VAN 



dered as a perfon poITeffiiig little natural courage, he be- 

 haved with wonderful compofure and firmnefs. In his ad- 

 drefs to the fpcftators, whilft he juftified himfelf on certain 

 points that were conftrucd to refleft upon the government 

 and judges, he was rudely interrupted by the lieutenant of 

 the Tower, «ho repeatedly ordered the trumpets to found 

 that his voice might not be heard. He died about the 50th 

 year of his age, and left one fon. His writings, chiefly on 

 religious topics, were confufed and obfcure. Bilhop Burnet 

 fays of him, " that though he fat up a form of religion of his 

 own, yet it confifted rather in a withdrawing from all other 

 forms, than in any new or particular opinions or forms, 

 from which he and his party were called ' Seekers,' and 

 feemed to wait for fome new and cleai-er manifeftations. In 

 thefe meetings he preached and prayed often himfelf, but 

 with fo peculiar a darknefs, that though I have fometimss 

 taken pains to fee if I could find out a meaning in his 

 words, yet I could never reach it. His friends told me he 

 leaned to Origen's notion of an univerfal falvation of all, 

 both of devils and the damned, and to the doftrine of pre- 

 exiftence." 



As to his political conduft, it is obferved by one of his 

 biographers, that " though he employed craft and diffimu- 

 lation as his means, there feems no reafon to doubt of his 

 fmcerity as to his ends, which appear to have been thofe of 

 a vifionary, but not of a felfilh ftatefman. His enemies 

 fcarcely charge him with mercenary views, and his friends re- 

 prefent him as a real, though miftaken, lover of his country." 

 Clarendon. Ludl. Mem. Biog. Brit. Hume. Gen. Biog. 



Vane, in a Ship, is a thin (lip of bunting hung to the 

 maft-head, or fome other confpicuous place, to (hew the 

 direftion of the wind. It is commonly fewed upon a 

 wooden frame, called the ftock, which contains two holes, 

 by which to flip over the fpindle, upon which it turns about 

 as the wind changes. 



Vane, Dog, in Sea Language, is a fmall hght vane, 

 formed of a piece of packthread of about two feet in 

 length, upon which are fixed five or fix thin flices of cork 

 ftuck full of hght feathers. It is ufually fafl;ened to the 

 top of a ftaff, two yards high, which is placed on the top 

 of the Ihip's fide, on the quarter-dfck, in order to fhew the 

 diredlion of the wind to the helmfman, particidarly in a dark 

 night, or when the wind is extremely feeble. Falconer. 



Vanes, on Mathematical Injlrumcnis, are fights made to 

 move and Aide upon crofs-ftaves, fore-ftaves, quadrants, &c. 



Vanes, or Fanes, of Feathers. See Feather. 



Vanes, Weather. See VyEATHER. 



Vanes of Windmills. See Windmill. 



VANEERING. See Veneering. 



VAN-EFFEN, Justus, in Biography, was born at 

 Utrecht in 1685, and lofing his father during the courfe of 

 his academical iludies, he commenced tlje profefiion of an 

 author for a fubfiftence. His firft work, publiihed in 171 1, 

 was entitled " Le Mifanthrope," written after the model 

 of the Enghfli Speftator, which he continued till it amounted 

 to two vols. 8vo. To the " Literary Journal," eltablifhed 

 by a fociety of young perfons at the Hague in 1 7 1 3, he was 

 a liberal contributor ; and the profits were affigned to him. 

 The contributions to this Journal were examined by the 

 whole fociety, fo that every article was fanftioned by the 

 judgment of the whole body. This was continued t:ill the 

 year 17 18, when Van-Effen engaged in a new periodical 

 paper, entitled " Bagatelle, ou Difcours Ironiques," de- 

 figned to ridicule the vices and follies of the time. This 

 pubhcation failed of fuccefs. The author afterwards en- 

 gaged in various literary undertakings, and agreed to con- 

 tinue the " Nouvellcs Literaires," when the prince of Hefle 



VAN 



Philipllahl, in 1719., took him as a companion in a journey 

 to Sweden. Of this tour he pubhfhed an account in 17265 

 in a fecond edition of his " Mifanthrope." He afterwards 

 occupied himfelf in tranflations, chiefly from the Enghfli • 

 and at Leyden, where in 1724 he fuperintended the educa- 

 tion of a young man at the univerfity, he undertook to 

 tranflate from Dutch to French Gerard Van Loon's " Me-- 

 dallic Hifl;ory of the United Provinces ;" but a difpute 

 occurring between him and the bookfellers, he finilhed caly 

 two volumes. In 1725 he coimnenced a new periodical 

 work, under the title of " Nouveau Speftateur Frangois," 

 of which twenty -nine fiieets appeared. In 1727 he accom- 

 panied the count of Welderen, ambaflador from the States 

 to the court of London, as his fecretary, when he wrote an 

 ode in French on the coronation of George II. In 1731 

 he began a work, entitled the " Dutch Speftator," and 

 continued it till the whole amounted to 12 vols. Bvo. Van- 

 Effen died in September, 173 1, at Bois-le-Duc, where he 

 had for fome years occupied the poll of infpeftor of the 

 magazines. He fuilained the charafter of an ingenious and 

 worthy man. Moreri. Gen. Biog. 



VANELLOE, in Botany. See Vanilla. 

 VANELLUS, in Ornithology, a name given by many to 

 the lapwing, more commonly known by the name rapella. 



VANETTI, Clementino, in Biography, knight of the 

 holy Roman empire, and lord of Villanova, was born at 

 Roveredo in 1755 ; and being educated under the care of 

 his uncle, after the death of his father, he became, by in- 

 ceflantly reading Plautus and Terence, fo good a Latin 

 fcholar, that, in his i6th year, he wrote a Latin comedy, 

 entitled " Lampadaria ;" and, Sn the following year, recited 

 an inaugural oration in the Academy degli Agiati at Ro- 

 veredo, in the true language of Plautus. Before the age 

 of 22, he was elefted fecretary of this Academy, and he had 

 improved his tatle by a familiar acquaintance with the works 

 of Cicero. In 1776 he defended Tirabofchi againft the at- 

 tack of the Spaniard Serrano, for his cenfure of fome paf- 

 iages in the epigrams of Martial ; and the letter he puWiflied 

 on this occafion, confidered as the produftion of a young 

 man 23 years of age, was much admired. Upon the death 

 of his intimate friend, the abbe Zorzi of Venice in 1779, 

 he paid an honourable tribute of refpeft to his memory by 

 publifliing his fife, and a coUeft ion of letters that had pafled 

 between them, and alfo an examination of a queftion fug- 

 gelled by d'Alembert, whether any one at prefent (hould 

 venture to write Latin, which he decided in the affirmative. 

 But Vanctti's moft humorous writing, in the Latin language, 

 was a bitter fatire on Cagliofl;ro, who deluded the people at 

 Roveredo, in 1788, by his pretended prophecies and miracles. 

 Vanetti, in order to expofe this juggler, wrote a fmall work 

 in the manner of the book of Chronicles, and in the Latin 

 ftyle of the Vulgate, entitled " Liber Memorialis de Cag- 

 lioflro." Encouraged by Betinelh and others, he became 

 a claflical writer in his native language, beginning with a 

 well-written life of the younger Pliny. But his chief fame 

 was derived from his " Obfervations on the Poems of Horace, 

 with Imitations of that Poet," which, with refpeft to matter 

 and language, are faid to exceed any thing of the kind in 

 Italian. " He alfo publifhed fourteen dialogues in the manner 

 of Lucian ; 'and having tried his talents in various kinds of 

 poetry, his " Sermoni" in the true Horatian fpirit are pre- 

 eminent, and hence he obtained the name of the Italian 

 Horace. Befides the reputation which he acquired as a 

 poet, he alfo excelled in crayon painting. To the noife and 

 buftle of the world he preferred the tranquillity of domefl:ic 

 life on his eilatc, which he compared to the Sabine farm of 

 Horace, and never travelled farther from home than Verona, 



Mantua, 



