Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

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F
FAC FAC
ABA, in botany. SeeViciA.
FABAGO, in botany. See Zy-gophillum. *
FABER, in ichthyology. See Zeus.
FABLE, a tale, or feigned narration, defigned either to
inftrudt or divert, difguifed under the allegory of an
adron, be.
Fables were the firfl: pieces of wit that made their
appearance in the world, and have been ftill highly
valued, not only in times of the greateft fimplicity, but
among the moll polite ages of the world. Jotham’s
fable o£ the trees is the oldeft that is extant, and as
• beautiful as any that have been made fince. Nathan’s
fable of the poor man is next in antiquity. We find
Aifop, in the moft diilant ages of Greece; and in the
early days of the Roman commonwealth, we read of
a mutiny appeafed by the fable of the belly and the
members. As fables had their rife in the very infancy
of learning, they never flourilhed more than when
learning was*at its greateft'height; witnefs Horace,
Boileau, and Fontaine.
Fable, is alfo ufed for the plot of an epic or dramatic
poem ; and is, according to Ariftotle, the principal
part, and, as it were, the foul of- a poem. See
Composition.
FACE, in anatomy, comprehends all that part of the
head which is not covered with the common long hair.
See Anatomy, Part I. II. and VI.
Face, in the military art, a word of command, intima¬
ting to turn about: thus, face to the right, is to turn
upon the left heel a quarter-round to the right; and,
face to the left, is to turn upon the right heel a quar¬
ter-round to the left.
FACET, or Facette, among jewellers, is the name
of the little faces or planes to be found in brilliant and
rofe diamonds.
FACTION, a cabal or party formed in a date, city, or
company.
Faction, in antiquity, a name given to the different com--
paniesof combatants in the circus. They were four, v/z.
the white, the red,- the green, and the blue ; to which
Domjtian added another of purple colour. They
■were fo denominated from ^the colour of the liveries
they wore, and were dedicated, according to M. Aur.
fcafliodorus, to the four feafons of the year, the green
being confecrated to fpring, the blue to winter, the
red to fummer, and the white to autumn. It appears
from ancient inferiptions, that each f^dtion had its pro¬
curators and phyfician ; and from hillory, that party
rage ran fo high among them, that in a diffenfion be¬
tween two fa&ions, in the time of Jullinian, almoft
forty thoufand men loft their lives in the quarrel.
•FACTITIOUS, any thing made by art, in 'oppofition to
what is the produce of nature. Thus, faflitious cin¬
nabar is oppofed to native cinnabar.
FACTOR, in commerce, is an agent pr corrcfnondent
Vol. II. No. 49.
refiding beyond the feas, or in fome remote part,
commiflioned by merchants to buy or fell goods on
their account, or afiift them in carrying on their trade.
A fattor receives froin the merchants, his confti-
tuents, in lieu of wages, a commillion Or factorage,
according to the ufage of the place where he refides,
or the bufinefs he tranfadls, this being various in dif¬
ferent countries, on the purchafes and fales of different
commodities. He ought to keep ftriftly to the tenor
of his orders ; as a deviation from them, even in the
moft minute particular, expofes him to make ample
fatisfaflion for any lofs that may accrue from his non-
obfervance of^ them. When unlimited orders are given
to fa&ors, and they are left to fell or buy oi\ the bell
conditions they can, whatever detriment occurs to
their conftituents, they are excufed, as it is to be pre¬
fumed they afted for the beft, and were governed by
the dictates of prudence. But a bare commiffion to
fell is not fufficient authority for the faftor to truft
anyperfon, wherefore he ought to receive the money
on the delivery of the goods; and, by the general
power, he may not truft beyond one, two, or three
months, fsc. the ufual time allowed for fales, other-
wife he fttall be anfwerable out of his own eftate. If
a faftor fells on the ufual truft to a petfon of good
credit, who afterwards becomes infolvent, he is dif-
charged; but not if the man’s credit was bad at the
time of fale. If a fa&or gives a man time for payment
of money contradled on fale of his principal’s goods,
and, after that time is elapfed, fell him goods of his
own for ready money, and the man becomes infolvent,
the faftor in equity ought to indemnify his principal;
but he is not compellable by the common law. A fac¬
tor fhould always be punctual in the advices of his
tranfaftions, in fales, purchafes, freights, and more
efpecially in draughts by exchange. If he purchafes
goods for another at a price limited, and afterwards
they rife, and he fraudulently takes them for his own
account, and fends them to another -part, in order to
fecure an advantage that feemingly offers, he will, on
proof, be obliged, by the cuftom of merchants, to fa-
tisfy his principal for damages. If a faftor, in confor¬
mity with a merchant’s orders, buys with his money
or on his credit, a commodity he Ihall be directed to
purchafe; and, without giving advice of the tranfac-
tion, fells it again to profit, and appropriates to him-
felf the advantage, the merchant ftiall recover it from
him, and befides have him amerced for his fraud. When
fadors have obtained a profit for their principal, they
muft be cautious how they difpofe of it; for, if they
ad without commiffion, they are refponfible: and if a
merchant remits goods to his fader, and about a
month after draws a bill on him, the fador, having ef-
fefls in his hands, accepts the bill, then the principal
breaks, and the goods are feized in the fador’s hands
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