VACUUM
See void.
VAPORS
These tiny particles, which are thus raised up in the air by the sun, ought for the most part to have the shape that I have attributed to those of water, because there are no others which can so easily be separated from the bodies to which they belong; and it is these alone which I will call vapors, in particular, in order to distinguish them from others which have more irregular shapes, and to which I will restrict the name exhalation, because I know of no better name for them.
Meteorology, II. VI, 240.
VENERATION
When we esteem or scorn other objects, which we consider as free causes, capable of doing good or evil, from esteem comes veneration, and from scorn, disdain.
Passions, II, 55. XI, 374.
Veneration or respect is an inclination of the soul, not only to esteem the object that it reveres, but also to submit to it with some fear, in the attempt to render it favorable to oneself.
Passions, III, 162. XI, 454.
VENGEANCE
Just as, in order to straighten a bent stick, we bend it, not merely until it is straight, but until it bends in the opposite direction, similarly, because our nature is too much inclined to vengeance, God does not command us merely to pardon our enemies, but even to do good to them.
Letter to Mersenne, Jan., 1630. I, 110.
I call vices the sicknesses of the soul. They are less easy to recognize than the sicknesses of the body, because we have often experienced good health in the body, but never in the soul.
Cogitationes Privatae. X, 215.
As all the vices come only from the uncertainty and weakness which follows ignorance, and which generates repentance; so also virtue consists only in the resolution and vigor with which one tends to do the things that he believes to be good, provided that that vigor does not come from obstinacy, but from knowing that he has examined things as much as he morally can.
Letter to Christine, Nov. 20, 1647. V, 83-84.
VICTORY
[Victory:] Although this court is filled with ladies, who cannot be too much esteemed, and whom the noblest souls are obliged to love; I still surpass the most beautiful of them in beauty. And the proof of this is that for one lover who sighs for them, a thousand die for me.
Birth of Peace, VI.
VIOLENCE
The word violence is applied only to our will, which is said to suffer violence when something is done which is repellent to it; thus in nature there is no violence, but it is as natural to bodies to clash against one another, or to break into pieces when that happens, as to remain at rest.
Letter to More, Aug., 1649. V, 404.
VIRTUE
[Zeno the Stoic] represented virtue as so severe and so much an enemy of pleasure, making all the vices equal, that it seems to me that it was only melancholics, or minds entirely detached from bodies, who could have been members of his sect.
Letter to Elisabeth, Aug. 18, 1645. IV, 276.
It is certain that one cannot have too ardent a desire for virtue.
Passions, II, 144. XI, 437.
Whoever has lived in such a way that his conscience cannot accuse him even of failing to do all the things which he has judged to be the best (which is what I call following the path of virtue), he receives a satisfaction from it, which is so capable of making him happy, that the most violent efforts of the passions never have enough power to trouble the tranquility of his soul.
Passions, II, 148. XI, 442.
See vice.
VOICE, HUMAN
And it seems that what makes the human voice more agreeable to us than other sounds is simply that it better conforms to the nature of our spirits. Perhaps it is also the sympathy or antipathy of humor and inclination that makes the voice of a friend seem more agreeable to us than that of an enemy, for the same reason that it is said that a drum covered with lambskin no longer resounds, and loses its sound entirely, after one has beaten on another drum covered with wolfskin.
Compendium Musicae. X, 90.
VOID
There is no void, as I believe that I can demonstrate.
Letter to Mersenne, April 15, 1630. I, 140.
When the wine in a barrel fails to flow out of the opening at the bottom of the barrel, because the top is completely sealed, it is improper to say, as one does ordinarily, that this is due to “fear of the void.” Everyone knows that the wine has no mind with which it can fear something, and even if it did, I do not know why it should fear the void, which is actually nothing but a chimera.
The World, IV. XI, 20.
There is no void in Nature.
The World, IV. XI, 20.
What he [Galileo] attributes to the void should only be attributed to the weight of the air; and it is certain that, if it was the fear of the void which kept two bodies from being separated, there would be no force which could separate them.
Letter to Mersenne, Oct. 11, 1638. II, 382.
I attribute nothing to “void” nor to “fear of the void.”
Letter to Mersenne, Oct. 11, 1638. II, 399.
As for the void, in the sense in which the philosophers take the word, that is, as a space where there is no substance, it is evident that there is no such space anywhere in the universe, because the extension of space, or interior place, is no different from the extension of body.
Principles, II, 16. IX2, 71.
When we take the word according to ordinary usage and say that a place is void, it is an established fact that we do not wish to say that there is nothing at all in that place or in that space, but only that there is nothing that we presume ought to be there.
Principles, II, 17. IX2, 72.
[Possibly] all the space which is around the earth, and is not filled with any of the earth’s particles, is void, that is, it is not filled with any body which could aid or impede the motions of other bodies (for that is what we ought properly to understand by the word void).
Principles, IV, 21. IX2, 210-211.
It implies a contradiction for there to be a void, because we have the same idea of matter as of space; and because that idea represents a real thing to us, we contradict ourselves, and affirm the contrary of what we think if we say that that space is void, that is, that what we conceive as a real thing is nothing real.
Letter to Newcastle, Oct., 1645. IV, 329.
VORTEX
Let us think that the matter of the sky, where the planets are, turns continuously around, like a vortex which has the sun at its center.
Principles, III, 30. IX2, 115.
As in the bends of the rivers where the water flows back upon itself, and thus turning, makes circles, if some straws or other very light bodies are floating in the water, one can see that it carries them along and makes them move around with it; and even, among these straws, one can notice that there are often some which turn about their own centers; and that those which are closest to the center of the vortex which contains them complete their turning sooner than those which are farther from it; and finally that, even though these vortices of water always turn around, they almost never describe circles which are entirely perfect, and they are sometimes longer, sometimes broader, in such a way that all the parts of the circumference that they describe are not equally distant from the center. Thus one can easily imagine that the same things happen to the planets; and this is all that is needed to explain all their phenomena.
Principles, III, 30. IX2, 115-116.
I will henceforth use this word [vortex] to signify all the matter which turns in this way about each of these centers [i.e., about the stars, planets, and other centers].
Principles, III, 46. IX2, 125.