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VIRREIES, three small islands among the Philippines. 
Lat. 13. 18. N. long. 121. 48. E. 
VIRTON, a town of the Netherlands, on the Chiers. 
Population 1300; 9 miles north-east of Montmedy. 
VIRTU', s. [Italian. “ As this people [the Romans] 
was of so military a turn, they generally gave fortitude the 
name of Virtus, or the Virtue, by way of excellence; just 
as the same nation, now they are so debased and effeminated, 
call the love of the softer arts, Vertu .” Spence, Poly met. 
Dial x.] A love of the fine arts; a taste for curiosities. 
See Virtuoso. —Let his holiness’s taste of virtu be ever so 
bad, pray get somebody to present you to him before you 
leave Rome. Ld. Chesterfield. 
VPRTUAL, adj. [virtue/, Fr.] Having the efficacy 
without the sensible or material part.—Metalline waters,have 
virtual cold in them. Put therefore wood into smith’s water, 
and try whether it will not harden. Bacon. 
VIRTUAL'ITY, s. Efficacy.—In one grain of corn there 
lieth dormant a virtuality of many other, and from thence 
sometimes proceed an hundred ears. Brown. 
VIRTUALLY, adv. In effect, though not materially.— 
Such is our constitution, that the bulk of the people virtu¬ 
ally give their approbation to every thing they are bound to 
obey. Addison. 
To VFRTUATE, v.a. To make efficacious. Not used. 
—Potable gold should be endued with a capacity of being 
assimilated to the innate heat, and radical moisture; or at 
least virtuated with a power of generating the said essentials. 
Harvey. 
VIRTUE, s. [virtus , Lat.] Moral goodness: opposed 
to vice. —Either I’m mistaken, or there is virtue in that 
Falstaff. Shakspeare. —-A particular moral excellence. 
In Belmont is a lady 
And she is fair, and, fairer than that word. 
Of wond’rous virtues. Shakspeare. 
Medicinal quality. 
All blest secrets, 
All you unpublish’d virtues of the earth, 
Be aidant and remediate. Shakspeare. 
Medicinal efficacy.—An essay writer must practice the 
chymical method, and give the virtue of a full draught in 
a few drops. Addison. —Efficacy; power. Before virtue 
is used sometimes by and sometimes in ; by in virtue is 
meant in consequence of the virtue. —If neither words nor 
herbs will do. I’ll try stones; for there’s a virtue in them. 
L'Estrange. —He used to travel through Greece, ly virtue 
of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns. 
Addison.-- Acting power.—Jesus knowing that virtue had 
gone out of him, turned him about. St. Mark.— Secret 
agency; efficacy, without visible or material action. 
She moves the body, which she doth possess; 
Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue' s touch. Davies. 
Bravery; valour. 
Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers 
Took their discharge. Shakspeare. 
Excellence; that which gives excellence.—In the Greek 
poets, as also in Plautus, the oeconomy of poems is better 
observed than in Terence; who thought the sole grace and 
virtue of their fable, the sticking in of sentences, as ours do 
the forcing in of jests. B. Jonson. —One of the orders of 
the celestial hierarchy.—Thrones, dominations, princedoms, 
virtues, powers. Milton. 
A winged virtue through th’ etherial sky. 
From orb to orb unwearied dost thou fly. Tickell. 
VI'RTUELESS, adj. Wanting virtue; deprived of 
virtue.—Not having efficacy; without operating qualities.— 
All second causes, together with nature herself, without 
that operative faculty which God gave them, would become 
altogether silent, virtueless, and dead. Ralegh. 
VIRTUO'SO, s. [Italian.] A man skilled in antique or 
natural curiosities; a man studious of painting, statuary, or 
architecture.—Methinks those generous virtuosi dwell in a 
higher region than other mortals. Glanville. 
Vo l. XXIV. No. 1645. 
VIRTUO'SOSIIIP, s. [from virtuoso .] The pursuits of 
a virtuoso; the character of a virtuoso.—Let us view phi¬ 
losophy like mere virtuosoship in its usual career. Ld. 
Shaftesbury. 
VIRTUOUS, adj. Morally good: applied to persons 
and practices. 
If his occasion were not virtuous, 
I should not urge it half so faithfully. Shakspeare. 
[Applied to women.] Chaste.—Mistress Ford, the modest 
wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her 
husband. Shakspeare. —Done in consequence of moral 
goodness. 
Nor love is always of a vicious kind, 
But oft to virtuous acts inflames the mind. Dry den. 
Efficacious; powerful. 
With one virtuous touch, the arch-chemic sun, 
Produces, with terrestrial humour mix’d. 
Here in the dark, so many precious things. Milton. 
Having wonderful or eminent properties.—That own’d 
the virtuous ring and glass. Milton. —Having medicinal 
qualities. 
The ladies sought around 
For virtuous herbs, which, gather’d from the ground. 
They squeez’d the juice; and cooling ointment made. 
Dryden. 
VIRTUOUSLY, adv. In a virtuous manner; according 
to the rules of virtue. 
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, 
The devil their virtue tempts not, they tempt heav’n. 
Shakspeare. 
VIRTUOUSNESS, s. The state or character of being 
virtuous.—Many other adventures are intermeddled; as the 
love of Britomert, and virtuousness of Belphaebe; and the 
lasciviousness of Helenora. Spenser. 
VIRULENCE, or Vi'rulency, s. Mental poison; ma¬ 
lignity ; acrimony of temper; bitterness.—Disputes in re¬ 
ligion are managed with virulenc?/ and bitterness. Dec. of 
Chr. Piety. 
VIRULENT, adj. [virulentus , Lat.] Poisonous; ve¬ 
nomous ; poisoned in the mind ; bitter; malignant. 
VI'RULENTED, adj. Filled with poison.-—Certain 
spirits virulented from the inward humour, darted on the 
object, convey a venom where they point and fix. Feltham. 
VIRULENTLY, adv. Malignantly ; with bitterness. 
VIS-A-VIS, s. [French.] A carriage, which holds only 
two persons, who sit face to face, and not side by side, as in 
a coach or chariot. Lemon. 
VISA, a town of European Turkey, in Romania, the 
capital of a district; 63 miles west-north-west of Constan¬ 
tinople 
VI'SAGE, s. [visaggio, Ital.] Face; countenance; look. 
It is now rarely used but with some ideas of dislike or 
horror. Here, however, is an exception : 
Phebe doth behold 
Her silver visage in the watery glass. 
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass. Shakspeare. 
VTSAGED, adj. Having a face or visage.—The one, 
visaged like a lion, to express power, high authority, and 
indignation. Milton. 
VISCARDO, or Guiscardo, Capo, a promontory of the 
island of Cephalonia, extending into the Ionian sea towards 
the north-west, and having a good harbour behind it. 
VI'SCERAL, adj. [from viscera, Latin, the bowels. ] 
Feeling; tender.—Love is of all other the inmost and most 
visceral affection; and therefore called by the Apostle, 
“ Bowels of love.” Bp. Reynolds. 
To VI'SCERATE, v.a. [viscera, Lat.] To embowel; 
to exenterate. 
VISCHEGRAD, a small town and castle of European 
Turkey, in Bosnia, on the Drina; 80 miles south-west of 
Belgrade. 
VISCHER’S ISLAND, a small island in the Pacific ocean, 
4 H near 
