VARUNA, in the Hindu mythology the god of the luminous heavens,
viewed as embracing all things and as the primary source of all life and
every blessing. "In connection with no other god," says M. Barth, "is the
sense of the divine majesty and of the absolute dependence of the
creature expressed with the same force. We must go to the Psalms to find
similar accents of adoration and supplication." He was the prototype of
the Greek Uranus, the primeval father of gods and men.

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).

VASSAR COLLEGE, a college 2 m. E. of Poughkeepsie, New York, founded
by Matthew Vassar, a wealthy brewer, in 1861 for the higher education of
women.

VATHEC, an Oriental potentate and libertine, guilty of all sorts of
crimes, and hero of a novel of the name by WILLIAM BECKFORD (q. v.).

VATICAN, THE, the palace of the Pope in Rome and one of the largest
in the world; contains a valuable collection of works of art, and is one
of the chief attractions in the city; it is a storehouse of literary
treasures as well and documents of interest bearing on the history of the
Middle Ages.

VATICAN COUNCIL, a Church council attended by 764 ecclesiastics
under the auspices of Pius IX., which assembled on December 8, 1869, and
by a majority of nearly 481 decreed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.

VAUBAN, SEBASTIEN LE PRESTRE DE, marshal of France in the reign of
Louis XIV.; military engineering was his great forte, and as such he
"conducted 53 sieges, was present at 104 battles, erected 33 fortresses,
and restored the works of 300 old ones"; he was originally in the service
of Spain, and was enlisted in the French service by Cardinal Mazarin; he
was a political economist as well as engineer, but his animadversions
only procured for him the royal disfavour (1633-1707).

VAUCLUSE (valley shut in) (235), department in the SE. of France;
chief industries agriculture, silk-weavi