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 FRANCE

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FRANCE

bolic significance of tlie fisli and the anagram Ix^os, it cannot- be necessary to insist. Both the inscription of Aberciiis (q. v.) of the close of the second century and that of Autun a little later, as well as a large num- ber of allusions in early Christian literature, make it clear that our Saviour Jesus Christ was indicated by this symbol (see e. g. Mowat in the "Atti del Con- gresso Internaz. d'Archeol. Crist.", Rome, 1902, pp. 2-4). Moreover, the Abercius inscription clearly con- veys that this "great fish" was to be the permanent food of the soul. We may also note that the one female figure among the guests depicted in the Fractio Panis fresco is veiled, which is not the case with the female figures represented in those other banqueting scenes foiuid in the catacombs and usually interpreted as symbolic of the joys of heaven. The fresco of which we speak is not, as will be readily understood, either entirely realistic or entirely symbolical. That the president (Trpoea-riis) of the synaxis (assembly) should break the bread seated, is probably not to be under- stood as implying that the bishops in the primitive church were m fact seated when they otTered the liturgy, any more than the attitude of the guests im- plies that the early Christians reclined on couches when they assisted at the Holy Sacrifice. On the other hand, the action of the breaking of the bread is clearly realistic. A further indication of the Eucha- ristic significance of the fresco here under discussion is aff'orded by the fact that in the fresco next to it in the same chamber is depicted the sacrifice of Abraham. On the other side is a representation of Daniel in the lions' den, to which Mgr. Wilpert also attaches a Eucharistic significance on account of the supernatural feeding of Daniel through the intervention of the prophet Habacuc (Dan., xiv, 36).

Wilpert, in 1895, published a monograph giving a full account of this discovery under the title Fractio PaniSy die alteste Dar- stellung der eitcharistischen Opfers (Freiburg im Br.). This was translated into French the next year. It contains a coltection of very carefully executed photogravures of the frescoes in the Capella Greca, but the dimness of the tones in the original fresco malces it impossible to distinguish the details clearly in any photographic copy. For this reason the coloured reproduction mcluded by Mgr. Wilpert in his later vrork Die Malereien der Katakomhcn Roms, two folio volumes (Freiburg, 1903), also published at Rome in Italian, is much to be preferred. The Fractio Panis is shown upon plate xv, vol. I. Compare also Marucchi, Elements d' Archcologie Chretienne (Paris, 1899— 1902), I, pp. 284-299; Leclercq in Diet, d' Archeologie, I, 3159- 3162.

Herbert Thurston.

France, the fifth in size (usually reckoned the fourth) of the great divisions of Europe.

Dksciuptive Geography. — The area of France is 207,107 square miles; it has a coast line 1560 miles and a land frontier 1525 miles in length. In shape it resembles a hexagon of which the sides are: (1) From Dunkirk to Point St-Matthieu (sands and dunes from Dunkirk to the mouth of the Somme; cliffs, called falaises, extending from the Somme to the Orne, except where their wall is broken by the estuary of the Seine ; granite boulders intersected by deep inlets from the Orne to Point St-Matthieu). (2) From Point St- Matthieu to the mouth of the Bidassoa (alternate granite cliffs and inlets as far as the River Loire; sandy stretches and arid moors from the Loire to the Garonne; sands, lagoons, and dunes from the Ciaronne to the Pyrenees), (.'i) From the Bidassoa to Point Cerbere (a formation known as Pyrenean chalk). (4) From Point Cerbere to the mouth of the Roya (a steep, rocky frontier from the Pyrenees to the Tech; sands and lagoons between the Tech and the Rhone, and an unbroken wall of pointed rocks stretching from the Rhone to the Roya). (5) From the Roya to Mount Donon (running along the Maritime, the Cot- tian, and the Graian Alps, as well as the mountains of Jura and the Vosges). (0) From Mount Donon to Dunkirk (an artificial frontier differentiated by few marked physical peculiarities).

France is the only country in Europe having a

coast line both on the Atlantic and on the Mediterra- nean ; moreover the passes of Belfort, Cote d'Or, and Naurouse open up ready channels of communication between the Rhine, the English Channel, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. Furthermore it is note- worthy that wherever the French frontier is defended by lofty mountains (as, for instance, the Alps, the Pyrenees) the border peoples are akin to the French either in race, speech, or customs (the Latin races), while on the other hand the Teutonic races, differing so widely from the French in ideas and sentiment, are physically divided from them only by the low-lying hills and plains of the North- East. Hence it follows that France has always lent itself with peculiar facility to the spread of any great intellectual movement, coming from the shores of the Mediterranean, as was the case with Christianity. France was the natural highroad between Italy and England, between Ger- many and the Iberian Peninsula. On French soil the races of the North mingled with those of the South ; and the very geographical configuration of the country accounts in a certain sense for the instinct of expan- sion, the gift of assimilation and of diffusion, thanks to which France has been able to play the part of general distributor of ideas. In fact, two widely different worlds meet in France. A journey from North to South leads through three distinct zones: the grain country reaching from the northern coast to a line drawn from Mezieres to Nantes; the vine country and the region of berries, southward from this to the lati- tude of Grenoble and Perpignan; the land of olive- garths antl orange-groves, extending to the southern boundary of the country. Its climate ranges from the foggy promontories of Brittany to the sunny shores of Provence ; from the even temperature of the Atlantic to the suclden changes which are characteristic of the Mediterranean. Its people vary from the fair-haired races of Flanders and Lorraine, with a mixture of German blood in their veins, to the olive-skinned dwellers of the south, who are essentially Latin and Mediterranean in their extraction. Again Nature has formed, in the physiography of this country, a multi- tude of regions, each with its own characteristics — its own personality, so to speak — which, in former times, popular instinct called separate countries. The tend- ency to abstraction, however, which carried away the leaders of the Revolution, is responsible for the present purely arbitrary divisions of the soil, known as " de- partments". Contemporary geography is glad to avail itself of the old names and of the old divisions into "countries" and "provinces" which more nearly correspond with the geological formations as well as with the natural peculiarities of the various regions. There is a great contrast between a region such as the "Massif Central" (the Central Plateau), a rugged land inhabited by a stubborn race that is often glad to leave its fastnesses, and those lands of comfort that lie along the great Northern Plain, the valley of the Loire, and the fertile basin in which Paris stands. But in spite of this variety France is a unit. These regions, so unlike and so diversified, balance and com- plete each other like the limbs of a living body. As Michelet puts it, " France is a person."

Statistics.— In 1901 France had 39,031,000 inhabi- tants. The census no longer inquires as to the religion of French citizens, and it is only by way of approxiina- tion that we can compute the number of Catholics at 3S millions; Protestants, 600,000; Jews, 6S,000. The iiopul.ition of tlie I'rcnch colonies amounts to 47,680,000 inhabitants, and in consequence France stands second to England as a colonizing power; but the difference between them is very great, the colonies of England having more than 350 millions of inhabi- tants.

There are two points to be noted in the stutly of French statistics. The annual mean excess of births over deaths for each 10,000 inhabitants during the