in virtue of

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Built too strong For force or virtue ever to expugn.— Chapman.[1913 Webster]

2.Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency; efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine. [1913 Webster]

Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about.— Mark v. 30.[1913 Webster]

A man was driven to depend for his security against misunderstanding, upon the pure virtue of his syntax.— De Quincey.[1913 Webster]

The virtue of his midnight agony.— Keble.[1913 Webster]

3.Energy or influence operating without contact of the material or sensible substance. [1913 Webster]

She moves the body which she doth possess, Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch.— Sir. J. Davies.[1913 Webster]

4.Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth. [1913 Webster]

I made virtue of necessity.— Chaucer.[1913 Webster]

In the Greek poets, . . . the economy of poems is better observed than in Terence, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences.— B. Jonson.[1913 Webster]

5.Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character; purity of soul; performance of duty. [1913 Webster]

Virtue only makes our bliss below.— Pope.[1913 Webster]

If there's Power above us, And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works, he must delight in virtue.— Addison.[1913 Webster]

6.A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of temperance, of charity, etc. "The very virtue of compassion." --Shak. "Remember all his virtues." --Addison. [1913 Webster]

7.Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity. [1913 Webster]

H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has, I should be the last man in the world to attempt to corrupt it.— Goldsmith.[1913 Webster]

8.pl. One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy. [1913 Webster]

Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.— Milton.[1913 Webster]

Cardinal virtues. See under Cardinal, a.

In virtue of, or By virtue of, through the force of; by authority of. "He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns." --Addison. "This they shall attain, partly in virtue of the promise made by God, and partly in virtue of piety." --Atterbury.

Theological virtues, the three virtues, faith, hope, and charity. See --1 Cor. xiii. 13. [1913 Webster]