287 



VARGAS, LUIS DE. 



VARIGNON, PIERRE. 



238 



and states as bis reason for dedicating the book to them, that he had 

 found in their city an asylum and the means of pursuing his studies 

 when obliged to fly from his native country, laid waste by the ravages 

 of war. He intimates his intention, if the Geography is favourably 

 received, to follow it up by a work on the food and drink of various 

 nations, and on the different kinds of medicines in use among them. 

 These incidental notices in the dedications and prefaces of the works 

 we have mentioned, appear to establish the identity of their author, 

 and supply a faint outline of his history from 1642 to 1650. Of the 

 subsequent history of Varenius we have found no trace, except that 

 Chalmers asserts, on what authority we have been unable to discover, 

 that he died in 1660. Jb'cher mentions a Henricus Varenius, a native 

 of Hervord in Westphalia, who was at one time chaplain to Duke 

 Augustus of Brunswick-Liineburg, and died pastor and superintendent 

 of the church at Ulzen in 1636: this may have been a relation 

 (father ?) of Bernhardus Varenius. The ' Description of Japan ' (' De- 

 scriptio Regni Japouiao ') is, as has been noticed above, a mere com- 

 pilation. It was the last of a series of similar monographs of actually 

 existing states, published by the Elzevirs. Prefixed is a dissertation 

 on what constitutes a state ; a list of the states into which the world 

 was divided at the time of publication ; and a catalogue of the autho- 

 rities consulted for the account of Japan. An appendix contains a 

 notice of the Dairi of Japan, and some information respecting Siam 

 and Persia. Annexed is an account of tho religion of the Japanese, 

 and a narrative of the introduction into and suppression of Christia- 

 nity in Japan, dedicated to Christina, queen of Sweden. Lastly, there 

 is a short view of all religions. The 'Geographia Generalis ' is divided 

 into three books. The author treats, in the first and second, of general 

 or universal geography; in the third, of special or particular geo- 

 graphy. The contents of the first book he calls 'Absolute Geography,' 

 including under this designation all that relates to the form, dimen- 

 sions, or motion of the world, the general properties of the land, the 

 seas, rivers, &c. The second book is devoted to what he terms ' Rela- 

 tive Geography,' and in this is comprehended everything relating to 

 climates', seasons, the difference of apparent time at different places, 

 the lengths of days in different latitudes, temperature, &c. In the 

 third book, ' Comparative Geography ' (by which Varenius means the 

 relative positions of places), after some remarks upon the longitude, 

 the construction of globes and maps, measurements of distances, and 

 the sensible and visible horizons, six chapters are devoted to an expo- 

 sition of the theory and practice of navigation. The work is the first 

 attempt at a system of physical geography : it is characterised by 

 precision, good arrangement, and lucid expression. The author has 

 evidently had extensive acquirements in mathematics, and wider and 

 raore scientific views in natural history than prevailed for well nigh a 

 century after his book was published. Newton's editions of the 

 ' Geographia Generalis ' (1672 and 1681) contain important improve- 

 ments in the mathematical theory and corrections of the tables of 

 latitudes and longitudes. Jurin, a fellow of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, at the suggestion of Bentley, published a new edition, with an 

 appendix containing the most recent discoveries, in 1712. An English 

 translation of Jurin's edition by Dugdale, revised by Shaw, was pub- 

 lished in London; the second edition of this translation is dated 1736. 

 The contents of Jurin's appendix are introduced into the body of the 

 work ; and the geographical nomenclature and positions are adapted 

 to the best English maps. A French translation from this English 

 edition, by Depuisieux, was published at Paris in 1755. The publica- 

 tion of Varenius's ' Geographia Generalis ' marks an epoch in the 

 history of geography. 



(Varenius, De Definitione motus Aristotelica, Hamburgi, 1642 ; De 

 Peari in genere, Lugduni Batavorum, 1649 ; Descriptio Regni Japonice, 

 Amstelodsemi, 1649; Geographia Generalis, Cantabrigise, 1681; Id, 

 Angl., by Dugdale, London, 1736 ; Id. Gall., par Depuisieux, Paris 

 1755 ; Philosophical Transactions, vol. vii. ; Eloy, Dlctionnaire ffisto- 

 rique de la Medicine ; Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon ; Chal- 

 mers, Biographical Dictionary ; Biographic Universelle.) 



VAUGAS, LUIS DE, a distinguished Spanish painter of the 16th 

 century, born at Seville in 1502. He was the first who established 

 a correct and grand style of design in oil and in fresco painting in 

 Andalucia, where, until his time, the Gothic taste prevailed generally. 

 He exhibited a disposition to excel in design at a very early age, and 

 his natural taste disapproving of the style of the artists of his own 

 country, he determined upon visiting Italy and studying the works of 

 the great masters of that country. He accordingly, .in 1527, went to 

 Rome, and is said to have become a scholar of Perino del Vaga, the 

 beauties of whose style and of the Roman school he fully mastered. 

 Vargas remained twenty-eight years in Italy : his first known work in 

 Seville is dated 1555. Cean Bermudez contradicts the account of 

 Palomino about Vargas returning to Seville after a seven years' 

 sojourn at Rome, and finding himself inferior to Antonio Flores (or 

 rather Francisco Frutet, as Bermudez says) and Pedro de Campana, 

 returning for another seven years to Italy ; and he points out other 

 inaccuracies in Palomino's notice of this painter for example, the 

 compliment paid to Vargas's picture in the cathedral, called La 

 Gamba, by Perez di Alessio, at the expense of his own St. Christopher, 

 which is an anachronism, as the St. Christopher was not painted until 

 1584, sixteen years after the death of Vargas, who died in 1568, and 

 not 1590, as is stated by Palomino. Vargas established a greater 



reputation at Seville than any painter that preceded him, and he exe- 

 cuted many excellent works there in oil and in fresco, which deservedly 

 rank him with the first painters of Italy. His design was correct in 

 outline and grand in style ; his foreshortcnings were admirable, and 

 in this respect he is unrivalled in Spain ; and had his works been as 

 conspicuous for tone and harmony of colouring as they were for 

 brilliancy, composition, character, and expression, Vargas, says L5er- 

 mudez, would have been the first among Spanish painters. His prin- 

 cipal works, which are all religious, are at Seville in the cathedral; 

 iu tho Hospital de Santa Marta ; in Santa Cruz ; in Santa Maria la 

 Blanca ; in the Merced Calzada ; in the Hospital de la Sangre ; and in 

 the Casa de la Misericordia. Some of these works are nearly totally 

 decayed ; others have been badly restored : in the last-mentioned 

 place is a fresco of the Last Judgment. Vargas is described as having 

 been a very amiable man, but he was of a melancholy and superstitious 

 turn of mind : he was in the habit of chastising himself, and used to 

 lie in a coffin some hours a-day meditating upon death. 



VARIGNON, PIERRE. The common source of all biographies of 

 Varignon is the e"loge of him inserted by his friend Fontenelle in the 

 Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, and republished in the separate 

 collection of dloges by the same author. 



The subject of this article was born at Caen in 1654. His father, 

 an architect, destined him for the church, and placed him at the 

 college of his native town. He learned to make a sun-dial as well as 

 his father's workmen could teach him, and this gave him a longing to 

 know the principles on which such things are done, which he never 

 found the way to gratify until, by accident, he met with a Euclid in a 

 bookseller's shop. From this he went on to the writings of Des Cartes, 

 much against the wishes of his friends, and became well versed in the 

 mathematics of the day. Among his college friends was the Abbe" de 

 St. Pierre (not Bernardiu, the author of the ' Studies of Nature,' but 

 Charles), whose regard for Varignon induced him to make over to the 

 latter 300 francs a year out of 1800, which was his patrimonial fortune. 

 This was his sole provision for many years, and enabled him to pursue 

 his studies. The two friends went to Paris in 1686, took up their 

 quarters in the same house, and pursued their several researches. It 

 was here that Fontenelle, who was also of Normandy, became 

 acquainted with them ; and he describes Varignon as the most 

 laborious of students, glad to go on with what he was doing at two 

 o'clock in the morning, under the pretext of its not being worth while 

 to go to bed, because he usually rose at four. In 1687 his first work, 

 the ' Projet d'une Nouvelle Mdcanique,' brought him at once into such 

 reputation that he was in the following year elected to the Academy, 

 and appointed professor of mathematics at the College Mazarin : in 

 1690 appeared the ' Nouvelles Conjectures sur la Pesanteur.' By 1705 

 he had ruined his health : he was for six months in danger, aud for 

 three years in a state of debility. His life is a purely literary oue, and 

 there is nothing more to say, except that he died in the night of 

 December 22, 1722, without illness, having performed his usual duties 

 at the college the day before. 



We take his works from the 'Biographie Universelle :' 1, 'Projet 

 d'une Nouvelle Mecanique,' 4to, Paris, 1687; 2, ' Nouvelles Conjec- 

 tures sur la Pesanteur,' 12mo, Paris, 1690; 3, ' Nouvelle Me"cauique,' 

 2 vols. 4to, Paris, 1725 ; 4, ' Eclaircissements sur 1' Analyse des Intini- 

 ment Petits,' 4to, Paris, 1725 ; 5, ' Traite" du Mouvement des Eaux 

 Courantes,' 4to, Paris, 1725 ; 6, ' Elements de Mathetnatiques,' 4to, 

 Paris, 1732 ; 7, ' Demonstration de la Possibility de la Presence 

 Re"ele,' &c., in a collection of pieces on the real presence, by Veruet, 

 Geneva, 1730. There is perhaps no better test of real eminence than 

 the desire of the surviving contemporaries to have an author's works; 

 and more of Varignon was published after his death than he himself 

 gave during life. It is however to be remembered that, besides his 

 two separate works, he printed a great deal in the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Sciences, particularly in defence of the new doctrines of 

 the infinitesimal calculus. His name is familiar to all who have even 

 glanced at the history of his theory as the explainer of its difficulties 

 in answer to the earnest and frequently plausible attacks which were 

 made upon i. The Elaircissements,' &c., above mentioned, were 

 intended by him as a commentary upon the well-known work of his 

 friend De 1'Hopital, the first elementary writing upon the differential 

 calculus. The ' Projet,' &c., was a most remarkable work, being in 

 fact the first in which the great elementary principle of the compo- 

 sition of forces is made the basis of a systematic development of 

 statics. Montucla mentions that Stevinus had preceded him in the 

 knowledge of the use of this truth; insisting particularly upon his 

 having used the most elegant and useful form of the theorem, namely, 

 that forces which are as the sides of a triangle balance one another. 

 Mr. Hallam ('Literature of Europe,' vol. ii., p. 462) cannot find this 

 ' triangle of forces ' in Stevinus. But the fact is that the theorem, 

 though not perhaps separately enunciated by Stevinus, is used by 

 him : for instance, in Albert Girard's edition of Stevinus, p. 449, 

 column 2, a look at the second figure with the accompanying text will 

 show that LDO and OFC are ' triangles of forces.' The merit of 

 Varignon consists in his making the composition of forces a basis for 

 everything, in which he has been followed by most writers since hia 

 time. Stevinus mixed different principles. Mr. Hallam remarks, 

 very naturally, " Had it " (the triangle of forces) " been known to 

 him" (Stevinus), "we may presume that he would have employed 



