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F.
The sixth letter in the English and Latin alphabets, and the same as the Greek digamma or the ¢ or ph. and the vau of the Hebrew, which has a numerical value of six.
F.°. In French Masonic documents the abbreviation of Frére, or Brother. FF. . is the abbreviation of Fréres, or Brethren.
FABRE-PALAPRAT. BERNARD RAYMOND
The restorer, or, to speak more correctly, the organizer of the Order of the Temple at Paris, of which he was elected Grand Master in 1804. He died at Pau, in the lower Pyrénées, February 18, 1838 (see Temple Order of the).
FACULTY OF ABRAC. In the so-called Leland Manuscript. it is said that Freemasons "conceal the way of wynninge the facultye of Abrac." That is, that they conceal the method of acquiring the powers bestowed by a knowledge of the magical talisman that is called Abracadabra (see Abracadabra and Leland Manuscript).
FAITH. In the theological ladder, the explanation of which forms a part of the instruction of the First Degree of Masonry, faith is said to typify the lowest round. Faith, here, is synonymous with confidence or trust, and hence we find merely a repetition of the lesson which had been previously taught that the first, the essential qualification of a candidate for initiation, is that he should trust in God. In the lecture of the same Degree, it is said that "Faith may be lost in sight;
Hope ends in fruition; but Charity extends beyond the grave, through the boundless realms of eternity And this is said, bee cause as faith is "the evidence of things not seen," when we see we no longer believe by faith but through demonstration; and as hope lives only in the expectation of possession, it ceases to exist when the object once hoped for is at length enjoyed, but charity, exercised on earth in acts of mutual kindness and forbearance, is still found in the world to come, in the sublimer form of mercy from God to his erring creatures.
FAITHFUL BREAST. See Breast, the Faithful.
FALK, RABBI DE. A native Israelite of Furth, mho attracted attention in London at the close of the eighteenth century in consequence of his presumed extraordinary powers, acquired through the secrets of the Cabala, as a Thaumaturgist, a worker of wonders. It was alleged. among other surprising stories that he could and did transmute metals, making one into another, and thereby acquired large sums with which he was liberal to the poor. A merry incident is perhaps not familiar to the reader. An invitation was extended by the Baal Shem, the sacerdotal pronouncer of the Holy Name, to the Doctor to call as a visitor for a friendly and philosophical discussion. This was assented to, when the Doctor was asked to fix a time.
He did 80 by taking from his pocket a small taper and, handing it to his new friend, saying: "Light this, sir, when you get home, and I shall be with you as soon as it goes out." This the gentleman did next morning, expecting an early call, but the taper appeared to have a charmed life, and it was deposited in a special closet, where it continued to burn for three weeks, and until in the evening, when the Doctor drove up to the door and alighted, much to the - surprise of the host, who, with wonderment, had watched the bright-burning taper. As soon as his visitor was announced, the light and candlestick disappeared. The Doctor was asked if the candlestick would t)e returned, when he replied, "It is already in the kitchen;" and so it was found. A further incident is mentioned of his leaving upon his death a sealed box to his particular friend, Aaron Goldsmid, stating that to open it portended evil. Aaron could not withstand his curiosity, and one day opened it, and ere the night came Aaron was picked up dead.
Brother Gordon P. G. Hills (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1913, volume xxvi, pages 93-130) says:
Mackenzie in his Royal Masonic Cyclopedia appears to make three individuals out of the one personality His dates are wrong and he evidently has a suspicion that two of the characters, Rabbi de Falk and Caïn Chenuel Falk, or Falcon, may be the same person as they undoubtedly are, but he further refers to John Freidrich Falk a son of the preceding born at Homburg of Jewish parents, reported to have been the head of the Cabalistic college in London and to have died about 1824. As Doctor Falk had no children this seems another confusion The description would fit Falk himself. But see paper by Doctor Adler (transactions Jewish Historical Society of England, volume v, page 148) entitled the "Baal Shen of London," Baal Shen meaning Master of the Name of God or one able to work miracles through the Name of God.
This expression became a professional designation for a practitioner combining quack doctor, physician and cabalist in his art. Born in Podhayce, in Poodle, a portion of Poland. a territory afterwards included in the Austrian Empire, he came to London in 1742 where he gained a position of notoriety by his practices and strange stories were told of supernatural achievements which evidently lost nothing in the telling. He died on April 17 1782.
FALL OF WATER. See Waterfall.
FAMILY LODGE. A Lodge held especially for the transaction of private and local business of so delicate a nature that it is found necessary to exclude, during the session, the presence of all except members. In France a Lodge when so meeting is said to be en .family, or in the family, a private affair, and the meeting is called a tenue de famille or family session; in Germany such Lodges are called, sometimes, Familien-Logen, but more generally Conferenz-Logen (see Conference Lodges) .
FANATICISM. The English interpretation of the name of the second assassin of the Grand Master, or of mankind. The frenzy that over-balances the mind. The Gravelot or Romvel of philosophical Freemasonry.
FANOR. The name given to the Syrian Freemason, who is represented in some legends as one of the assassins, Amru and Metusael being the other two.
FARRAGUT, ADMIRAL DAVID GLASGOW.
famous American Civil War Admiral, born near Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801; died August 14, 1870. He entered navy at nine. First to possess grade of admiral in United States Navy. He was a Freemason. The Masonic Lodge at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, conducted his burial service (see .New .Age, July, 1994).
FASCES. The bundle of rods borne before the Roman magistrates as an ensignia of their authority. In French Freemasonry, faisceau, or fasces, is a term used to denote a number of speeches or records tied up in a roll and deposited in the archives.
FAST DAYS AND FREEMASONRY. In the earls days of the Lodge "Canongate Kilwinning from Leith," now Saint David, Edinburgh, No. 36 the records of the Lodge occasionally make reference to the adjournment or cancellation of the regular meeting upon account of the date coinciding with that fixed by royal proclamation "as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer." The Minute of Saint John the Evangelist day, December 27, 1739, concludes as follows:
The Right Worshipful toasted and drunk the usual healths upon this occasion. and the Lodge was closed by the proper officers and adjourned till Thursday the tenth day of January 1740 the Wednesday preceeding being a Nationall fast day therefore we could have no meeting as useual.
From the Scots Magazine we learn the reason for the observance of this "Nationall fast day": Edinburgh, November 1739. The Reverend Commission of the General Assembly met the beginning of this month and agreed on an act for a national fast, to implore the blessing of God for success to his Majesty's arms, &e.
At the same time. they humbly addressed his Majesty to nominate the day on which it should be observed, and further to interpose his royal authority for that effect. In consequence of this, the King has been pleased. by a proclamation. to order its observance on the 9th day of January next, thro' Scotland; as also in England and Wales.
A reference to the holding of the Fast is contained in the January number of the same magazine: Agreeable to the address of the Commission of the General Assembly, and the royal proclamation consequent thereupon the 9th of January was observed as a May of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to implore the blessing of God on his Majesty's arms, &e.
War was declared in October, 1739, between the forces of George II, of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Philip V, of Spain, and only came to an end with the Treaty of Peace signed in October, 1748. In consequence of the war, and the weather, the regular meetings of the Lodge in April and October 1744 were given up altogether. "April 10th, 1744 Noe Lodge being the day appointed for a Nationall fast." The date, which should really be April 11, was fixed by royal proclamation to be observed as in the former instance "as a fast throughout G. Britain, on account of the war with Spain."
Cannongate Killwinning from Leith 10th of Octr. 1744 Year of Masonry, 5744 . This being the Day immediately after the fast appointed by the Presbytery for the judgment like weather it was thought proper to hold no Lodge but adjourned to the 14th Nov. next.
From what are termed "Poetical Essays" printed in the October number of the Scots Magazine of that y ear we obtain some idea of "the judgment like weather":
  • ON THE INCLEMENCY OF THE WEATHER
  • Bye rural swains lament. in plaintive strains,
  • The dislnal ruins of our wasted plains.
  • Tempestous winds. in hurricanes. have torn
  • From 'mongst our reapers hands our richest corn
  • Strange and impetuous deluges of rain
  • Have spread a mournful aspect o'er the plain;
  • While raging Hoods in rapid surges sweep
  • Our hapless harvest to the foaming deep:
  • . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  • Yet lets resign'dly bear
  • Those griefs and troubles heav'n assigns us here.
  • 'Tis for our crimes.
The author of these lines appears to have had no doubt as to the cause of the ruined harvest "Tis for our crimes" but as referred to in Graham's Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, the folks of these days seemed sometimes to find it very difficult to decide whether a calamity was due to the devil who is vexing a man! or due to Heaven which is punishing him. To quote further from the same book:
In the religious life of Scotland in the early decades of the eighteenth century, the intense religious fervour and faith which characterised the covenanting days retained all its influence and hold over great masses of the people of all classes, and the belief in the constant interference of Providence with every act of existence, however minute, was unbounded.
That there were unbroken, unbreakable laws, a succession of physical cause and effect, inevitable, changeless, passing on their silent course unbending to mortal prayers, unyielding to human needs this, of course, was a conception of the material world unknown to those days, incredible to these men.
When calamaties befell the country it svas not easy to discriminate for which or for whose particular sins the wrath was shown. When therefore a Fast and day of humiliation was appointed to avert the hand of Providence, there was always announced a list of various alternative sins for which penitence was due.
When the 'ill years" came with frost and haar, snow and rain, destroying crops and starving the people, the General assembly ordered a Fast. comprehensively "to appease the anger of God for the sins of Sabbath breaking, profanity, drunkenness, uncleanness and infidelity." A. M. Mackay P. M. 36. The above information furnished to us by Past Master A. M. Mackay; Royal Lodge of Saint David, No. 36.
FATHER AND PROMOTER. A title of affection bestowed on an English Brother, John Maclean, in 1766. The thanks of the Chapter were given to him for his instructions and attendance, and as a mark of the respect of the Brethren he was requested to wear a gold plate suitably engraved in Latin with the following inscription: "The Father of the Society By the gift of the Companions of the Royal Arch stiled the Grand and Royal Chapter of Jerusalem, London, A. L. 5770
Glory to God in the highest.
In the beginning was the word We have found."
He was also presented with a robe peculiar to the Past Most Excellent Zerubbabel. Note as to year that the Grand Chapter added 4004 to the Christian Era, 1766 (see Origin of the English Rite of Freemasonry, Brother W. J. Hughan, 1913, page 109).
FAVORITE BROTHER OF SAINT ANDREW. The Ninth Degree of the Swedish Rite.
FAVORITE BROTHER OF SAINT JOHN. The Eighth Degree of the Swedish Rite.
FAVORITE OF SOLOMON. The Seventh Degree, Third Division, of the system of the Chapter of the High Degrees of Stockholm (see Thory, Acta Latomorum i, 313).
FEAST. The convocation of the Craft together at an annual feast, for the laudible purpose of promoting social feelings, and cementing the bonds of brotherly love by the interchange of courtesies, is a time-honored custom, which is unfortunately growing into disuse. The Assembly and Feast are words constantly conjoined in the Book of Constitutions.
At this meeting, no business of any kind, except the installation of officers, was transacted, and the day was passed in innocent festivity. The election of officers always took place at a previous meeting in obedience to a regulation adopted by the Grand Lodge of England, in 1720, as follows: "It was agreed, in order to avoid disputes on the annual feast-day, that the new Grand Master for the future shall be named and proposed to the Grand Lodge some time before the feast" (see Constitutions, 1738, page 111).
FEASTS OF THE ORDER. The festivals of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, June 24 and December 27, are so called.
FEELING. One of the five human senses, and esteemed by Freemasons above all the others. For as Anthony Brewer, an old dramatist, says:
Though one hear, and see, and smell, and taste,
If he wants touch, he is counted but a block

FEES OF HONOR. In the Grand Lodge of England every Grand Officer, on his election or re-election, is required to pay a sum of money, varying from two to twenty guineas, an amount ranging from say ten to one hundred dollars. The sums thus paid for honors bestowed are technically called Fees of Honor. A similar custom prevails in the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland; but the usage is unknown in America.
FEE, TEST. See Test Fee.
FEIX-FEAX. A term signifying School of Thought, which is found in the First Degree of the French Adoptive Rite.
FELD LOGE.
FELDLOGEN, DEUTSCHE, IM WELTKRIEG I:
What is designated in England and America as a Military or Traveling Lodge is called in Germany a Feld Loge. Sometimes, ein ambulance Loge.
FELICITAIRES, ORDRE DES.
French for the Order of Happy People. An Order established in Paris in 1742 or 1743 by Brother de Chambonnet and several officers of marine. All the emblems of the Order, the ritual and expressions were nautical in character.
vhe Order, which for a long time conducted its proceedings without reproach, numbered at first many noblemen and distinguished women amongst its members but later the meetings became 80 grossly immoral in character that, within two years of its foundation, it was dissolved, to be succeeded in 1745 by L'Ordre des Chevaliers et Chevaliers de l'Ancre, the latter meaning anchor.
The principal features of The Order of Happy People were followed, their four Degrees being Cabin-boy, Captain, Commodore, and Vice-Admiral. Only) the passwords and regalia were changed. The cable was replaced by an anchor, this becoming the jewel of the Order.
FELICITY, ORDER OF. An androgynous, or both sexes, secret society, founded in 1743, at Paris. by M. Chambonnet. It was among the first of the pseudo-Masonic associations, or coteries, invented by French Freemasons to gratify the curiosity and to secure the support of women. It had a ritual and a vocabulary which were nautical in their character, and there was a rather too free indulgence in the latitude of gallantry. It consisted of four Degrees, Cabin Boy, Master, Commodore, and Vice Admiral. The chief of the order was called Admiral, and this position was of course occupied by M. Chambonnet, the inventer of the system (Clavel, Historie Pittoresque, page 111).
FELLOW.
The Saxon word for fellow is felaw. Spelman derives it from two words be and toy, which signifies bound in mutual trust a plausible derivation, and not unsuited to the meaning of the world. But Hicks gives a better etymology when he derives it from the Anglo-Saxon folgian, meaning to follow and thus a fellow would be a follower, a companion, an associate. In the Middle Ages, therefore, the Operative Masons were divided into Masters and Fellows.
Thus in the Harleian Manuscript, No. 2054, it is said: "Now I will reherse other charges in singular for Maisters & ffellowes."
Those who were of greater skill held a higher position and were designated as Masters, while the masses of the Fraternity, the commonalty, as we might say, were called Fellows. In the Matthew Cooke Manuscript this principle is very plainly laid down. There it is written that Euclid "ordained that they who were passing of cunning should be passing honored, and commanded to call the cunninger Master .... and commanded that they that were less of wit should not be called servant nor subject, but Fellow, for nobility of their gentle blood" (see lines 675-88). From this custom has originated the modern title of Fellow Craft, given to the Second Degree of Speculative Freemasonry; although not long after the revival of 1717 the Fellows ceased to constitute the main Body of the Fraternity, the Masters having taken and still holding that position.
FELLOW CRAFT.
FELLOW OF THE CRAFT.
The Second Degree of Freemasonry in all the P>ites is that of the Fellow Craft. In French it is called Compagnon; in Spanish, Compañero; in Italian, Compagno; and in German, Gesell: in all of which the radical meaning of the word is a fellow workman, thus showing the origin of the title from an operative institution. Like the Degree of Apprentice, it is only preparatory in the higher initiation of the Master; and yet it differs essentially from it in its symbolism.
For, as the First Degree was typical of youth, the Second is supposed to represent the stage of manhood, and hence the acquisition of science is made its prominent characteristic.
While the former is directed in all its symbols and allegorical ceremonies to the purification of the heart, the latter is intended by its lessons to train the reasoning faculties and improve the intellectual powers.
Before the eighteenth century, the great Body of the Fraternity consisted of Fellow Crafts, who are designated in all the old manuscripts as Fellows. After the revival in 1717, the Fellow Crafts, who then began to be called by that name, lost their prominent position, and the great body of the brotherhood was, for a long time, made up altogether of Apprentices, while the government of the institution was committed to the Masters and Fellows, both of whom were made only in the Grand Lodge until 1725, when the regulation was repealed, and subordinate Lodges were permitted to confer these two Degrees (see Middle Chamber Lecture and the Dew Drop Lecture) .
FELLOW CRAFT PERFECT ARCHITECT. The French expression being Compagnon Parfait Architect. The Twenty-sixth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim. There are several other Degrees which, like this, are so called, not because they have any relation to the original Second Degree of Symbolic Freemasonry, but to indicate that they constitute the second in anyparticular series of Degrees which are preparatory to the culmination of that series.
Thus, in the Rite of Mizraim, we have the Master Perfect Architect, which is the Twenty-seventh Degree, while the Twentyfifth and Twenty-sixth are Apprentice and Fellow Craft Perfect Architect. So we have in other rites and systems the Fellow Craft Cohen, Hermetic, and Cabalistic Fellow Craft, where Master Cohen and Hermetic and Cabilistic Master are the topmost Degrees of the different series. Fellow Craft in all these, and many other instances like them, means only the second preparation toward perfection.
FELLOWS, COLONEL JOHN. The author of An Exposition of the Mysteries, or Religious Dogmas and Customs of the ancient Egyptians, Pythagoreans, and Druids, also an Inquiry into the Origin, History, and Purport of Freemasonry, New York, 1835. A similar volume published at London in 1857 and followed by other editions in 1860, 1866, 1871, and 1880, was entitled The Mysteries of Freemasonry. Moncure D. Conway, biographer of Thomas Paine, credits Colonel Fellows with the authorship of the preface to Paine's essay on Freemasonry.
FELLOWSHIP, FIVE POINTS OF. See Points of Fellowship, Five.
FELLOWSHIP OF MASONS. See Masons, Compangy of.
FEMALE FREEMASONRY. See adoptive Freemasonry.
FEMALE FREEMASONS. The landmarks of Speculative Freemasonry peremptorily exclude females from any active participation in its mysteries. But there are a few instances in which the otherwise unalterable rule of female exclusion has been made to yield to the peculiar exigencies of the occasion; and some cases are well authenticated where this Salic law has been violated from necessity, and females have been permited to receive at least the First Degree.
The Salic regulation, law of the Salian Franks excluded women from the throne of France. Such, however, have been only the exceptions which have given confirmation to the rule (see Aldworth, Beaton, and Yaintrailles).
FENCING THE LODGE. The name of an old ceremony in the Scottish Operative Lodges. There was prayer to God for power to impartially deal with what might be brought before the Brethren and there was also a solemn obligation that all the participants should be purged of the evils of prejudice and injustice in making their decisions (see also Purging the Lodge).
FENDEURS. More fully in French, L'Ordre des Ferdeurs, meaning the Order of Woodcutters, was a secret society, established at Paris in 1743, by the Chevalier Beauchaine.
The Lodge represented a forest, and was generally held in a garden. It was androgynous, for both sexes, and held secret signs and words, and an allegorical language borrowed from the profession of woodoutting.
The Abbe Barruel (tome ii, page 350, edition of 1797) thought that the Order originated in the forests among the actual woodcutters, and that many intelligent inhabitants of the city having united with them, the operative business of felling trees was abandoned and Philosophic Lodges were established—a course of conversion from Operative to Speculative precisely like that, he says, which occurred in Freemasonry, and this conversion was owing to the number of Fendeurs who were also Freemasons. A complete ritual of the Fendeurs is given in the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge (volume xxu, pages 37-52).
FENDEURS, ORDER OF. Ordre des Fendeurs et Fendeuses.
Also known as the Forest Masons.
A French Order accepting both men and women as members, though not necessarily connected with the Masonic Fraternity. They traced their Order back to the time of Alexander the Great. They were, in all probability, a branch of the Carbonari, or Charcoal Burners, a political league which made its appearance in the twelfth century. In 1747 there was a revival of this society and it became popular with ladies and gentlemen of high rank and distinction. Meetings were held in rooms decorated to represent a forest or in the summer time, when the weather permitted, the meetings were held outdoors. In their ritual they used implements connected with woodcutting, such as axes, logs, tree stumps, stone cups, whistles, and their regalia included a carpenter's apron and a russet-colored sash edged with green. The Master was called Pére Maître or Parent Master, and the other offices were Cousin Hermit, Cousin Winedresser, Cousin Bear, Cousin Elm, Cousin Oak, and so forth. A woman candidate was called a Briquette and a man, Briquet.

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