Filial. ciently argued he was not sorry for what he had done, that it was that violence which obliged him to desist from his design. 2. Among the multitude of persons who were proscribed under the second triumvirate of Rome, were the celebrated orator Cicero and his brother Quintus, The fate of the former, in endeavouring to make his escape, is related under the article CICERO. The lat ter found means to conceal himself so effectually at home, that the soldiers could not find him. Enraged at their disappointment, they put his son to the torture, in order to make him discover the place of his father's concealment; but filial affection was proof against the most exquisite tortures. An involuntary sigh, and sometimes a deep groan, was all that could be extorted from the youth. His agonies were increased; but with amazing fortitude he still persisted in his resolution of not betraying his father. Quintus was not far off; and it may be imagined better than can be expressed, how his heart must have been affected with the sighs and groans of a son expiring in tortures to save his life. He could bear no longer; but quitting the place of his concealment, he presented himself to the assassins, begging of them to put him to death, and dismiss the innocent youth, whose generous behaviour the triumvirs themselves, if informed of the fact, would judge worthy of the highest approbation. But the inhuman monsters, without being the least affected with the tears either of the father or the son, answered, that they both must die; the father because he was proscribed, and the son because he had concealed his father. Then a new contest of tenderness arose who should die first; but this the assassins soon decided, by beheading them both at the same time. This anecdote is related by Appian, Dio, Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, and other historians. Plut. in vita 3. Cinna, who scrupled no attempt, how atrocious Pomp. soever, which could serve his purpose, undertook to get Pomponius Strabo murdered in his tent; but his son saved his life, which was the first remarkable action of Pompey the Great. The treacherous, Cinna, by many alluring promises, had gained over one Terentius, a confidant of Pompey's, and prevailed on him to assassinate the general, and seduce his troops. Young Pompey being informed of this design a few hours before it was to be put in execution, placed a faithful guard round the prætorium; so that none of the conspirators could come near it. He then watched all the motions of the camp, and endeavoured to appease the fury of the soldiers, who hated the general his father, by such acts of prudence as were worthy of the oldest commanders. However, some of the mutineers having forced open one of the gates of the camp, in order to desert to Cinna, the general's son threw himself flat on his back in their way, crying out, that they should not break their oath and desert their commander, without treading his body to death. By this means he put a stop to their desertion, and afterwards wrought so effectually upon them by his affecting speeches and engaging carriage, that he reconciled them to his father. 4. Olympias, Alexander's own mother, was of such an unhappy disposition, that he would never allow her a. Curtius. to have any concern in the affairs of the government. She used frequently to make very severe complaints on VOL. VIII. Part II. that account; but he always submitted to her ill Filial, 5. Epaminondas is universally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest generals and one of the best men which Greece ever produced. Before him the city of Thebes was not distinguished by any memorable action, and after him it was not famous for its virtues, but its misfortunes, till it sunk into its original obscurity; so that it saw its glory take birth and expire with this great man. The victory he obtained at Leuctra had drawn the eyes and admiration of all the neighbouring people upon Epaminondas, who looked upon him as the support of Thebes, as the triumphant conqueror of Sparta, as the deliverer of Greece: in a word, as the greatest man, and the most excellent captain, that ever was in the world. In the midst of this universal applause, so capable of making the general of an army forget the man for the victor, Epaminondas, little sensible to so affecting and so deserved a glory, "My joy (said he) arises from my sense of that which the news of my victory will give my father and my mother." 6. Among an incredible number of illustrious persons who were falsely accused and put to death by Nero, was one Bareas Soranus; a man, as Tacitus informs us, of singular vigilance and justice in the discharge of his duty. During his confinement, his daughter Servilia was apprehended and brought into the senate, and there arraigned. The crime laid to her charge was, that she had turned into money all her ornaments and jewels, and the most valuable part of her dress, to defray the expence of consulting magicians. To this the young Servilia, with tears, replied, That she had indeed consulted magicians, but the whole of her inquiry was to know whether the emperor and senate would afford protection and safety to her dear and indulgent parent against his accusers. "With this view (said she) I presented the diviners, men till now utterly unknown to me, with my jewels, apparel, and the other ornaments peculiar to my quality, as I would have presented my blood and my life, could my blood and life have procured my father's liberty. But whatever this my proceeding was, my unfortunate father was an utter stranger to it; and if it is a crime, I alone am the delinquent." She was, however, togegether with her father, condemned to die ; but in what manner, history is silent. [Vid. Taciti Annales, lib. vi. cap. 20.]. 7. Valerius Maximus + likewise relates a very singu- + Lib. v, lar fact upon this subject. A woman of illustrious Plinii Hist. birth had been condemned to be strangled. The Ro- lib. vii. 36. man prætor delivered her up to the triumvir, who caused her to be carried to prison, in order to her being put to death. The gaoler, who was ordered to execute her, was struck with compassion, and could not resolve to kill her. He chose therefore to let her die of hunger. Besides which, he suffered her daughter 4 K to Filial The bastard toothed file is to take out too deep Filing cuts and file strokes made by the rough file. The fine- ព toothed file takes out the cuts or file-strokes the bas- Fillagree. tard file made; and the smooth file those left by the fine file. to see hier in prison; taking care, however, that she brought her nothing to eat. As this continued many Filing days, he was surprised that the prisoner lived so long without eating; and suspecting the daughter, upon watching her, he discovered that she nourished her mother with her own milk. Amazed at so pious, and at the same time so ingenious an invention, he told the fact to the triumvir, and the triumvir to the prætor, who believed the thing merited relating in the assembly of the people. The criminal was pardoned, and a decree was passed that the mother and daughter should be subsisted for the rest of their lives at the expence of the public. The same author gives a similar instance of filial piety in a young woman named Xantippe to her aged father Cimonus, who was likewise confined in prison, and which is universally known by the name of the Roman Charity. Both these instances appeared so very extraordinary and uncommon to that people, that they could only account for them, by supposing that the love of children to their parents was the first law of nature. Putaret aliquis (says our author) hoc contra naturam factum esse, nisi prima naturæ lex esset diligere parentes. In addition to the foregoing examples, we may refer to the article ÆTNA, where a very noble instance of filial piety is taken notice of. See also the article PIETAS. FILIBEG, or PHILIBEG. See PHILIBEG. FILICACIA, VINCENT, a celebrated Italian poet, was born at Florence in 1642. He was a member of the Academy della Crusca and of that of the Arcadi, and became secretary to the duke of Tuscany. He died in 1707. His poems are much esteemed for the delicacy and nobleness of their sentiments. Scipio de Filicacia, his son, had them all printed together, under the title of Poesie Fosiano di Vicenzo da Filicacia, in 1707, 4to. FILICES, (from filum, "a thread," quasi filatim incisa), FERNS; one of the seven tribes or families of the vegetable kingdom, according to Linnæus, by whom it is thus characterized: "having their fructification on the back side of the frondes." They constitute the first order in the class cryptogamia; and consist of 16 genera, which are divided into fructificationes, spicata, frondosa, et radicales. This order comprehends the entire 16th class of Tournefort, in whose system the filices make only a single genus, in the first section of the above-mentioned class. FILICES, is also an order of plants in the fragmenta methodi naturalis of Linnæus. See BOTANY Index. FILIGRANE, FILIGREE, or FILLAGREE, Work. See FILLAGREE. FILING, one of the principal operations in smith ery, &c. succeeding to forging. See FILE. The coarser cut files are always to be succeeded by finer; and in all the kinds the rule is, to lean heavy on the file in thrusting it forwards, because the teeth of the file are made to cut forwards. But in drawing the file back again for a second stroke, it is to be lightly lifted just above the work, by reason it cuts not coming back. The rough or coarse-toothed file (which, when large, is called a rubber) serves to take off the unevennesses of the work, left by the hammer in forging. In this order, the files of several cuts are to succeed each other till the work is as smooth as it can be filed. After which it may be made yet smoother with emery, tripoli, &c. See POLISHING. FILIPENDULA, DROPWORT, a species of spiræa. See SPIREA, BOTANY Index. FILIX, FERN. See FILICES, BOTANY Index. FILLAGREE, FILIGREE, or FILIGRANE, Work, a kind of enrichment on gold or silver, wrought delicately, in manner of little threads or grains, or both intermixed. The word is compounded of fil or filum, "thread," and granum, “grain." In Latin it is called filatim elaboratum opus, argentum, aurum. There is no manufacture in any part of the world, that has been more admired and celebrated, than the fine gold and silver fillagree of Sumatra. And what renders it a matter of greater curiosity is the coarseness of the tools employed in the workmanship, and which, in the hands of an European, would not be thought sufficiently perfect for the most ordinary purposes.— They are rudely and inartificially formed, by the goldsmith (pandi) from any old iron he can pick up. Marsden's Account of When you engage one of them to execute a piece Sumatra, of work, his first request is usually for a piece of iron P. 141. hoop, to make his wire-drawing instrument; an old hammer head, stuck in a block, serves for an anvil; and a pair of compasses is often composed of two old nails tied together at one end. The gold is melted in a piece of a precoo or earthen rice-pot, or sometimes in a crucible of their own make, of ordinary clay. In general they use no bellows, but blow the fire with their mouths, through a joint of bamboo; and if the quantity of metal to be melted is considerable, three or four persons sit round their furnace, which is an old broken quallee or iron pot, and blow together. At Padang alone, where the manufacture is more considerable, they have adopted the Chinese bellows. Their method of drawing the wire differs but little from that used by European workmen. When drawn to a sufficient fineness, they flatten it by beating it on their anvil; and when flattened, they give it a twist like that in the whalebone handle of a punch ladle, by rubbing it on a block of wood with a flat stick. After twisting they again beat it on the anvil, and by these means it becomes flat wire with indented edges. With a pair of nippers they fold down the end of the wire, and thus form a leaf, or element of a flower in their work, which is cut off. The end is again folded and cut off, till they have got a sufficient number of leaves, which are laid on singly. Patterns of the flowers or foliage, in which there is not very much variety, are prepared on paper, of the size of the gold plate on which the filagree is to be laid. According to this, they be gin to dispose on the plate the larger compartments of the foliage, for which they use plain flat wire of a larger size, and fill them up with the leaves before mentioned. To fix the work, they employ a gelatinous substance, made of the red-hot berry called boca sago, ground to a pulp on a rough stone. This pulp they place on a young Fillet. &c. especially when painted white, by way of enrich Fillets, ment. FILLETS, in the Manege, are the loins of a horse, which begin at the place where the hinder part of the saddle rests. FILLY, a term among horse-dealers, to denote the female colt. FILM, a thin skin or pellicle. In plants, it is used for that thin, woody skin, which separates the seeds in the pods, and keeps them apart. FILTER, or FILTRE, in Chemistry, &c. a piece of woollen cloth, linen, paper, or other matter, some of which are in the form of hollow inverted cones, used to filtrate or strain liquors through. The filtre has the same use and effect with regard to liquids that the sieve or searce has in dry matters. Fillagree, young cocoa nut about the size of a walnut, the top and bottom being cut off. After the leaves have been all placed in order, and stuck on, bit by bit, a solder is prepared of gold filings and borax, moistened with water, which they strew over the plate; and then putting it in the fire for a short time, the whole becomes united. This kind of work on a gold plate, they call carrang papan: when the work is open, they call it carrang trouse. In executing the latter, the foliage is laid out on a card, or soft kind of wood, and stuck on, as before described, with the sago berry; and the work, when finished, being strewed over with their solder, is put into the fire, when the card or soft wood burning away, the gold remains connected. If the piece be large, they solder it at several times. In the manufacture of badjoo buttons, they first make the lower part flat, and having a mould formed of a piece of buffalo's horn, indented to several sizes, each like one half of a bullet mould, they lay their work over one of these holes, and with a horn punch they press it into the form of the button. After this they complete the upper part. When the filagree is finished, they cleanse it, by boiling it in water with common salt and alum, or sometimes lime juice; and in order to give it that fine purple colour which they call sapo, they boil it in water with brimstone. The manner of making the little balls with which their works are sometimes ornamented, is as follows: They take a piece of charcoal, and having cut it flat and smooth, they make in it a small hole, which they fill with gold dust, and this melted in the fire becomes a little ball. They are very inexpert at finishing and polishing the plain parts, hinges, screws, and the like, being in this as much excelled by the European artists, as these fall short of them in the fineness and minuteness of the foliage. The Chinese also make fillagree mostly of silver, which looks elegant, but wants likewise the extraordinary delicacy of the Malay work. The price of the workmanship depends upon the difficulty or uncommonness of the pattern. In some articles of usual demand, it does not exceed one-third of the value of the gold; but in matters of fancy, it is generally equal to it. FILLET, or FILET, in Architecture, denotes a little square member or ornament used in divers places, and on divers occasions, but generally as a sort of corona over a greater moulding. The fillet is the same with what the French call reglet, bande, and bandelette; the Italians lista or listella. FILLET, in Heraldry, a kind of orle or bordure, containing only a third or fourth part of the breadth of the common bordure. It is supposed to be withdrawn inwards, and is of a different colour from the field. It runs quite round, near the edge, as a lace over a cloak. FILLET is also used for an ordinary drawn like the bar from the sinister point of the chief across the shield, in manner of a scarf; though it is sometimes also seen in the situation of a bend, fesse, cross, &c. According to Guillim, the fillet is a fourth part of the chief, and is placed in the chief point of the escut cheon. FILLET is also used among painters, gilders, &c. for a little rule or reglet of leaf gold, drawn over certain mouldings; or on the edges of frames, pannels, Filtres are of two sorts. The first are simple pieces of paper or cloth, through which the liquor is passed without farther trouble. The second are twisted up like a skain or wick, and first wetted, then squeezed, and one end put in the vessel that contains the liquor to be filtrated: the other end is to be out, and hang down below the surface of the liquor; by means hereof the purest part of the liquor distils drop by drop out of the vessel, leaving the coarser part behind. This filter acts as a syphon. Water is freed from various impurities by means of basins made of porous stones, which vessels must be peculiarly beneficial in long voyages, and even upon land they are of considerable benefit, when none but stagnant waters are to be found, or springs issuing through clay. A patent was granted in 1790 to a female potter, for inventing a composition to make filtering basins, as a succedaneum for that porous stone which is not every where to be found. She took four out of nine equal parts of tobacco pipe-clay, and five out of nine equal parts of sea, river, or pit sand, which she used for making small basins sufficient to contain one gallon of waHer next proportions were equal parts of sea, river, or pit sand, and tobacco-pipe clay; her third proportions were three out of nine equal parts of tobac co-pipe clay; one out of nine equal parts of Stourbridge clay, or one out of nine equal parts of Windsor or other loam and her fourth proportions were four out of eight equal parts of the burnt ground clay of which crucibles are made. ter. A patent was also granted to Mr Joshua Collier of Southwark, for a most ingenious method of filtering and sweetening water, oil, and every other liquid. The following is the contrivance, which combines the application of machinery with the antiseptic properties of charcoal. Fish oil is one of the liquids which he had particularly in view, to free it from every thing disagreeable, either in taste, smell, or colour; to accomplish which he poured a quantity of oil into a convenient vessel, heated to the temperature of 120° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, adding caustic mineral alkali of the specific gravity of 1.25. He then agitated the mixture, afterwards allowing it to stand till the sediment subsided; and then drew it off into another vessel, with a sufficient quantity' of burnt charcoal finely powdered, and a small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid, to decompose the saponaceous matter still suspended in the oil, when the oil be4K 2 came Filtre. Filter. Plate came clear at the surface. He then agitated the contents of this vessel, and left the coaly, saline, and aqueous particles to subside; afterwards passing it through proper strainers, when it became quite transparent and fit for use. The principle of the improved filtering machines consists in combining hydrostatic pressure with the mode of filtering per ascensum, which procures the peculiar advantage of causing the fluid and its sediment take opposite directions. The filtering surface remains the same, while the dimensions of the chamber in which the sediment is received may be varied. To adapt the machines to every purpose for which they are intended, chambers must be provided of various capacities, for the precipitated matter. The space required is very great with respect to the oil trade, and as all dimensions will be required occasionally, no particular limits can be fixed. For distilleries and breweries they may be smaller in proportion; and a very small chamber will be sufficient for domestic economy. If water is to be freed from noxious particles, it must be made to pass through an iron box in its way to the filtering chamber, and the box must contain charcoal finely powdered. The water is received into this box and delivered by two apertures, which are opened and closed by cocks. Another part of the invention consists in filtering machines in the form of stills, in which charcoal may be repeatedly burnt after any fluid substances have passed through it, for the purpose of freeing them from noxious particles, or discharging their colouring mat ter. To the filtering apparatus of Mr Collier, instruments are attached for discovering the comparative qualities of oils, which depend in some measure on their specific gravities; spermaceti oil, when compared with fish oils being as 875 to 920. To do this, a glass vessel of any shape most convenient is employed, with a glass bubble, and a thermometer. If the oil is pure, the bubble sinks, when the mercury rises to a particular standard. When spermaceti oil is pure, the bubble floats, though of the temperature required. To determine the tendency of oils used for burning to congeal in cold weather, a freezing mixture may be put into a phial of thin glass, into which let a thermometer be immersed, and a single drop of the oil permitted to fall on the outside of the vessel, where it will instantly congeal. As the cold produced by the mixture decreases, let the temperature be observed by the thermometer at which the oil becomes fluid, and runs down the side of the glass. The following is a short description of the apparatus CCXVI. contrived for this purpose. A (fig. 1. Plate CCXVII.) fig. 1. is the cistern, into which the water or other liquor to be filtered is put. B B, is a tube opening into the bottom of the cistern A, and being put along the bottom of the machine, conveying the fluid into CCC, the filtering chamber, which is covered with leather bound down round its circular rim, and through which leather the water is percolated. DD, The bason rising above the level of the chamber, and receiving the filtered liquor. E, The spout by which it runs off into a pitcher or other vessel. F, Another spout furnished with a cock to draw off the foul water from the chamber when necessary, GG G, The air tube, which begins above the level of the chamber, is covered with a button, 2. which saves the leather from being cut, and has a small lateral aperture for the air to be carried off. This pipe passes along the bottom and up the side, and rising above the level of the water in the cistern, is there closed, except a small lateral aperture through which the air escapes. H, A guard or rim with cross bars put over the leather, to keep it from being forced up by the water. It is fastened down by means of two notches on opposite sides of the ground, by which it locks into two staples rivetted into the bottom of the bason. I, The lid sliding down to cover the water from dust, and suspended at pleasure by means of KK, two springs on each tube for that purpose. LM NO, A cylindrical box containing charcoal, which is connected with the above by means of the tube P, and a continuation of the tube B. LM, The water tube B continued below the charcoal apparatus, so that the fluid may pass through the same into the cylinder, from whence it enters the chambers at P, so as to be filtered through the leather as before described. RR, Collars which may be unscrewed at pleasure, so as to detach the charcoal apparatus whenever the charcoal requires to be purified by heat. SS, Two cocks to direct the fluid through the charcoal cylinder or immediately into the filtering chamber. Filter. Fig. 2. A, A tub or cistern containing the oil to be Fig. 2. filtered, and supplying a tube of sufficient height for the hydrostatic pressure to operate. B B, A main tube of wood, tin, leather, or cloth, to which any num ber of bags, C C, of the size and shape of corn sacks, or any convenient size or shape, may be connected. These are bound to D D D, straight double iron bars, furnished with a hinge at one end and a screw at the other, by opening which the bags may be emptied. F, A trough underneath, made to receive the filtered oil from the receivers E E E. Fig. 3. A, A funnel, cask, or cistern into which the Fig. 3 fluid is put which passes down. B, A tube fitted into the same through which it enters. C, An iron still, or still of any other substance capable of sustaining heat, full of finely powdered and sifted charcoal, through the head of which the fluid passes into any receiver. D, A fire-place of any construction to drive over the fluid remaining interspersed among the charcoal, and also to purify the charcoal by an increase of temperature when required. E, A cock to let water into the flues to cool the apparatus for a subsequent operation. Fig. 4. The trial glass with its thermometer. FILTER is also a charm, supposed to have a virtue Fig. 4 of inspiring love. The word is derived from algor which signifies the same thing, of qixin, amo, "I love." The Greeks, when their love was, without success, had several arts to procure the affections of their beloved. The Thessalian women were famous for their skill in this as well as other magical practices. The means whereby it was effected were of divers sorts; it was sometimes done by potions called alga, which are frequently mentioned in authors of both languages. Juvenal speaks thus: Hic magicus affert cantus, hic Thessala vendit Philtra, quibus valeant mentem vexare mariti. Their operations were violent and dangerous, and commonly deprived such as drank them of their reason. Plutarch |