of Richard, the long parliament was restored, and sir Henry Vane made one of the committee of safety, and one of the council of state, and finally president of the council, at which time he proposed a new model of republican government. Still, however, he had the misfortune to displease his associates, and his temporary grandeur ended in their confining him to his house at Raby, in the county of Durham, Upon the restoration it was imagined, that, as the declaration from Breda was full of indemnity to all except the regicides, he was comprehended in it; his innocence of the king's death was represented in such a manner by his friends, that an address was agreed upon by both houses of parliament in his behalf, to which a favourable answer, though in general terms, was returned by his majesty; and this being equivalent to an act of parliament, though it wanted the necessary forms, he was thought to be secure. But the share he had in the attainder of the earl of Strafford, and in all the violent measures which overturned the government, and, above all, the great opinion which was entertained of his parts and capacity to embroil matters again, made the court think it necessary to include him among the most dangerous enemies of the restoration. He was brought therefore to his trial on the 4th of June, 1662, for imagining and compassing the death of king Charles I, and for taking upon him and usurping the government in answer to which he urged, that neither the king's death, nor the members themselves, could dissolve the long parliament, whereof he being one, no inferior could call him in question; but, being found guilty, he was, on the 14th, beheaded on Tower-hill, where he intended to have addressed the spectators, but drummers were placed under the scaffold, who, as soon as he began to speak, upon a sign given, struck up their drums. This, which is said to have been a new and very indecent practice, put him in no disorder; he only desired they might be stopped, for he understood what was meant by it. Then he went through his devotions; and, as he was taking leave of those about him, happening to say somewhat with relation to the times, the drums struck up a second time. Upon this he gave over, and died with such resolution as to excite the sympathy of those who had no respect for his general character and conduct. Lord Clarendon styles him a man of a very profound dissimulation, of a quick conception, and very ready, sharp, and weighty, expression; of a pleasant wit, a great understanding, which pierced into and discerned the purposes of other men with wonderful sagacity, whilst he had himself vultum clausum, that no man could make a guess of what he himself intended; of a temper not to be moved, though compliant, when it was not seasonable to contradict, without losing ground by the condescension. Burnet represents him as naturally a very fearful man, whose head was as darkened in his notions of religion as his mind was clouded with fear; for, though he set up a form of religion in a way of his own, yet it consisted rather in withdrawing from all other forms, than in any new particular opinion or form; from which he and his party were called seekers, and seemed to wait for some new and clearer manifestations. Baxter calls them the Vanists. In their meetings sir Henry preached and prayed often himself, but with a peculiar darkness, which ran likewise through his writings, to a degree that rendered them wholly unintelligible. He inclined to Origen's notion of an universal salvation to all, both the devils and the damned; and to the doctrine of pre-existence. Milton addressed a beautiful sonnet to sir Henry Vane, in terms of high commendation, for which the adherence of that illustrious poet to the independent sect must be his excuse, yet we can scarcely think him serious when he says, "Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son." For sure, as his commentator, Warton, observes (almost, however, in Echard's words) no single man ever exhibited such a medley of fanaticism and dissimulation, solid abilities and visionary delusions, good sense and madness. His writings, which were of a very peculiar cast, were, 1. "A healing Question, propounded and resolved, upon occasion of the late public and seasonable call to humiliation, in order to love and union amongst the honest party, 1656," 4to. It was written upon occasion of a general fast; and contained, says Ludlow, the state of the republicans' controversy with the king, the present deviation from that cause for which they engaged, and the means to unite all parties in the accomplishment of it. 2." The retired Man's Meditations; or, the mystery and power of godliness shining forth in the living world," &c. 1656, 4to, an enthusiastic treatise on our Saviour's coming down to erect a fifth monarchy upon earth, which would last 1000 years. 3. "Of the Love of God and Union with God," 1657, 4to. Of this book lord Clarendon "When I says, had read it, and found nothing of his usual clearness and ratiocination in his discourse, in which he used much to excel the best of the company he kept, and that, in a crowd of very easy words, the sense was too hard to find out, I was of opinion that the subject-matter of it was of so delicate a nature that it required another kind of preparation of mind, and, it may be, another kind of diet than men are ordinarily supplied with." 4." An Epistle General to the mystical body of Christ on earth, the church universal in Babylon, who are pilgrims and strangers on the earth, desiring and seeking after the heavenly country," 1662, 4to. 5. "The Face of the Times; whereby is briefly discovered, by several prophetical Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation, the rise, progress, and issue, of the enmity and contest between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, to the final breaking of the serpent's head, to the total and irrecoverable ruin of the monarchies of this world," &c. 1662, 4to. 6. "The People's Cause stated. The valley of Jehosaphat considered and opened, by comparing 2 Chron. xx. with Joel iii. Meditations concerning man's life-government-friendship-enemies-death;" penned during his imprisonment, and printed at the end of his trial, in 1662, 4to.' VAN EFFEN (JUSTUS), a man of letters, and one of the first periodical essayists on the continent, was born at Utrecht, April 21, 1684. He was the son of an officer, who had no other fortune than a moderate pension, and as he died before Justus had completed his studies, the latter was left to provide as he could for his mother and a sister. Some friends who took an interest in the family procured him to be appointed tutor to the baron de Welderen's son, which placed him above want; but as he could not do so much for his family as he wished, he had recourse to his pen for a farther supply. His first publication was " Le Misanthrope," a periodical paper in imitation of our "Spectator," which he wrote in French, commencing May 1 Ath. Ox. vol. II.-Biog. Brit.-Collins's Peerage.-Neal's History of New England. Sylvester's Life of Baxter, p. 74.-Birch's Lives. 1711, and continuing till December 1712. In this he had great, and from what we have seen, deserved success. If he falls short of his model in that delicate humour of Addison, which has never been equalled, he abounds in just remarks on life and manners, evidently derived from extensive observation. Van Effen contrived to conceal bimself throughout the whole of this publication, of which a second and improved edition was published at the Hague in 1726, 2 vols. 12mo, to which is added his "Journey to Sweden," performed in 1719, in the suite of the prince of Hesse Philippsthal, who promised to make his fortune, but disappointed him. He consequently returned to the Hague as poor as he left it, and resumed his labours on the "Journal litteraire de la Haye," in which he had been engaged before his departure. Having got into a literary quarrel with Camusat, who had treated his "Misanthrope" with contempt, he was so much hurt as to be glad to embrace the opportunity of going to Leyden with a young gentleman to whom he was appointed tutor. Here he engaged in some literary schemes by which he got more money than reputation. Count de Welderen, however, having been appointed ambassador to England from the States General, took Van Effen with him as secretary, and on his return procured him the place of inspector of the magazines at Bois-le-Duc, where he died Sept. 18, 1735. Van Effen's works were numerous, but being almost all anonymous, it is not easy to ascertain the whole: The following are said to be the principal: 1. "Le Misanthrope," already noticed. 2. "Journal Litteraire," 1715 to 1718, many of which volumes are entirely of his editing. 3. "La Bagatelle, ou Discours ironiques, ou l'on prête des sophismes ingenieux au vice et a l'extravagance, pour en mieux faire sentir le ridicule," Amst. 1718-1719, 3 vols. 8vo, reprinted at Lausanne, 1743, 2 vols. 4. "Le nouveau Spectateur Français," of which only twenty-eight numbers appeared; four of them are employed on a critique on the works of Houdard de la Motte, who thanked the author for his impartiality. 5. "The Dutch Spectator," in Dutch, Amst. 1731-1735, 12 vols. 8vo. 6. Parallele d'Homere et de Chapelain," Hague, 1714, 8vo. This has been also printed in the different editions of the "Chef-d'œuvre d'un inconnu," i. e. M. de Themiseuil de St. Hyacinthe. 7. Translations of Robinson Crusoe, Swift's Tale of a Tub, and some of Mandeville's writings. 8. "Le Mentor moderne," a transla tion of "The Guardian," except the political papers. 9. "Histoire metallique des dix-sept Provinces de Pays-Bas," translated from the Dutch of Van Loon, Hague, 1732, 5 vols. Van Effen is said also to have written "Les Petits Maitres," a comedy; a comedy; "Essai sur la maniere de traiter la controverse ;" and a part of the "Journal historique, politique, et galante." VAN ESPEN. See ESPEN. See EYCK. VAN HUYSUM. See HUYSUM. VANIERE (JAMES), a Jesuit, and a modern Latin poet of considerable talents, was born in 1664 at Causses in the diocese of Beziers, in Languedoc. He was educated at the Jesuits' college in Beziers, and became one of the society in 1680. He was afterwards professor and rector of the schools belonging to the Jesuits in Montpellier, Toulouse, and Auch; and died at Toulouse in 1739. He published a volume of poetical "Opuscula ;" and a good "Dictionary of Poetry," in Latin," 4to, and had made great progress on a Latin and French Dictionary, which he did not live to finish. His principal Latin poem is his "Prædium Rusticum," on the subject of a country farm, which, some thought, raised him to the first rank of modern Latin poets. The poem, however, is confessedly tedious, perhaps from the nature of the plan, and cannot be read with pleasure unless by those who happen to unite the scholar's taste with the farmer's knowledge. Arthur Murphy pubfished in 1799, a translation of the fourteenth book of the "Prædium Rusticum," which treats of bees. This he says was a juvenile performance, but he has introduced among the bees"French principles," "corresponding societies," and other articles of very recent date, the prototypes of which are certainly not to be found in Vaniere.2. VANINI, a writer who has generally been distinguished by the title of Atheist, was born at Tourosano, in the kingdom of Naples, in 1585; and was the son of John Baptist Vanini, steward to Don Francis de Castro, duke of Tourosano, and viceroy of Naples. His Christian name was Lucilio: but it was customary with him to assume different names in different countries. In Gascony, he called himself Pompeio; in Holland, Julius Caesar, which name be placed in the title-pages of his books; and, at Toulouse, 1 Moreri.—Biog. Univ. art, Effen. Moreri.-Dict. Hist. |
