2 vols. 8vo., which was translated into English, Dutch, and German. Taking up his residence at Auteuil, near Paris, he now became connected with some of the most eminent of his literary contemporaries; and on the convocation of the Statesgeneral, in 1789, was elected a deputy from the Tiers Etat of Anjou. He frequently appeared with advantage as a public speaker. In 1791 he published his Ruines, ou Méditations sur les Révolutions des Empires. On the conclusion of the sessions of the National Assembly, he accompanied M. Pozzo di Borgo to Corsica, where he had projected some agricultural improvements, and made attempts to establish in that island the cultivation of the sugar cane, indigo, and other tropical plants. Returning to Paris, after ten months' imprisonment, the fall of Robespierre restored him to liberty. In November 1794 he was appointed professor of history at the Normal School, and the course of lectures on the philosophy of history which he delivered added considerably to his reputation. In 1795 he made a voyage to the United States of America, where he experienced a flattering reception, and Volney would probably have settled in America, had not the prospect of a war with France induced him to return home. After the elevation of Buonaparte to the consulship, he was nominated a senator; and is said to have been offered the office of second consul. In the senate he cooperated with Lanjuinais, Cabanais, Destutt de Tracy, Coliaud, Garat, and others, whose influence was constantly exerted in the cause of freedom. After the return of the king, Volney, by a decree of the 4th of June, 1814, was designated a member of the chamber of peers, where he always appeared among the ardent defenders of the rights of the nation. His death took place, after a short illness, at Paris, April 24th, 1820. Besides the works mentioned, he published Simplification des Langues Orientales, ou Méthode nouvelle et facile d'apprendre les Langues Arabe, Persane, et Turque, avec les Caractères Européens, 1795, 8vo.; Tableau du Climat et du Sol de l'Amerique, 1803, 2 vols. 8vo., with a Vocabulary of the Language of the Miamis; Rapport fait à l'Academie Celtique sur l'Ouvrage Russe de M. le Professor Pallas, Vocabulaires comparés des Langues de toute la Terre, 1805, 4to.; Supplement à l'Herodote de Larcher, ou Chronologie d'Herodote conformé à son Texte, 1808, 2 vols. 8vo.; Questions de Statistique à l'Usage des Voyageurs, 1813, 8vo.; Recherches nouvelles sur l'Histoire Ancienne, 1814-15, 3 vols. 8vo. Volney was a member of the Institute from its foundation; and he belonged to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, and to several European literary associations.-Biog. Nouv. des Contemp. Biog. Univ.

VOLÒ, an ancient town of European Turkey, in Thessaly, situated on the gulf of Volo. Its population amounts to nearly 5000. Its harbour is large, and resorted to by vessels from Egypt, Candia, Smyrna, &c. In 1685 it was taken and partly destroyed by the Venetians. Thirty-eight miles north-west of Larissa.

VOLOGDA, a province of European Russia, lying to the south of that of Archangel, and to the east of those of Novgorod and Olonetz. It extends from long. 38° 20′ to 49° 20′ E., and from lat. 58° 30′ to 65° N., being one of the largest but worst peopled governments of the empire; for, while its territorial extent is 149,000 square miles, VOL. XXII.

its population probably does not amount to 654,000. To the north we have all the severity of the frozen zone; the trees losing their leaves in August, and the rivers being frozen over from the end of October to the middle of April. In the south there are large tracts occupied by forests, lakes, and morasses. Mountains are rare, and, though agriculture is followed, the severity and changeable state of the weather render it precarious. The produce of the pasture grounds, of the chase and fishing, tend to make up for this uncertainty. The government is divided into ten circles. The town of this name is a bishop's see, and has 11,000 inhabitants.

VOLONES, in Roman antiquity, slaves who, in the Punic war voluntarily offered their service to the state, when they were admitted to citizenship, as none but freemen could be soldiers.

VOLTA (Alexander), an Italian philosopher, distinguished for his discoveries in Galvanic electricity, was descended of a noble family, and born at Como in 1745. In 1769 he addressed to father Beccaria a dissertation De Vi attractiva Ignis Electrici; and in 1774 was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Pavia. He was in this situation when the discoveries of Galvani were published. Volta immediately turned his attention to the subject of Galvanism, and to his researches is due the discovery of what has been termed the principle of electro-motion, or the excitement of electricity by the contact of heterogeneous substances, as exhibited in the phenomena of the Voltaic pile. Volta addressed to the Royal Society of London, in 1792, an account of his observations, and in 1794 he was presented with the Copleian medal. In 1801 Buonaparte invited our professor to Paris, where he exhibited his discoveries to the members of the Institute. He was subsequently deputy from the University of Pavia to the consulta of Lyons, and then a member of the college of the Dotti, a senator, and at length a count. He died March 6th, 1826. A complete edition of his works appeared at Florence in 1816, 5 vols. 8vo.

VOLTA, a considerable river of Guinea, in Western Africa, the boundary between the Gold and Slave coasts. It overflows its banks, and the channel is obstructed with rocks and sand-banks, which will not admit ships of burden.

VOLTAIRE (Francis Arouet de), a celebrated French author, born at Paris, February 20th, 1694. His father, Francis Arouet, was ancien notaire au Chatelet, and treasurer of the chamber of accounts. He was an exceeding weakly child. In his earliest years he displayed a ready wit and a sprightly imagination; and, as he said of himself, made verses before he was out of his cradle. The famous Ninon De L'Enclos, to whom this ingenious boy was introduced, left him a legacy of 2000 livres to buy him a library. Having been sent to the equity schools, on his quitting college, he was so disgusted with the dryness of the law, that he devoted himself entirely to the muses. He had early imbibed a turn for satire; and, for some philippics against the government, was imprisoned almost a year in the Bastile. He had before this period produced the tragedy of dipus, which was represented in 1718 with great success; and the duke of Orleans, happening to see it performed, was so delighted, that he obtained his release from prison. He began his Henriade before he was eighteen. Several copies of this poem having got

2 K

abroad, while it was only a sketch, an edition of it was published with many chasms, under the title of The League. Instead of fame and friends, the author gained only enemies and mortification, by this first edition. The bigots took fire at it, and the poet was considered as highly criminal for praising admiral Coligny and queen Elizabeth. Endeavours were even made to get the piece suppressed; but this design proved abortive. His chagrin, on this occasion, first inspired him with the thought of visiting England, to finish the work, and republish it in a land of liberty. He was right; for king George I., and more particularly the princess of Wales, afterwards queen of England, raised an immense subscription for him. Their liberality laid the foundation of his fortune; for on his return to France, in 1728, he put his money into a lottery and was fortunate. His Lettres Philosophiques, abounding in bold expressions and indecent witticisms against religion, having been burnt by a decree of the parliament of Paris, and a warrant being issued for apprehending the author in 1733, Voltaire withdrew; and was sheltered by the marchioness du Chatelet, in her castle of Cirey, on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, who entered with him on the study of the system of Leibnitz, and the Principia of Newton. A gallery was built, in which Voltaire formed a good collection of natural history, and made an infinite number of experiments on light and electricity. He labored in the mean time on his Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy, then totally unknown in France, and which the numerous admirers of Des Cartes were very little desirous should be known. In the midst of these philosophic pursuits he produced the tragedy of Alzira. He was now in the meridian of his age and genius, as was evident from the tragedy of Mahomet, first acted in 1741; but it was represented to the procureur-general as a performance offensive to religion, and the author, by order of cardinal Fleury, withdrew it from the stage. Merope, played two years after, 1743, gave an idea of a species of tragedy of which few models had existed. He now became a favorite at court, through the interest of Madam d'Etoile, afterwards marchioness of Pompadour. He was appointed a gentleman of the bed-chamber in ordinary, and historiographer of France. He had frequently attempted to gain admittance into the Academy of Sciences, but could not obtain his wish till 1746, when he was the first who broke through the absurd custom of filling an inaugural speech with the fulsome adulation of Richelieu; an example soon followed by other academicians. From the satires occasioned by this innovation he felt so much uneasiness, that he was glad to retire with the marchioness du Chatelet to Luneville, in the neighbourhood of king Stanislaus. The marchioness dying, in 1749, Voltaire returned to Paris, where his stay was but short. The king of Prussia now gave Voltaire an invitation to live with him, which he accepted towards the end of August 1750. On his arrival at Berlin, he was immediately presented with the Order of Merit, the key of chamberlain, and a pension of 20,000 livres. These, however, he did not long enjoy. He did not take sufficient pains to live well with Maupertuis, whose intrigues effected his disgrace. He now settled near Geneva; but afterwards, being obliged to quit that republic, he purchased the castle of Ferney in France, about a

league from the lake of Geneva. It was here that he undertook the defence of the celebrated family of Calas; and it was not long before he had a second opportunity of vindicating the innocence of another condemned family of the name of Sir ven. In 1774 he had the third time an oppor tunity of employing that zeal which he had dis played in the fatal catastrophe of the families of Calas and Sirven. In this retreat M. Voltaire continued long to enjoy the pleasures of rural life. Wearied at length, however, with his situation, or yielding to the importunities of friends, he came to Paris about the beginning of 1778, where he wrote a new tragedy called Irene. By this time his understanding seems to have been impaired, and he ridiculously suffered himself to be crowned in public with laurel, in testimony of his great poe tical merit. He did not long survive this farce: for having over-heated himself with receiving vi sits, and exhausted his spirits by supplying a perpetual fund of conversation, he was first seized with a spitting of blood; and at last, becoming restless in the night time, he was obliged to use a soporific medicine. Of this he unluckily one night took so large a dose, that he slept thirty-six hours, and expired a very short time after awakening from it.

If voluble and sharp discourse be marred, Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard. Shaksp. This less voluble earth,

By shorter flight to the' east, had left him there. Milf. He had all the French assurance, cunning, and cobility of tongue. Addison.

Watts.

These, with a voluble and flippant tongue, become mere echoes. Volubility, or aptness to roll, is the property of a bowl, and is derived from its roundness. Id.

VOLUMNA, AND VOLUMNUS, in the mythology, two deities of the ancient Etrurians and Romans, who presided over the will and complaisance. They were invoked at marriages to preserve concord between the parties.

VOLUMNE FANUM, a temple of Etruria, sacred to the above deities; where the Roman states assembled to make treaties. Viterbo now stands on the spot.

VOLUME, n. s. Lat. volumen. SomeVOLU'MINOUS, adj. thing rolled or convolv VOLUMINOUSLY, adv. Sed; as much as seems convolved at once; a book, (because anciently formed into a roll or rolls): the adjective and adverb correspond with both senses.

Guyon all this while his book did read, Ne yet has ended; for it was a great

And ample volume, that doth far exceed My leisure, so long leaves here to repeat.

Threescore and ten I can remember well;

Spenser.

Within the volume of which time I've seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange. Shakspeare,
and was too voluminous in discourse.
He did not bear contradiction without much passion,
Clarendon

The serpent rolled voluminous and vast. Milton There is pleasure in doing something new, though never so little, without pestering the world with rais minous transcriptions.

Grant

The wakened earth in odours rise,

To be her morning sacrifice.

Bacon.

Cleaveland.

Milton.

Thoughts which voluntary move Harmonious numbers. Voluntary forbearance denotes the forbearance of an action, consequent to an order of the mind. Locke. By a voluntary before the first lesson, we are prepared for admission of those divine truths, which we are shortly to receive. Spectator.

VOLUNTARY, in music, a piece played by a musician extempore, according to his fancy. This is often used before he begins to set himself to play any particular composition, to try the instrument, and to lead him into the key of the piece he intends to perform.

VOLUNTEER, n. s. & v. n.

Fr. volontaire. A soldier, who enters into the service of his own accord: to go voluntarily for a soldier.

Dryden.

Leave off these wagers, for in conscience speaking, The city needs not your new tricks for breaking: And if you gallants lose, to all appearing, You'll want an equipage for volunteering. Congreve, and the author of the Relapse, being the principals in the dispute, I satisfy them; as for the volunteers, they will find themselves affected with the misfortune of their friends. Collier.

VOLUNTEERS, persons who, either for the service of their prince, or out of the esteem they have for their general, serve in the army without being enlisted, to gain honor and preferment, by exposing themselves in the service. Such are the volunteers who have been long known in the army: but the present age has witnessed whole regiments of volunteers arming themselves for a still more laudable purpose. In 1794 large bodies of citizens in the different cities and towns of Great Britain formed themselves into regiments for the preservation of internal peace, and the defence of their country from foreign attack. At the peace, in 1801, they mostly laid down their military habits; but,

when war was again declared in 1803, and the determination of Buonaparte to invade this island was announced, the inhabitants rose as one man ; and ministers spoke of nearly 500,000 volunteers being in arms.

VOLUPTUOUS, adj. VOLUPTUARY, N.S. VOLUPTUOUSLY, adv. VOLUPTUOUSNESS, n. s.

Fr. voluptueur; Lat. voluptuosus. Given to excess of pleasure; luxurious: the adverb and noun substantive corresponding a voluptuary is a man devoted to pleasure and luxury.

He them deceives; deceived in his deceit ;
Made drunk with drugs of dear voluptuous receipt.
Spenser.
Had I a dozen sons, I had rather eleven died nobly
for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of

action.
Shakspeare.
Here, where still evening is, not noon nor night;
Where no voluptuousness, yet all delight.
You may be free, unless

Your other lord forbids, voluptuousness,

Donne.

Dryden.

Does not the voluptuary understand, in all the liberties of a loose and a lewd conversation, that he runs the risk of body and soul? L'Estrange. VOLUSIANUS, a Roman emperor, associated by his father Gallus, and murdered along with him. See ROME.

VOLUSIUS, a poet of Patavia, who wrote the Annals of Rome in verse.

VOLUTA, in natural history, a genus of animals belonging to the class and order of vermes testacea. There are 144 species. The animals are of the slug kind; the shell is unilocular and spiral; the aperture narrow and without a beak; the columella plaited.

VOLUTE', n. s. Fr. volute. An architectural member of a column.

It is said there is an Ionick pillar in the Santa Maria Transtevere, where the marks of the compass are still to be seen on the volute; and that Palladio learnt from thence the working of that difficult problem.

communicate to water or wine a purging or vomitary Since regulus of stibium, or glass of antimony, will operation, yet the body itself, after iterated infusions, abates not virtue or weight. Browne's Vulgar Errours. From this vitriolous quality, mercurius dulcis, and vitriol vomitive, occasion black injections. Id. How many have saved their lives, by spewing up

VOMITING. That internal sensation which announces the necessity of vomiting is called nausea; it consists of a general uneasiness, with a feeling of dizziness in the head, or in the epigastric region: the lower lip trembles, and the saliva flows in abundance. Instantly, and involuntarily, convulsive contractions of the abdominal muscles, and at the same time of the diaphragm, succeed to this state; the first are not very intense, but those that follow are more so; they at last become such, that the matters contained in the stomach surmount the resistance of the cardia, and are thus darted, as it were, into the oesophagus and mouth; the same effect is produced many times in succession; it ceases for a time, and begins again after some interval. At the instant that the matters driven from the stomach traverse the pharynx and the mouth, the glottis shuts, the velum of the palate rises, and becomes horizontal, as in deglutition; nevertheless, every time that one vomits, a certain quantity of liquid is introduced either into the larynx, or the

nasal canals.

Vomiting was long believed to depend upon the rapid convulsive contraction of the stomach; but it has been shown, by a series of experiments, that in the process, this viscus is nearly passive; and that the true agents of vomiting are, on the one hand, the diaphragm, and, on the other, the large abdominal muscles. In the ordinary state, the diaphragm and the muscles of the abdomen co-operate in vomiting; but each of them can, nevertheless, produce separately. Thus, an animal still vomits, though the diaphragm has been rendered immoveable by cutting the diaphragmatic nerves; it vomits the same, though the whole abdominal muscles have been taken away by the knife, with the precaution of leaving the linea alba and the peritonæum untouched.

VOPISCUS (Flavius), a Roman historian who flourished about A. D. 303, and wrote the lives of the emperors Aurelian, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Firmus, Carus, Carinus, &c. He is one of the six historians whose works are extant, and printed under the title of Historia Augustæ Scriptores; but he excels the rest in elegance.

VORACIOUS, adj. VORACIOUSLY, adv. VORA'CIOUSNESS, n. s. VORAC'ITY.

ing.

Fr. vorace; Lat. vorur. Greedy to eat; ravenous : the adverb and noun

substantives correspond.

nego.

VORMAR (Isaac), a learned German, who was employed as an imperial plenipotentiary ciating the peace of Westphalia. He wrote Memoirs of Public Affairs, and died in 1662.

VORONEZ, a province and town of the inte rior of European Russia, bounded on the east by the country of the Don Cossacks, and lying between lat. 48° and 54° N. its area is 31,000 square miles; but its population hardly amounts to 800,000.

VORTEX, n. s. Lat. vorter. In the plural VOR'TICAL, adj. vortices. Any thing whirled round: having a whirling motion.

Conflicting passions, loud, impetuous, strong, Wrapt in their vortex, hurry him along; And luckily one striking feature caught, A semblance stamps, though charged with many a fault

White's Poems.

If many contiguous vortices of molten pitch were each of them as large as those which some suppose to revolve about the sun and fixed stars, yet these, and all their parts, would by their tenacity and stiffness communicate their motion to one another.

Nexton.

It is not a magnetical power, nor the effect of a tortical motion; those common attempts towards the exBentley's Sermons. plication of gravity.

VORTEX, in meteorology, a whirlwind, or sudden, rapid, and violent motion of the air in gyres or Vortex is also used for an eddy or whirlcircles. pool; or a body of water in certain seas or rivers, which run rapidly around, forming a sort of cavity in the middle.

VORTEX, in the Cartesian philosophy, is a system or collection of particles of matter moving the same way, and round the same axis.

The VORTICES OF DES CARTES are now justly exploded; but, being the fiction of a very superior mind, they are still an object of curiosity, as being the foundation of a great philosophical romance, According to him, the whole of infinite space was full of matter; for he said matter and extension were the same, and consequently there could be to void. This immensity of matter he supposed to be divided into an infinite number of very sma cubes; all of which, being whirled about upon their own centres, necessarrly gave occasion to the production of two different elements. The first consisted of those angular parts which, having been necessarily rubbed off, and grinded yet smaller by their mutual friction, constituted the most subtle and moveable part of matter. The second cou sisted of those little globules that were formed by rubbing off the first. The interstices betwixt these globules of the second element were filled by the particles of the first. But in the infinite collisions, which must occur in an infinite space filled with matter, and, all in motion, it must necessarily happen that many of the globules of the second element should be broken and grinded down into the first. Such Des Cartes supposed was the cause of the original formation and conse quent motions of the planetary system. When a solid body is turned round its centre, those parts of it which are nearest, and those which are remotest from the centre, complete their revolutions in one and the same time. But it is otherwise with the revolutions of a fluid: the parts of it which are nearest the centre complete their revolutions in a shorter time than those which are remoter. The planets, therefore, all floating in that immense tide of ather which is continually setting in from west

to east round the body of the sun, complete their revolutions in a longer or a shorter time, according to their nearness or distance from him. It is surely sufficient, however, to demolish this goodly fabric, barely to ask how an absolute infinity of matter can be divided into cubes, or any thing else? how there can possibly be interstices in a perfect plenum? or how in such a plenum any portion of matter can be thrust from its place.

VOSGES, a chain of mountains in the east of France, extending from north to south, in a line nearly parallel to the course of the Rhine, from Bale to Spires. This chain may be termed a continuation of the Jura; for it begins nearly where the latter end, and is separated from them only by a valley. The length of the main chain is about 120 miles.

VOSGES, a department of the north-east of France, formed of a part of Lorraine, and adjoining the departments of the Meurthe and Upper Saone. Its extent, equal to two of our average sized counties, is about 2400 square miles; its population somewhat above 334,000. The surface is rugged, and here are the sources of several large rivers, as the Meuse, the Moselle, the Meurthe, and the Saone. The smaller streams and mountain torrents are numerous, as are the mineral waters, of which the best known are those of Plombieres. In the mountains the soil is often stony in the plains chalky and sandy. The climate is cold; the products oats, barley, rye, potatoes, flax, and hemp. In the more fertile tracts wheat, and, in situations of favorable exposure, vines; the summer heat being great. The mineral products are iron, lead, copper, and, in a few situations, silver, marble, and potters'-earth. This department is divided into five arrondissements. Its capital is Epinal. The population, chiefly agriculturists, is far from dense. The cheapness of provisions, and consequently of labor, has led to the introduction of linen and cotton cloth manufactures, the spinning of yarn, and the making of lace. These articles furnish, along with cattle, butter, cheese, glass, earthen-ware, and timber, the chief exports.

VOSS (John Henry), a German poet and critic, was born at Sommersdorf in 1751. Educated at the school of Neu Brandenburg he attracted some notice by his poems, inserted in the Almanac of the Muses, of Gottingen, in 1770, and procured the means of studying in the university at that place. A literary society having been formed, called The Friends of Gottingen, he became one of the members, among whom were count Stolberg, Holty, Burger, Klopstock, &c. In 1775 Voss engaged in the publication of the Almanac of the Muses, or Anthology (Blumenlese) of Gottingen, which he conducted till 1800. In 1778 he was nominated rector of the college of Ottendorf, Hanover, whence he removed to occupy a similar office at Eutin in the duchy of Oldenburg. He remained there twenty-three years; and, in 1805, the grand duke of Baden invited him to Heidelberg, where he remained till his death, March 29th, 1826. Voss translated the works of Homer, 1793; Virgil, 1799; Horace, 1806; Hesiod and the pseudo-Orpheus, 1306; Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, 1808; Tibullus and Lygdamus, 1810; Aristophanes, 1821; Aratus, 1824; and extracts from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, 1798. His original writings comprise Letters on Mythology, Idylls, and other poems, besides numerous papers in periodical works. He

was also engaged in various literary controversies with Heyne, count Stolberg, Creuzer, and others of his learned contemporaries.

VOSSIUS (John Gerard), one of the most learned and laborious writers of the seventeenth century, was of a considerable family in the Netherlands; and was born in 1577, in the Palatinate, near Heidelberg, at a place where his father, John Vossius, was minister. He became well skilled in politic literature, history, and sacred and profane antiquities, and was made director of the college of Dort. He was at length made professor of eloquence and chronology at Leyden, whence he was called in 1633 to Amsterdam, to fill the chair of a professor of history. He died in 1649. He wrote many learned works, of which a complete edition has been printed at Amsterdam, in nine vols. folio.

VOSSIUS (Dionysius), a son of the above, born at Dort in 1612. He was very learned in the oriental history, and published a Latin translation of Maimonides on Idolatry, with notes: and other tracts. He died at Amsterdam, in 1633,

VOSSIUS (Isaac), a man of great parts and learn ing, brother to Dionysius, was born at Leyden in 1618. He had no other tutor but his father, and employed his whole life in studying: his merit recommended him to a correspondence with queen Christina of Sweden; he made several journeys into Sweden by her order, and had the honor to teach her the Greek. In 1670 he came over to England, where king Charles made him canon of Windsor. He appears indeed by his publications, which are neither so useful nor so numerous as his father's, to have been a most credulous man, while he afforded many circumstances to bring his religious faith in question. He died at Windsor castle in 1688. He was LL.D.

VOSSIUS (Gerard), a Romish divine, a relation of the preceding, was born in 1609. He published the works of Gregorius Thaumaturgus; Ephrem Syrus, and some tracts of John Chrysostom, and Theodoret, with Latin versions and notes.

VOSTITZA, a district of the Morea, in Achaia, extending along the coast of the gulf of Lepanto. Its chief town of the same name, occupying the site of the ancient Egium, was lately a flourishing sea-port containing 800 houses; but, on the 23d of August, 1817, it was destroyed, in a great measure, by an earthquake along with a number of the neighbouring villages. Its port was tolerably good, and served as a place to export cheese, raisins, and other products to Patras and the neighbouring isles. Twenty-five miles east of Patras, and forty northwest of Corinth.

VOTARY, n. s. & adj. VOʻTARIST, n. s. VOTARESS.

Lat. devotus. One devoted, as by a vow, Sto any particular service: this both the first two noun substantives signify; and votaress is the feminine: votary, as an adjective, means consequent on a vow.

Like a sad votaress, beautiful in tears, Child of unfeigned contrition she appears.

I wish a more strict restraint

Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of St. Clare.

Wherefore waste I time to counsel thee? Thou art a votary to fond desire.

Whyte.

Shakspeare.

Id.