FIFTH MONARCHY MEN. Among the strange and whimsical forms of opinion which the religious and political fermentation of the 17th c. brought to the surface of society, and embodied in the shape of religious sects, were those of the Fifth Monarchy Men. The date which has been assigned to their first appearance is 1654. Notwith standing the ridicule with which they have often been overwhelmed, their seems nothing in their tenets more objectionable than we find in those of many of the other sects of the period, and there is no reason to believe that the practices of their leaders exceeded in absurdity, or equaled in impiety, those of Robbins, Reeve, Muggleton, and other apostles of the Ranters. In common with most persons who hold the literal interpreta tion of prophecy, they believed in the four great monarchies of Antichrist marked out by the prophet Daniel; and quite consistently with Christian orthodoxy, they added to them a fifth—viz., the kingdom of Christ on earth. So far, there was nothing peculiar in their views. But their error was twofold. 1st. They believed in the immediate, or at least in the proximate, advent of Christ (a tenet which was common to them with the early church); and 2d. They held that the fulfillment of God's promise to this effect must be realized by the forcible destruction of the kingdom of Antichrist. Every obstacle which opposed itself to the setting up the Messiah's throne was to be thrown down, and what these obstacles were was a question for the solution of which the only criterion which presented itself was their own fanatical prejudices and hatreds. It is obvious that such doctrines in such times must have given rise to practical as well as speculative disorder. The Fifth Monarchy Men became extinct as a sect shortly after the restoration; a fact which, by depriving them of exponents of their own body, may have exposed them to misrepresentation (Marsden's Illstory of the Later Puri tans, p. 387). In politics, the Fifth Monarchy'Men were republicans of the extremest sec tion; and when their conspiracy to murder the Protector, and revolutionize the gov ernment, was discovered in 1657, their leaders, Venner, Grey, Hopkins, etc., were imprisoned in the Gate house till after the Protector's death. Amongst their arms and ammunition which was seized, was found a standard exhibiting a lion couchant, supposed to represent the lion of the tribe of Judah, with the motto, "Who will rouse him up?"—Neal's Puritans, vol. iv. p. 186. See also Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, vol. iii. p. 31.
FIG, Ficus, a genus of trees and shrubs belonging to the natural order moracece, and distinguished by having the flowers—male and female mixed—within an almost closed top-shaped fleshy receptacle, which enlarges to form the fruit, and incloses numerous one-seeded carpels, imbedded in its pulp. There are more than 100 species, some of them very large trees. Almost all belong to tropical and sub-tropical countries, of the vegetation of which they often form a most important feature. They abound in India, in every jungle and hilly situation, to the most northern Himalaya, and some of them are cultivated about every village. Both F. religiosa (the peepul) and F. Rumphii are held in veneration by the Hindus. The most notable species are the common F.; the banyan (q.v.); the peepul (q.v.), bo tree or sacred F. of India; the sycamore (q.v.); and the East Indian caoutchouc (q v.) tree. The leaves of some species are entire, those of others are lobed. Several species of F. exhibit the character for which the banyan in particular has become celebrated, of sending roots straight down to the ground from their spreading branches, and thus multiplying the apparent stems, by which a vast canopy of branches and foliage is supported. The East Indian caoutchouc or India rubber tree is remarkable for the exposure of its roots, which appear in masses above ground, extending on all sides from the base like great writhing snakes. Some figs are creeping or trailing shrubs, with slender stems, covering heaps of stones, or ascending trees like ivy.—Besides the common F., many species yield edible fruits, although none of them are nearly equal to it in value. Amongst them are the peepul (F. religiosa), F. Benjamin, F. pumila, F. auriculata, F. Rumphii, F. Benolensis, F. aspera, F. racemosa, and F. granatum, all East Indian, also the sycamore of Egypt.—The milky juice of some species is bland and abundant, as of F. Saussureana, which has therefore been ranked among cow-trees. In other species, the milky juice is very acrid. That of the common F. produces a burning sensation on the tongue. That of F. toxicaria, a native of the Malayan islands, is used for poisoning arrows.—Lac (q.v.) is gathered from some spe cies.— The leaves of F. politoria are so rough that they are used for polishing wood and ivory in India. The juice of the fruit of F. tinctoria is used in Tahiti to dye cloth; the color is at first green, but being acted on by the juice of a cordia, it becomes bright red. The bark supplies cordage, of which fishing-nets are made.