Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/132

Rh 116 V A U V A U As a poet Yaughan comes latest in the so-called &quot; metaphysical &quot; school of the 17th century. He is the most remote of the disciples of Donne, and follows him mainly as he saw him reflected in George Herbert. He analyses his experiences, amatory and sacred, with excessive ingenuity, striking out, every now and then, through his extreme intensity of feeling and his close though limited observation of nature, lines and phrases of marvellous felicity. He is of imagina tion all compact, and is happiest when he abandons himself most completely to his vision. His verse is apt to seem crabbed and untunnble in comparison with that of Crashaw, and even of Herbert at his best. &quot;The Retreat,&quot; with its Wordsworthian intimations, &quot;The World,&quot; mainly because of the magnificence of its opening lines, and &quot; Beyond the Veil &quot; are by far the most popular of Vaughan s poems and represent him at his best. His passion for the Usk, and his desire to immortalize that pastoral river, are pathetically prominent in his writings. His metrical ear was not tine, and he affected, almost more than Herbert himself, tortured and tuneless forms of self-invented stanza. The earlier works of Henry Vaughan, in prose and verse, were collected in a very limited private edition in four volumes, in 1871, by Dr A. B. Grosart. The Rev. H. F. Lyte edited the sacred poems alone in 1847, up to which time Vaughan was practically unknown as a poet. VAUGHAN, THOMAS (1621-1665), &quot;the Rosicrucian,&quot; was the twin brother of Henry VAUGHAN (see above). When Thomas left Oxford he went into the church and became rector of his native parish Llansaintfraed until his ejectment, when he settled at Oxford as an alchemist. He died at Albury on 27th February 1665, poisoned by the fumes of a cauldron. Under the pseudonym of Eugenius Philalethes, Thomas Vaughan produced eleven volumes defending and describing the tenets of the Rosi- crucians. The titles of these among which are The Man- Mouse^ 1650; The Second Wash, 1651; The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, 1652 ; Aula Lucis, 1652; and Euphrates, 1653 are not more extraordinary than their style. Henry More the Platonist engaged in controversy with Thomas Vaughan, deep calling unto deep in pamphlets. VAUQUELIN, Louis NICOLAS (1763-1829), French analytical chemist, was born at Saint-Andre-d Hebertot in Normandy on 16th May 1763. His parents, although very poor, sent him to school to fit him for the coveted post of a gentleman s servant at the chateau. At the age of thirteen or fourteen Vauquelin went to Rouen as laboratory boy with an apothecary. He did not remain long there ; but his interest in chemistry was fairly aroused, and he began to make experiments and take notes. His master, finding him so engaged on one occasion, tore up his note-book and ordered him to keep to his menial work for the future. Vauquelin had spirit enough to resent this treatment : he borrowed six francs from a friend and walked to Paris to seek his fortune. For a time his prospects were very dark : after getting and losing two situations he became ill, was sent to the public hospital, and when convalescent found himself once more without money or friends. At length, however, he met a humane apothecary, Cheradame, who took him in and treated him with kindness. Vauquelin at once resumed his studies, and devoted every spare minute to learning. Cheradame introduced him to Fourcroy, who had himself worked his way up from poverty, and from this time Vauquelin s fortune was made. Henceforward he devoted his attention to chemical analysis without in termission or variety until his death, which occurred at his birthplace on 14th November 1829. At first his work appeared as that of his friend and patron, then in their joint names ; but in 1790 he commenced to publish on his own authority, and wrote perhaps more papers than any other chemist has ever clone. Either together or success ively Vauquelin held the offices of inspector of mines, professor at the School of Mines and at the Polytechnic School, assayer of gold and silver goods, professor of chemistry in the College of France, member of the Council of Industry and Commerce, commissioner on the pharmacy laws, examiner to the Polytechnic School, and, finally, was successor to Fourcroy himself ; at this last step all the other candidates retired in his favour. Yauquelin s life was uneventful ; his nature was quiet and retir ing ; he never desired to mix with the world ; and even in the tur moil of the Revolution his interest centred in the laboratory. He was emphatically one who lived for his work alone. He never married. He does not appear to have communicated with his parents after he became wealthy. The one bright feature in the somewhat colourless character of his later life was the fact that he supported Fourcroy s aged sisters after his old friend died. As an analyst Yauquelin came at the right time. The theory of chemistry was being built afresh on a basis of experiment ; all substances, natural and artificial, were being classified by their com- positi n ; and it would be hard to mention any mineral or any plant or animal or product of life that Vauquelin did not examine. With Fou rcroy he drove the piles on which the first theories in pure chemistry were founded ; with Haiiy he put mineralogy on a satisfactory footing ; but he himself was neither chemist nor mineral ogist. Yauquelin s name is associated with 376 papers published between 1790 and 1833, and, with the exception of one or two criti cisms and claims for priority, these were all simple records of patient and laborious analytical operations. He propounded no theories, was guided by no generalizations, and was troubled by no problems save those of his methods. Given a substance, he did his best to find its composition, devising new processes where these seemed necessary, but this was all. Considering the amount of work he did, one is surprised that only two new elements are associated with his name. He detected glucina in beryl when analysing that mineral for Haiiy, and in a red lead ore from Siberia he discovered chromium, although, strange to say, eight years elapsed between his first examination of the ore and his separation of chromic acid. It is even more extraordinary that he never suspected the existence of alkaloids in the vegetable and animal juices he was continually analysing. Cuvier in his doge, argues from this that without the concurrence of a happy chance the greatest perseverance and the most admirable patience often miss the mark ; a more legitimate inference might be that work carried on &quot; for work s ignoble sake &quot; is fruitless in higher results, and that perseverance apart from a definite aim can accomplish little. VAUVENARGUES, Luc DE CLAPIERS, MAIIQUIS DE (1715-1747), a moralist and miscellaneous writer of con siderable originality and power, was born at Aix in Provence on 6th August 1715. His family was poor though noble ; he was very badly educated ; and his health was weak. He, however, entered the army early and served for more than ten years, taking part in the Italian campaign of 1736, and in the disastrous expedition to Bohemia six years later in support of Frederick the Great s designs on Silesia, in which the French were abandoned by their ally. Vauven- argues suffered greatly from the hardships of Belle-Isle s winter retreat, and indeed never recovered from them. He was also much troubled by his poverty, and in a private letter written to a very intimate friend he discusses the possibility of obtaining a loan from a certain rich acquaint ance by undertaking, first to get his son into his own regiment, or secondly to marry one of his daughters within a short time and with only a reasonable dowry. Nevertheless Vauvenargues was, according to the standard of that time, a most honourable man. Indeed he seems to have pushed honour to the point of naivety, if it be true that, weary of waiting for promotion, he addressed himself, not to any minister, or, more wisely still, to some favourite, but to the king himself. This unsophisticated proceeding had of course no result, and Vauvenargues threw up his commission, hoping but unsuccessfully to obtain a post in the diplomatic service. His ill-luck pursued him : for, having joined his family in Provence, he fell ill with a bad form of smallpox, which still further weakened him. This was in 1744. He had, besides the correspondence above referred to with a certain M. de Saint Vincens, maintained one, still more interesting and likewise only recently known, with the celebrated and eccentric Marquis de Mirabeau, the author of L Ami des Homines, the father of the great Mirabeau. He had also, when in garrison at Nancy, begun an exchange of letters with Voltaire, who had a very high opinion of him, and this, with his natural inclinations, determined him to