The year 1825, or thereabouts, was the era of this signal improvement in costume. While these leading changes were effecting, other alterations of a less conspicuous nature were from time to time taking place. The disbanding of the army after the peace of 1815 led to various transformations besides those we have mentioned. While pantaloons were the fashionable dress, it became customary to wear Hessian boots; these, which had originated among the Hessian troops, were without tops, and were worn with small silk tassels dangling from a cut in front; being drawn over the lower part of the pantaloons, they had a neat appearance; but the keeping of them clean formed a torment that prevented their universal use. See Boots. When trousers were introduced from the practice of the army, the use of Wellington boots to go beneath them also became common. Referring to the era of 1815 to 1825 as that in which trousers, Wellington boots, and black neckcloths or stocks came into vogue, we may place the introduction of the surtout in the same period of history. From the time when the collarless and broad-skirted coat had disappeared about the commencement of the century, the fashion of coats had changed in various ways till the above-named era, when the loose frockcoat or surtout was added to the list of garments. Such is a general account of the progress of fashions in England until nearly the present day. In these fashions, the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch have participated, and there is now little to distinguish the inhabitants of one part of the United Kingdom from another. What differences exist in particular localities-as, for instance, the round hats of the women in Wales, the checked gray plaid of the Lowland Scottish peasantry, and the kilt of the Highlanders will receive some notice under their appropriate heads. The general simplifying of dress subsequent to 1815, was not unaccompanied by an expiring effort to sustain a high style of fashion. The macaroni, or highly dressed beau of the 18th c., was now succeeded by the dandy, who, with mincing, affected manners, prided himself on his starched collars, his trouser-straps, and the flashy bunch of seals which dangled from his watch-chain. The Regency was the era of this kind of supreme dandyism, but it continued till later times, and characterised a number of leading public personages, of whom notices occur in Raikes's Reminiscences, from 1831 to 1851. In the present day, may be noted a kind of breakdown of everything like formality in gentlemen's walking costume. Plain cloths, of divers hues, called Tweeds (q. v.), have almost superseded materials of a superior quality; cloth caps, or soft felted hats, called wide-awakes (see HATS), cover the head; and the feet are provided with short ankleboots instead of Wellingtons. In evening or dinner costume, however, the old etiquette of dress-coats and white neckcloths is still maintained. Among the changes that are taking place in the morning or walking dress, none is so remarkable as the growing fashion of wearing knickerbockers. These are wide loose trousers to below the knee, leaving the lower part of the leg only stockinged or covered with leggings. This fashion, which has been copied more immediately from the French Zouaves (see ZOUAVE), and partly perhaps from the common practice of stuffing the lower parts of the trousers roughly into boots in the western regions of the United States, is very much a resumption of the costumes seen in old Dutch prints. Should it become general, leg-gaiters or boots will come again into use, and the present generation may live to see the fashion of male attire work once more round to the kneebreeches of the 18th century. In female as well as in male costume, fashion seems to have a tendency to work in a circle; of this, the resumption of the farthingale, or hoop, under the name of crinoline, already referred to, offers a sufficient example, besides affording a ludicrous instance of the unreasoning manner in which extravagances in dress are usually followed. It is to be observed, however, that Englishwomen, chargeable as they are with this absurdity, set a most creditable example to their sex all over the world, in allowing no fantastic change of fashion to prevent them from taking outdoor exercise in all weathers, to which the recent introduction of india-rubber Goloshes (q. v.) has materially aided. As to the moral view that may be taken of the whimsicalities of female fashions, we might refer to the numerous papers of Steele in the Tatler and Spectator, and also the writings of other 18th c. essayists; passing these over, it is enough to quote the words of Hazlitt, a more recent essayist. Fashion,' he says, 'constantly begins and ends in two things it abhors most-singularity and vulgarity. It is the perpetual setting up and then disowning a certain standard of taste, elegance, and refinement, which has no other formation or authority than that it is the prevailing distraction of the moment; which was yesterday ridiculous from its being new, and to-morrow will be odious from its being common. It is one of the most slight and insignificant of all things. It cannot be lasting, for it depends on the constant change and shifting of its own harlequin disguises; it cannot be sterling, for, if it were, it could not depend on the breath of caprice; it must be superficial, to produce its immediate effect on the gaping crowd; and frivolous, to admit of its being assumed at pleasure by the number of those who affect to be in the fashion, to be distinguished from the rest of the world. It is not anything in itself, nor the sign of anything, but the folly and vanity of those who rely upon it as their greatest pride and ornament. It takes the firmest hold of weak, flimsy, and narrow minds, of those whose emptiness conceives of nothing excellent but what is thought so by others. That which is good for anything is the better for being widely diffused. But fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism: it is haughty, trifling, affected, servile, despotic, mean and ambitious, precise and fantastical, all in a breath-tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every rule of the minute. For a large variety of amusing particulars concerning fashions, stars of fashion,' &c., during the past two centuries, we refer to Mrs Stone's Chronicles of Fashion (Lond. 2 vols. 1845). W. C. FAST (a word common to the Teutonic tongues, which Grimm derives from a root signifying primarily to hold, keep, observe, and hence to restrain one's self; Lat. jejunium, Gr. nēsteia, Hebr. tsom) is the word used to express a certain self-imposed restraint with respect to the nourishment of the body. The abstinence enforced may be either partial, when the restriction is confined to certain articles of food; or total, when all sustenance is dispensed with for a specified time. The origin of the custom seems to be coeval with man's first FAST. experience of the salutary influence which abstinence exercises on the health, and with his more or less instinctive consciousness of the necessity of retaining the body in due subjection to the soul. By degrees, the self-mortification which it implied raised it into a sacrifice offered to the Deity; it became a religious observance, was surrounded with rites and ceremonies, and finally bore the stamp of a divine law. Climate, the habits of a people, and their creed, gave it at different periods different characteristics; but it may be pronounced to have been a recognised institution with all the more civilised nations, especially those of Asia, throughout all historic times. We find it in high estimation among the ancient Parsees of Irania. It formed a prominent feature in the ceremonies of the Mysteries of Mithras; and found its way, together with these, over Armenia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia Minor, to Palestine, and northward to the wilds of Scythia. The ancient Chinese and Hindus, and principally the latter, in accordance with their primeval view-which they held in common with the Parsees of heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, of the transmigration of the soul, and of the body as the temporary prison of a fallen spirit, carried fasting to an unnatural excess. Although the Vedas attach little importance to the excruciation of the body, yet the Pavaka, by the due observance of which the Hindu believer is purified from all his sins, requires among other things an uninterrupted fast for the space of twelve days. Egypt seems to have had few or no compulsory general fasts; but it is established beyond doubt, that for the initiation into the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, temporary abstinence was rigorously enforced. In Siam, all solemn acts are preceded by a period of fasting, the seasons of the new and full moon being especially consecrated to this rite. In Java, where abstinence from the flesh of oxen is part of the religion of all, Buddhists and worshippers of Brahma alike, the manner and times of the observance vary according to the religion of the individual. Again, in Tibet, the Dalai-lamaites and Bogdo-lamaites hold this law in common. That Greece observed and gave a high place to occasional fast-days-such as the third day of the festival of the Eleusinian mysteries, and that, for instance, those who came to consult the oracle of Trophonius, had to abstain from food for twenty-four hours-is well known. It need hardly be added, that the Romans did not omit so important an element of the festivals and ceremonies which they adopted from their neighbours, though with them the periods of fasting were of less frequent recurrence. See THESMOPHORIA. appointed by the Babylonians (Jer. xli. 2); the 10th of the tenth month (Tebeth), in remembrance of the siege of Nebuchadnezzar; the 13th of the twelfth month (Adar), the fast of Esther, and the day most rigorously kept, next to the great Day of Atonement: the 9th of the fifth month (Ab), the anniversary of the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and of the second by Titus. That the people had at all times been prone to attach great importance to the use of this penance as a visible sign of outward contrition, is clear from that ordinance of the Mosaic law which puts into the hands of the head of a family the power of confining self-imposed vows of abstinence within due limits. The community loved to express their penitence for sin, or their grief on the death of great men, by occasional fastings. They were also considered an efficient means of averting the divine wrath, of insuring victory over an enemy, or of bringing down rain from heaven. Besides, fasting was not unfrequently resorted to by those who wished to free their minds from all hindrances to meditation, as in the forty days of Moses (Exod. xxxiv. 28), or the fast of Daniel (Daniel, x. 2 and 3). This fast of Contemplation, as it might be called, seems also to have been the model imitated by the Cabbalists, some of whom are known to have fasted from Sabbath to Sabbath. In later times, when, after the destruction of the temple, sacrifices had ceased, fasting, as causing a decrease in the flesh and fat of the individual, was considered to be in some degree a substitute for the animal which had formerly been offered up by the priest. From a means to repentance and inward purification, which purpose alone it had been originally intended to serve, it became an end and a virtue in itself; an abuse, indeed, neither unknown nor undenounced even in the days of the prophets. If we add to this the endless chain of dire calamities and ever-renewed persecutions of which the Jews have been the victims for many a long century, the everincreasing number of their fasts commemorative of deaths and tribulations will be far from surprising. Most of these, however, which were superadded from time to time, soon fell into oblivion. Over and above the six already mentioned, but few entire days are now observed by the orthodox, and these merely of a local character. Fasting, with the Jews, always implies entire abstinence, and lasts, except on the Day of Atonement and the 9th of Ab when the sunset of the previous evening is the sign for its commencement-from the break of the day to the appearance of the first three stars. Sackcloth and ashes, the garb of the penitent in As to the Semitic races, although we find the ancient times, are no longer worn; but as the people of Nineveh undergoing occasional fasts, special holiness of the Day of Atonement is celeto which even animals were made to conform, yet brated by various solemnities (see FESTIVALS), 90 the Mosaic law set apart one day only in the the deepest mourning over the loss of temple and whole year for the purpose of fasting. The 10th country is visibly expressed by many ceremonies day of the seventh month (Tishri), called 'the Day in the Jewish synagogues and homes on the 9th of of Atonement' (Yom Kippur), or, as the holiest Ab. On that day also, to add the individual to the of the whole year, the Sabbath of Sabbaths,' national sorrow, the cemeteries are generally visited was ordained for the chastening of the Nephesh,' (see JEWISH RITES). Of several half-days of fasting which the traditional law explains as meaning that have survived, we will mention the first two the strictest and most rigorous abstinence from Mondays and the first Thursday in the second all food or drink, as also from washing, anoint- month (Iyar) and in the eighth month (Cheshwan), ing, the putting on of sandals, &c., from the sun- (sheni vachamishi vesheni), in celebration of the two set of the ninth to the rising of three stars on meeting-points of summer and winter; as also, several the evening of the tenth day. In process of days before the New-year or Day of Judgment, and time, five days of compulsory fasting were added, before the Day of Atonement. The individual in commemoration of certain days of humiliation is bound to celebrate by fasting the anniversary of and national misfortune-viz., the 17th of the fourth month (Tamus), as the anniversary of the taking of Jerusalem both by Nebuchadnezzar and Titus; the 3d of the seventh month (Tishri), when Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the Jewish governor 173 the death of his parents, his own wedding-day until the performance of the marriage-ceremony, and the birth of his first-born male child (up to its thirteenth year-when the duty falls upon the latter himself), on the day preceding the Pesach (Pasha) 257 FAST. -in commemoration of the sparing of the Israelite first-born in Egypt. For the several hours' fasts on the two New-years' Days, and on the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, we refer likewise to FESTIVALS, and we will only add in conclusion, that the Sabbath causes the postponement of any fast that of the Day of Atonement only excepted --which may happen to be coincident with it; and that children-girls up to their twelfth, boys to their thirteenth year-pregnant women, and the sick, are exempted from the observance. was not greater in any other doctrine or ceremony than in this. Bishops and councils, however, gradually fixed the times and seasons for the whole of Christendom. The 40 hours had gradually become 40 days, called the Quadragesima; and the Council of Orleans, in 541, made it binding upon every Christian not to eat any meat during this time, save only on the Sundays. The eighth council at Toledo, in the 7th c., declared those who ate meat during Lent, sinners unworthy to partake in the resurrection. From the 8th c. to the 11th, when a In the time of Christ, fasting, as we have seen, gradual reaction set in, the laws of fasting and the was held in high estimation. The Mondays and punishments awarded to the transgressors became Thursdays-the market-days, on which the judges stricter and stricter; interdict and excommunisat, and the law was read in the synagogues-were cation were among the penalties. By degrees they especially set aside for this purpose by the Pharisees. had become so numerous and different in kind, that The Essenes fasted even more frequently. The they were divided into-1. Jejunium generale (a Sadducees alone took exception to this rite, and fast binding for all); 2. Consuetudinarium (local were therefore considered ungodly. Christ himself fast, &c.); 3. Penitentiale (atonement for all transneither approved nor disapproved of the custom, gressions); 4. Votivum (consequent upon a vow); but, as in all matters of ceremony, allowed his 5. Voluntare (for the better carrying out of an disciples, Jews and Gentiles, to act according or undertaking). These, again, were kept either as contrary to their old habits. He is distinctly against 1. Jejunium naturale (an entire abstinence from such a commandment, and even excuses those who food or drink, especially in preparation for the did not fast. His own abstinence from food for reception of the Eucharist); 2. Abstinentia (certain forty days was like that of Moses, entirely an food only being allowed, but several times a day); individual act; and against a voluntary and limited 3. Jejunium cum abstinentia (the same food, but imitation of such abstinence, to which the spirit which must be taken once a day only); and might move a man, no objection whatever was to be 4. Jejunium sine abstinentia (all kinds of food, but taken.* During the first centuries of Christianity, only once a day). The food prohibited on partial these voluntary fasts were frequent enough; the new fast-days included, during certain periods, not only converts adhering in most cases to their old rite, the flesh of quadrupeds, fowl, and fish, but also and only taking care to change the days, which had the lacticiniai. e., all that comes from quadbeen days of abstinence in their former religions, ruped and bird, as butter, eggs, milk, &c. We for others. Besides, they were considered a befitting cannot here enter into detail; the discrepancies and preparation for holy acts and feasts, for ordin- differences of opinion with respect to the times and ation and baptism. The time mostly celebrated modes of fasting, or to the food prohibited, being, annually in common by all were the forty hours even among successive popes and contemporary from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, during bishops and elders of the church, so numerous, which time Christ lay in the sepulchre. But not and involved in such obscurities, that the church before the end of the second century was anything historians themselves shrink from enumerating like an ordinance promulgated with respect to fast- them. Suffice it to say, that they gradually ing in the new religion. It was first Montanus who, developed in the Roman Church into-1. Weekly as the Paraclete, introduced, among other laws of fasts, of which Friday, as the day of the crucifixion, excessive severity and rigour, fasting, as an inhi- seems to have been early and generally observed. bition upon the faithful. The Wednesdays and To this was added the Wednesday, as the day on Fridays, as the days when Christ was taken prisoner which the death of Christ was resolved upon. and crucified, were made days of strictest abstin- These two days received the name of Stations; a ence from all food; while on the other days of the term borrowed from the stationes of the Roman week, dried, uncooked victuals only were allowed. soldiers, in accordance with the views held by the Asceticism and monachism had their share in ascetics and monks, that they were the warriors of the gradual development of the doctrine of the Christ. At a synod in Spain in the beginning of necessity of mortifying the flesh, and as a natural the 4th c., the Saturday was superadded, but this consequence, in the growth and diffusion of the innovation met with great opposition, especially custom of fasting. Yet, in the first six centuries, in the East, where Jewish notions regarding the the difference in the various Christian communities Sabbath had obtained a more permanent recognition. 2. Vigils, originally night-services observed by the first Christians on the eve of Sundays and festivals, partly in imitation of the Jewish custom of celebrating the entrance of the sabbath and of festivals on the evening of the previous day, and * Roman Catholics, however, maintain that all the words of our Lord, which to Protestants appear to discountenance the obligation of fasting, are directed exclusively against the ostentatious and self-reliant fasts of the Pharisees. They even understand the language which he used in condemning the practice of the Pharisee fasters, as containing a direct exhortation to his own disciples-not that they should abstain from fasting that they should fast with suitable dispositions. They hold, moreover, that in exempting his disciples from fasting, he had regard only to the actual time of his own presence among them. It was incongruous. he said, that the children of the marriage should fast as long as the bridegroom was with them; but, he added, the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; and then they shall fast in those days (Mark iii. 20; Matt. ix. 15). Hence they infer, that from the time of our Lord's ascension the practice of fasting became obligatory on his disciples, the temporary cause of the exemption hitherto existing having cease I. *It is only just to add, however, that here again Catholics dissent strongly from the Protestant view of this history. They admit that the followers of Montanus did introduce greater rigour and frequency into their fasts; but they deny that before the time of Montanus the practice of fasting was not fully recognised in the Christian Church, and regarded as strictly obligatory. The very earliest allusions to the forty days' fast of Lent (tessaracosté) regard it as an estab lished and recognised institution. The very first fathers who allude to it, speak of it as 'handed down and observed by the church;' and so far is its origin from being ascribable to the influence of Montanisın, that, on the contrary, the earliest relaxations which the church admitted were a reaction against the excessive and intolerable rigour of that fanatical sect. FAST. partly in fear of the danger to which a service in With respect to the Greek Church, we have to The Church of England considers fasting a The Scottish almanacs contain lists of the fastdays of all the principal places in Scotland. These are generally one in each year, appointed by the kirk session of the Established Church of the parish, or by Besides the Bible, Schulchan Aruch, Koran, and Fasting, or deprivation of food, is, in a physiological sense, a state inconsistent with the continuance of life in most warm-blooded animals more than a few weeks. If water is not supplied, the period is much shorter, being in man commonly not more than a very few days, or at most a week. Persons have been found in coal-pits and mines, and impossible, but where water could be had, as long in other situations where access to food has been as six weeks after their seclusion, still alive, though of course in a very feeble condition; and a very small daily allowance of food has supported life 259 FAST AND LOOSE-FATE, FATALISM. longer than this, as in some cases of shipwreck, and other accidents at sea. Cases of alleged fasting, longer than this, as in the notorious woman of Tutbury, are certainly in most instances due to imposture. The insane would appear, in some instances, to bear fasting better than the healthy. Hybernating animals (see HYBERNATION) are capable of sustaining the want of food for an apparently indefinite period of weeks during the winter sleep; but no warm-blooded animal can endure fasting in anything like the same degree as the reptiles, in many of which, indeed, the natural state of existence is one of long intervals between the times of taking food, and in which the vital change of texture is remarkably slow. Thus, the remarkable amphibious animal, the Proteus anguinus, has been known to live for years without food, and the same is true of salamanders, tortoises, and even goldfishes. In fasting, the body gradually emaciates, most of the secretions are arrested, or greatly diminished, and at last the animal heat falls rapidly in all parts of the body. In attempting the recovery of persons reduced by fasting, food must be given in very small quantities at a time, and of the most nourishing and digestible quality; stimulants should be either withheld, or very cautiously administered. The most important point, next to the regulation of the food, and sometimes even before food is given at all, is the removal of the torpor and chill of the body by gradually applied heat, with friction of the limbs. See Tiedemann's Physiology; Burdach's Physiology; Chossat, Recherches sur l'Inanition. FAST AND LOOSE is the name of a cheating game, also called Pricking at the Belt, which appears to have been much practised by the gipsies in the time of Shakspeare. The following is a description: 'A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of a girdle, so that whoever shall thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away. The game is still practised at fairs, races, and similar meetings under the name of Prick the Garter; the original phrase, Fast and Loose,' however, is now used to designate the conduct of those numerous slippery characters whose code of ethics does not forbid them to say one thing and do another. FASTEN'S EVE. See SHROVE TUESDAY. FA'STI. Fas, in Latin, signifies divine law, and fastus, anything in accordance with divine law. Hence the dies fasti, or lawful days, among the Romans, were the days on which it was lawful to transact business before the prætor. But the sacred books, in which the lawful days of the year were marked, were themselves denominated fasti, and the term was employed, in an extended sense, to signify various kinds of registers, which have been often confounded with each other. These registers fall into two principal divisions-the Fasti Sacri or Kalendares, and the Fasti Annales or Historici. 1. Fasti Kalendares, or calendars of the year, were kept exclusively by the priests for about four centuries and a half after the building of the city. The appearance of the new moon was proclaimed by a pontifex, who at the same time announced to the people the time which would intervene between the Kalends (q. v.) and Nones (q. v.). See also CALENDAR. On the Nones, the country-people assembled for the purpose of learning from the Rex Sacrorum the various festivals of the month, and the days on which they would fall. In the same way, those who intended to go to law, learned on what days it would be right (fas) to do so. The mystery with which this lore was surrounded, for purposes of power and profit, by the favoured class, was dispelled by Cn. Flavius, the scribe of Appius Cæcus, who surreptitiously copied from the pontifical book the requisite information, and published it to the people in the forum. From this, time-tables (fasti) became common, very much resembling modern almanacs. They contained the days and months of the year, the Nones, Ides, lawful and unlawful days, &c.; astronomical observations on the rising and setting of the fixed stars, the commencement of the seasons, brief notices concerning the introduction and signification of certain rites, the dedication of temples, the dates of victories, disasters, and the like. In later times, the exploits and honours of the imperial family were duly entered in the calendar. The celebrated Fasti of Ovid is a sort of poetical companion to the calendar, as published by Julius Caesar, who remodelled the Roman year. Several very curious specimens of fasti on stone and marble have been discovered, of which one of the most remarkable is the Kalendarium Prænestinum, which stood in the lower part of the forum of Præneste, described by Suetonius. Of these ancient fasti, eleven are enumerated by Foggini, a learned Italian antiquary. One of the most interesting is a rural almanac, known as the Kalendarium Rusticum Farnesianum. It is cut on four sides of a cube, each side of which is divided into three columns, each column embracing a month. The various agricultural operations to be performed in each month are given on this curious relic, in addition to the ordinary information contained in these calendars. In the month of May, for example, the rustic is told that his corn must be weeded, his sheep shorn, his wool washed, &c. 2. Fasti Annales or Historici, were chronicles, containing the names of the consuls and other magistrates of the year, and an enumeration of the most remarkable events in the history of Rome, noted down opposite the days on which they occurred. From its application to these chronicles, the word fasti came to be used by the poets as A very intersynonymous with historical records. esting specimen of fasti of this class was discovered in the forum at Rome in 1547. The fragments into which it had been broken were collected and arranged by the Cardinal Alexander Farnese, and placed in the Capitol, where they may still be seen, together with some additional portions which were discovered in 1817 and 1818. See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, voce Fasti,' and also the article on 'Calendar' (Roman) in the same work. FAT LUTE is the term applied to a composition of linseed oil and pipeclay. See LUTE FATA MORGA'NA is a striking kind of mirage observed in the Strait of Messina. A spectator on the shore sees images of men, houses, ships, &c., sometimes in the water, sometimes in the air, the same object having frequently two images, one inverted. See MIRAGE. FATE, FATALISM, express a conception which has more or less prevailed in all religions. The words are derived from the Latin Fatum, which has primarily a passive signification, denoting something uttered-a decree or ordinance. The Greeks expressed the same thought by Eimarmenē. Moira, again, was the active personification of the ideathe goddess Fate or Destiny. It represented, in the Greek mythology, the final monotheistic element --the vague Unity binding together and dominating over the crowd of Olympian deities. In Homer, Moira has a double meaning, appearing sometimes as superior to the will of Zeus, and sometimes as |