James Wood

“ Vitellius, Aulus, Roman emperor; reigned only eight months and some days of the year 69; was notorious for his excesses, and was murdered after being dragged through the streets of Rome.
Vitruvius, Pollio, Roman architect and engineer; wrote on architecture, lived in the days of Augustus.
Vittoria (127) , the capital of Alava, a Basque province in the North of Spain, famous as the scene of one of Wellington's victories in June 1813; has a fine old 12th-century cathedral and extensive manufactures; it is one of the most prosperous towns in Spain. ”

“ Venus, the Roman goddess of love, of wedded love, and of beauty (originally of the spring) , and at length identified with the Greek Aphrodité (q. v.) ; she was regarded as the tutelary goddess of Rome, and had a temple to her honour in the Forum.
Venus, an interior planet of the solar system, revolving in an orbit outside that of Mercury and within that of the earth, nearly as large as the latter; is 67 millions of miles from the sun, round which it revolves in 224 days, while it takes 231⁄4 hours to rotate on its own axis ”

“ Varus, Publius Quintilius, Roman consul, appointed by Augustus governor of Germany; being attacked by Arminius and overpowered with loss of three Roman legions under his command, he committed suicide; when the news of the disaster reached Rome Augustus was overwhelmed with grief, and in a paroxysm of despair called upon the dead man to restore him his legions.
Vasari, Giorgio, Italian painter and architect, born in Arezzo; was the author of biographies of Italian artists, and it is on these, with the criticism they contain, that his title to fame rests (1511-1574) . ”

“ Versailles (51) , a handsome city of France, capital of the department of Seine-et-Oise, 11 m. by rail SW. of Paris, of which it is virtually a suburb, and was during the monarchy, from Louis XIV.'s time, the seat of the French court; has a magnificent palace, with a gallery embracing a large collection of pictures; was occupied by the Germans during the siege of Paris, and in one of its halls the Prussian king was proclaimed emperor of Germany as William I.
Vertumnus in Roman mythology the god of the seasons, wooed Pomona under a succession of disguises, and won her at last. ”

“ Vladimir (12) , capital of a government in the centre of Russia, 120 m. NE. of Moscow; once practically the capital of the country, with many remains of its ancient grandeur.
Vladimir I. the Great or St., grand-duke of Russia; converted to Christianity through his wife Anna Romanovna, laid the foundation of the Russian empire; has been canonised by the Russian Church; d. 1015.
Vladimir II., surnamed Monomachus; succeeded to the throne of Russia in 1113, and consolidated it by the establishment and enforcement of just laws; was married to Gida, a daughter of King Harold of England (1063-1126) . ”

“ Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de, great French “persifleur” and “Coryphæus of Deism,” born in Paris, son of a lawyer; trained to scoff at religion from his boyhood, and began his literary career as a satirist and in the production of lampoons which cost him twice over imprisonment in the Bastille, on his release from which he left France in 1726 and went to England, where he stayed three years, and got acquainted with the free-thinking class there ”

“ Vampire, the ghost of a dead person accursed, fabled to issue from the grave at night and suck the blood of the living as they sleep, the victims of whom are subject to the same fate; the belief is of Slavonic origin, and common among the Slavs. ”

“ Valentinians, a Gnostic sect, called after their leader Valentine, a native of Egypt of the 2nd century, regarded heathenism as preparatory to Christianity, and Christ as the full and final development in human form of a series of fifteen stages of emanation from the infinite divine to the finite divine in Him “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all,” each stage in the process achieved by the union of a male element with a female, that is, a conceptive and a susceptive.
Valerianus, Lucinius, Roman emperor from 253 to 260, elected by the legions in Rhætia ”

“ Vandyck, Sir Anthony, great portrait-painter, born in Antwerp; studied under Rubens, whose favourite pupil he was; visited Italy, and devoted himself to the study of the great masters; on his return to Antwerp painted “Christ Crucified between Two Thieves”; came to England in 1632, and was patronised by Charles I.; was knighted, and made court painter; painted the royal family, the king, queen, and their two children, and during the next eight years executed portraits of all the court people; his portraits are very numerous, and the most celebrated are in England ”

“ Virgin Islands (45) , a group of islands in the West Indies, few of them of any size, belonging partly to Denmark, Britain, and Spain.
Virgin Queen, appellation popularly given to Queen Elizabeth.
Virginia (1,655) , one of the United States of America, a State somewhat larger than Scotland, between Maryland and North Carolina, so named by its founder Sir Walter Raleigh in honour of Queen Elizabeth; is divided from West Virginia by the Appalachians; it is well watered; the soil, which is fertile, yields the finest cotton and tobacco, and minerals, particularly coal and iron, are abundant ”

“ Valais, a Swiss canton, between Berne on the N. and Italy on the S., in a wide valley of the Rhône, and shut in by lofty mountains; cattle-rearing is the chief industry.
Valdai Hills, a plateau rising to the height of 1100 ft. above the sea-level in Russia, forming the only elevation in the Great European Plain. ”

“ Vedânta, a system of Hindu speculation in interpretation of the Vedas, founded on the pre-supposition of the identity of the spiritual working at the heart of things and the spiritual working in the heart of man. ”

“ Victoria, Alexandrina, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, born at Kensington Palace, the only child of the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III., who died in 1820, leaving her an infant eight months old; educated under the eye of her mother with special regard to her prospective destiny as Queen ”

“ Jews, and every provision is made for education in the shape of universities, State schools, technical schools and private schools, and the legislative authority is vested in a Parliament of two chambers, a Legislative Council of 48, and a Legislative Assembly of 95. ”

“ Virchow, Rudolf, eminent pathologist, born in Pomerania; is distinguished as a politician as well as a man of science, and is in the former regard a strenuous Liberal; his services not only in the interests of medicine but of science generally and its social applications have been very great ”

“ Valerius Maximus, a Roman writer of the age of Tiberius, who compiled a collection of the sayings and doings of notable Romans; it is of very miscellaneous character, and is written in a bombastic style, and dedicated to the emperor.
Valetta (62) , a fortress city, the capital of Malta, on a promontory on the NE. coast of the island, between two bays; the streets are steep, and the harbour is strongly fortified; it contains several fine buildings, a cathedral, the palace of the Grand-Masters of the Knights Templar, and the hospital of St. ”

“ Verona (72) , an old Italian town on the Adige, in Venetia, 62 m. W. of Venice; is a fortress city and one of the famous Quadrilateral; has many interesting buildings and some Roman remains, in particular of an amphitheatre; has manufactures of silk, velvet, and woollen fabrics, and carries on a large local trade.
Veronese, Paolo, painter of the Venetian school, born at Verona, whence his name; studied under an uncle, painted his “Temptation of St. ”

“ NW. of Santiago, at the head of a bay which looks N., and where the anchorage is dangerous; is quite a commercial city; exports ores, nitre, wheat, hides, &c., the business affairs of which are largely in the hands of foreigners, chiefly English, American, and Germans; it has been on various occasions visited by severe earthquakes; was bombarded by a Spanish fleet in 1866 and suffered in the Civil War of 1891. ”

“ Verdi, Giuseppe, Italian composer, born at Roncole, Parma; his musical talent was slow of recognition, but the appearance of his “Lombardi” and “Ernani” in 1843-44 established his repute, which was confirmed by “Rigoletto” in 1851 and “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata” in 1853; b. 1813.
Verdun (18) , a strongly fortified town in the department of Meuse, 35 m. W. of Metz; capitulated to the Germans in 1870 after a siege of six weeks.
Verestchagin, Russian painter, is realistic to an extreme degree and anti-conventional; b. 1842. ”

“ SE. of the capital; is regularly built and strongly fortified, but is unhealthily situated, and the yellow and other fevers prevail; trade is chiefly in the hands of foreigners; exports ores, cochineal, indigo, dye-woods, &c. ”