myself." The inquiry of the king, on his arrival, if the decree of the parliament was still in force against him, made him anxious; but nothing further was done to molest him. The French academy sent three of their members to welcome him, though, in similar cases, it was customary to send but one. The actors waited upon him in a body: "We have come," said they, "to beseech you to inspire us with your odes." "I live only for you and through you" was his answer-a proof that he considered his dramas as his chief productions; and, in truth, dramatic works were his last labors. He wrote his Tancrède in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The calls upon him were so constant that he felt himself oppressed by them. "I am suffocated," said he, "but it is with roses." Franklin came, with his grandson, to see Voltaire: "My son," said he, "fall upon your knees before this great man." Voltaire gave the boy his blessing, with the words "God and freedom." He had brought with him a new tragedy, Irène, which was performed on the 16th of May. The royal family was present, and the piece was received with unbounded applause. The French academy sent him their gratulations on this occasion, and placed his bust by the side of Corneille. At the sixth representation, he came into the theatre; and, when he had sat down in his box, a player entered, and presented him with a laurel wreath; and, at the conclusion of the piece, his bust was also crowned in the theatre. All these excitements, together with incessant literary labors, and the change from his accustomed manner of life, affected his health so much that it seemed as if he could not live much longer. He perceived this plainly: "I have come to Paris," he said, "to find my glory and my grave." He could not sleep; and a large dose of opium, which he took without the advice of his physician, is thought to have hastened his death. When his tenants heard of his sickness, they wished to go to Paris, and carry him, in a litter, to Ferney. He resided in Paris with the marquis dé Villette. The latter sent to the principal clergyman of St. Sulpice, to induce him to beg Voltaire to submit to the ceremony which Catholic Christians undergo on leaving the world. The circumstances of the case have been related differently; but it is certain that Voltaire died without receiving the sacrament, in the eightyfifth year of his age, May 30, 1778. The archbishop of Paris is said to have denied the corpse Christian burial; and it was

therefore interred secretly at Scellières, a Bernardine abbey, between Nogent and Troyes. By a decree of the national assembly (1791), his remains were placed in the Pantheon, in Paris, near those of J. J. Rousseau and other great men.-The exterior of Voltaire was quite characteristic. In his countenance, as has been said, there was a mixture of the eagle and the monkey; and, in character, he united the boldness of the one with something of the malice of the other. He was impetuous, irritable, sensitive, but also mild, compassionate, benevolent, cheerful, and lively from principle. With noble views and principles, his actions were not always the most praiseworthy; and many of his good deeds did not flow from the purest sources. He had something vacillating in his character; and, notwithstanding his hatred of prejudice, he frequently bowed to it in a manner which did him little honor. From vanity he flattered the great, and often sought their company for the same reason. His fame did not become great till after his retirement from court. He was too selfish to inspire love, and avarice is said to have had much ascendency over him. Yet he was, in his latter years, the friend of the poor, and the protector of the oppressed. Notwithstanding all his admirers, he gained no friend. He had great talents, but not an elevated character; and his writings want the charm which only a great soul can give. Nevertheless, he often acted nobly. The abbé Desfontaines, to whom he had shown much kindness, published, without any authority, an edition of the Henriade from a very imperfect manuscript. Desfontaines became unfortunate, repented of what he had done, and Voltaire became again his benefactor. Being arrested on account of a dishonorable accusation, the abbé owed to Voltaire's influence with madam de Prie his freedom, his honor, and perhaps his life. Desfontaines recompensed this favor by a severe criticism and a bitter lampoon. To a peasant, deprived, by an unjust sentence, of his land, who applied to Voltaire for assistance, he gave 3000 livres, and invited him to settle in Ferney. In company, Voltaire was agreeable, polite, and a complete courtier. The activity of his temperament was so great that he often labored all night. Even in his eightieth year, he worked fourteen hours a day. Among his works, his dramas hold the first place. He is the worthy rival of Racine and Corneille, and his pieces are still favorites with the French. Notwithstanding his great wit,

however, Voltaire was not distinguished in comedy. The Henriade has many striking passages, but wants true epic characters, and is faulty in its plan. Among his historical works, the Siècle de Louis XIV et XV, and the Histoire de Charles XII, the Essai sur l'Histoire générale,sur les Maurs et l'Esprit des Nations, abound in penetrating views. His merits are not those of thorough investigation, but of striking and happy description, and sagacious observation. His prevailing defect is the exaggerated estimation of the superiority of the French over other modern nations. His philosophical romances, treatises, smaller poems, narratives, dialogues, &c., show a comprehensive spirit, and great felicity of execution. In the department of fugitive pieces, he is unique. As a prose writer, he is unequalled, so beautiful and polished is his expression, so copious his wit. Among all the French writers, he, perhaps, displays, in the fullest degree, the peculiarities of his nation. The accomplished marchioness du Chatelet, as we have already said, was his intimate friend: hence the Lettres inédites de la Marq. du Chatelet et Supplément à la Correspondance de Voltaire avec le Roi de Prusse, etc., avec des Notes histor. (Paris, 1818), is an important addition to his biography. See La Vie de Voltaire par Condorcet; also La Vie de Voltaire par M. [Mercier] (Geneva, 1788); Examen des Ouvrages de M. de Voltaire par M. Linguet (Brussels, 1788); Vie littéraire de Voltaire rédigée par de Luchet. The abbe Duvernet describes him more particularly as a man, and a private man, in his Vie de Voltaire suivie d'Anecdotes qui composent sa Vie privée (Paris, 1797); see also Mémoires sur Voltaire et sur ses Ouvrages par Wagnière et Longchamp, ses Secrétaires (1826, two vols.). Wagnière was directed by the empress Catharine,who bought Voltaire's library, to arrange it in St. Petersburg, as it had stood in Ferney. The Vie de Voltaire, by Mazure, is very partial. His works were published by Beaumarchais, at Kehl, 1784, seq. in 70 vols. 4to and 8vo, and 92 vols. 12mo; and, by Palissot, with notes, at Paris, 1796, seq. The Pièces inédites appeared at Paris in 1820. Since 1817, seven editions of the works of Voltaire have been published (the cheapest by Touquet, 1820). In 1823, some unpublished works of his were found in the imperial hermitage, at Petersburg: the most important are a bitter commentary upon Rousseau's Contrat Social, and a tale; the latter has since been published. Dupont has lately pub

lished an edition of Voltaire's works, in 70 volumes. A tolerably complete, but perhaps not entirely impartial review of the numerous literary contests of Voltaire, is given in the Tableau philosophique de l'Esprit de M. de Voltaire (Geneva, 1771).

VOLTERRA; a town of Tuscany, twenty-four miles south-west of Florence, with 5000 inhabitants. It is the see of a bishop, and has a public seminary of educa tion. The ancient Volaterra was one of the twelve principal cities of Etruria, and had 100,000 inhabitants. Some Etruscan monuments still remain: among these are its walls, with a gate, dedicated to Hercules; and the fish-pond, constructed of enormous blocks of stone. (See Etruria.)

VOLUME (Latin volumen). The volume of a body has reference to the space which it occupies. To have a correct idea of this, imagine a body immersed entirely in a liquid, which neither changes nor penetrates it. If it is now taken out, and we add new liquid, to raise the contents of the vessel as high as they were when the body was immersed, the amount of the newly-added liquid will give us the volume of the body. Thus we have a simple means of ascertaining the volume of small bodies, the irregularity of which presents some difficulty in the way of determining it by ordinary means. Volume must not be confounded with mass. On the volume also depends the difference of the absolute and specific gravity. (q. v.)

VOLUMNIA. (See Coriolanus.)

VOLUNTEER, in military language; one who serves in the army, or undertakes a particular duty without being obliged so to do: thus officers not unfrequently take part in a campaign, as volunteers. When an enterprise of peculiar danger is to be undertaken, as the assault of a formidable battery, the taking of a square, &c., a call is made for volunteers; and those who survive receive rewards of money, or medals, swords, &c., or promotion. Sometimes there are also bodies of troops consisting entirely of volunteers; e. g. the Prussian volunteer riflemen, attached to each battalion in the campaigns of 1813, '14 and '15, and the volunteer companies of citizens raised, in 1794, in England. These mostly laid down their arms in 1801; but when the war broke out again in 1803, and the intention of the French to effect a landing was announced, the inhabitants of Great Britain rose anew, and the ministers spoke of nearly 500,000 volunteers being in arms. VOLUTES. (See Architecture, vol. i, p. 340.) VON; a German preposition, meaning,

in some cases, from, or of. It is prefixed to the names of the host of noblemen in that country; in which case it is equivalent to the French de, and the Dutch van, which latter, however, does by no means always indicate nobility. There are a few cases, also, in Germany, in which von precedes the name of a commoner. The origin of this signification of von was, probably, that the early noblemen were called by their Christian name, with the addition of the castle or village which belonged to them. Before family names became settled (see Names), it was very customary, on the European continent, to call any person, commoner or nobleman, by his Christian name, with the addition of the place in which he resided, either changed into an adjective, or with the preposition of, de, von. By degrees, this became a distinction of the nobility in Germany, but not in Holland.

VONDEL, Joost van der, one of the most celebrated poets of Holland, of which, however, he was not a native, was born at Cologne, in 1587. His parents, who were Anabaptists, removed to Holland while he was a child, and the poet himself afterwards went over to the Arminians (q. v.), and finally died in the bosom of the Roman Catholic church, in 1659. Nature had endowed him with extraordinary talents, and he derived little aid from education. He has been called the Dutch Shakspeare. Devoting himself entirely to the cultivation of poetry, Vondel first learned Latin and French in the thirtieth year of his age, read the Roman and French writers, and endeavored to supply the deficiencies of his carly education. His works display genius and elevated imagination; but the language is often incorrect. His poems compose nine vols. quarto, and include metrical versions of the Psalms, of Virgil and of Ovid, together with satires and tragedies. Among the latter, Palamedes, an allegorical piece relating to the death of Barneveldt, and the Conquest of Amsterdam, are considered the masterpieces of Dutch tragedy. Camper has treated of Vondel, in a Latin prize essay, published at Leyden, in 1818. VORARLBERG; a mountainous district, now forming a circle of the Tyrol, surrounded by the Tyrol, Switzerland, lake Constance, and Bavaria. It has its own separate constitution, and consists of the lordships of Bregenz, Feldkirch, Pludenz, and Hohenems, with a population of 86,754 souls, on 1578 square miles. The Vorarlberg lordships derive their name from the Arlberg, or Adlersberg (Eagle

mountain), which belongs to the Noric Alps, and separates them from the Tyrol. They were annexed to the Tyrol in 1782, and were ceded with it, by the peace of Presburg, to Bavaria; but, in 1814, were restored to Austria. The country is mountainous, and watered by several small rivers, among which, the Lech and the Iller take their rise here. There is much wood and good pasturage, and the raising of cattle is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. The corn produced is not equal to the consumption. There are cotton manufactures here, and the making wooden ware, and the building of boats and houses (the latter exported to Switzerland), employ a great number of the inhabitants. The chief town (Bregenz) has 2500 inhabitants.

VORSTIUS, Conrad, an eminent divine, born at Cologne, in 1569, was the son of a dyer, who secretly seceded to the Protestant communion. Conrad was sent to Haerlem and Heidelberg, at which university he was created a doctor of divinity. After giving lectures on theology, at Geneva, in 1596, he accepted a professorship at Steinfurt, until 1610, when he received a call to succeed Arminius in the professorship of theology at Leyden. Having accepted this offer, he soon became involved in the controversial war which raged in the Netherlands; and the Gomarists, taking advantage of a book which he had published, entitled Tracta tus Theologicus de Deo, accused him of heresy. James I, on receiving the book of Vorstius, drew up a catalogue of heresies from it, which he sent to his minister at the Hague, with an order to certify to the states how much he detested those alleged errors. He also caused his book to be burnt in London, and informed the states, who said they would inquire into the case, that if they did not dismiss Vorstius, none of his subjects should visit Leyden. The appearance of a work, by some of his disciples, entitled De Officio Christiani Hominis, which contained some anti-Trinitarian doctrines,although formally disclaimed by Vorstius, excited against him so much odium, that he was banished, by the states of Holland, from their territories. (See Arminius, and Arminians.) He lived for more than two years in secrecy, frequently changing his abode, in fear for his life, and died, in 1622, at the age of fifty-three.

VORTICES OF DESCARTES. cartes.)

(See Des

VOSGES; a chain of mountains in the east of France, extending from north to

south, nearly parallel with the Rhine, and forming a continuation of the Jura mountains, which separate France from Switzerland. Beginning in the vicinity of Belfort, in the ancient Sundgau, they divide Alsace from Lorraine, and, bending towards the German provinces on the Rhine, they terminate, towards the north-east, on the Rhine and the Moselle, under the name of Hundsrück (q. v.), and towards the north-west, in the grand duchy of Luxemburg, under the name of the Ardennes. Alsace, situated on the German side of the Vosges, has been in the possession of France for a century; yet the language is still German. The highest summits attain an elevation of nearly 4500 feet above the surface of the sea. They have a gentle declivity, and, on the eastern and southern sides, are often covered with vineyards. Great part of the Vosges mountains are covered with forests; and they are rich in game, wild fowl, silver, copper, iron, lead, coal and antimony. They also contain excellent pasturage; and the inhabitants breed many cattle, and make large quantities of cheese, known under the name of Munster cheese. The Ill, Lauter, Moselle, Meurthe, Saar and Saonne rise in this chain of mountains.

VOSGES; a department in the eastern part of France. (See Department.)

Voss, John Henry, was born in 1751, in Mecklenburg. Till his fourteenth year, he was educated in the small town of Penzlin. In 1766, he was placed at the school of New Brandenburg. He early devoted himself to the classical languages, and made verses. Being without funds to support him at the university, he accepted the place of tutor in a private family, in order to obtain the necessary means. After having been occupied with instructing five or six hours a day, he found recreation in Greek, music and poetry. In 1772, he went to Göttingen, where he joined a society of young men, at the head of which were Boje and Bürger, and which has since become important in the history of German literature. Voss studied theology, which, however, he soon gave up, in order to devote himself entirely to philology. Heyne was one of his chief teachers; but with him he quarrelled. In 1778, he was appointed rector at Ottendorf. In 1781, after the publication of several treatises, he produced his German Odyssey, a work which, whatever may be the opinion of some respecting it, has rendered this grand poem national with the Germans, and may be compared, in

this respect, with Schlegel's translation of Shakspeare. In 1782, the state of his health obliged him to go to Eutin. His disputes with Heyne continued. In 1793, appeared his translation of the Iliad, and that of the Odyssey, in a new form, in which, however, it did not please so much as before, being more simple. Besides many philological and antiquarian works, he published an idyl in the epic form, called Luise, in 1795. It had previously appeared in 1783, but was now produced with improvements. It is much liked by many Germans: others consider it an unfortunate attempt to give an epic character to the events of an ordinary life. In 1799, appeared his translation of the whole of Virgil into German. In 1801, he added a volume of pastoral poems to a new edition of Luise, and, in 1802, four volumes of lyric poems, to which was added the Zeitmessung Deutscher Sprache, a work of considerable importance. In 1802, his German Homer appeared anew, in an improved form. In 1802, he went to Jena; in 1805, to Heidelberg, in order to aid the new organization of the university. Here appeared, in 1806, his German Horace, Hesiod, and Orpheus the Argonaut; in 1807, a new edition of Luise, and of his Homer; in 1808, a German Theocritus, Bion and Moschus; in 1810, Tibullus and Lygdamus, in German; in 1811, the Latin text of the same, prepared from manuscripts. In 1814, he published a muchimproved edition of his German Homer. In 1821, appeared his translation of Aristophanes; in 1824, a translation of Aratus. He also undertook to translate, with his sons Henry (died in 1822) and Abraham, the whole of Shakspeare, of which the three first volumes appeared in 1819. This translation cannot stand a comparison with Schlegel's. In 1823, Voss came out, in opposition to Creuzer (q. v.), with his Antisymbolik (Stuttgart, 1823). The second volume was published by his son Abraham, from manuscript, in 1826. Almost at the same time, he made an attack on Catholic mysticism, principally in consequence of his friend count Stolberg becoming a Catholic. He died in 1826, in Heidelberg (See Paulus's Lebens- und Todeskunden von J. H. Voss, 1826.) His translations are the best existing of classic authors, and have contributed much to the advancement of German literature; while Schlegel's translations of Shakspeare and other modern writers, and his treatises on romantic literature, have prevented the classical element from becoming excessive.

Vossius, or Vos, Gerard John, a celebrated writer on criticism and philology, born near Heidelberg, in 1577, studied at Dordrecht and Leyden. At the age of twenty, he commenced his literary career by the publication of a Latin panegyric on prince Maurice of Nassau, and, two years after, became director of the college of Dordrecht. In 1614, the chair of philosophy was offered him at Steinfurt; but he preferred the direction of the theological college established at Leyden; and, after having occupied that post four years, amidst the storms of religious controversy, he procured the more peaceable appointment of professor of rhetoric and chronology. Having declared himself in favor of the Remonstrants, he became obnoxious to the prevailing party in the church; and, at the synod of Tergou, or Gouda, in 1620, he was deprived of his office. Through the influence of archbishop Laud, the patron of Arminianism in England, Vossius was indemnified for his loss by a prebendal stall at Canterbury, with permission to continue his residence in the Netherlands. In 1633, he was invited to Amsterdam, to occupy the chair of history, at the schola illustris, and continued there till his death, in 1649. Among his numerous works may be specified the treatises De Origine Idololatria; De Historicis Græcis, et de Historicis Latinis; De Poetis Græcis et Latinis; De Scientiis Mathematicis; De Quatuor Artibus popularibus; Historia Pelagiana; Institutiones Historica, Grammatica, Poetica; Etymologicon Lingua Latina; De Vitiis Sermonis; De Philosophorum Sectis. A collective edition of his works appeared in 6 vols., folio (Amsterdam, 1695-1701).

Vossius, Isaac, son of the preceding, was born at Leyden, in 1618, and, possessing great natural talents, 'acquired early reputation among the learned. At the age of twenty-one, he published an edition of the Periplus of Scylax, with a Latin version, and notes. Christina, queen of Sweden, invited him to Stockholm, and chose him for her preceptor in the Greek language. His quarrels with Saumaise having rendered the court of Sweden disagreeable to him, he quitted it in 1649, and returned to his native country, where he employed himself in the production of various learned works. In 1670, he visited England, and was admitted to the degree of LL. D. at Oxford; and, in 1673, having been presented to a canonry, at Windsor, by Charles II, he passed the remaining part of his life in

that country, where he died in 1688. Besides editing the works of Scylax, Justin the historian, Catullus, Pomponius Mela, St. Barnabas, and St. Ignatius, he published Dissertatio de vera Ætate Mundi; De Septuaginta Interpretibus eorumque Translatione et Chronologia Dissertationes, in which he defended the chronology of the Septuagint version against the Hebrew text of the Old Testament; De Poematum Cantu et Viribus Rhythmi, &c. Isaac Vossius was, while in England, intimate with St. Evremond and the duchess of Mazarin; but though he lived much in the society of the great, his behavior was sometimes rude, and his language by no means decent. In his writings, he maintained extravagant paradoxes, while he was generally considered as an infidel in religion. Hence Charles II said he was a strange divine, for he believed every thing but the Bible. VOTIACKS. (See Finns.)

VOTIVE TABLES are those tablets which give information of the circumstances connected with offerings deposited in a temple in consequence of vows.

VOUET, Simon, an eminent French painter, was born at Paris, in 1582, and was bred up under his father, who was also an artist. He accompanied the French embassy at Constantinople, and drew the grand seignior, from memory, after an audience in the train of the ambassador. He then visited Venice and Rome, at which latter capital he acquired great distinction. He remained in Italy fourteen years, when he was sent for by Louis XIII, to work in his palaces, and furnished some of the apartments of the Louvre, the palace of Luxembourg, and the galleries of cardinal Richelieu, and other public places, with his works. He was a good colorist, but had little genius for grand composition, although France was certainly indebted to him for introducing a better taste. Most of the succeeding French painters who gained distinction, were bred under him, including Le Brun, Perrier, Mignard, Le Sueur, Dorigny, Du Fresnoy, and others. He died in 1649.

VOULGARIANS. (See Bulgaria.) VOUSSOIRS; the wedge-shaped stones which form an arch.

Vow. "A vow," says the Catholic Dictionnaire de Théologie (Toulouse, 1817), "is a promise made to God of a thing which we think to be agreeable to him, and which we are not, on other grounds, obliged to render to him. This is what the theologians understand by it when