he
Atlantic 100 m. to the E. It has been for many centuries one of the most
important of the sacred cities of the Moslem; has many fine mosques, the
Sultan's palace, and an important university; is yet a busy commercial
centre, although signs of decay appear all over the city, and carries on
an active caravan trade with Central Africa.

FEZZAN (50), a Turkish province lying to the S. of Tripoli, to which
it is politically united; in character partakes of the desert region to
which it belongs, being almost wholly composed of barren sandy plateaux,
with here and there an oasis in the low valleys, where some attempt at
cultivation is made. The people, who belong to the Berber stock, are
Mohammedans, honest, but lazy and immoral. Murzuk (6) is the chief town.

FIARS, an expression in Scotch law given to the prices of grain
which are determined, by the respective sheriffs in the various counties
assisted by juries. The Court for "striking the fiars" is held towards
the end of February in accordance with Acts of Sederunt of the Court of
Session. The prices fixed are used in the settling of contracts where no
prices have been determined upon, e. g. in fixing stipends of ministers
of the Church of Scotland, and are found useful in other ways.

FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB, a celebrated German philosopher, born in
Upper Lusatia; a man of an intensely thoughtful and noble nature; studied
theology at Jena, and afterwards philosophy; became a disciple of Kant,
and paid homage to him personally at Koenigsberg; was appointed professor
of Philosophy at Jena, where he enthusiastically taught, or rather
preached, a system which broke away from Kant, which goes under the name
of "Transcendental Idealism," and which he published in his
"Wissenschaftslehre" and his "System der Sittenlehre"; obliged to resign
his chair at Jena on a charge of atheism, he removed to Berlin, where he
rose into favour by his famous "Address to the Germans" against the
tyranny of Napoleon, and after a professorate in Erlangen he became head
of the New University, and had for colleagues such men as Wolff,
Humboldt, Scheiermacher, and Neander; he fell a victim to the War of
Independence which followed, dying of fever caught through his wife and
her nursing of patients in the hospitals, which were crowded with the
wounded; besides his more esoterico-philosophical works, he was the
author of four of a popular cast, which are worthy of all regard, on "The
Destiny