Regeneration, the, "new or second birth" required of Christ before any one can become a member of His kingdom, and which, when achieved, is a resolute and irreversible No to the spirit of the world, and a no less resolute and irreversible Yea to the spirit of Christ, the No being as essential to it as the Yea. For as in the philosophy of Hegel, so in the religion of Christ, the negative principle is the creative or the determinative principle. Christianity begins in No, subsists in No, and survives in No to the spirit of the world; this it at first peremptorily spurns, and then disregards as of no account, what things were gain in it becoming loss. A stern requirement, but, as Carlyle says, and knew, one is not born the second time any more than the first without sore birth-pangs. See his "Everlasting No" in "Sartor," last paragraph.
Regeneration, Baptismal, the doctrine that the power of spiritual life, forfeited by the Fall, is restored to the soul in the sacrament of baptism duly administered.
Regensburg. See Ratisbon.
Reggio (24), an Italian seaport; capital of a province of the same name; occupies a charming site on the Strait of Messina; built on the ruins of ancient Rhegium; is the seat of an archbishop; manufactures silks, gloves, hose, &c.
Regicides, murderers of a king, but specially applied to the 67 members of the court who tried and condemned Charles I. of England, amongst whom were Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and others, of whom 10 living at the time of the Restoration were executed, and 25 others imprisoned for life.
Regillus, Lake, celebrated in ancient Roman history as the scene of a great Roman victory over the Latins in 496 B.C.; site probably near the modern town of Frascati.
Regina, St., a virgin martyr of the 3rd century, usually depicted as undergoing the torments of martyrdom, or receiving spiritual consolation in prison by a beautiful vision of a dove on a luminous cross.
Regiomontanus, name adopted by Johann Müller, a celebrated German astronomer and mathematician, born at Königsberg, in Franconia; appointed professor of Astronomy in Vienna (1461); sojourned in Italy; settled in Nüremberg, where much of his best work was done; assisted Pope Sixtus IV. in reforming the Calendar; was made Bishop of Ratisbon; died at Rome; was regarded as the most learned astronomer of the time in Europe, and his works were of great value to Columbus and other early navigators (1436-1476).
Registrar-General, an official appointed to superintend registration, specially of births, deaths, and marriages.
Regium Donum, an annual grant formerly voted by Parliament to augment the stipends of the Presbyterian clergy in Ireland, discontinued from 1869.
Regnard, Jean François, comic dramatist, born in Paris; inherited a fortune, which he increased by gambling; took to travelling, and was at 22 captured by an Algerine pirate, and when ransomed continued to travel; on his return to Paris wrote comedies, twenty-three in number, the best of them being "Le Joueur" and "Le Légataire," following closely in the steps of Molière; he was admired by Boileau (1656-1710).
Regnault, Henri, French painter, born in Paris; son of following; a genius of great power and promise, of which several remarkable works by him are proof; volunteered in the Franco-German War, and fell at Buzenval (1843-1871).
Regnault, Henri Victor, a noted French physicist, born at Aix-la-Chapelle; from being a Paris shopman he rose to a professorship in Lyons; important discoveries in organic chemistry won him election to the Academy of Sciences in 1840; lectured in the "Collège de France and the École Polytechnique;" became director of the imperial porcelain manufactory of Sèvres; did notable work in physics and chemistry, and was awarded medals by the Royal Society of London (1810-1878).
Regnier, Mathurin, French poet, born at Chartres; led when young a life of dissipation; ranks high as a poet, but is most distinguished in satire, which is instinct with verve and vigour (1572-1613).
Regulars, in the Romish Church a member of any religious order who has taken the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Regulus, a Roman of the Romans; was twice over Consul, in 267 and 256 B.C.; defeated the Carthaginians, both by sea and land, but was at last taken prisoner; being sent, after five years' captivity, on parole to Rome with proposals of peace, dissuaded the Senate from accepting the terms, and despite the entreaties of his wife and children and friends returned to Carthage according to his promise, where he was subjected to the most excruciating tortures.
Regulus, St., or St. Rule, a monk of the East who, in the 4th century, it is said, came to Scotland with the bones of St. Andrew, and deposited them at St. Andrews.
Rehan, Ada, actress, born in Limerick; made her début at 16 in Albany, New York; came to London in 1884, and again in 1893; plays Rosalind in "As You Like It," Lady Teazle in "School for Scandal," and Maid Marian in the "Foresters," and numerous other parts; b. 1859.
Rehoboam, the king of the Jews on whose accession at the death of Solomon, in 976 B.C., the ten tribes of Israel seceded from the kingdom of Judah.
Reich, The, the old German Empire.
Reichenbach, Karl, Baron von, expert in the industrial arts, particularly in chemical manufacture; he was a zealous student of animal magnetism, and the discoverer of Od (1788-1869).
Reichenberg (31), a town in North Bohemia, on the Neisse, 86 m. NE. of Prague; chief seat of the Bohemian cloth manufacture.
Reichenhall (4), a popular German health resort, in South-East Bavaria, 10 m. SW. of Salzburg; is charmingly situated amidst Alpine scenery, and has a number of mineral springs; is the centre of the great Bavarian salt-works.
Reichsrath, the Parliament of the Austrian Empire.
Reichstadt, Duke of, the son and successor of Napoleon as Napoleon II.; died at Vienna in 1832.
Reichstag, the German Imperial Legislature, representative of the German nation, and which consists of 397 members, elected by universal suffrage and ballot for a term of five years.
Reid, Sir George, a distinguished portrait-painter, born in Aberdeen; his portraits are true to the life, and are not surpassed by those of any other living artist; b. 1841.
Reid, Right Hon. G. H., Premier of Australia, born at Johnstone, Renfrewshire; emigrated with his parents in 1852; adopted law as his profession; became Minister of Education in 1883; became Premier of N.S.W. in 1894; is a great Free Trader, and visited England for the Jubilee in 1897; Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth, 1904; b. 1845.
Reid, Captain Mayne, novelist, born in Co. Down; led a life of adventure in America, and served in the Mexican War, but settled afterwards in England to literary work, and wrote a succession of tales of adventure (1819-1883).
Reid, Thomas, Scottish philosopher, and chief of the Scottish school, born in Kincardineshire, and bred for the Scotch Church, in which he held office as a clergyman for a time; was roused to philosophical speculation by the appearance in 1730 of David Hume's "Treatise on Human Nature," and became professor of Philosophy in Aberdeen in 1752, and in Glasgow in 1763, where the year after he published his "Inquiry into the Human Mind," which was followed in course of time by his "Philosophy of the Intellectual and Active Powers"; his philosophy was a protest against the scepticism of Hume, founded on the idealism of Berkeley, by appeal to the "common-sense" of mankind, which admits of nothing intermediate between the perceptions of the mind and the reality of things (1710-1796).
Reid, Sir Wemyss, journalist and man of letters, born in Newcastle-on-Tyne; editor of the Leeds Mercury (1870-86), and of the Speaker since 1890; has written novels and biographies; is President of the Institute of Journalists, and was knighted in 1894; b. 1842.
Reid, Sir William, soldier and scientist; served in the Royal Engineers with distinction under Wellington; became Governor successively of Bermudas, Barbadoes, and Malta, and was the author of a scientific work on "The Law of Storms" (1791-1858).
Reigate (23), a flourishing market-town in Surrey, 21 m. S. of London; is a busy railway centre; has interesting historic ruins; an old church, among others containing the grave of Lord Howard of Effingham.
Reign of a Hundred Days, the period during which Napoleon reigned in Paris from his return from Elba in the beginning of March till he left on the 12th June 1815 to meet the Allies in the Netherlands.
Reign of Terror, the name given to the bloody consummation of the fiery French Revolution, including a period which lasted 420 days, from the fall of the Girondists on the 31st May 1793 to the overthrow of Robespierre and his accomplices on 27th July 1794, the actors in which at length, seeing nothing but "Terror" ahead, had in their despair said to themselves, "Be it so. Que la Terreur soit à l'ordre du jour (having sown the wind, come let us reap the whirlwind). One of the frightfulest things ever born of Time. So many as four thousand guillotined, fusilladed, noyaded, done to dire death, of whom nine hundred were women."
Reimarus, a philosopher of the Aufklärung (q. v.), born at Hamburg; author of the "Wolfenbüttel Fragments," published by Lessing in 1777, and written to disprove the arguments for the historical truth of the Bible, and in the interest of pure deism and natural religion (1694-1768).
Reis Effendi, one of the chief Ministers of State in Turkey, who is Lord Chancellor, and holds the bureau of foreign affairs.
Reiters, the cavalry of the German Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Relativity of Knowledge, the doctrine that all knowledge is of things as they appear to us and not of things as they are in themselves, is subjective and not objective, is phenomenal and not noumenal.
Relief, prominence of a sculpture from a plain surface; works in relief are of three kinds: alto-relievo, high relief; mezzo-relievo, medium relief; basso-relievo, low relief.
Religio Medici, a celebrated work of Sir Thomas Browne's, characterised as a "confession of intelligent, orthodox, and logical supernaturalism couched in some of the most exquisite English ever written."
Religion, a sense, affecting the whole character and life, of dependence on, reverence for, and responsibility to a Higher Power; or a mode of thinking, feeling, and acting which respects, trusts in, and strives after God, and determines a man's duty and destiny in this universe, or "the manner in which a man feels himself to be spiritually related to the unseen world."
Religious Tract Society, society founded in 1799 for the circulation of religious works in home and foreign parts, has published in 220 languages, and is conducted by an annually elected body, consisting of four ministers and eight laymen in London.
Reliquary, name given to a portable shrine or case for relics of saints or martyrs; they assumed many forms, and were often rich in material and of exquisite design.
Rembrandt or Van Rejn, a celebrated Dutch historical and portrait painter as well as etcher, born at Leyden, where he began to practise as an etcher; removed in 1630 to Amsterdam, where he spent the rest of his life and acquired a large fortune, but lost it in 1656 after the death of his first wife, and sank into poverty and obscurity; he was a master of all that pertains to colouring and the distribution of light and shade (1608-1669).
Remigius, St., bishop and confessor of the 6th century, represented as carrying or receiving a vessel of holy oil, or as anointing Clovis, who kneels before him.
Remington, Philo, inventor of the Remington breech-loading rifle, born at Litchfield, in New York State; 25 years manager of the mechanical department in his father's small-arms factory; Remington type-writer also the outcome of his inventive skill; retired in 1886; b. 1816.
Remonstrance, The, the name given to a list of abuses of royal power laid to the charge of Charles I. and drawn up by the House of Commons in 1641, and which with the petition that accompanied it contributed to bring matters to a crisis.
Remonstrants, a name given to the Dutch Arminians who presented to the States-General of Holland a protest against the Calvinist doctrine propounded by the Synod of Dort in 1610.
Remus, the twin-brother of Romulus, and who was slain by him because he showed his scorn of the city his brother was founding by leaping over the wall.
Rémusat, Abel, Orientalist, born in Paris; studied and qualified in medicine, but early devoted himself to the study of Chinese literature and in 1814 became professor of Chinese in the College of France; wrote on the language, the topography, and history of China, and founded the Asiastic Society of Paris (1788-1832).
Rémusat, Charles, Comte de, French politician and man of letters, born in Paris; was a Liberal in politics; drew up a protest against the ordinances of Polignac, which precipitated the revolution of July; was Minister of the Interior under Thiers, was exiled after the coup d'état, and gave himself mainly to philosophical studies thereafter (1797-1875).
Renaissance, the name given to the revolution in literature and art in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, caused by the revival of the study of ancient models in the literature and art of Greece and Rome, especially the former, and to the awakening in the cultured classes of the free and broad humanity that inspired them, an epoch which marks the transition from the rigid formality of mediæval to the enlightened freedom of modern times.
Renaix (17), a busy manufacturing town in East Flanders, Belgium, 22 m. SW. of Ghent; has large cotton and linen factories, breweries, and distilleries.
Renan, Ernest, Orientalist and Biblical scholar, born in Brittany, son of a sailor, who, dying, left him to the care of his mother and sister, to both of whom he was warmly attached; destined for the Church, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice, where his studies threw him out of the relation with the Church and obliged him to abandon all thoughts of the clerical profession; accomplished in Hebrew, he was appointed professor of that language in the College of France in 1861, though not installed till 1870, and made a member of the French Academy in 1878; having distinguished himself by his studies in the Semitic languages, and in a succession of essays on various subjects of high literary merit, he in 1863 achieved a European reputation by the publication of his "Vie de Jésus," the first of a series bearing upon the origin of Christianity and the agencies that contributed to its rise and development; he wrote other works bearing more immediately on modern life and its destiny, but it is in connection with his views of Christ and Christianity that his name will be remembered; he entertained at last an overweening faith in science and scientific experts, and looked to the latter as the elect of the earth for the redemption of humanity (1823-1893).
Rendsburg (12), a fortified town in Schleswig-Holstein, on the North Sea and Baltic Canal, 19 m. W. of Kiel; manufactures cotton, chemicals, brandy &c.
René I., titular king of Naples, born at Angers, son of Louis II., Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence; on the death of his father-in-law, Duke of Lorraine, he in 1431 claimed the dukedom; was defeated and imprisoned; bought his liberty and the dukedom in 1437, in which year he also made an ineffectual attempt to make good his claim to the throne of Naples and Sicily; settled down in Provence and devoted himself to literature and art and to developing the country (1409-1480).
Renfrew (7), a royal burgh and county-town of Renfrewshire, situated on the Clyde, 6 m. below Glasgow; dates back to the 12th century as a burgh; industries include thread, cotton cloths, shawl factories, and shipbuilding.
Renfrewshire (291), a south-western county of Scotland; faces the Firth of Clyde on the W., between Ayr on the S. and SW., and the river Clyde on the N.; bordered on the E. by Lanark; hilly on the W. and S., flat on the E.; is watered by the Gryfe, the Black Cart, and the White Cart; dairy-farming is carried on in extensive scale, stimulated by the proximity of Glasgow; nearly two-thirds of the county is under cultivation; coal and iron are mined, and in various parts the manufacture of thread, cotton, chemicals, shipbuilding, &c., is actively engaged in.
Rennell, James, geographer, born near Chudleigh, Devonshire; passed from the navy to the military service of the East India Company; became surveyor-general of Bengal; retired in 1782; author of many works on the topography of India, hydrography, &c.; the "Geographical System of Herodotus Examined and Explained" is his most noted work (1742-1830).
Rennes (65), a prosperous town in Brittany, capital of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, situated at the junction of the Ille and the Vilaine; consists of a high and low town, separated by the river Vilaine, mostly rebuilt since the disastrous fire in 1720; has handsome buildings, a cathedral, &c.; is the seat of an archbishop, a military centre, and manufactures sail-cloth, linen, shoes, hats, &c.; where the court-martial was held which condemned Captain Dreyfus on a second trial in 1899.
Rennie, John, civil engineer, born in East Linton, East Lothian; employed by the firm of Messrs. Boulton & Watt at Soho, Birmingham, and entrusted by them to direct in the construction of the Albion Mills, London, he became at once famous for his engineering ability, and was in general request for other works, such as the construction of docks, canals, and bridges, distinguishing himself most in connection with the latter, of which Waterloo, Southwark, and London over the Thames, are perhaps the finest (1761-1821).
Rente, name given to the French funds, or income derivable from them.
Renton (5), a town in Dumbartonshire, on the Leven, 2 m. N. of Dumbarton; engaged in calico-printing, dyeing, &c.; has a monument in memory of Tobias Smollett, who was born in the neighbourhood.
Renwick, James, Scottish martyr, born at Moniaive, Dumfriesshire; educated at Edinburgh University, but was refused his degree for declining to take the oath of allegiance; completed his studies in Holland, and in 1683 was ordained at Gröningen; came to Scotland; was outlawed in 1684 for his "Apologetic Declaration"; refused to recognise James II. as king; was captured after many escapes, and executed at Edinburgh, the last of the martyrs of the Covenant (1662-1688).
Repealer, an advocate of the repeal of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
Replica, is properly the copy of an original picture done by the hand of the same master.
Repoussé, a name applied to a style of raised ornamentation in metal obtained by beating out from behind a convex design, which is then chased in front; was known to the Greeks, and carried to a high pitch of perfection by Benvenuto Cellini in the 16th century; has been successfully revived, especially in France, in this century.
Repton (2), a village of Derbyshire, 6½ m. SW. of Derby, dates back to the 7th century, and is associated with the establishment of Christianity in England; has a fine Public school, founded in 1556.
Republic, the name given to a State in which the sovereign power is vested in one or more elected by the community, and held answerable to it though in point of fact, both in Rome and the Republic of Venice the community was not free to elect any one outside of a privileged order.
Republicans, The, the name given latterly in the United States to the party opposed to the Democrats (q. v.) and in favour of federalism.
Requiem, a mass set to music, sung for the repose of the soul of a dead person.
Reredos, the name given to the decorated portion of the wall or screen behind and rising above a church altar; as a rule it is richly ornamented with niches and figures, and stands out from the east wall of the church, but not unfrequently it is joined to the wall; splendid examples exist at All Souls' College, Oxford, Durham Cathedral, St. Albans, &c.
Resina (14), a town of South Italy, looks out upon the sea from the base of Vesuvius, 4 m. SE. of Naples, built on the site of ancient Herculaneum; manufactures wine and silk.
Responsions, the first of the three examinations for a degree at Oxford University, or the Little Go.
Ressaidar, in India, a native cavalry officer in command of a Ressalah, or a squadron of native cavalry.
Restoration, The, the name given in English history to the re-establishment of monarchy and the return of Charles II. to the throne, 29th May 1660, after the fall of the Commonwealth.
Restorationists, name of a sect in America holding the belief that man will finally recover his original state of purity.
Resurrectionist, one who stealthily exhumed bodies from the grave and sold them for anatomical purposes.
Retford, East (11), market-town of Nottinghamshire, on the Idle, 24 m. E. by S. of Sheffield; has foundries, paper and flour mills, &c.
Retina, a retiform expansion of the sensatory nerves, which receives the impression that gives rise to vision, or visual perception.
Retributive Justice, justice which rewards good deeds, and inflicts punishment on offenders.
Retz, Cardinal de, born at Montmirail, of Italian descent, and much given to intrigue, obtained the coadjutorship of the archbishopric of Paris, plotted against Mazarin, played an important part in the troubles of the Fronde, and was in 1652 thrown into prison, from which he escaped; he left "Memoirs" which are valuable as a record of the times, though the readers are puzzled to construe from them the character of the author (1614-1679).
Retz, Gilles de, marshal of France, born in Brittany; distinguished himself under Charles VII. against the English; was condemned to be burned alive at Nantes in 1440 for his unnatural crimes and his cruelties.
Retzch, Moritz, painter and engraver, born at Dresden, where he became a professor of Painting; is famous for his etchings illustrative of Goethe's "Faust," of certain of Shakespeare's plays, as well as of Fouqué's "Tales"; the "Chess-Players" and "Man versus Satan," which is considered his masterpiece (1779-1857).
Reuchlin, Johann, a learned German humanist, born in the Black Forest, devoted himself to the study of Greek and Hebrew, and did much to promote the study of both in Germany, and wrote "Rudiments of the Hebrew Language"; though he did not attach himself to the Reformers, he contributed by his works and labours to advance the cause of the Reformation; his special enemies were the Dominicans, but he was backed up against them by all the scholars of Germany (1455-1522).
Reunion (formerly Île de Bourbon) (166), mostly Creoles, a French island in the Indian Ocean, 358 m. E. of Madagascar, 38 m. by 28; a volcanic range intersects the island; the scenery is fine; streams plentiful, but small; one-third of the land is uncultivated, and grows fruits, sugar (chief export), coffee, spices, &c. St. Denis (33), on the N. coast, is the capital; has been a French possession since 1649.
Reuss, name of two German principalities stretching between Bavaria on the S. and Prussia on the N.; they belong to the elder and younger branches of the Reuss family. The former is called Reuss-Greiz (63), the latter Reuss-Schleiz-Gera (120); both are hilly, well wooded, and well watered; farming and textile manufacturing are carried on. Both are represented in the Reichstag; the executive is in the hands of the hereditary princes, and the legislative powers are vested in popularly elected assemblies.
Reuter, Fritz, a German humourist, born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin; when a student at Jena took part in a movement among the students in behalf of German unity; was arrested and condemned, after commutation of sentence of death, to thirty years' imprisonment, but was released, after seven of them, in broken health; and after eleven more took to writing a succession of humorous poems in Low German, which placed him in the front rank of the humourists of Germany (1810-1874).
Reuter, Baron Paul Julius, the organiser of the conveyance of news by telegraph, born at Cassel; commenced with Berlin for centre in 1851; transferred his head-quarters to London, and now the "system," which is in the hands of a limited liability company, has connections with even the remotest corner of the globe; b. 1818.
Reutlingen (19), a picturesque old town in Würtemberg, on the Echatz, 20 m. S. of Stuttgart; formerly one of the free imperial cities of the Swabian League; has a splendid Gothic church; manufactures cloth, cutlery, leather, woollen and cotton yarns, &c.
Revel or Reval (52), capital of the government of Esthonia, in Russia, is a flourishing seaport on the S. side of the Gulf of Finland, 232 m. W. of St. Petersburg; has a castle, fortifications, cathedral, mediæval antiquities, &c.; chiefly engaged in commerce; exports largely oats and other cereals, spirits, flax, &c.
Revelation, name properly applicable to the knowledge of God, or of divine things, imparted to the mind of man, by the operation of the Divine Spirit in the human soul, and as apprehended by it.
Revelation, Book of, or The Apocalypse, the book that winds up the accepted canon of Holy Scripture, of the fulfilment of the prophecies of which there are three systems of interpretation: the Præteritist, which regards them all as fulfilled; the Historical, which regards them as all along fulfilling; and the Futurist, which regards them as still all to be fulfilled. The first is the one which finds favour among modern critics, and which regards it as a forecast of the struggle then impending between the Church under the headship of Christ and the civil power under the emperor of Rome, though this view need not be accepted as excluding the second theory, which regards it as a forecast of the struggle of the Church with the world till the cup of the world's iniquity is full and the day of its doom is come. The book appears to have been written on the occurrence of some fierce persecution at the hands of the civil power, and its object to confirm and strengthen the Church in her faith and patience by a series of visions, culminating in one of the Lamb seated on the throne of the universe as a pledge that all His slain ones would one day share in His glory.
Revels, Master of the, also called Lord of Misrule, in olden times an official attached to royal and noble households to superintend the amusements, especially at Christmas time; he was a permanent officer at the English court from Henry VIII.'s reign till George III.'s, but during the 18th century the office was a merely nominal one.
Reverberatory Furnace, a furnace with a domed roof, from which the flames of the fire are reflected upon the vessel placed within.
Revere, Paul, American patriot, born in Boston, U.S., bred a goldsmith; conspicuous for his zeal against the mother-country, and one of the first actors in the revolt (1735-1818).
Reverend, a title of respect given to the clergy, Very Reverend to deans, Right Reverend to bishops, and Most Reverend to archbishops.
Réville, Albert, a distinguished French Protestant theologian, born at Dieppe; was from 1851 to 1872 pastor at Rotterdam, in 1880 became professor of the History of Religions in the College of France, and six years later was made President of the Section des Études Religieuses at the Sorbonne, Paris; has been a prolific writer on such subjects as "The Native Religions of Mexico and Peru" (Hibbert Lectures for 1884), "Religions of Non-civilised Peoples," "The Chinese Religion," &c.; b. 1826.
Revival of Letters, revival in Europe in the 15th century of the study of classical, especially Greek, literature, chiefly by the arrival in Italy of certain learned Greeks, fugitives from Constantinople on its capture by the Turks in 1453, and promoted, by the invention of printing, to the gradual extinction of the dry, barren scholasticism previously in vogue. See Renaissance.
Revival of Religion, a reawakening of the religious consciousness after a period of spiritual dormancy, ascribed by many to a special outpouring of the Spirit in answer to prayer, and in connection with evangelical preaching.
Revolution, a sudden change for most part in the constitution of a country in consequence of internal revolt, particularly when a monarchy is superseded by a republic, as in France in 1789, in 1848, and 1870, that in 1830 being merely from one branch of the Bourbon family to another, such as that also in England in 1658. The French Revolution of 1798 is the revolution by pre-eminence, and the years 1848-49 were years of revolutions in Europe.
Revue des Deux Mondes, a celebrated French review, devoted to literature, science, art, politics, &c., established in 1829, and conducted afterwards by Buloz.
Reybaud, Marie Roch Louis, a versatile littérateur and politician, born at Marseilles; travelled in India, established himself as a Radical journalist in Paris in 1829, and edited important works of travel, wrote popular novels, published important studies in social science; elected a member of the Academy of Moral Sciences (1850); was an active politcian, investigated for government the agricultural colonies in Algeria; author of "Scenes in Modern Life," "Industry in Europe," &c. (1799-1879).
Reykjavik (i. e. reeky town), (3), capital of Iceland, situated in a barren misty region on the SW. coast, practically a village of some 100 wooden houses; has a brick cathedral, and is the see of a bishop.
Reynard the Fox, an epic of the Middle Ages, in which animals represent men, "full of broad rustic mirth, inexhaustible in comic devices, a world Saturnalia, where wolves tonsured into monks and nigh starved by short commons, foxes pilgrimaging to Rome for absolution, cocks pleading at the judgment-bar, make strange mummery." The principal characters are Isengrim the wolf and Reynard the fox, the former representing strength incarnated in the baron and the latter representing cunning incarnated in the Church, and the strife for ascendency between the two one in which, though frequently hard pressed, the latter gets the advantage in the end.
Reynolds, John Fulton, an American general, born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania; graduated at 21 at West Point, entered the army, distinguished himself during the Civil War, especially at the second battle of Bull Run; was killed at the battle of Gettysburg (1820-1863).
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, the chief of English portrait-painters, born near Plymouth; went to London in 1740 to study art, and remained three years; visited Italy and the great centres of art there, when he lost his hearing, and settled in London in 1752, where he began to paint portraits, and had as the subjects of his art the most distinguished people, "filled England with the ghosts of her noble squires and dames"; numbered among his friends all the literary notabilities of the day; he was the first President of the Royal Academy, and though it was no part of his duty, delivered a succession of discourses to the students on the principles and practice of painting, 15 of which have been published, and are still held in high esteem (1723-1792).
Rhabdomancy, a species of divination by means of a hazel rod to trace the presence of minerals or metals under ground.
Rhadamanthus, in the Greek mythology a son of Zeus and Europa, and a brother of Minos (q. v.), was distinguished among men for his strict justice, and was after his death appointed one of the Judges of the dead in the nether world along with Æacus and Minos.
Rhapsodists, a class of minstrels who in early times wandered over the Greek cities reciting the poems of Homer, and through whom they became widely known, and came to be translated with such completeness to us.
Rhea, in the Greek mythology a goddess, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, the wife of Kronos, and mother of the chief Olympian deities, Zeus, Pluto, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, and identified by the Greeks of Asia Minor with the great earth goddess Cybele, and whose worship as such, like that of all the other earth deities, was accompanied with wild revelry.
Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin, the mother of Romulus and Remus, twins, whom she bore to Mars, the god of war, who had violated her.
Rheims (104), an important French city in the department of Marne, on the Vesle, 100 m. NE. of Paris; as the former ecclesiastical metropolis of France it has historical associations of peculiar interest; the French monarchs were crowned in the cathedral (a Gothic structure of unique beauty) from 1179 to 1825; has a beautiful 12th-century Romanesque church, an archiepiscopal palace, a Roman triumphal arch, a Lycée, statues, &c.; situated in a rich wine district, it is one of the chief champagne entrepôts, and is also one of the main centres of French textiles, especially woollen goods; is strongly fortified.