months after. He was a man of superlative adroitness of faculty and
shiftiness, without aught that can be called great, but more than any
other the incarnation of the spirit of his time; said the word which all
were waiting to hear and who replied yea to it--a poor word indeed yet a
potent, for it gave the death-blow to superstition, but left religion out
in the cold. The general, the great offence Carlyle charges Voltaire
with is, that "he intermeddled in religion without being himself in any
measure religious; that he entered the Temple and continued there with a
levity which, in any temple where men worship, can beseem no brother man;
that, in a word, he ardently, and with long-continued effort, warred
against Christianity, without understanding, beyond the mere superficies,
what Christianity was" (1694-1778).

VOLUNTARYISM, the doctrine that the Church should not depend on the
State, but should be supported exclusively by the voluntary contributions
of its members.

VOODOO, name given to a system of magic and superstitious rites
prevalent among certain negro races.

VORTIGERN, a British prince of the 5th century, who, on the
withdrawal of the Romans, invited the Saxons to aid him against the
incursions of the Picts, to, as it proved, their own installation into
sovereign power in South Britain.

VOSGES, a range of mountains in the NE. of France, since 1871
forming the Franco-German frontier by the inclusion of Alsace in German
territory; they separate the basin of the Moselle from that of the Rhine.

VOSS, JOHANN HEINRICH, German poet and scholar, born in Mecklenburg;
spent most of his life in Heidelberg; his fame rests chiefly on his
idyllic poem "Luise" and his translations, particularly of Homer
(1751-1826).

VOSSIUS, GERARD, Dutch philologist, born near Heidelberg; wrote a
history of Pelagianism, which brought him disfavour with the orthodox;
was made a prebendary of Canterbury through the influence of Laud; was,
on some apology to orthodoxy in 1633, called to the chair of History in
the Gymnasium of Amsterdam; he was a friend of Grotius; he fell from a
ladder in his library, and was found dead (1577-1649).

VULCAN, the Roman god of fire and an artificer In metals, identified
with the Greek HEPHAESTUS (q. v.); had a temple to his honour in
early Rome; was fabled to have had a forge under Mount Etna, where he
manufactured thunderbolts for Jupiter, the Cyclops being his workmen.

VULGATE,