500 
V O M 
V O P 
By a voluntary before the first lesson, we are prepared for 
admission of those divine truths, which we are shortly to 
rpppivp S\Tippf nt nv. 
VOLUNTEE'R, s. [voluntaire, Fr.] A soldier who 
enters into the service of his own accord.—Congreve, and 
the author of the Relapse, being the principals in the dis¬ 
pute, I satisfy them ; as for the volunteers, they will find 
themselves affected with the misfortune of their friends. Col¬ 
lier. 
To VOLUNTEE'R, v. n. To go for a soldier. A cant 
word. 
Leave off these wagers, for in conscience speaking. 
The city needs not your new tricks for breaking: 
And if you gallants lose, to all appearing. 
You’ll want an equipage for volunteering. Dryden. 
VOLUNTOWN, a township of the United States, in 
Windham county, Connecticut; 16 miles north-by-east of 
Norwich. 
VOLU'PTUARY, s. [yoluptuarius, Lat.] A man 
given up to pleasure and luxury.—The parable was intended 
against the voluptuaries ; men who liv’d like heathens, 
dissolutely, without regarding any of the restraints of re¬ 
ligion. Atterbury. 
VOLU'PTUOUS, adj~. [voluptuosus, Lat.] Given to 
excess of pleasure; luxurious. 
Then swoll’n with pride, into the snare I fell 
Of fair fallacious looks; venereal trains, 
Soft’ned with pleasure, and voluptuous life. Milton. 
VOLU'PTUOUSLY, adv. Luxuriously ; with indul¬ 
gence of excessive pleasure.—Had I a dozen sons, I had 
rather eleven died nobly for their country, than one volup¬ 
tuously surfeit out of action. Shakspeare. 
VOLU'PTUOUSNESS, s. Luxuriousness; addictedness 
to excess of pleasure. 
If he fill’d his vacancy with his voluptuousness. 
Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones 
Call on him for’t. Shakspeare. 
VOLUSKA, a small sea-port of Austrian Illyria, in Istria ; 
6 miles west of Fiume. 
VOLUTA'TION, s. [volutatio, Lat.] Wallowing; 
rolling.—In the sea, when the storm is over, there remains 
still an inward working and volutation. Bp. Reynolds. 
VO'LUTE, s. [ volute, Fr.] A member of a column. 
That part of the capitals of the Ionic, Corinthian, and 
Composite orders, which is supposed to represent the bark 
of trees twisted and turned into spiral lines, or, according 
to others, the head-dresses of virgins in their long hair. 
According to Vitruvius, those that appear above the stems 
in the Corinthian order, are sixteen in every capital, four 
in the Ionic, and eight in the Composite. These volutes 
are more especially remarkable in the Ionick capital, repre¬ 
senting a pillow or cushion laid between the abacus and 
echinus: whence that ancient architect calls the voluta 
pulvinus. Harris. —It is said there is an Ionic pillar in 
the Santa Maria Transtevere, where the marks of the com¬ 
pass are still to be seen on the volute; and that Palladio 
learnt from thence the working of that difficult problem. 
Addison. 
VO'MICA, s. [Lat.] An encysted tumour in the lungs. 
—If the ulcer is not broke, it is commonly called a vomica, 
attended with the same symptoms as an empyema; because 
the vomica communicating. with the vessels of the lungs, 
must necessarily void some of the putrid matter, and taint 
the blood. Arbuthnot.. 
VO’MIC NUT, s. The nucleus of a fruit of the Strychnos. 
It is certain poison to quadrupeds and birds; and taken in¬ 
ternally, in small doses, it disturbs the whole human frame, 
and brings on convulsions. Hill. 
To VO'MIT, v. n. [vomo, Latin.] To cast up the con¬ 
tents of the stomach.—The dog, when he is sick at the 
stomach, knows his cure, falls to his grass, vomits, and is 
well. More. 
To VO'MIT, v. a. [oomir, Fr.] To throw up from the 
stomach: often with up or out. —Weak stomachs vomit up 
the wine that they drink in too great quantities, in the form 
of vinegar. Arbuthnot. —To throw up with violence from 
any hollow. 
VO'MIT, s. The matter thrown up from the stomach. 
He shall cast up the wealth by him devour’d, 
Like vomit from his yawning entrails pour’d. Sandys. 
An emetic medicine; a medicine that causes vomit.— 
This vomit may be repeated often, if it be found successful. 
Rlackmore. 
VOMI'TION, s. [from vomo, Lat.] The act or power of 
vomiting.—How many have saved their lives, by spewing 
up their debauch ? Whereas, if the stomach had wanted 
the faculty of vomition, they had inevitably died. Grew. 
VO'MITIVE, adj. [vomitif, Fr.] Emetic ; causing 
vomits.—From this vitriolous quality, mercurius dulcis, and 
vitriol vomitive, occasion black ejections. Brown. 
VO'MITORY, adj.. [vomitorius, Latin.] Procuring 
vomits; emetic.—Since regulus of stibium, or glass of 
antimony, will communicate to water or wine a purging or 
vomitory operation, yet the body itself, after iterated in¬ 
fusions, abates not virtue or weight. Brown. 
VONDEL (Joost Vandem), a Dutch poet, was the son 
of parents who belonged to the sect of Mennonites, and 
born at Cologne in the year 1587. His education was 
merely adapted to trade, and having married in 1610, he 
commenced business as a hosier at Amsterdam; but with 
talents superior to his station, he entrusted his wife with the 
conduct of his trade, and directed his attention to literary 
and religious speculations. In the disputes between the Ar- 
minians and Gomarists, he took part with the former, and 
joined their communion. His first poetical productions were 
the mere fruits of untaught genius; but apprehending that 
he might derive advantage from those sources of information 
to which he had no access, on account of his ignorance of 
the learned languages, he began, at the age of 30 years, to 
learn the Latin and French, and to study logic. Attached 
to the Arminian party, he exposed the injustice of the sen¬ 
tence against Barneveldt in an allegorical tragedy, entitled 
“ Palamedes, or Innocence oppressed,” for which he was 
prosecuted and fined. Conceiving prejudices against the 
reformed religion, probably on account of the attachment 
of the Dutch ministers to the Orange faction, he became a 
Roman Catholic; and afterwards published a tragedy, en¬ 
titled “ Gisbert Van Amstel,” or the capture of Amsterdam 
by Florence V., count of Holland; and many other poems, 
one on the subject of “ The Mysteries, or the Secrets of the 
Altar.” He also translated into Dutch verse Virgil, Horace, 
and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, by which he gained consider¬ 
able reputation. But, like many authors, he neglected his 
affairs, and suffered pecuniary embarrassments. He lived, 
however, to a great age, and closed life in 1679, in his 92d 
year; having acquired the honour of being regarded as one 
of the principal ornaments of his country. His works 
amount to nine vols. 4to. Moreri. 
VONIZZA, a fortified town of European Turkey, in Epi¬ 
rus, situated at the foot of Mount Zoromeros, oh the gulf of 
Arta; 50 miles south of Joannina. Lat. 39. 15. N. long. 
21.2. E. 
VOORBURG, a village of the Netherlands, in South 
Holland; 2 miles east of the Hague. Population 1700. 
VOORN, an island of the Netherlands, situated between 
two mouths of the Maese. It is tolerably fertile in corn. 
The chief place is Briel. 
VOORSCHOTEN, a village of the Netherlands, with 
1100 inhabitants; 3 miles south-south-west of Leyden. 
VOORST, an inland town of the Netherlands, in the 
province of Gelderland, with 4400 inhabitants; 12 miles 
east of Arnheim. 
VOPISCUS (Flavius), a Latin historian, was a native of 
Syracuse, and flourished about A. D. 304. He began his 
history with the reign of Aurelian, which he prosecuted 
with those of Tacitus and his brother Flavianus, and Probus. 
He then published an account of the four tyrants, Firmus, Sa- 
turninus. 
