of a bright color, amber powder must be dissolved in transparent painter's varnish in Papin's machine by a gentle fire. As an instance of the second sort of lac-varnishes, with ethereal oils alone, may be adduced the varnish made with oil of turpentine. For making this, mastich alone is dissolved in oil of turpentine by a very gentle digesting heat, in close glass vessels. This is the varnish used for the modern transparencies employed as window blinds, fire-screens, and for other purposes. These are commonly prints, colored on both sides, and afterwards coated with this varnish on those parts that are intended to be transparent. Sometimes fine thin calico, or Irish linen, is used for this purpose; but it requires to be primed with a solution of isinglass, before the color is laid on. Copal may be dissolved in genuine Chio turpentine, according to Mr. Sheldrake, by adding it in powder to the turpentine previously melted, and stirring till the whole is fused. Oil of turpentine may then be added to dilute it sufficiently. Or the copal in powder may be put into a long-necked mattrass with twelve parts of oil of turpentine, and digested several days on a sand-heat, frequently shaking it. This may be diluted with one-fourth or one-fifth of alcohol. Metallic vessels or instruments covered with two or three coats of this and dried in an oven each time, may be washed with boiling water, or even exposed to a still greater heat, without injury to the varnish. as they possess solidity and transparency.-The copal is used for varnishing light, the amber for dark colors. It is best to dissolve them before mixing them with the oil. They should be melted in a pot on the fire; and are in a proper state for receiving the oil when they give no resist ance to the iron spatula, and when they run off from it drop by drop. When the oil is well mixed with the copal or amber, take it off the fire; and, when it is pretty cool, pour in a greater quantity of the essence of turpentine than the oil that was used. After the varnish is made it should be passed through a linen cloth. Oil varnishes become thick by keeping; but, when they are to be used, it is only necessary to pour in a little essence of turpentine, and to put them for a little on the fire. The following are the most useful oil varnishes:— White copal varnishes. On sixteen ounces of melted copal pour four, six, or eight, ounces of linseed oil, boiled and quite free from grease. When they are well mixed take them off the fire, and when pretty cool pour in sixteen ounces of the essence of Venice turpentine. Amber varnish is made in the same way. For coaches and iron work.This varnish is composed of two ounces of bitumen of Palestine, two ounces of resin, with amber melted separately, and afterwards mixed; six ounces of oil are then added, and afterwards the turpentine, as directed above.-Golden colored varnish may be made also by substituting linseed oil for alcohol. Essential oil varnishes.-They are for pictures. They are usually made of gum mastich and turpentine dissolved together in some essential oil, and are applied cold to the picture. Varnish for glass.-Pulverise a quantity of gum adragant, and let it dissolve for twenty-four hours in the white of eggs well beat up; then rub it gently on the glass with a brush. Lac-varnishes, or lacquers, consist of different resins in a state of so.ution, of which the most common are mastich, sandarach, lac, benzoin, The third sort of lac-varnishes consists in the copal, amber, and asphaltum. The menstrua 'spirit-varnish. The most solid resins yield the are either expressed or essential oils, as also most durable varnishes; but a varnish must alcohol. For a lac-varnish of the first kind, the never be expected to be harder than the resin common painter's varnish is to be united by naturally is of which it is made. Hence it is gently boiling it with some more mastich or the height of absurdity to suppose that there are colophony, and then diluted again with a little any incombustible varnishes, since there is no more oil of turpentine. The latter addition such thing as an incombustible resin. But the promotes both the glossy appearance and drying most solid resins by themselves produce brittle of the varnish. Of this sort is the amber-var- varnishes; therefore something of a softer subnish. To make this varnish, half a pound of stance must always be mixed with them whereby amber is kept over a gentle fire in a covered this brittleness is diminished. For this purpose iron pot, in the lid of which there is a small gum-elemi, turpentine, or balsam of copavia, hole, till it is observed to become soft, and to be are employed in proper proportions. For the melted together into one mass. As soon as this solution of these bodies the strongest alcohol is perceived, the vessel is taken from off the fire, ought to be used, which may very properly inand suffered to cool a little; when a pound of deed be distilled over alkali, but must not have good painter's varnish is added to it, and the stood upon alkali. The utmost simplicity in whole suffered to boil up again over the fire, composition, with respect to the number of the keeping it continually stirring. After this it is ingredients in a formula, is the result of the again removed from the fire; and, when it is greatest skill in the art; hence it is no wonder become somewhat cool, a pound of oil of tur- that the greatest part of the formulas and recipentine is to be gradually mixed with it. Should pes that we meet with, are composed without the varnish when it is cool happen to be yet too any principle at all. thick, it may be attenuated with more oil of turpentine. This varnish has always a dark brown color, because the amber is previously half burned in this operation; but, if it be required A varnish of the consistence of thin turpentine is obtained for aerostatic machines, by the digestion of one part of elastic gum, or caoutchouc, cut into small pieces, in thirty-two parts of rectified oil of turpentine. Previously to its being used, however, it must be passed through a linen cloth, in order that the undissolved parts may be left behind. In conformity to these rules, a fine colorless varnish may be obtained, by dissolving eight ounces of gum-sandarach and two ounces of Venice turpentine in thirty-two ounces of alco hol by a gentle heat. Five ounces of shell-lac and one of turpentine, dissolved in thirty-two ounces of alcohol by a very gentle heat, give a harder varnish, but of a reddish cast. To these the solution of copal is undoubtedly preferable in many respects. This is effected by triturating an ounce of powder of gum-copal which has been well dried by a gentle heat with a drachm of camphor, and, while these are mixing together, adding by degrees four ounces of the strongest alcohol, without any digestion. Between this and the gold-varnish there is only this difference, that some substances that communicate a yellow tinge are to be added to the latter. The most ancient description of two sorts of it, one of which was prepared with oil, and the other with alcohol, is to be found in Alexius Pedemontanus De i Secreti, Lucca, of which the first edition was published in the year 1557. But it is better prepared, and more durable, when made after the following prescription:-Take two ounces of shell-lac, of arnatto and turmeric of each one ounce, and thirty grains of fine dragon's-blood, and make an extract with twenty ounces of alcohol in a gentle heat. Oil-varnishes are commonly mixed immediately with the colors, but lac or lacquer-varnishes are laid on by themselves upon a burnished colored ground; when they are intended to be laid upon naked wood, a ground should be first given them of strong size, either alone or with some earthy color, mixed up with it by levigation. The gold lacquer is simply rubbed over brass, tin, or silver, to give them a gold color. Before a resin is dissolved in a fixed oil, it is necessary to render the oil drying. For this purpose the oil is boiled with metallic oxides, in which operation the mucilage of the oil combines with the metal, while the oil itself unites with the oxygen of the oxide. To accelerate the drying of this varnish, it is necessary to add oil of turpentine. The essential varnishes consist of a solution of resin in oil of turpentine. The varnish being applied, the essential oil flies off, and leaves the resin. This is used only for paintings. When resins are dissolved in alcohol, the varnish dries very speedily, and is subject to crack; but this fault is corrected by adding a small quantity of turpentine to the mixture, which renders it brighter, and less brittle when dry. The colored resins or gums, such as gamboge, dragon's-blood, &c., are used to color varnishes. To give lustre to the varnish after it is laid on, it is rubbed with pounded pumice-stone and water; which being dried with a cloth, the work is afterward rubbed with an oiled rag and tripoli. The surface is last of all cleaned with soft linen cloths, cleared of all greasiness with powder of starch, and rubbed bright with the palm of the hand. Varnishes before they are used should be carefully kept from dust. When used they should be lifted lightly with a brush and spread upon a ground altogether free from dirt and moisture. The substance after being varnished should be exposed to the heat of the sun, or placed in a warm room covered with a glass case. nishes require more heat than alcohol varnishes. The varnish should be put on very quickly, mak Oil var ing great strokes with the pencil or brush, taking care that these strokes never cross one another; it should be spread equally, and never thicker than a leaf of paper: a second coat should not be put on till the first is quite dry. If the varnish, after being put on, becomes dull and uneven, it must be taken off entirely and new varnish put on. When wainscoat is to be varnished it is first painted of a wooden color. This color is made by infusing in water either red or yellow ochre (according to the color wished for), terra ombria (a kind of ochre), and white lead; into this as much as necessary is put of parchment paste. Two thin coats of this are to be put on, and, after they are quite dry, the varnish. Varnishes are polished with pumice-stone and tripoli earth. The pumice-stone must be reduced to an impalpable powder, and put upon a piece of serge moistened with water; with this the varnished substance is to be rubbed lightly and equally. The tripoli must also be reduced to a very fine powder, and put upon a clean woollen cloth moistened with olive oil, with which the polishing is to be performed. The varnish is then to be wiped with soft linen, and, when quite dry, cleaned with starch or Spanish white, and rubbed with the palm of the hand or with a linen cloth. To recover colors or varnish, aud to take off the dirt and filth which may adhere to them, a ley is used made of potash and the ashes of lees of wine. Take forty-eight ounces of potash and sixteen of the above-mentioned ashes, and put them into six quarts of water, and the ley is made instead of the ashes an equal quantity of potash would probably do as well. To clean dirty colors, dilute some of this ley with four times its quantity of water, and rub the picture with it; then wash it with river water, and when dry give it a coat or two of varnish. In order to take off a varnish, wash it with the abovementioned ley, then with water, and then lift it off the substance on which it was with any iron instrument. The Chinese varnish is not a composition, but a resin which exudes from a tree called in China tsi-chu, varnish tree.' This tree grows in several provinces of the southern parts of China. They do not procure varnish from the tsi-chu until its trunk is nearly five inches in diameter, which size it seldom attains to before seven or eight years. This liquor distils only in the nighttime and during the summer season. To cause the gum to flow, they make several rows of incisions round the trunk, the number of which is proportioned to the vigor of the tree. Shells are inserted into the incisions for the purpose of receiving the liquor distilled from them." They are made towards evening, and next morning they collect the varnish which has fallen into the shells; the following evening they are again inserted, and this operation is continued until the end of the summer. 1000 trees yield almost in one night twenty pounds of varnish. While the varnish distils it exhales a malignant vapor, the bad effects of which can only be prevented by preservatives and great precaution. merchant who employs the workmen is obliged to keep by him a large vase filled with rape-oil, in which a certain quantity of those fleshy fila The ments have been boiled that are found in hog'slard, and which do not melt. When the workmen are going to fix the shells to the trees they carry some of this oil along with them, and rub their face and hands with it, which they do with greater care when they collect in the morning the varnish that has distilled during night. After eating they wash their whole bodies with warm water, in which the bark of the chestnut-tree, fir wood, crystallised saltpetre, and some other drugs, have been boiled. When they are at work near the trees they put upon their heads a small cloth bag in which there are two holes, and cover the fore-part of their bodies with a kind of apron made of doe-skin, which is suspended from their necks with strings, and tied round them with a girdle. They also wear boots, and have coverings on their arms made of the same kind of skin. The laborer who should attempt to collect varnish, without using this precaution, would soon be punished for his rashness, and the most dreadful effects would ensue. The disorder shows itself by tetters which become of a bright red color, and spread in a very short time; the body afterwards swells, and the skin bursts and appears covered with a universal leprosy. -Besides the lustre and beauty which that varnish gives to many of the Chinese manufactures, it has also the property of preserving the wood upon which it is laid, especially if no other matter be mixed with it. It prevents it from being hurt either by dampness or worms. There are two methods of laying on the varnish; the simplest is, when it is immediately laid on the wood. The work is first polished, and then daubed over with a kind of oil which the Chinese call tong yeou. When this oil is dry it receives two or three coats of varnish, which remain so transparent that all the shades and veins of the wood may be seen through them. If the artist is desirous of entirely concealing the substance on which they are laid, nothing is necessary but to add a few more coats; these give the work a shining surface, the smoothness of which equals that of the most beautiful ice. When the work is dry, various figures are painted upon it in gold and silver, such as flowers, birds, trees, temples, dragons, &c. A new coat of varnish is then sometimes laid over these figures, which preserves them, and adds much to their splendor. The second method requires more preparation. The Chinese workmen fix to the wood by means of glue a kind of pasteboard, composed of paper, hemp, lime, and other ingredients, well beaten, that the varnish may incorporate with them. Of this they make a ground perfectly smooth and solid, over which the varnish is laid in thin coats that are left to dry one after the other. It often happens that, the lustre of varnished tables and other pieces of furniture is insensibly destroyed by tea and warm liquors. The secret of restoring to varnish its shining black colors,' says a Chinese author, is to expose it for one night to a white hoar frost, or to cover it some time with snow. For a method of imitating Chinese varnish, see TURNING. VARNISH, in numismatography, signifies the colors antique medals have acquired in the earth. The beauty which nature alone is able to give to medals, and art has never yet attained to counterfeit, enhances the value of them. Some are blue, like the turquoise; others a bright vermilion color; and others a shining brown, vastly finer than Brasil figures. But the most usual varnish is a beautiful green, which hangs to the finest strokes without effacing them, more accurately than the finest enamel does on metals. No metal but brass is susceptible of this; for the green rust that gathers on silver always spoils it, and it must be got off with vinegar or lemon juice. Falsifiers of medals have a false or modern varnish which they use on their counterfeits, to give them the appearance or air of being antique. But this may be discovered by its softness. VARNISH, in pottery, signifies a sort of shining coat, wherewith potter's-ware, delft-ware, china-ware, &c., are covered, which gives them a smoothness and lustre. Melted lead is generally used for the first, and smalt for the second. See GLAZING. VARRO (Marcus Terentius), a Roman writer, was born B. C. 110. He served under Pompey against the pirates, and obtained a naval crown. He wrote a treatise on the Latin language, and another De Re Rustica, which are extant, with some fragments of Menippean satires. They were printed at Venice in the year 1474, fol., and Rome 1537, 8vo. He died B. C. 29. VARRO (Attacinus), the Gaul, a Latin poet of the age of Cæsar, was born in Narbonne. He wrote a poem de Bello Sequanico, and translated into Latin the Argonautics of Apollon us. Only some fragments remain. VARRONIA, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the class of pentandria, and to the order of monogynia; and arranged in the natural system under the forty-first order, asperifoliæ. The corolla is quinquefid; the fruit a drupa, with a quadrilocular kernel. There are six species; none of which are natives of Britain. He VARUS (Quintilius), a Roman proconsul, commander of the armies in Germany. killed himself A. D. 10, on his army being cut to pieces by the enemy, under Arminius. VARY, v. a., v. n., &) French varier; Lat. VARIABLE, adj. [n. s. varior. To change; VARIABLY, adv. make unlike itself; diVARIABLENESS, n. s. versify; make of difVARIANCE, ferent kinds: as a verb VARIATION, neuter, to be changeVARIEGATE, v. a. able; alter; appear in VARIEGA'TION, n.s. different forms or coVARIETY, lors; deviate; disaVARIOUS, adj. gree as a noun subVA'RIOUSLY, adv. Jstantive (not used) change; deviation : variable is, changeable; mutable; shifting: the adverb and noun substantive following correspond: variance is, disagreement; discord: variation, change; mutation; successive change; difference; verbal inflexion: to variegate is, to diversify; make various : the noun substantive corresponding: variety, change; dissimilitude; intermixture of different kinds, colors, or general appearances; many and different kinds : various is, several; different; unfixed; changeable: the adverb corresponding. He had a strange interchanging of large and unexpected pardons, with several executions; which could not be imputed to any inconstancy, but to a principle he had set unto himself, that he would vary, and try both ways in turn. Id. After much variation of opinions, the prisoner was acquitted of treason, but by most voices found guilty of felony. Hayward. Vast crowds of vanquished nations march along, Various in arms, in habit, and in tongue. Drayton. A cause of law, by violent course, Was, from a variance, now a war become. Daniel. The master's hand, which to the life can trace The airs, the lines, the features of the face, May, with a free and bolder stroke, express A varied posture, or a flattering dress. Denham. His heart I know how variable, and vain, Self-left. Milton's Paradise Lost. Let your ceaseless change Vary to our great Creator still new praise. Milton. Herbs sudden flowered, Opening their various colours. All sorts are here that all the' earth yields; Variety without end. Id. Id. Paradise Lost. If we admit a variation from the state of his creation, that variation must be necessarily after an eternal duration, and therefore within the compass of time. Hale. God hath divided the genius of men according to the different affairs of the world; and varied their inclinations, according to the variety of actions to be performed. Browne. He observed the variation of our English from the original, and made an entire translation of the whole for his private use. Fell. We are to vary the customs according to the time and country where the scene of action lies. Dryden. Those various squadrons, variously designed; Each vessel freighted with a several load. Id. I may seem sometimes to have varied from his sense; but the greatest variations may be fairly deduced from him. Id. The names of mixed modes want standards in nature whereby to adjust their signification; therefore they are very various and doubtful. Locke. The crime consists in violating the law, and varying from the right rule of reason. Id. Plant your choice tulips in natural earth, somewhat impoverished with very fine sand; else they will soon lose their variegations. Evelyn's Kalendar. Set not any one doctrine of the gospel at variance with others, which are all admirably consistent. Sprat. Variety is nothing else but a continued novelty. South. You are not solicitous about the variableness of the weather, or the change of seasons. Addison. While fear and anger, with alternate grace, Pant in her breast, and vary in her face. Id. Cato. If the sun's light consisted of but one sort of rays, there would be but one colour in the whole woria, nor would it be possible to produce any new colour by reflections or refractions; and by consequence that the variety of colours depends upon the composition of light. Newton's Opticks. The shells are filled with a white spar, which variegates and adds to the beauty of the stone. Woodward on Fossils. They had fountains of variegated marble in their Arbuthnot. rooms. There is but one common matter, which is diversified by accidents; and the same numerical quantity, by variations of texture, may constitute successively all kinds of body. Bentley. Who are they that set the first and second articles at variance with each other, when for fourteen centuries, and more, they have agreed most amicably together? Waterland. That each from other differs, first confess; Next, that he varies from himself no less. Ladies like variegated tulips show; 'Tis to the changes half the charms we owe: Such happy spots the nice admirers take, Fine by defect, and delicately weak. Pope. Will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings? id. Id. If the learned would not sometimes submit to the ignorant, the old to the weaknesses of the young, there would be nothing but everlasting variance in the world. Swift. The rules of grammar, and useful examples of the rariation of words, and the peculiar form of speech, are often appointed to be repeated. Many bleed, Watts on the Mind. By shameful variance betwixt man and man. Law. Thomson. He now only wants more time to do that variety of good which his soul thirsts after. Censurers subject themselves to the charge of variableness in judgment. Clarissa. born at Arezzo in 1514. He studied under Del VASARI (George), painter and architect, Sarto and Michael Angelo, and wrote the Lives of celebrated Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 3 vols. 4to. He died at Florence, 1578. The Treatise on Painting, Florence, 1619, 4to., was written by a nephew of his. VASCONES, an ancient people of Spain, on the Pyrennees. VAS'CULAR, adj. Lat. vasculum. Consisting of vessels; full of vessels. Nutrition of the solids is performed by the circulating liquid in the smallest vascular solids. those ornaments placed on corniches, fochles, or pedestals, representing the vessels of the ancients, particularly those used in sacrifice, as incense pots, flower-pots, &c. VAS'SAL, n. s. Į Fr. vassal; Ital. vassallo. VAS'SALAGE. One who holds of a superior lord; a dependant; servant; slave: the state of a vassal. Such as they thought fit for labour they received as vassals; but imparted not the benefit of laws, but every one made his will a law unto his own vassal. Spenser's State of Ireland. He renounced the vassalage Of Rome again. Spenser. She cannot content the lord with performance of his discipline, that hath at her side a vassal, whom Satan hath made his vicegerent, to cross whatsoever the faithful should do. I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him The greatness he has got. Hooker. Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. All my powers do their bestowing lose, Like vassalage at unawares encountering The eye of majesty. Id. Troilus and Cressida. The mind hath not reason to remember that passions ought to be her vassals, not her masters. Raleigh. The common people were free subjects to the king, not slaves and vassals to their pretended lords. Let us not then pursue, By force impossible, by leave obtained Unacceptable, though in heaven our state Of splendid vassalage. Davies. Milton's Paradise Lost. Cursed vassalage, First idolized till love's hot fire be o'er, Then slaves to those who courted us before. This wild-fire made the saddesi vastations, in the many fatal outrages which these eager contentions occasion. Decay of Piety. They may, and do, vastly differ in their manners, institutions, customs; but yet all of them agree in having some deity to worship. Wilkins. Through the vast of heaven it sounded. Milton. Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. Milton's Paradise Lost. Is by the vastness of her bulk confined. She by the rocks compelled to stay behind, Waller. Holland's resolving upon its own defence, without our share in the war, would leave us to enjoy the trade of the world, and thereby grow vastly both in strength and treasures. Temple. Ariosto observed not moderation in the vastness of his draught. Dryden. It is vastly the concern of government and of themselves too, whether they be morally good or bad. South. Hence we may discover the cause of the vastness of the ocean. Bentley. The watery vast, Pope. Secure of storms, your royal brother past. Though east, were little to his ample heart. Thomson. VAT, n. s. Sax. Far; Belg. vat. A vessel in which liquors are kept in the immature state. Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyen, In thy vats our cares be drowned. Shakspeare. Let him produce his vats and tubs in opposition to heaps of arms and standards. Addison. Wouldst thou thy vats with generous juice should froth, Respect thy orchats. Philips. VATABLES (Francis), professor of Hebrew in the Royal college of Paris, was born i cardy. His knowledge of Hebrew asto ryden. e what the most learned Jews. He wrote notes d overBible, which were condemned by the facu theology, at Paris, yet are highly esteemed. ngue. last edition was in 2 vols. fol. 1729. He in 1547. ead, ville. VATICAN, a magnificent palace of the p The in Rome, which consists of several thousl; a rooms; but the parts of it most admired are grand staircase, the pope's apartment, and es cially the library, which is one of the riches are. the world, both in printed books and mai, he scripts. read, VATICANUS, the hill at Rome on which ins. palace of the pope stands. ures, VATICIDE, n. s. Lat. vates and cado. posmurderer of poets. ater edi Pop and les. part. The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer. VATICINATE, v. n. Lat. vaticinor. prophesy; to practise prediction. The most admired of all prophane prophets, wh predictions have been so much cried up, did vaticind his Howesent here. |