vow 



enough the party reclaim within the five years ; but he muft 

 iikewife prove that he was forced to take the habit. 



Vows, Vota, among the Romans, fignify facrificcs, offer- 

 ings, prefents, and prayers, made for the emperors and Cx- 

 fars, particularly for their profpcrity, and the duration of 

 their empire. 



Thefe were, at firft, made every five years, then every fif- 

 teen, and then every twenty, called qmnquennalia, decennalia, 

 and vicennalia. 



In divers antique medals and infcriptions, we read, Vol. 

 X. P'^ot. XX. Vot. mult, fignifying volis cUcennaltbus, -vicen- 

 nalibus, mult'ti, &c. See Decennalia. 



Vows, in a moral and religious fenfe, are promifes to God ; 

 and therefore, according to archdeacon Paley,tiie obligation 

 cannot be made out upon the fame principle as that of other 

 promifes. The violation of them, neverthelcfs, implies a 

 want of reverence to the Supreme Being ; which is fufficient 

 to make it finful. There appears no command or encou- 

 ragement in the Chriftian fcriptures to make vows ; much 

 lets any authority to break through them when they are 

 made. The few inftances of vows which occur in the 

 New Teftament were religioufly obferved. (See Afts, 

 xviii. i8. xxi. 23.) The rules that pertain to promifes are 

 applicable to vows. Thus Jephthah's vow, taken in the fenfe 

 in which that tranfaftion is commonly underflood, was not 

 binding ; becaufe the performance, in that contingency, be- 

 came unlawful. From this and other inftances, it appears 

 that ralh vows are not only imprudent, but culpable. See 

 Promise. 



VOWEL, VocALis, in Grammar, a letter which affords 

 a complete found of itfelf, or a letter fo fimple, as only to 

 need a bare opening of the mouth to make it heard, and to 

 form a diftinft voice. 



Such are a, e, 1, 0, u ; which are called vocales, vowels, 

 in contradiftinftion to certain other letters, which, depend- 

 ing on a particular application of fome part of the mouth, 

 as the teeth, lips, or palate, can make no perfeft found with- 

 out an opening of the month, that is, without the addition 

 of a vowel ; and are therefore called confonants. 



Though we ordinarily only reckon five vowels, yet, befides 

 that each of thefe may be either long or fhort, which occa- 

 fions a confiderable variety in the found ; if we confider 

 only their differences refulting from the different apertures 

 of the mouth, we might add four or five more vowels to the 

 number. For the e open, and the e clofe, arc different 

 enough to make two vowels, as \nfea, and depth ; fo alfo the 

 o open, and clofe, in hojl, and organ. Add, that the « 

 pronounced ou, as the Latins did, and as the Itahans and 

 Spaniards ftill do, has a very different found from the u, as 

 pronounced by the Greeks, and, as at this day, by the 

 Enghffi and French. Again, eo, in people, make but one 

 fimple found, though we write it with two vowels. 



Lallly, the e mute is, originally, no more than a furd 

 joined to a confonant, when that is to be pronounced with- 

 out a vowel, as when it is immediately followed by other 

 confonants. This is what the Hebrews call fcheva, efpe- 

 cially when it begins the fyllable : and ihii fcheva is found in 

 all languages, though overlooked in m.nny of them, parti- 

 cularly in the Engliui, Latin, &c. by reafon it has no pro- 

 per charafter to denote it ; though, in fome of the vulgar 

 tongues, particularly French and High Dutch, it is exprelled 

 by the vowel e adding its found to the rcll. 



Thus, without regarding the differences of the fame found 

 or vowel, as to length or fhortncfs, one may didiiiguifti ten 

 (cvcral vowels, expreffed by the following charaftert, a, e, 

 i, i, 0, 6, eu, ou, u, e mute. 



To thefe we may add y, which, as the learned Dr. Lowth 

 Vol. XXXVn. 



U P E 



obfcrves, is formed by the opening of the mouth, without 

 any motion or contadt of the parts, and has every properly 

 ot a vowel, and not one of a confonant. Lowth's Gram, 

 p. 20. n. I. 



Mr. Sheridan, who makes the number of fimple founds 

 in our language to be twenty-eight, reckons nine vowels, 



a, a, a, e, o, o, e, i, u. 

 viz. hall, hat, hate, beer, note, noofe, bet, fit, but. Rhet. 

 Gram. p. cj. 



VowEL-Points, in the Hcbre<vj Language. See Vovicl- 



PoiNTS. 



VOX, in Laiv. Vocem non habere, is a phrafe ufed by 

 Brafton and Fleta for an infamous perfon ; one who is not 

 admitted to be a witnefs. 



Vox Humana, Lat., Votx Humaine, Fr., a ftop in the 

 organ ; thus named from its being an imitation of the human 

 voice. It is a reed ftop, in unifon with the open diapafon : 

 it is a fiiort metal pipe, of a wide globular form at Uie top, 

 refembUng a human mouth. This is a celebrated ftop in 

 the famous organ at Haerlem ; in hearing which we were 

 fomewhat difappointed, as it does not at all referable a hu- 

 man voice, though a very good ftop of the kind. But the 

 world is very apt to be impofed upon by names. The in- 

 ftant a common hearer is told that an organift is playing 

 upon a ftop that refembles a human voice, he fuppofes it to 

 be very fine, and never inquires into the propriety of the 

 name, or exaftnefs of the imitation. However, with re- 

 fpeft to our own feelings, we muft confefs, that of all the 

 ftops which we have yet heard, that have been honoured 

 with the appellation of vox humana, no one, in the treble 

 part, has ever reminded us of any thing human, fo much as 

 the cracked voice of an old woman of ninety ; or, in the 

 lower notes, of Punch finging through a comb. 



VOXTORP, in Geography, a town of Sweden, in the 

 province of Smaland ; 29 miles N.W. of Wexio. 



VOYAGE, denotes a journey by fea. 



VOYAL, a large rope formerly ufed to unmoor or heave 

 up the anchor of a (hip, by tranfmitting the effort of the 

 capftan to the cable j but moftly ufed when the fore-jeer 

 capftan was employed for this purpofe. 'I'he voyal reeved 

 through a large block laftied to the main-maft, and then 

 communicated to the fore-jeer capftan : but meffengers ^re 

 now chiefly ufed inftead of it. 



Voyal, Shifting the. See Shifting. 



VOZ, in Geography, a lake of Ruffia, in the province of 

 Novgorod, about 60 miles in circumference. N. lat. 60° 

 30'. E. long. 38" 54'. 



VOZGA, a town of Ruffia, in the government of Nov- 

 gorod, near lake Voz ; 48 miles N.N.E. of Bielozerfk. 



VOZ I A, a town of European Turkey, in Beffarabia, on 

 the Black fea ; 26 miles W. of Otchakov. 



VOZNESENSKOI, a town of Ruffia, on the Angara i 

 20 miles N.N.W. of Irkutllc. 



UPA, a river of Ruffia, whicii rifes near Epiphan, paffes 

 by Tula, and runs into the Oka, near Lichvin, in the go- 

 vernment of Kaluga. 



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

 Higher Alps ; 1 1 miles S.E. of Serres. 



UPANEMA, a river of Brafil, which runs into the 

 Atlantic, S. lat. 4° 30'. W. long. 37° 32'. 



UPATCHAWANAN, or Temiscamain, a fetUc- 

 ment in Canada. N. lat. 47° 17'. 



UPBO, a town of Sweden, in Dalccarlia ; 20 miles 

 S.S.E. of Fahlun. 



UPELLA, a town of Hindooftan, in Golconda; 18 

 miles N.N.W. of Warangole. 



3 Q Upella 



