or WILNA, a government of European Russia, lying between N. Lat. 53° 40. and 56° 20., bounded on the N. by that of Kovno, E. by those of Vitebsk and Minsk; S. by that of Grodno, and W. by that of Augustovo in Poland. Length, 270 miles; breadth, about 110; area, 16,100 square miles. It consists of an extensive plain, broken in a few places with hills, which nowhere rise more than 300 feet above the level of the sea. The lower tracts are largely occupied with bogs and marshes, and a great part of the country is covered with primeval forests still uncleared. The rivers all flow directly or indirectly into the Baltic; and most of them are affluents of the Niemen or Memel, which forms the western boundary of the government. Its principal tributaries here are the Vilia and Dubitza. The Dūna flows along the north-east border of the government, and the Dange and Beresina rise within its limits, the former flowing to the west, and the latter to the east. In the east and south-east there are many lakes, but none of great size. The soil is in general sandy, and in some places sterile, but, on the whole, not unfavourable for cultivation. The climate is not the mildest; the winters, though short, are severely cold, the spring and autumn moist and foggy, and even the summer, though warm, is by no means unclouded. It is, however, tolerably healthy, and liable to no peculiar diseases. The chief occupation is agriculture, and from it the inhabitants obtain rather more grain than they consume. The chief grain is rye, the next in quantity are wheat and barley, besides which oats, buck-wheat, and pulse are grown. Hemp and flax succeed well, and hops are cultivated sufficient for the breweries. The implements of agriculture are of the rudest kind. The horses are a small but hardy race, and the horned cattle, the goats, the sheep, and the swine, though numerous, are of inferior breeds. The forests supply much timber for commerce, and yield pitch, tar, and charcoal, and the furs of wolves, bears, martens, and other wild animals. There are no mines, or at least there are none worked; but there are valuable quarries, yielding granite, limestone, agates, flints, chalcedony, and some marble. The manufactures are almost exclusively of the domestic kind; but the distilleries are numerous and on a large scale, and some of the spirits which they yield is smuggled over the Prussian frontier. The commerce is merely the export of a small portion of the product of the soil, and the import of a few foreign luxuries. The government is divided into eleven circles. Pop. (1856) 840,379.

capital of the above government, on the Vilia at its confluence with the Vilcika, 415 miles S.W. of St. Petersburg. It is surrounded with walls, and built after the ancient fashion, with narrow and crooked streets; but it has still some fine palaces of the noble families who formerly resided here. That of the Jagellons, now in ruins, stands on the top of a hill called the Castle Hill. Vilna has thirty-five Roman Catholic churches, the most remarkable of which are the cathedral, the beautiful church of St. Kasimir, and the splendid one of St Peter; three Greek churches, a Lutheran and a Calvinistic church, several synagogues, and a mosque. The University of Vilna, founded in 1570, was suppressed in 1832, and its library of 200,000 volumes removed to the capital; but there are still here a medical and surgical academy, and other educational institutions. There are also a town-hall, government palace, library, museum, and several convents and hospitals. A few manufactures are carried on; and there is an important trade, much-frequented fairs being held here annually. Pop. 45,581, about half of whom are Jews, and a considerable proportion Tartars.

Vilvoorden (Fr. Vilvorde), a town of Belgium, in the province of S. Brabant, 6 miles N.N.E. of Brussels. It has a large old castle, now used as a prison, a fine Gothic church, several schools and almshouses. Calicoes, leather, tobacco, vermicelli, and glue are made here; and there are also breweries and bleachfields. Pop. 5200.

Vinaroz, a town of Spain, province and 46 miles N.E. of Castellon de la Plana, near the mouth of the Ebro, in the Mediterranean. It is an ill built town, enclosed by ruinous walls and towers, but it has some good streets and squares, a handsome parish church, several chapels, a town-hall, theatre, hospital, and several schools. The town has ship-building yards, oil-mills, distilleries, and cooperages; and a considerable coasting trade and productive fishery are carried on. Pop. 10,600.

Vincennes, a town of France, in the department of Seine, 2 miles E. of Paris. It stands on the northern edge of the park or wood of Vincennes, and is a well built town. The only building of any importance here is the old castle, a large and regular fortress in the form of a parallelogram, with walls, moat, and towers. It has been greatly altered at various periods, and now consists of a mixture of ancient and modern buildings. Many of the French kings resided here, and it was long used as a state prison. Condé, Diderot, Mirabeau, and other distinguished men have been confined here; and the Duc D'Enghien was shot in the moat by order of Napoleon, 21st of March 1804. A monument has been erected to him in the beautiful Gothic chapel of the castle. There are now here a large armory and depot of artillery. Pop. 8451.

Vincent, St., one of the West India islands belonging to Great Britain, in the windward group, between N. Lat. 13° 10', and 13° 25'; W. Long. 61° 10', and 61° 20'; 21 miles S.S.W. of St Lucia, and 108 W. of Barbadoes. Length from N. to S. 17 miles; breadth 10; area 130 square miles. The coast is bold and rocky, and the island is traversed from N. to S. by a range of hills, steep and rugged, but mostly covered with wood, attaining their highest elevation in Soufrière, a volcano near the northern extremity of the range, 3000 feet above the sea. A tremendous eruption of this volcano took place in 1812, and caused much damage. The crater is half a mile in diameter, and 500 feet deep. From the central range of hills, several others diverge on either side to the sea, forming numerous valleys, which are well watered by a number of small rivers flowing down them. The soil in the lower parts of the valleys is rich and loamy, while on the higher ground it is more sandy and not so fertile. There are few marshes, and the natural vegetation is nowhere very luxuriant; so that even the uncultivated parts of the island are free from noxious exhalations; and the climate, though exceedingly moist, is considered to surpass in salubrity that of any of the other West India Islands. The extent of cultivated land in the island, in 1855, was 21,081 acres; and the principal productions are sugar, rum, molasses, arrowroot, cocoa, and cotton. The only important mineral production of the island is pozzuolana, a cement formed from volcanic ashes. The value of the exports and imports of St Vincent to and from different countries, in 1856, is exhibited in the following table:

| Countries | Imports | Exports | |-----------------|---------|---------| | Great Britain | 42,024 | 105,715 | | British Colonies| 52,775 | 16,084 | | United States | 30,065 | 1,025 | | Other countries | 1,241 | 598 | | Total | 123,105 | 123,422 |

The imports consisted chiefly of wheat flour, dried and salted fish, beef and pork, manures, linen woollen and silk cloth, hardware, machinery, and timber: and the principal exports were, sugar to the value of L75,134; rum, L15,956; molasses, L2529; flour, L7000; and arrow-root, L15,598. The total number of vessels that entered in the same year was 344, tonnage, 19,784; and the number of those that cleared 334, tonnage, 18,112. The government of St Vincent is in the hands of a lieutenant-governor, and a council at once legislative and executive, consisting of twelve members appointed by the crown. The public revenue for 1856 was L21,258; and the public expenditure, L17,037. There were in 1852 103 places of worship in the colony, of which 14 belonged to the Church of England, and nearly all the rest to the Wesleyan Methodists. The number of schools in 1856 was 22, which were attended by 1960 pupils. St Vincent was discovered by Columbus in 1498, but for a long time no settlement was established here by Europeans. In 1714 the French began to colonize the island, but disputes arose between them and the English, and continued for a long time, until it was ceded to the latter in 1763. The French again captured St Vincent in 1779, but it was restored to Great Britain, at the peace, in 1783. The capital is Kingstown, on the south-west coast, and the island is divided into 6 parishes; one of which comprehends the Grenadines, a group of 120 islets to the south, and included in the government of St Vincent. Pop. (1852) 30,128.

Vincent, Gulf of St., a large inlet in the south coast of New Holland extending eastward about 45 miles, and 60 miles farther in a northern direction. At its mouth it is not more than 9 miles broad, but afterwards widens to more than double the breadth.

Vincent, Earl of St. (See Jervis.)

Vinci, Lionardo da, a man of almost universal genius, and one who stands still unrivalled for the extent of his knowledge in art and in science, was as remarkable for beauty of person as for capacity of mind, and was born at the castle of Vinci near Florence, in 1452. He was a natural son of Pietro da Vinci, a notary to the signory of Florence. From his youth he was quite remarkable both for aptitude and for universality. His drawings astonished his father, and on being shown to the painter Verrocchio, they alike surprised him. This artist took Leonardo as a pupil, and his progress was so extraordinary as to be the wonder of all who frequented his studio. It is told that the youthful painter executed an angel in a picture of the "Baptism of Christ," on which his master was engaged, which so far excelled the other figures of the painting, that Verrocchio in despair laid down his brush for ever. The first original painting of Leonardo, was the monster known as the "Rotella del Fico," which he executed to astonish his father. Painting, however, was rather his amusement than his profession. A large portion of his time was taken up with poetry, music, astronomy, mathematics, sculpture, architecture, engineering, mechanics, botany, and anatomy. He was not only a student of those arts and sciences, he was a master in them all.

About 1483, Leonardo entered the service of Ludovico, duke of Milan, with a salary of 500 scudi per annum. He was indefatigable in painting, as he was in everything. Statuary, anatomy, fortification, architecture, nothing came amiss to him. He established a famous art academy at Milan in 1485; he modelled a bronze equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza; he painted portraits of the favourites of Duke Ludovico; he studied anatomy under the celebrated Marc Antonio della Torre; and he wrote a treatise on painting and sculpture, which is unfortunately now lost. In 1497, he commenced his greatest painting of the "Last Supper" on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of the Madonna delle Grazie. Numerous copies and engravings of this celebrated work have appeared, but the painting itself no longer remains. An excellent copy of it by the pupil of Da Vinci, Marco Oggione, was purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and is now in the Royal Academy of London. In 1499, the affairs of the Duke of Milan were in so bad a state, that Leonardo had to be content with a small freehold estate for his last two years' salary. On the flight of the Duke of Milan in 1500, Da Vinci, accompanied by his favourite pupil Andrea Salai (known in England as A. Solario) removed to Florence, where he was well received, and had an annual pension conferred upon him. He painted while here the cartoon of St Anne, and the portrait of the Madonna Lisa, now in the Louvre at Paris. But all his portraits must give way before the one of the artist himself now in the Florentine gallery. It is not surpassed by the finest portraits of Titian. He was employed in 1502 as architect and chief engineer to Pope Alexander VI. by Cesare Borgia, where he only remained till the death of his holiness in the course of the next year. At Florence he was chosen to design the "Battle of the Standard," of which he executed only a part, being jealous it is said of the rival cartoon of young Michael Angelo Buonarroti. He again visited Milan in 1507, where he painted a number of excellent portraits. In 1514 he set out for Rome, where Pope Leo X. at first patronised him, but subsequently slighting him, he set out for Pavia, and entered the service of Francis I. of France, a great patron of the arts, at an annual salary of 700 crowns. Proceeding to France in 1516, he left health and Italy behind him. His working-days were over, and he died (in the arms of Francis I., according to Vasari) at Fontainebleau, on the 2d of May 1519, aged sixty-seven.

Leonardo da Vinci was a man of proud and kindly bearing and disposition. He was remarkably handsome in person, and of very sumptuous habits: one of those regal geniuses, in short, which are sometimes sent into the world to impress men with the unexhausted fertility and formative power of the great mother of us all. No man borrowed less than he did; and, until Michael Angelo arose, he had no rival in design. His genius was too universal to stand pre-eminent in any one department; but taking him all in all, his is without doubt the first name in the fifteenth century, alike for prodigious capacity, and for the singular and varied success which attended his inquiries. "The discoveries," says Hallam ("Introduction to the Literature of Europe"), "which made Galileo, and Kepler, and Maestlin, and Maurolicus, and Castelli, and other names, illustrious, the system of Copernicus, the very theories of recent geologists, are anticipated by Da Vinci, within the compass of a few pages, not perhaps in the most precise language, or on the most conclusive reasoning, but so as to strike us with something like the awe of preternatural knowledge." His best-known treatise is that on Painting, which has been twice translated into English and once into French, with engravings from drawings by Nicolas Poussin. The fragments of his writings alluded to above by Hallam, were published in 1797 by Venturi at Paris. (For further notice of Da Vinci as a painter, see Arts, Fine, and Painting; also the works of Vasari, Lanzi, and Amoretti.)