433 



VOQEL, THUODOR. 



VOITURE, VINCENT. 



434 



comprising the earlier portion of his explorations, which are to be 

 followed by two other volumes, completing the work, and including 

 the account of his long residence in Timbuctoo. The notes from which 

 these interesting and valuable volumes have been composed were 

 written down daily, often under great difficulties, privations, and 

 dangers, and were afterwards copied as soon as an opportunity oc- 

 curred. Dr. Edward Vogel was born March 7, 1829, at Leipzig, where 

 his father, Dr. Carl Vogel, was master of one of the principal schools. 

 He was educated at Leipzig, and afterwards studied astronomy at 

 Berlin under Professor Encke. He resided in London about two years 

 at Mr. Bishop's Observatory, Regent's Park, In the early part of 1857 

 a despatch received by the British government enclosed a copy of a 

 letter from Corporal Maguire to the British consul at Tripoli, dated 

 Kuka, November, 1856, announcing the reported assassination of 

 Dr. Vogel in the kingdom of Wadai. Corporal Maguire was one of the 

 two volunteers from the corps of Sappers and Miners, who accom- 

 panied Dr. Vogel to Central Africa, and ho then stated that he was 

 coming home with the observations and instruments. A paragraph 

 in The Times' newspaper, of the date of August 21, 1857, states that 

 " the official confirmation of the murder of Dr. Vogel, at Wara, the 

 capital of Wadai, has just been received. He was beheaded by order of 

 the Sultan. Corporal Maguire was murdered by a party of Tuaricks 

 some six miles to the north of Kuka." Thus has terminated, if these 

 accounts prove to be authentic, the last expedition from the shores of 

 the Mediterranean to Central Africa, and of those who composed it, 

 young and healthy men, Dr Earth alone remains alive. 



VOQEL, THEODOR, a botanist of great promise, who perished in 

 the expedition to the Niger, in the year 1841. He early devoted 

 himself to the study of botany, and was a student at the University of 

 Berlin, where he took his degree of doctor of philosophy. One of his 

 earliest contributions to botanical science was a paper published, con- 

 jointly with Dr. Sehleiden, on the development of albumen in legu- 

 minous plants. This paper bears the high character of all the later 

 labours of Dr. Sehleiden, and at the same time affords evidence that 

 Vogel belonged to that school of physiological botanists who, from 

 their minute knowledge of structure, are doing so much at the present 

 day for the advancement of scientific botany. In a subsequent paper, 

 entitled a 'Monograph of the Genus Cassia," Vogel displayed his 

 intimate knowledge of structure, as well as his powers of analysis, in 

 unravelling the intricacies of that difficult genus of plants. In 1840, 

 when it was determined to fit out an expedition to Africa, Captain 

 Washington visited Germany for the sake of gaining co-operation, and 

 Vogel was there recommended to him as a botanist likely to be of 

 great service in the expedition. Vogel, who was then at Bonn, in the 

 university of which place he had been appointed a teacher of botany, 

 no sooner had the offer made him than he anxiously embraced it as 

 affording him an opportunity of pursuing his favourite science in an 

 unexplored region. After having visited England, where his know- 

 ledge of botany excited in the minds of those who knew him the 

 warmest interest for his prosperous return, he sailed with the expe- 

 dition for Africa, in July 1841. The disastrous events of that ill-fated 

 expedition are well known. Vogel was an early sufferer from the 

 fever which carried off the majority of those who sailed, and although 

 he recovered so far as to be able to reach Fernando Po, he sunk there 

 from the effects of dysentery about six months after the time he had 

 sailed from this country. He made the best use of the little time 

 that he had health to collect plants, whilst on the coast of Africa, and 

 his death seems to have been hastened by his anxiety to arrange and 

 study them whilst in a convalescent state at Fernando Po. He was 

 buried by the side of Captain Bird Allen, another of the unfortunate 

 victims of this expedition. 



VOISENON, CLAUDE HENRI FUSE'E DE, was born at the 

 Chateau de Voisenon, near Melun, on the 8th of January 1708. He 

 was a younger son, and his delicate constitution rendering him unfit 

 for a military career, his parents made him enter the church. 



The future priest made his literary debut by addressing in his 

 eleventh year a poetical epistle to Voltaire, who complimented the 

 author in return. A dramatic piece in one act, ' L'Heureuse Ressem- 

 blance,' which he produced in his twentieth year, meeting with a favour- 

 able reception, encouraged him to write for the stage. Three pieces, 

 'L'lScole du Monde,' ' L'Ombre de Moliere,' and 'Re'tour de 1'Ombre 

 de Moliere,' were brought upon the stage by him with varying success. 

 About this time he was involved in a duel with an officer whom he 

 had offended by some joke. Hitherto Voisenon had refused to comply 

 with the wish of his family that he should take orders : the conviction 

 that he was in fault in this quarrel, and had wounded his innocent 

 antagonist, pressed so [heavily on his mind, that he entered a 

 seminary. He was barely ordained, when his relative M. Henriot, 

 bishop of Boulogne, appointed him grand-vicar. On the death of the 

 bishop, in 1741, the see was offered to Voiaenon, who declined it on 

 the ground that he who was unable to control himself was unfit to 

 manage a bishopric. Cardinal Fleury, pleased with this disinterested- 

 ness, bestowed upon him the abbey of Jard, in which residence was 

 not required. Voisenon, thus made possessor of a competency, gave 

 himself up for the rest of his life to the world and its pleasures. 



Voltaire introduced him to the Marquise du Chastelet The wits 

 who frequented the houses of the Comte de Caylus and the actress 

 Quinault Dufresne received him with open arms. The Due de la 



BIOG. DIY. VOL. VI. 



Valliere eagerly sought his company. His former success in writing 

 for the stage led his friends to wish that he would resume his pen ; 

 but two years elapsed before the entreaties of Mademoiselle Quinault 

 could overcome the misgivings of the 'ancien grand-vicaire ' of 

 Boulogne. She triumphed at length, and the ' Manages assortis,' a 

 comedy in verse, in three acts, was produced at the Italiens in 1744. 



From 1744 to 1755 he composed a number of playa, of which ' La 

 Coquette fixe"e/ which had a run of twenty-three successive nights, 

 was the best. He produced on the stage or in print operas, oratorios, 

 profane and licentious lyrics, and at least one religious tract. In the 

 midst of his dissolute life Voisenon was haunted incessantly with 

 religious scruples. His naturally weak constitution broke down at last 

 under his libertine indulgences. Apprehensive of death, he made a 

 general confession : his confessor refused him absolution : Voisenon 

 appealed to the pope, and with some difficulty, after paying a thousand 

 crowns, and engaging to repeat his breviary every morning, he was 

 absolved. He kept his promise, but the regularity of his devotion 

 contrasted strangely with the equal regularity of his dissipation. 



In 1762 he became a candidate for admission into the Acaddmie : 

 he was elected, and delivered his inaugural address on the 22nd of 

 January 1763. He attended the meetings of that body with punc- 

 tuality, and his wit and liveliness made him a favourite. In 1766 he 

 was deputed to do the honours of the Academy to the Duke of Bruns- 

 wick, and in 1768 to the King of Denmark. In 1771 he was the 

 director who admitted M. Roquelaure, bishop of Senlis, and a few 

 days later the prince of Beauveau and the historian Gaillard. On all 

 these occasions he gave free vent to his petulant wit. His face and 

 figure, which have been compared to those of an ape, pointed his 

 jests, and these solemnities elicited peals of laughter from the 

 audience. 



Notwithstanding his effrontery, the Abbe" Voisenon lived long with- 

 out enemies. He was perfectly good-natured, and appears to have 

 acted among his irritable associates the part of a reconciler-general. 

 He lost himself however after the fall of the Due de Choiseul, who 

 had patronised him, by his servile flattery of Madame du Barry and his 

 ungrateful sarcasms against his former benefactor. Voisenon's friends 

 fell off from him in disgust. The Duke of Orleans refused to receive, 

 and the Prince of Conti turned his back upon him. He was insulted 

 at the meetings of the Academy. He withdrew to his paternal 

 chateau, where he died on the 22nd of November 1775. 



Besides his dramatic pieces and fugitive poetry, Voisenon published 

 a number of tales, ' Anecdotes Litte'raires,' and ' Fragmens Histo- 

 riques.' Madame de Turpin, whom he was accustomed to call his 

 secretary, was his literary executor. She published the complete 

 works of Voisenon, prefaced by an eulogistic biography, in five 8vo 

 volumes. Laharpe, who said that these volumes reminded him of a 

 butterfly crushed in a folio, published a selection, in one small volume, 

 in 18mo. There is both point and elegance in the wit of Voisenon, 

 though his mind was scarcely vigorous enough for a work of any 

 extent. Notwithstanding his libertinism, he was unostentatiously 

 benevolent, and on some occasions self-denying. His disgraceful 

 conduct towards the Due de Choiseul may be charitably ascribed to 

 dotage. 



VOITURE, VINCENT, a French writer in prose and verse, formerly 

 of great reputation, was a native of Amiens, where he was born iu 

 1598. His father was a wine-merchant, but, besides being a lover of 

 good cheer, was an attendant upon the court, and well known to all the 

 principal people there. Voiture himself was educated at Paris : two 

 poems by him, one in Latin, the other in French, on the assassination 

 of Henry IV., were published in a collection of pieces by members 

 of the College of Calvi, in 1612 ; the same year appeared his ' Hymnus 

 Virgiuis, sou Astreso ; ' and it was at the College de Boncour that he 

 made the acquaintance of M. d'Avaux, who afterwards, when he 

 became superintendent of the finances, gave his friend the valuable 

 place of one of his first clerks, making it at the same time a sinecure, 

 the better to suit Voiture's tastes and habits. It is said to have been 

 at the celebrated hotel of Madame de Kambouillet, where he was 

 introduced by M. de Chaudebonne, that his wit and talent were first 

 appreciated : Mademoiselle de Rambouillet is the Madame de Mon- 

 tausier who is so frequently celebrated in his letters and verses. 

 He soon became a distinguished figure at court ; and he spent the rest 

 of his life in the society of the great, occasionally visiting foreign 

 countries on some court mission. He appears to have been in Eng- 

 land in 1633 ; one of his published letters iu that year is dated from 

 Dover. Before this he had been in Spain, where he was received with 

 great distinction, and where he delighted the literary and fashionable 

 circles of Madrid by penning verses in their own language, of such 

 purity and apparent facility of style, that they were at first universally 

 ascribed to Lope da Vega. From Spain he proceeded to Africa, to 

 satisfy his curiosity by a view of that coast. He is stated to have 

 paid two visits to Rome; and in 1638 he had the honour of being 

 sent to Florence to announce to the grand-duke the birth of the 

 dauphin, afterwards Louis XIV. Among the places he enjoyed at 

 court were those of maitre d'hotel to the king, and introducteur des 

 ambassadeurs to the Duke of Orleans. He was elected a member of 

 the French Academy in 1634, and of that of the Umoristi at Rome in 

 1638. He died in 1648. 



With the exception of the early pieces already mentioned, and 



2 P 



