406 



VINET, ALEXANDRE-RODOLPHE. 



VIREY, JULIEN-JOSEPF. 



400 



of bis country," bequeathed by his will, dated December 20, 1755, 

 about 12,0001. to the chancellor, master, and scholars of the University 

 of Oxford, to establish a professorship, aud to endow such fellowships 

 and scholarships of Common Law in the university as the produce of 

 his legacy might be thought capable of supporting. The professor is 

 to read a lecture iu the English language within a year after his 

 admission, and a course of lectures on the laws of England every year 

 in full term. The course is to consist of at least twenty-four lectures, 

 to bo read in one and the same term, with such intervals that not 

 more than four are to be read in a week. As relates to the reading of 

 the lectures, Easter and Trinity terms are reckoned as one term. 

 Thrre are at present two fellowships with 501. a year each, and six 

 scholarships with 30. a year each. Both fellowships and scholarships 

 expire at the end of ten years after each election. 



Blaokstoue was elected the first Vitierian professor. He had com- 

 menced his lectures on English law in the year 1753, two years before 

 Viner made his will, and it is therefore probable that Blackstone's 

 lectures gave Yiner the hint for founding the professorship. The 

 succession of professors is as follows : 1758, William Blackstone, 

 D.C.L.; 1760, Richard Chambers, Knt., B.C.L. ; 1777, Richard Wood- 

 desson, D.C.L., author of ' Lectures on the Law of England,' 3 vols. 

 12mo ; 1793, James Blackstone, D.C.L.; 1824, Philip Williams, B.C.L.; 

 1S43, John Robert Kenyon, D.C.L. 



. VINET, ALEXANDRE-RODOLPHE, was born at Lausanne on 

 the 17th of June 1797. His father, who held an official appointment 

 in his native canton, a man of superior attainments, but a somewhat 

 stern disciplinarian, was himself Alexandra's earliest instructor. While 

 still a youth, his studies were chiefly directed to theology, he having 

 been devoted to the service of the church ; but then, as throughout 

 life, literature possessed for him a predominant attraction, and so 

 diligently had he laboured in this field, that at the age of twenty, he 

 was appointed professor of the French language and literature at the 

 gymnasium of Basel. Two years later, 1819, he was ordained at Lau- 

 sauue a minister of the protcstaut church, and the same year he married; 

 but he continued to reside at Basel, where he, during the ensuing 

 years, took an active and prominent part in the great religious move- 

 ment or ' revival ' which occurred amongst the Swiss protestant 

 churches. Besides various pamphlets which he put forth in connec- 

 tion with this movement and with the proceedings of those who were 

 opposed to it, he published in 1826 an elaborate 'Me"moire en favour 

 de la Liberte" des Cultes,' and he gradually came to be regarded as one 

 of the leaders of the evangelical party. 



M. Vinet remained at Basel till 1837 diligently fulfilling his scholas- 

 tic duties as professor of French literature and eloquence, the latter 

 chair having been created for him in 1835, and in 1829 he published, 

 as a text-book for his class, his ' Chrestomathie Fraugaise,' a work of 

 great taste and knowledge, which, in the later editions, consists of 

 3 volumes : 1, ' Litterature de 1'Enfance/ 2, 'De 1' Adolescence,' 3, 'De 

 la Jeunesse et de 1'Age Mur,' and including a rapid but admirable 

 survey of French literature. In 1831 the literary journal 'Semeur' 

 was commenced, and for several years M. Vinet was one of its chief 

 contributors; and iu 1837 he published a selection of his essays con- 

 tributed to it, with other miscellanies, under the title of 'Essais 

 de Philosophic Morale.' In 1837 Vinet was invited by the authori- 

 ties to take the chair of practical theology in the academy of his 

 native city of Lausanne, and, with some regret at leaving Basel, he 

 accepted the invitation. The religious discussions in the canton 

 had decided the government to appoint a commission of the four 

 classes of clergy to draw up a new constitution of the church, and M. 

 Viuet was chosen a delegate for the class of Lausanne and Ve"vay. 

 He took a part in all the protracted discussions which followed, but 

 he could not bring himself to acquiesce in the decisions of the majority 

 and, accordingly, upon the promulgation of the new constitution 

 which was to come into operation in 1841, he, at the end of 1840, 

 formally seceded from the national church, and resigned his professor- 

 ship of theology. His opinions had in fact from the publication of his 

 ' Mcmoire en faveur de la Liberte" des Cultes ' in 1826, been approxi- 

 mating more and more closely towards ' voluntaryism/ and from this 

 time he became a decided, and, among French Protestants, perhaps 

 the most distinguished advocate of the entire separation of church and 

 state. His matured views on this subject he gave to the world in 

 1^42 in an ' Essai sur la manifestation des convictions religieuses, et 

 sur la separation de 1'Eglise et de l'tat, envisaged comme consequence 

 necessaire et comme garantie du principe,' a work which was translated 

 into English in 1843 under the title of 'An Essay op the Profession 

 of Personal Religious Conviction, and upon the Separation of Church 

 and State, considered with reference to the Fulfilment of that Duty.' 

 But Vinet was far from being the harsh or bigoted advocate of 

 extreme opinions. Whilst firmly adhering to his own views, he 

 exhorted to a wide tolerance of the honest convictions of others, and 

 his later years were spent in preaching peace and brotherly love, aud 

 seeking by the amenities of literature to soften the asperities of 

 theological controversy. 



His last labour was the elaboration of a constitution for the Free 

 Church of the canton of Vaud, formed by the ministers who seceded 

 from the establishment in 1845, and which he induced the committee 

 appointed by the Church in 1846 to prepare the constitution, to adopt 

 iu its integrity. With the Synod however, in which the ultimate 



adoption of the constitution was vested, he was less successful, and the 

 material alterations there introduced, are said to have preytd severely 

 on his frame, already enfeebled by protracted ill-health. He continued 

 however with increased diligence his professional duties and literary 

 studies till his powers gave way : he died on the 10th of May 1847. 



A list of the chief works, not already mentioned, of M. Vinet, will 

 sufficiently indicate the character of his mind and the range of hw 

 pursuits. Among his theological works may be named his ' Dkcours 

 sur quelques sujets religieux ' (1831, of which a fourth edition 

 appeared in 1845), and 'Nouveaux Discours,' &c. (1841), from which, 

 two works selections have been translated into English and published 

 in America and Edinburgh under the title of 'Vital Christianity;' 

 and the posthumous publications ' Thdologie Pastorale,' and ' Homile'- 

 tique ou The"orie de la predication,' of both of which English versions 

 have appeared; 'Libert^ religeuse et questions eccldsiastiques :' ' Etudes 

 sur Blaise Pascal ; ' ' Etudes Evangdliques,' and ' Nouvellea dtudes 

 Evangdliques,' which have been rendered into English as ' Gospel 

 Studies.' His two chief literary works are his 'Histoire de la litterature 

 frangaise au XVIIIe sifecle,' 2 vols., which appeared in an English 

 version in 1854, and 'Etudes sur la litte"rature francaise du XIXe 

 siecle,' 3 vols. 8vo : 1, 'De Stacl et Chateaubriand;' 2, 'Poetes 

 Lyriques et Dramatiques ;' 3, ' Poetes et prosateurs.' All these works 

 are accurate reflections of the mind and- character of the author. 

 Pure in sentiment, elegant and finished in style; clear, eloquent, 

 brilliant rather than profound in thought; and everywhere pervaded 

 by an earnest and conscientious spirit, they are works which will be 

 read with pleasure and respect even by those who differ widely from 

 their opinions. AS a preacher, M. Vinet bore a high character for 

 eloquence and earnestness ; and as a teacher, he greatly increased the 

 reputation of the schools of Basel and Lausanne, while his personal 

 character was in every way admirable. 



(E. Scherer, Alexandre Vinet Notice sur sa Vie et ses Ecrits, Paris, 

 1853 ; and an excellent essay on the Life and Writings of Vinet, in 

 No. 42 of the ' North British Review,' Aug. 1854.) 



VIOTTI, GIOVANNI-BATTISTA, the first violinist of his time, 

 was the son of the chief gardener to the Prince di Carignano, and 

 born in 1755 at Fontanento, a village in Piedmont. His father in- 

 tended him for a line of life very different from that which his own 

 inclination marked out ; but, as usually happens in such cases, parental 

 wishes were combated by a natural propensity too strong to be 

 resisted, and the youthful enthusiast was placed under the instruction 

 of Pugnani, to whom all aspiring violinists looked up, and whose skill 

 may be justly inferred from the celebrity which his pupil attained. 

 At the early age of twenty he was chosen to fill the situation of first 

 violin hi the royal chapel of Turin, an appointment of great professional 

 rank, in which he remained three years; he then commenced his 

 European travels, and made a lengthened visit to Berlin. He after- 

 wards proceeded to Paris, where, by the grandeur and elegance of his 

 performance, and the originality and beauty of his compositions, he 

 speedily acquired a brilliant reputation. 



In the early part of the French revolution, when it was deemed 

 right that every class should be represented in the legislative body, 

 Viotti was elected into the Constituent Assembly ; but when the 

 reign of terror commenced, he, disgusted aud alarmed, fled to the 

 English shores, and made a most successful debut at one of Salomon's 

 concerts. He afterwards took some share in the general manage- 

 ment of the King's Theatre, but from this he soon retired; his genius 

 fitted him better for the partiuclar duty of leader of the band, in 

 which office he superseded Mr. William Cramer. Viotti however did noc 

 long enjoy this appointment, for some unknown enemy, by false repre- 

 sentations to government, caused his being ordered in 1798 to quit the 

 country at a few hours' notice, and he retired to Hamburg, where he 

 published his celebrated ' Six Duos Coucertans pour deux Violons.' 

 In 1801 he was allowed to return to London, and, finally abandoning 

 his profession, embarked the whole of his small fortune in a partnership 

 in the wine trade, by which unguarded step he lost all. Louis XVII I. 

 then offered him. the direction of the Acade"nue Royale de Musique, and 

 he repaired to Paris ; but he found himself as little qualified to direct 

 the French opera as he had been to manage the Italian theatre in 

 London ; he therefore once more and finally settled in this country, 

 meeting with an hospitable reception and an agreeable home in the 

 house of a friend, where he mixed in the best society that the metro- 

 polis afforded. In such intercourse he did not refuse to contribute 

 occasionally his talents to the general stock of enjoyment, and even 

 consented to become an active member and director of the Philhar- 

 monic Society, when in its palmy state, and while it continued in its 

 independent and disinterested form, appearing as a dilettante in its 

 orchestra, occasionally as a principale, but more frequently as a repieno, 

 and uniting with Salomon, F. Cramer, Yauiewicz, Spagnoletti, Vaccari, 

 &c., to produce such a musical phalanx as never before was witnessed. 

 His losses and disappointments however gradually affected his health, 

 and he sank under them at Brighton on the 3rd of March 1824. 



VIREY, JULIEN-JOSEPH, was born at Hortes, in the department 

 of Haute Marne, in November 1775. He was educated at the college 

 of Langres ; on leaving which he spent some time with one of his 

 uncles, who kept au apothecary's shop at Hortes. Here he imbibed 

 that taste for medical researches and physical inquiries, which distin- 

 guished him through life. In 1793, he attached himself to the 



