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V E R 



preatii ihc Chriilian religion in China, and made many 

 efforts for inducing the emperor to embrace the Chriilian 

 faith ; but though Verbieft fucceeded in prevailing with 

 hira to acknowledge his belief in one God, he failed in his 

 attempts to convert him to Chriftianity. Such, however, 

 was the refpeft which the emperor entertained for this 

 miffionary, that on occafion of his death, in 1688, he com- 

 pofed an eulogy upon him, and ordered liim to be interred 

 with Chriilian honours. The principal work of Verbieft is 

 entitled, " Aflronomia Europxa, fub Imperatore Tartaro- 

 Sinico Cam-Hi, ex umbi-a in lucem revocata a P. Ferdinando 

 Verbieft, Flandro-Belga, e S. J. Academic Aftronomicx 

 in Regia Pequinenfi Prasfefto ;" Dilings, 1687, 410. 

 He alfo caufed to be conftrucled, at the requeft of the 

 enipuror, a variety of aftronomical inftruments, and wrote 

 fiKteen volumes, in tlie Chinefe language, on their conftruc- 

 tion and ufe. Verbieft contrived likewife to convey over a 

 long bridge, by means of pullies, feveral immenfe blocks of 

 ftone for building a maufoleum for the emperor, which, it is 

 faid, 500 horfes could not have drawn, and extended an 

 aqueduft feveral furlongs over a wide plain. He moreover 

 caft upwards of 130 pieces of brafs cannon for the ufe of 

 the Chinefe government, and calculated aftronomical tables 

 with eclipfes of the fun and moon for 2000 years. Mon- 

 tucla Hift. des Mathem. Gen. Biog. 



VERBINUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Belgic 

 Gaul, belonging to the Veromandui, upon the route from 

 Bagacum Nerviorum to Durocortorum, between Buronum 

 and Catufiacum. Anton. Itin. 



VERBO, in Geography, a town of Hungary ; 16 miles 

 N.W. of Leopoldftadt. 



VERBOSANIA, a town of European Turkey, in 

 Bofnia ; 15 miles W.N.W. of Bofnaferai. 



VERBOSITY, in Rhetoric, an offence againft energetic 

 and vivid brevity or concifenefs in writing. This differs 

 from pleonafm ; as in the latter, words are ufed which make 

 no addition to the fenfe, whereas in the verbofe manner, 

 not only fingle words, but whole claufes, may have a mean- 

 ing ; but it would be better to omit them, becaufe their 

 meaning is unimportant ; and therefore, inftead of enliven- 

 ing the expreffion, they make it languifh. Another dif- 

 ference is, that in a proper pleonafm, a complete correftion 

 is always made by expunging ; but this will not always an- 

 fwer the purpofe in the verbofe ftyle, as it is often necef- 

 fary to alter as well as to raze. Moreover, verbofity does 

 not mean the fame tiling which the French exprefs by the 

 term " verbiage," which is commonly underftood to de- 

 note a parade of fine words, plaufibly ftrung together, fo 

 as either to conceal a total want of meaning, or to difguife 

 fometliing weak and inconclufive in the reafoning. The 

 former, or verbofity, is merely an offence againft vivacity ; 

 but the latter is more properly a tranfgreffion of the laws of 

 perfpicuity. One inftance of a faulty exuberance of words 

 is the immoderate ufe of circumlocution. In fome circum- 

 ftances circumlocution is a beauty, in others it is a blemifh. 

 It is often ufed for the fake of variety ; fometimes for the 

 fake of decency : at other times, propriety requires the ufe 

 of circumlocution, as when Milton fays of Satan, who had 

 been thrown down headlong into hell, 



" Nine times the fpace that meafures day and night 

 To mortal man, he with his horrid crew 

 Lay vanquifti'd rolling in the fiery gulf." 



In this cafe, " ntne days and nights" would not have been 

 proper, when fpeaking of a period before the creation of 

 the fun, and confequently before time was portioned out to 

 any being in that manner. Sometimes even the vivacity of 



the expreffion juay be augmented by a periphrafis, as wheij 

 it is made to fupply the place of a feparate fentence. An 

 inftance to this purpofe occurs in the words of Abraham, 

 (Gen. xviii. 25.) " Shall not the judge of all the earth do 

 right ?" This circumlocution for God ferves as an argument 

 in fupport of the fentiment, and conduces more to concife- 

 nefs. Such alfo is the periphrafis employed by Cicero, 

 who, inftead of faying fimply, Milo's domeftics killed. 

 Clodius, fays, " they did that which every mafter would 

 wilh his fervants to do in fuch an exigence." 



Another fource of languor in the ftyle is the infertion of 

 fuch claufes, as to a fuperficial view appear to fuggeft: 

 fomething which heightens, but on refleftion are found to 

 prefuppofe fomething which abates the vigour of the fenti- 

 ment. Such is the following fentence from Swift : " Nei- 

 ther is any condition of life more honourable in the fight of 

 God than another, otherwife he would be a refpefter of 

 perfons, 'which he ajfures us he is not." The laft claufe 

 enervates the thought, as it too plainly implies, that with- 

 out this afTurance from God himfelf, we fliould naturally 

 conclude him to be of a character very different from that 

 here given him by the preacher. Akin to this is the juvenile 

 method of loading every propofition with affeverations. 

 Such a praftice in converfation tends to fuggeft a fufpicion 

 of the fpeaker's veracity, rather than to engage the belief 

 of the hearer ; and it has a fomewhat fimilar effeft in 

 writing. Thus m our tranllation of Gen. ii. 17. God is 

 reprefented as faying to Adam, concerning the fruit of the 

 tree of knowledge, " In the day thou eateft thereof, thou 

 ftialt furely die." The adverb furely, inftead of enforcing, 

 enfeebles the denunciation. Another example, fomewhat 

 fimilar, is the manner in which our interpreters have at- 

 tempted, in the New Teftament, to ftrengthen the negative, 

 wherever the double negative (a /^i) occurs in the Greek, 

 even in the moft authoritative threatenings, by rendering it 

 fometimes in no cafe, fometimes in no wife ; neither of which 

 phrafes expreffes more than the fingle adverb not ; and as 

 they partake of the nature of circumlocution, they in effeft 

 debilitate the expreffion. Another caufe of a languid ver- 

 bofity is the loading of the ftyle with epithets. Epithets 

 ufed fparingly, and with judgment, ferve to enliven the 

 expreffion ; but a profufion of them has an oppofite ten- 

 dency. Befides, they lengthen the fentence, withoat add- 

 ing proportionable ftrength. We may alfo add, that the 

 crowding of epithets into a difcourfe betrays a violent effort 

 to fay fomething extraordinary ; and nothing is a clearer 

 evidence of weaknefs than fuch an effort, without a cor- 

 refpondent effed. 



There is, however, one kind of compofition, the para- 

 phrafe, of the ftyle of which verbofity is the proper cha- 

 rafter ; becaufe it is the profeffed defign of the paraphraft 

 to fay in many words what his text expreffes in few. 

 Another fpecies of verbofity is a prolixity in narration, 

 arifing from the mention of unneceffary circumftances. 

 Campbell's Philofophy of Rhetoric, vol. ii. 



VERBOVETZ, in Geography, a town of Croatia, at 

 the conflux of the Cfernets and Glocovia ; 7 miles N.E. of 

 Ivanitz. 



VERBRO Aa, a river of Denmark, in North Jutland, 

 which runs into the fea, 6 miles W.N.W. of Hioring. 



VERBROECK, a town of Flanders; 8 miles E.S.E. 

 of Hulft. 



VERCEL, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Doubs ; 1 1 miles N.E. of Ornans. 



VERCELLjE, in Ancient Geography, a town of Italy, 

 in Gallia Tranfpadana, and the capital of the people called 

 Seffites. It had within its territory a temple and a wood 



confecrated 



