him at certain hours, and had a table and equipage at his command. He spent every day two hours with the king, and revised his literary productions, when, as he himself said, he never failed to praise the good, and quietly to strike out the bad. But this friendship continued hardly a year. A quarrel between Maupertuis, president of the Berlin academy, and a mathematician named Konig, in which Voltaire took part, drew upon him the displeasure of Frederic, who caused his Akakia, a satire upon Maupertuis, to be burnt in the presence of the writer, and sent him his dismission. Voltaire returned to the king the chamberlain's key and the cross of the order which had been conferred on him, with some verses, in which he compared himself to a lover who sends back the portrait of his mistress; but the king soon restored them. Voltaire now made a visit to the duchess of Gotha. During his absence, Maupertuis succeeded in depriving him of the favor of the king, and he concluded to return to France. When he reached Frankfort on the Maine, he was stopped by order of Frederic, because he had with him various productions of the king, who feared that he would use them to his prejudice. He was likewise compelled to resign the chamberlain's key, his order, and his promise of a pension of 22,000 livres. The breach between Frederic and Voltaire was now irreparable. Voltaire wished to reside in Paris; but his Pucelle d'Orléans had excited so much displeasure, that he was not allowed to remain in the capital. He now resided for some years at Colmar, where he wrote the Orphan of China, and bought a country seat in the neighborhood of Geneva.. Jean Jacques Rousseau sent him his wellknown treatise which had gained the prize of the academy of Dijon. Voltaire returned him an answer which, among many flattering remarks, contained the following sentence: "When I read your treatise, I desire to creep upon all-fours." This ridicule made the author of Emile his irreconcilable enemy. Soon after, Voltaire took part in the political contentions then prevailing in Geneva; and, having become involved in disputes with many of the principal people, he thought it best to leave the place. He therefore purchased the estate of Ferney, in the Pays de Gex, where he resided the rest of his life, with his niece, madame Denis. He drew manufacturers, and other settlers, into his district, obtained for them, through his influence, important advantages, and 3

VOL. XIII.

reigned like a petty prince among his subjects. Here he erected a new and elegant church, with the inscription Deo erexit Voltaire. A decided enemy of tyranny and oppression, he afforded aid and protection to many persecuted persons; among others, to the family of Jean Calas, who had fallen a victim to fanaticism. At that time, he wrote his masterly treatise upon toleration. The granddaughter of the great Corneille also experienced his bounty. In the numerous writings which he composed in this retreat, his free spirit employed the weapons of ridicule, and the boldest eloquence, against all which contravened his ideas of freedom and independence. To the clergy he was particularly hostile, on account of their intolerance and persecuting spirit. But he often injured the cause of religion itself while he attacked its servants. His motives, moreover, were not always of the highest kind. In 1757, the first edition of his works appeared, prepared under his own eye. It reconciled him with Frederic the Great. This monarch renewed his correspondence with Voltaire, and sent him his own bust, of porcelain, with the inscription Viro immortali. The empress Catharine of Russia sent him, likewise, splendid presents, accompanied by the most flattering letters. In return for an ivory box, made by herself, and for her instructions (prepared for the direction of a law commission which she had instituted), he sent her a bracelet netted by his own hands. In 1769, a medal was stamped in honor of him, the inscription on which was a verse taken from the Henriade: Il ôte aux nations le bandeau de l'erreur. Some French literati, together with Frederic, erected a statue to him, with the inscription Statue erigée à Voltaire par les hommes de lettres ses compatriotes; and Louis XV said, "He deserves it." All strangers of distinction who passed by Ferney stopped to testify their esteem for this remarkable man. Joseph II only did not visit him. Nevertheless, Voltaire was by no means happy. Too much accustomed to the constant admiration of the world, he soon became weary of his quiet life, and went, even in his advanced age (February, 1778), once more to Paris. Here he found many admirers, who adored him, and many bitter enemies. He was sensible of the dislike entertained towards him; and, therefore, when stopped by the officers of the customs, with the inquiry if he had any contraband goods with him, he replied, “No, no; there is nothing contraband here but

"nyself." The inquiry of the king, on his Arrival, if the decree of the parliament vas still in force against him, made him nxious; but nothing further was done to nolest him. The French academy sent hree of their members to welcome him, hough, in similar cases, it was customary 9 send but one. The actors waited upon im in a body: "We have come," said hey, “to beseech you to inspire us with your odes." "I live only for you and hrough you" was his answer-a proof hat he considered his dramas as his chief productions; and, in truth, dramatic works were his last labors. He wrote his Tancrede in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The calls upon him were so constant that he felt himself oppressed by them. "I im suffocated," said he, "but it is with oses." Franklin came, with his grandon, to see Voltaire: "My son," said he, fall upon your knees before this great nan." Voltaire gave the boy his blessng, with the words “God and freedom." He had brought with him a new tragedy, Irene, which was performed on the 16th of May. The royal family was present, and the piece was received with unboundd applause. The French academy sent im their gratulations on this occasion, and placed his bust by the side of CorJeille. 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, it the conclusion of the piece, his bust was also crowned in the theatre. All hese excitements, together with incessant iterary labors, and the change from his accustomed manner of life, affected his health so much that it seemed as if he ould not live much longer. He perceivd this plainly: "I have come to Paris," e said, to find my glory and my grave." He could not sleep; and a large dose of pium, which he took without the advice his physician, is thought to have hasened his death. When his tenants heard fhis sickness, they wished to go to Parand carry him, in a litter, to Ferney. le resided in Paris with the marquis de Villette. The latter sent to the principal lergyman of St. Sulpice, to induce him > bg Voltaire to submit to the ceremony hich Catholic Christians undergo on aving the world. The circumstances the case have been related differently; it it is certain that Voltaire died without ceiving the sacrament, in the eightyth year of his age, May 30, 1778. The chbishop of Paris is said to have denied

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 abbe 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 abbe 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 drarnas 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, i 70 volumes. A tolerably complete, but per haps 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, wit! 5000 inhabitants. It is the see of a bishop, and has a public seminary of educ:tion. The ancient Volaterra was one of the twelve principal cities of Etruria, and had 100,000 inhabitants. Some Etruscan monuments still remain: among thes are its walls, with a gate, dedicated to Hercules; and the fish-pond, constructe of enormous blocks of stone. (See Etruria.

VOLUME (Latin volumen). The volum of a body has reference to the space which it occupies. To have a correct ide 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 content of the vessel as high as they were whe 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 volum of small bodies, the irregularity of which presents some difficulty in the way of determining it by ordinary means. Volun must not be confounded with mass. the volume also depends the difference the absolute and specific gravity. (q. v.)

VOLUMNIA. (See Coriolanus.)

0

VOLUNTEER, in military language; on who serves in the army, or undertakes: particular duty without being obliged s to do: thus officers not unfrequently tal part in a campaign, as volunteers. Whe an enterprise of peculiar danger is to l undertaken, as the assault of a formidabi battery, the taking of a square, &c., a ca is made for volunteers; and those wh survive receive rewards of money, c medals, swords, &c., or promotion. Som times there are also bodies of troops co sisting entirely of volunteers; e. g. tl Prussian volunteer riflemen, attached each battalion in the campaigns of 181: '14 and '15, and the volunteer compa nies of citizens raised, in 1794, in Eng land. These mostly laid down their arm in 1801; but when the war broke o again in 1803, and the intention of th French to effect a landing was nounced, the inhabitants of Great Britai rose anew, and the ministers spoke nearly 500,000 volunteers being in arms. VOLUTES. (See Architecture,vol. i, p. 340.) VON; a German preposition, meaning,

al

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 early 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 Norie 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 Tractatus 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

they say a vow is promissio de meliori bono. To promise God to do what he commands, or to avoid what he forbids, is not a vow, because we are already obliged so to act." The Catholics adduce numerous passages in the Old Testament to prove that vows are agreeable to God; and their idea of vows is intimately connected with that of good works. To Protestants the theory of vows appears untenable, because nothing can be agreeable to God but what is good in itself; and it is the duty of man, at all times, to aim at the performance of all the good in his power. They consider vows as belonging to ages when the ideas entertained of the Deity, and of our obligations to him, were very crude; and he was looked upon much in the light of a human being. They consider those vows as nothing less than impious, which assume that the Deity can be made to deviate from the path prescribed by infinite wisdom for the consideration of a promise which can have no meaning except between finite beings. The pope has the power, not to absolve from vows, but to substitute some equivalent for the specific performance of them. Catholic writers have therefore maintained that liberty, which is given up in the monastic vows, being the highest good of man, no equivalent can be found for it, and therefore the pope cannot dispense from or commute these vows. (For the monastic vows, see Monastic Vows, Monasteries, and Religious Orders.) VOWEL (from the French voyelle; Latin, vocalis); a simple articulated sound, which is produced merely by breathing and a peculiar opening of the mouth, or, at least, with very little assistance from any other organ of speech. We say very little, because the difference of the sounds e and i (pronounced as in Italian or German) seems to us to depend, in some slight measure, on a curvature of the tongue. Tubes, with various openings, have been invented, which produce the sounds of the five vowels a, e, i, o, u, as pronounced in most languages on the European continent. The circumstance that all vowels, mainly, and most of them entirely, depend upon the form given to the opening of the mouth, is the reason also, 1. that they can be pronounced without the assistance of another sound; hence they are called, in German, Selbstlauter (L. e. self-sounds), whilst consonants are called Hülfslauter (sounds which need the assistance of another); 2. that the sound of the vowels can be continued as long as the breath lasts: for this reason,

they are the natural expressions of emotions, either with no assistance, or with but slight assistance from consonants. From the circumstance that the vowel sounds require only breathing and the opening of the mouth, they are by far the predominating sounds in the cries or music of animals, the pronunciation of the consonants being more difficult, as requiring the application of the other organs of speech. In the particular that the vowel sounds may be continued as long as the breath lasts, some consonants resemble them, and are therefore called semi-vowels, or half vowels; these are the liquids l, m, n, r, and the sibilant s. (See S.) The number of vowels in the different languages is not uniform; thus there are in Greek seven, in Latin but five, and in German, if we consider ä, ő, ű, simple vowels, as they really are, eight. (For further observations upon this point, and upon others touched on in this article, see Voice.) This difference in number, however, is sometimes founded more on the scarcity or abundance of characters, than on a difference of sounds, since, in some languages, there are many more vowel sounds than signs. In some languages, the sounds of the vowels are uniform, as in Italian and Spanish. Thus a, e, i, o, u, never change their sound except in as far as they are pronounced long or short. The same is the case in the German language, with the single exception of e, which, in many cases, is mute, as in haben. In French, e is pronounced in three ways-the è ouvert, é fermé, and e muet. (See E.) But in no language are the same vowel-characters used to designate so great a variety of sounds, and in no European language are there so many sounds falling between the fundamental sounds, as in English: such are u in but; i in sir; u in spur; ough in through; ea in heard, &c. These intermediate sounds are by far the most difficult for foreigners to acquire, and are very rarely learned so perfectly that the foreign accent is not perceptible. Vowels, as has been remarked in the article Consonant, very frequently alternate with each other in the fluctuations of language, and are, therefore, of less importance to the etymologist than consonants. In the German language, the change of vowels has become a grammatical form, to indicate, generally speaking, the relation of derivation. The harmoniousness of a language depends much upon the proportion of the vowels to the consonants. (See the article Consonant.)