239 



VARILLAS, ANTOINE. 



VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, KARL AUGUST. 



290 





it, as is done in modern works on mechanics, for demonstrating the 

 law of equilibrium on the inclined plane, instead of his catenarian 

 hypothesis." So he would have done had he been reviewing the sub- 

 ject : but he was discovering it ; and that very inverse order which BO 

 often takes place in discovery, and which brought out the binomial 

 theorem as an ultimate result of a mode of finding the areas of 

 certain curves, occurred in the case of Stevinus, who brought out the 

 mode of using the triangle of forces, rather than the theorem itself, 

 from this very catenarian hypothesis ; and, as far we can see, partly 

 by demonstration, partly by extension. One of the greatest compli- 

 ments which Varignon's memory received was this, that his ' Projet,' 

 &c. took such possession of the public mind, that by the time the 

 work itself (3 in the above list) appeared, of which it was the ' Projet,' 

 it excited very little notice, and added nothing to his fame. 



The conjectures on the cause of gravity show that Varignon was not 

 as happy in clear perception of hydrostatical laws as in those of statics. 

 He imagines that the gravitation of a body towards the earth is the 

 excess of the pressure downwards of the superincumbent column of 

 air over the pressure upwards of the column between the earth and 

 the body. This is enough for a specimen: even Fontenelle avows that 

 he thinks it possible his friend may here have added one to the 

 number of proofs of the difficulty of the subject. But notwithstanding 

 this, Varignon may be placed among those men whose reputation is 

 probably very much below their desert as estimated by their utility. 



VARILLAS, ANTOINE, a native of Gueret, the capital of La 

 Marche, was born in 1624. When he had completed his studies, he 

 was sent to Paris as private tutor to some of bis young townsmen. 

 In 1648 he was appointed historiographer to Gaston, duke of Orleans. 

 Dupuy procured for Varillas the situation of sub-librarian in the royal 

 library, which he held under more than one of Dupuy's successors, 

 and lost on account of his negligence in collating Brienne's manu- 

 scripts, which had been purchased by Colbert, with the originals in the 

 library. He was allowed to retire with a pension of 1200 livres, which 

 was withdrawn by Colbert in 1669. In the same year Varillas was 

 offered a pension by the States-General of Holland to write the history 

 of the United Provinces ; but he declined the task, on the plea that he 

 could not serve with his pen the enemies of France. In 1670 the 

 archbishop of Paris obtained a pension from the assembly of the 

 clergy for Varillas, whom he knew to be engaged on a history of 

 heresies. Varillas died at Paris on the 9th of June, 1696. His 

 published works are : 1, ' Politique de la Maison d'Autriche,' 12mo, 

 Paris, 1658 ; 2, ' Histoire de la France,' Paris, 1683 et seq. ; 14 vols. 

 in 4to, or 28 in 12mo. The work contains the reigns of the kings of 

 France from Louis XI. to Henri IV. ; 3, 'La Pratique de 1'Educa- 

 tion des Princes, ou 1'Histoire de Guillaume de Crecy, seigneur de 

 Cbievres,' in 12mo, Paris, 1684; 4, 'Les Anecdotes de Florence, ou 

 1'Histoire Secrete de la Maison de Me"dicis,' La Haye, 12mo, 1685; 

 5, ' Histoire des Revolutions arrive"es in Europe en matiere de Reli- 

 gion,' 6 vols. in 4to, or 12 in 12m'o, Paris, 1686-89. This work extends 

 from 1374 to 1569 : a continuation to 1650, which would fill 12 quarto 

 volumes, has remained in manuscript ; 6, ' La Politique de Ferdinand 

 le Catholique,' 3 vols. 12mo, Amsterdam, 1688. A continuation of 

 this work by the author exists in manuscript. The style of Varillas's 

 writings is good for his age ; but he has distorted facts and neglected 

 to verify his quotations, and has even been convicted of alleging 

 manuscript authorities which never existed. Indolence and vanity 

 seem to have been the chief if not the sole motives to his falsifications. 



VA'RIUS, LU'CIUS, a Roman poet, and a friend and contemporary 

 of Virgil and Horace, both of whom speak of him in terms of the 

 highest praise. (Virgil, 'Eclog.,' ix. 35; Horat. ' Carm.,' i. 6. 1, &c. ; 

 ' Satir.,' i. 5, 40 ; 6. 55 ; ' Epist.' ii. 1. 247; ' Ad Pison.,' 55, &c.) From 

 Donatus' ' Life of Virgil,' it is clear that Varius survived Virgil, who 

 died B.C. 19 ; for Varius is there described as one of the heirs of 

 Virgil, and as one of the poets who undertook the correction- of the 

 ' ^Eneid.' Varius distinguished himself no less as an epic than as a 

 tragic poet. We know of two epic poems of Varius : the one was a 

 description of the exploits of Augustus and Agrippa, which is com- 

 pletely lost ; and the second is called ' De Morte,' and was probably an 

 account of the death of Julius Caesar. Macrobius (vi. 1) has preserved 

 two lines of this poem. As to his tragic compositions, the ancients 

 are unanimous in saying that he excelled all his countrymen ; and 

 Quinctilian (x. 1. 98) says that the tragedy 'Thyestes' of Varius 

 would bear comparison with any Greek tragedy. (Compare ' Dialogus 

 de Caus. Corrupt. Eloquent.' 12; Philargyr. 'ad Virg. Eclog.' viii. 10.) 

 But notwithstanding this general acknowledgment of his merits, no 

 fragments of his tragedies are preserved which can be attributed to him 

 with any certainty. 



(Bothe, Poetarum Latii Scenicor. Fragm., i., p. 257, &c. ; Weiohert, 



z L. Vario, Poeta, Commentatio, Grimma, 4to, 1829; Poetarum 

 Latinorum Reliquice, p. 156, &c.) 



VARLEY, JOHN, an artist who ranks very high as a water-colour 

 painter, was born in London about the year 1777, of parents in rather 

 moderate circumstances, and was about to be apprenticed to a silver- 

 smith, very much against his own inclinations, when the death of his 

 father, who had always opposed what he considered an idle talent for 

 drawing, left him at liberty to choose a profession. That his family were 

 unable to further his views may be taken for granted, since he was fain 

 to content himself at first with obtaining employment with an obscure 



Bioa. DIV. VOL. vi. 



portrait-painter in Holborn. Afterwards, when about fifteen or six- 

 teen, be received some instruction from a drawing master of the name 

 of Barrow, with whom he made a sketching excursion, which was of 

 material service to him ; for a view which he then made of Peter- 

 borough Cathedral brought him into notice. He next became ac- 

 quainted with Arnold, the landscape-painter, with whom he made 

 a tour through North Wales about the year 1799. On his return 

 from that excursion, he was for some time employed by Dr. Muaro in 

 making sketches for him of the scenery in the neighbourhood of his 

 residence at Fetcham hi Surrey. Two other professional excursions 

 through Wales in 1801-2, and similar ones through various parts of 

 England, stocked his portfolio with subjects that occupied his pencil 

 for many years, and established his reputation as the first in that 

 department of art he had chosen. He was certainly among the first, 

 if not the very first, who began to advance the practice of water- 

 colour drawing to that of water-colour painting, and to give that mode 

 of execution a solidity and force, a freedom and breadth, which it had 

 not before attained, nor was even supposed capable of. Up to that 

 time, scarcely anything had been produced beyond washed or tinted 

 drawings, very little superior to the coloured prints of the same 

 period raw and feeble in effect. Varley gave to his paintings nearly 

 all the vigour of oil-pictures, and by a mode peculiar to himself; for 

 he worked with great rapidity, and does not appear to have produced 

 his effects by repeated spunging and other processes now in use, or by 

 admixture of body colour : his colours look as if they had been laid 

 on at once, and hardly retouched. Of late years, his paintings were 

 for the most part landscape ' compositions,' very rich and powerful 

 in effect, but somewhat monotonous and conventional in manner. 

 Although he was not an original member of the ' Society of Painters 

 in Water-Colours ' (established in 1804), he afterwards joined it, and 

 his pictures contributed in no small degree to the attraction of its 

 exhibitions. From them and his practice as a teacher he derived a 

 considerable income for many years ; but a numerous family, and want 

 of either management or economy, kept him almost always in diffi- 

 culties. Besides which, he' devoted much time to the study of 

 judicial astrology, which he may almost be said to have made a second 

 profession, for he was in the habit of giving his advice formally to 

 those who consulted him respecting their ' nativities,' and is said to 

 have received fees on such occasions, or at least to have found a liberal 

 purchaser for a drawing in a client of that kind. He certainly made 

 no secret of his pretensions, nor did he show any disinclination 

 for the title of ' Astrologer ' publicly attached to his name. Of extra- 

 ordinary predictions by him many strange anecdotes are told ; but if 

 he possessed the art of foreseeing events, he did not possess that of 

 averting troubles and misfortunes in his own case at least which a 

 little ordinary prudence would have enabled hinvto avoid. Varley was 

 married twice : his first wife died in 1824 ; his second was the daughter 

 of Wilson Lowry, the celebrated engraver. He himself died November 

 17tb, 1842, at the residence of a friend, near Cavendish Square. 



* VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, KARL AUGUST, was born at 

 Diisseldorf, on February 21st, 1785. His father soon afterwards 

 removed to Hamburg, and he was thence sent to study medicine in the 

 university of Berlin. A decided inclination for literature and philo- 

 sophy there early developed itself, and in 1804, in conjunction with 

 Chamisso, he published a ' Musenalmanach.' The lectures of A. W. 

 Schlfgel and the acquaintance of Fichte confirmed him in his study 

 of philosophy, and he continued it in Hamburg, Halle, Berlin, and 

 Tubingen. In 1809 he left Tubingen on the breaking out of the 

 Austrian war, and joined the Austrian army by a circuitous route, 

 and after the battle of Aspern, received a commissiou in the Austrian 

 army. In this capacity he was present at the battle of Wagram, in 

 which he was wounded, and removed to Vienna. When he had again 

 joined his regiment in Hungary, he formed an intimacy with Colonel 

 afterwards General Prince Bentheim, whom he accompained as adju- 

 tant in several journeys after the peace of Vienna, among other places 

 to the court of Napoleon at Paris, in 1810, where he formed many 

 literary and political friendships, and in Prague he had become ac- 

 quainted with the Prussian minister Von Stein and Justus von Gruner. 

 When Austria joined in the Russian campaign in 1812, he left the 

 service and proceeded to Berlin, where he had hopes of procuring 

 employment in the civil service. From the change of circumstances 

 he was induced in 1813 to enter again into the military service, and, 

 reserving his allegiance to Prussia, accepted a commission as captain in 

 the Russian army. With Tettenborn he went first to Hamburg, and 

 afterwards accompanied him as adjutant in his march to Paris. Yet 

 during the war he wrote a ' Geschichte der Hamburger Ereignisse ' 

 (History of the Occurrences in Hamburg), a succinct relation of the 

 recent events, published in 1813; and to this succeeded the 'Geschichte 

 der Kriegszuge Tettenborns ' (History of Tettenborn's Campaign), in 

 1814. While in Paris he was received into the Prussian diplomatic 

 service, and accompanied Prince Hardenberg to the Congress of 

 Vienna, in 1814 ; aud while here he wrote an official report on the 

 affairs of Saxony. After the short war of 1815, he accompanied Prince 

 Hardenberg to Paris, and was shortly afterwards appointed resident 

 minister at Karlsruhe, where he remained till 1819, when he retired 

 from public business, but accepted the title of Privy Legation Coun- 

 sellor, and took up his abode at Berlin. In 1829 he was sent on a special 

 mission to Cassel, and hag been generally active in political affairs. 



TT 



