VAT 
236 VAT 
Inexorable, and the torturing hour 
Calls us to penance. Milton. 
A servant; one who acts by the will of another. 
I am his fortune’s vassal , and I send him 
The greatness he has got. Shakspeare. 
A slave; a low wretch. 
Thou swear’st thy Gods in vain, 
O vassal! miscreant! Shakspeare. 
To VA'SSAL, v. a. To subject; to enslave; to exercise 
command over. 
Thou couldst not make my mind go less, nor pare 
With all their swords one virtue from my soul: 
How am I vassall'd then ? Make such thy slaves 
As dare not keep their goodness past their graves. 
Beaum. and FI. 
VA'SSALAGE, s. [vasselage , French.] The state of a 
vassal; tenure at will; servitude; slavery; dependance. 
All my pow’rs do their bestowing lose, 
Like vassalage at unawares encount’ring 
The eye of majesty. Shakspeare. 
VASSALBOROUGH, a post township of the United 
States, in Kennebeck county, Maine, on the east side of the 
Kennebeck, opposite Sidney; 8 miles north of Augusta, and 
180 north-north-east of Boston. 
VASSELONNE, a small town in the north-east of France, 
in Alsace ; 14 miles west-by-north of Strasburgh. 
VASSY, a small town in the north-east of France, depart¬ 
ment of the Upper Marne. 
VASSY, a small town in the north of France, department 
of Calvados; 28 miles south-west of Caen. 
VAST, adj. [vastus , Latin.] Large ; great—What the 
parliament meant to attempt with those vast numbers of 
men, every day levied. Clarendon. — Viciously great; 
enormously extensive or capacious.—They view’d the vast 
unmeasurable abyss. Milton. 
VAST, s. [ vastum , Latin.] An empty waste.—They 
shook hands, as over a vast ; and embraced, as from the ends 
of the opposed winds. Shakspeare. 
VASTA'TION, s. [vastatio, from vasto, Lat.] Waste ; 
depopulation.—The miseries of war, and the vast at ions 
that follow upon it, may be a good preparative to us for 
setting a true value upon the benefit of peace. Bp. Hall. 
VASTI'DITY, s. [yastitas, Lat.] Wideness; immensity. 
A barbarous word. 
Perpetual durance. 
Through all the world’s vastidity. Shakspeare. 
VA'STLY, adv. Greatly; to a great degree.—Holland’s 
resolving upon its own defence, without our share in the 
war, would leave us to enjoy the bade of the world, and 
thereby grow vastly both in strength and treasures. Temple. 
VA'STNESS, s. Immensity ; enormous greatness. 
She by the rocks compell’d to stay behind, 
Is by the vastness of her bulk confin’d Waller. 
VASTO, or Vasto d’Ammone, a town of Italy, in the 
north-east of the kingdom of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra, 
situated on the coast of the Adriatic. This place, blessed 
with a fine climate and productive territory, stands unfortu¬ 
nately in a country undermined by volcanic fire. It was 
severely damaged by an earthquake in 1706; and in 18.16, 
the ground giving way beneath, many of the buildings 
sunk suddenly into the earth, and nearly disappeared. Its 
population, before this dreadful calamity, was about 5000. 
A track of considerable extent and fertility was at the same 
time precipitated into the sea ; and the total loss of property 
was estimated at £400,000 sterling ; 18 miles west-north- 
west ofTermoli. 
VASTO, a small town in the south-east of the kingdom 
of Naples, in the Terra d’Otranto. 
VA'STY, adj. Large; enormously great.—I can call 
spirits from the vasty deep. Shakspeare. 
VAT, s. [vat, Dutch; par, Saxon.] A vessel in which 
liquors are kept in the immature state. 
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyen. 
In thy vats our cares be drown’d. Shakspeare. 
VAT AN, a small town in the central part of France, 
department of the Indre ; 14 milesmorth-west of Issouldun. 
VATERIA [so named by Linnaeus from Abrah. Vater, 
professor of medicine and botany at Witteberg], in Botany, 
a genus of the class polyandria, order monogynia, natural 
order of guttiferse (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: 
perianth five-cleft, acute, small, permanent. Corolla: petals 
five, ovate, spreading. Stamina: filaments numerous, 
shorter than the corolla; anthers simple. Pistil: germ 
roundish ; style simple, short; stigmas capitate. Pericarp : 
capsule turbinate, coriaceous, placed on the reflexed calyx, 
marked with three sutures, one-celled, three-valved. Seed 
one, ovate.— Essential Character. Calyx five-cleft. Co¬ 
rolla five-petalled. Capsule three-valved, one-celled, three- 
seeded. 
Vateria Indica.—A handsome tree sixty feet high, with 
wide branching head; bark thick, which when wounded 
discharges a clear fragrant resin, bitter to the taste, and dries 
yellow, and brittle like glass.—Native of Ceylon and Ma¬ 
labar. 
VATERNISH, or Waternish Point, a remarkable 
promontory on the north-west coast of the isle of Sky. 
VATHI, a small seaport of the Ionian republic, the chief 
place of ihe island of Ithaca, situated at the extremity of 
a spacious bay, and containing ,3000 inhabitants. It occu¬ 
pies the site of the ancient capital of Ithaca. 
VATHI, or Vahti, a seaport of the island of Samos, 
containing about 500 houses, the inhabitants of which 
support themselves by fishing, and by the export of a very 
good wine, produced in the neighbourhood. 
VATHY, a small town of European Turkey, in the Morea, 
built on the site of the ancient Hypsus. 
VATICA [perhaps from Vaticinium; if it be in esteem 
among the Chinese for the purposes of divination], in Bo¬ 
tany, a genus of the class dodecandria, order monogynia, 
natural order of gultiferae [Juss.) —Generic Character. Ca¬ 
lyx : perianth one-leafed, five-parted, obtuse at the base, erect; 
segments lanceolate, shorter than the corolla. Corolla: 
petals five, sessile, elliptic,large. Stamina: filaments none; 
anthers fifteen, sessile, very short, four-celled; the two outer 
cells terminated by a spine interposed between them; 
the two inner shorter by half, without any spine. Pistil: 
germ conical, five-cornered; style cylindrical, five-striated; 
stigma obtuse. Pericarp: capsule three-celled. Seed one 
in each cell.— Essential Character. Calyx five-cleft. Pe¬ 
tals five; anthers fifteen, sessile, four-celled. 
Vatica Chinensis.—This is a tree having the same ap¬ 
pearance with Vateria Indica, and nearly allied to it, but 
differing in the anthers and perhaps in the fruit. Branch lets 
indistinctly angular, hoary with meal, leafy, many-flowered; 
leaves alternate, ovate-oblong, bluntly acuminate, quite en¬ 
tire, smooth, with the veins standing out on both sides and 
alternate, and the veinlets netted and anastomosing.—Native 
of China, A very rare plant. 
VATIBAI, a small river of Quito, in the province of 
Mainas, which runs east, and enters the Napo. 
VATICAN, or Vaticanus, is properly the name of one of 
the seven hills on which Rome stands; on the foot of this 
is the famous church of St. Peter, hence called the Vatican ; 
and a magnificent palace of the pope, which has the same 
denomination. 
The word, according to Aulus Gellius, is derived from 
vaticinium, prophecy; by reason of the oracles and predic¬ 
tions which were used to be delivered there by the inspira¬ 
tion of an ancient deity, called Vaticanus; who was sup¬ 
posed to unbind the organs of speech in new-born children ; 
and whom others will have to be no other than Jupiter, con¬ 
sidered in that capacity. 
The Library of the Vatican is one of the most cele¬ 
brated in the world: it is particularly remarkable for its 
manuscripts. It was first erected, according to Petavius 
(Rat. Temp. lib. ix. cap. 9.), by pope Nicholas V., who suc¬ 
ceeded to the papal chair in 1447. It was re-established, 
after the books had been dispersed, under the pontificate of 
Calixtus 
