early French constitutions to give the right of opposing by force the exercise of unlawful power; but, from the constitution of human society, it hardly seems possible to avoid the occurrence of forcible changes in political systems. Nothing in this world can last forever; institutions established centuries ago, to answer the demands of a state of things which has long ceased to exist, frequently become extremely oppressive, from their inconsistency with the new tendencies which have sprung up in society. Sometimes the evil may be remedied without bloodshed; sometimes happy accidents facilitate a change; at other times, however, the old order of things assumes a tone of decided hostility to the new tendencies; and this is what must be expected in a large proportion of cases. Then it is that revolutions break out, and eventually establish a new order, from which new rights and laws emanate. While, therefore, the philosopher and historian acknowledge the necessity, and even obligation, of insurrections, they will, nevertheless, not fail to utter a solemn admonition against resorting rashly to this extreme remedy for violated right. There is a solidity, an authority, a completeness, in a political system which has acquired maurity by slow degrees and long struggles, that can never belong to any new system suddenly substituted in its stead. There can be no security for permanent liberty till the civic element has become developed, and men have become attached to a given system of social connexions. The common principle, therefore, of weighing the evil to be risked against the good to be gained, by a political revolution, needs to be strongly impressed upon every people in a state of political excitement. REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL. (See Terrorism.) REYNARD THE Fox. (See Renard.) REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua, an eminent English painter, was born at Plympton, in Devonshire, in 1723, being the tenth child of the master of the grammar-school of that town. He early discovered a predilection for the art of drawing, which induced his father to place him, at the age of seventeen, with Hudson, the most famous portrait-painter in London, with whom he remained three years, and then, upon some disagreement, returned into Devonshire. He passed some time without any determinate plan, and, from 1746 to 1749, pursued his profession in Devonshire and London, and acquired numerous friends and patrons. Among the latter was captain (afterwards lord) Keppel, whom he accompanied on a cruise in the Mediterranean. He then proceeded to Rome, in which capital and other parts of Italy he spent three years. On his return to London, he painted a full-length portrait of captain Keppel, which was very much admired, and at once placed him at the head of the English portrait-painters. Rejecting the stiff, unvaried and unmeaning attitudes of former artists, he gave to his figures air and action adapted to their characters, and thereby displayed something of the dignity and invention of history. Although he never attained to perfect correctness in the naked figure, he has seldom been excelled in the ease and elegance of his faces, and the beauty and adaptation of his fancy draperies. His coloring may be said to be at once his excellence and his defect. Combining, in a high degree, the qualities of richness, brilliancy and freshness, he was often led to try modes which, probably from want of a due knowledge in chemistry and the mechanism of colors, frequently failed, and left his pictures, after a while, in a faded state. He rapidly acquired opulence; and, being universally regarded as at the head of his profession, he kept a splendid table, which was frequented by the best company in the kingdom, in respect to talents, learning and distinction. On the institution of the royal academy, in 1769, he was unanimously elected president; on which occasion the king conferred upon him the honor of knighthood. Although it was no prescribed part of his duty to read lectures, yet his zeal for the advancement of the fine arts induced him to deliver annual or biennial discourses before the academy on the principles and practice of painting. Of these he pronounced fifteen, from 1769 to 1790, which were published in two sets, and form a standard work. In 1781 and 1783, he made tours in Holland and Flanders, and wrote an account of his journey, which consists only of short notes of the pictures which he saw, with an elaborate character of Rubens. He was a member of the celebrated club which contained the names of Johnson, Garrick, Burke, and others of the first rank of literary eminence, and seems to have been universally beloved and respected by his associates. He is the favorite character in Goldsmith's poem of Retaliation; and Johnson characterized him as one whom he should find the most difficulty how to abuse. In 1784, he succeeded Ramsay as portrait-painter to the king, and continued to follow his professon, of which he was enthusiastically fond, until he lost the sight of one of his eyes. He, however, retained his equable spirits until threatened, in 1791, with the loss of his other eye, the apprehension of which, added to his habitual deafness, exceedingly depressed him. He died in 1792, in his sixtieth year, unmarried, and was interred in St. Paul's cathedral. Sir Joshua Reynolds, although there was scarcely a year in which his pencil did not produce some work of the historical kind, ranks chiefly in the class of portraitpainters. His Ugolino, and his Death of Cardinal Beaufort, are, however, deemed, in grandeur of composition and force of expression, among the first performances of the English school. But, on the whole, his powers of invention were inadequate to the higher flights of historic painting, although inexhaustible in portrait, to which he gave the most delightful variety. His character as a colorist has been already mentioned; and, though not a thorough master in drawing, he gave much grace to the turn of his figures, and dignity to the airs of his heads. As a writer, he obtained reputation by his Discourses, which are elegant and agreeable compositions, although sometimes vague and inconsistent. He also added notes to Dufresnoy's Art of Painting, and gave three papers on painting to the Idler. The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds were edited by Mr. Malone, in two volumes quarto, in 1797, with a life of the author. Farington and Northcote have written Memoirs of his life. RHABDOMANCY is the power considered by some as existing in particular individuals, partly natural and partly acquired, of discovering things hid in the bowels of the earth, especially metals, ores, and bodies of water, by a change in their perceptions; and likewise the art of aiding the discovery of these substances by the use of certain instruments, for example, the divining rod. That rhabdomancy, generally speaking, is little more than self-delusion, or intentional deception, is now the opinion of most natural philosophers and physiologists; still it has some champions. According to Ritter and Amoretti's accounts (see Physical and Historical Inquiries into Rhabdomancy, &c., in German, by Carlo Amoretti, from the Italian, with Supplementary Treatises by Ritter, Berlín, 1809, and Amoretti's Elementi di Elettrometria Animale, Milan, 1816), an acceleration or retardation of the pulse, and a sation of cold or heat in different parts of the body, often so great as to affect the thermometer, take place in certain persons when they are in the vicinity of subterranean bodies of water or ore, &c. ; also peculiar sensations of taste, spasmodic contractions of particular parts, convulsions often equal to electric shocks, giddiness, sickness, disquietude, solicitude, &c. Rhabdomancy was known even to the ancients. From the most remote periods," says Kieser, in his System of Tellurism (in German, first volume), “indications are found of an art of discovering veins of ore and water concealed in the bowels of the earth, by a direct perception of their existence." The story of Lynceus is connected with this notion. Snorro Sturleson (Heimskringla, eller Snorro Sturleson's Nordlänske Konunga Sagor, Stockholm, 1697, folio, p. 1, c. vii) relates that Odin knew where gold, silver and ore lay hidden under the surface of the earth. Del Rio (Martin del Rio, Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri ser—Six Books of Magical Disquisitions-Cologne, 1633, quarto,) relates that there were some Spaniards, called Zahuris, who saw things concealed under the surface of the earth, such as veins of water and ores, and also dead bodies, &c. The instruments of rhabdomaney are known under the names of the sidereal pendulum, the bipolar cylinder, and the divining rod. The magnetic pendulum consists of a small ball, of almost any substance (for example, metal, sulphur, wood, sealing-wax, glass, &c.), which is suspended from an untwisted string, such as the human hair, unspun silk, &c. In using this, the string of the pendulum is held fast between two fingers, and remains suspended over the sidereal substance (as, for example, a plate of metal, or a cup filled with water and salt), without motion. If, now (say the advocates of rhabdomancy), the person who holds the pendulum possesses, in any degree, the magnetic susceptibility (the rhabdomantic quality), the pendulum will move in a circular orbit, with some differences, according to circumstances. These circumstances are the substance of the pendulum and of the objects under it, the distance of the pendulum from these objects, and the nature of the person who holds the pendulum, and of those who come in contact with him, &c. The principal difference of the motion of the pendulum is, that it moves, in some cases, from left to right, that is, with the sun; in others, from right to left, or against the sun. That the mechanical motion of the fingers does not produce the vibration of the pendulum, at Achilles, were the three judges, who administered justice to the dead at the entrance of the kingdom of spirits, near the throne of Pluto, continuing the occupa tion in which they had spent their earthly existence; for it was then the common opinion of the Greeks that the spirit, which arrived in the dark kingdom of Tartarus, strove to continue the business of life. The whole notion of Tartarus, however, in this view, was rather a philosophical allegory than a true mythus. least in many cases, appears from accurate observation of many experiments of this kind; and this circumstance is, moreover, remarkable, that the vibrations do not ensue unless the hand of a living person comes in immediate contact with the string. The bipolar cylinder consists of a body having two poles, and easily moved, as, for instance, a magnetic needle, or a cylindrical bar, of two different metals; any light cylindrical body, such as a quill with the feathers on, will serve. The diviner holds the cylinder in a perpendicu- RHETIA included the two countries of lar direction, between his thumb and fore- Rhætia Proper and Vindelicia, which finger, while with his other hand he were afterwards separated under the touches some magnetic body, as, for in- names of Rhatia Prima and Secunda (First stance, a metal. Under these circum- and Second Rhætia). The former, or stances, a slow, revolving motion of the Rhætia Proper (Rhatia Propria), extended cylinder takes place between the fingers, from the Rhine to the Norican Alps, and which likewise, as in the case of the pen- from Italy to the borders of Vindelicia. dulum, sometimes moves in a forward and It contained the rivers Rhine (Rhenus), sometimes in a retrograde direction, ac- Inn (Alnus), Adige (Athesis), and many cording to circumstances. (For the di- smaller ones, and included the modern vining rod, see the article under that Vorarlberg and Tyrol, with a part of the head. The two ends of this rod are country of the Grisons. At an earlier held in the hand, so that its curvature is in- period, the Etrurians, under their leader clined outwards. If the person who holds Rhætus, took possession of this mounthe rod possesses the powers of rhabdo- tainous region; but, being afterwards drivmancy, and touches the metallic or any en out by the increasing power of the other magnetic substance, or comes near Gauls, they went to Italy, where they them, a slow, rotatory motion of the rod played a conspicuous part in its early civensues in different directions, according to ilization. Justin, Pliny and Stephen the particular circumstances; and, as in the Byzantine, therefore, called the Rhætians other cases, no motion takes place with- an Etrurian race. (See Etruria.) Among out a direct or indirect contact with a liv- the Gauls who subsequently occupied this ing person. In the south of France, and country, the Brenni are more distinguishin Switzerland, this art is frequently made ed by name than by importance. use of under the name of metalloscope Romans planted colonies here as in the (the art of feeling or discovering metals), other provinces; among which Tridenand of hydroscope (the art of feeling or tum (Trent), Bellunum (Belluno), Bauzadiscovering water). In the practice of num (Bolzano), Bilitio (Bellinzona), Clathis art, the direction, duration, and other venna (Chiavenna), and Curia (Coire), were circumstances, of the motion of the instru- the principal. Several of these cities, ments, determine the quality, quantity, however, were only indebted to the Rodistance and situation of the subterranean mans for their extension and embellishsubstances, or the different sensations of ment. The Rhætians repeatedly laid different rhabdomantists, are taken into waste the Roman territories, in conjunction with the Gauls, and Augustus, therefore, sent his step-son Drusus against them. The latter defeated them (16 B. C.) near Trent; but as this victory was not decisive, he undertook, with his brother Tiberius, a second campaign, in which Tiberius attacked the Vindelici from lake Constance, while Drusus advanced against the Rhætians by land. In this expedition, the Romans were victorious, and both countries were made Roman provinces. Rhætia Transdanubiana,the country on the left bank of the Danube, was well known to the Romans, but never conquered by them. After the fall of the Roman pow account. RHADAMANTHUS was the brother of Minos, the first lawgiver of Crete and the Grecian world. According to another tradition, Rhadamanthus himself laid the foundation of the Cretan code of laws, which his brother Minos only completed. He, probably, belonged to the family of Dorus (a descendant of Deucalion), whose son Tectamus, or Teutamus, went to Crete with his son Asterius (who was, probably, the father of Rhadamanthus and Minos), in that time of general emigration in Greece. Rhadamanthus, and Minos and acus, the progenitors of The er, the Alemanni and Suevi occupied these ancient prophecy (see Saturn), had swalprovinces. RHETIAN ALPS. (See Alps.) RHAMAZAN, or RAMADAN; the ninth month in the Turkish year. As the Mohammedans reckon by lunar time, it begins each year eleven days later than in the preceding year, so that in thirty-three years it occurs successively in all the seasons. In this month the Mohammedans have their great fast daily, from sunrise to sunset. This fast and the Bairam (q. v.) feast, which immediately follows it, are the two principal Mohammedan festivals. RHAPSODY (from the Greek) was originally a series of poetical effusions, which, though separate, yet had still a connexion with each other, as, for example, the poems of Homer. (q. v.) Those wandering minstrels among the ancient Greeks, who sang the poems of Homer (these were also called Homerides), or their own composition, were called rhapsodists. They derived their name, according to some, from the staff which they carried in their hand; according to Pindar, however, they were thus named from their connecting together many detached pieces of poetry. At present, we understand by rhapsody, a collection of poetical effusions, descriptions, &c., strung together, without any necessary connexion. RHEA. The older deities of the Greek mythology are enveloped in such a mist, that we often find the mythuses of different ages and people combined together, as is the case with the mythological accounts of Rhea and Cybele. (q. v.) Rhea was a Titanide, and of Grecian origin, while Cybele was of Phrygian derivation; they were first confounded, probably, in Crete, on account of the similarity of their attributes. Still the evidences of their independent origin are visible; and, although we are acquainted with the mythus of Cybele only through that of Rhea, yet the latter was finally swallowed up by the former. Rhea, one of the most distinguished of the Titanides (see Titan), was the sister and wife of Saturn, and with him a symbol of the first creation. Rhea, the Flowing (from pay to flow), is the symbol of the struggle between chaos and order. The former is yet superior; by the side of Rhea is Saturn, jealous of the new forms, and annihilating them at the moment of their creation-the symbol of alldevouring time. But in the end, order must prevail; the decisive moment has arrived; by the advice of Gaia, her mother, Rhea gives a stone, instead of her infant, to her husband Saturn, who, terrified by lowed his children at the moment of birth. She thus saves from destruction three sons and three daughters, Jupiter, Vesta, Cercs, Juno, Neptune and Pluto, the new inhabitants of Olympus, and overthrows her own power. She continued to retain the power of prophecy; and some traces of her were preserved in the mysteries, in which, however, she was confounded with Cybele. As the preserver of the future sovereign of gods and men, she was the symbol of the productive power of nature, the preserving and life-giving principle of the world. Her attributes, as the tamer of lions, which are harnessed to her chariot, and as the companion of Bacchus, and her crown of turrets, point to the same symbol. Her worship was the rudest form of natural religion, and was attended with the greatest excesses of licentiousness and cruelty. RHEA, Sylvia, lived about 800 B. C., and was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba, in Italy. Although a vestal virgin, from the embrace of Mars, she brought forth twins, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. RHEIMS, OF REIMS (Remi); a city of France, department of the Marne, ninety miles north-east of Paris; lat. 49° 14' north; lon. 4°2′ east; population 38,000. Rheims is a very old town: the streets are, in general, broad and regular, the houses well built, and there are numerous large gardens. It contains some remarkable public buildings, among which are the hotel de ville, finished in 1825; a magnificent cathedral of the twelfth century, one of the finest monuments of the kind in France, with a portal of great beauty; and the church of St. Remy, in which was preserved the holy oil used in the consecration of the kings. (See Ampulla.) The coronation of the French kings from the time of Philip Augustus (1179) to Charles X (1825), with the exception of Henry IV, crowned at Chartres, Napoleon, crowned at Paris, and Louis XVIII, who was not crowned at all, took place in the cathedral of Rheins (see Coronation); but this expensive ceremony was abolished in 1830. This town was the scene of some hard fighting between the French and Russians, in 1814. The latter took possession of Rheims, March 12, but were driven out by Napoleon, then on his march from Laon, on the 13th, with the loss of their general, St. Priest, and 2000 men. (See Châtillon, Congress of.) RHEINGAU; a part of the duchy of Nassau, along the right bank of the Rhine, about five leagues long. It is well peopled, and produces some of the choicest Rhenish wines. (q. v.) Gau is a German word, signifying district. RHENISH CONFEDERATION. (See Confederation of the Rhine.) RHENISH OF RHINLAND FOOT; equal to 1.023 English, or 24 Rhenish equal to 25 English. (See Measures, vol. viii, page 366.) RHENISH WINES; the finest wines of Germany. The vines on the Rhine were planted in the third century, under the emperor Probus. According to a still existing tradition, Charlemagne transplanted the first vine in the Rheingau (q. v.) from Orleans. The Rheingau is the true country of the Rhenish wines. The best are those of Assmannshausen (chiefly red), Rüdesheim, Rottländer, Hinterhäuser, Geissenheim, Johannisberg (q. v.), the best of all, of which a bottle of the first quality, in ordinary seasons, costs, on the spot, from four to five florins, and Hattenheim (called Markebrunner). Besides the wines of the Rheingau, the following are good Rhenish wines: on the left bank, the Nierensteiner, Liebfrauenmilch (translated, Our Lady's Milk), a mild wine growing near Worms, Laubenheimer, Bacheracher; on the right bank, Hochheimer. Among these wines, the Laubenheimer and Assmannshäuser are the most agreeable; the Hochheimer, Johannisberger and Geissenheimer, the most aromatic; the Nierensteiner, Markebrunner, Bacheracher and Rüdesheimer, the strongest and most fiery. Among the best vintages are those of 1748, 1760, 1762, 1766, 1776, 1779, 1780, 1781, and more particularly those of 1783 and 1811; also that of 1822. Rhenish wines improve much with age, and continue improving longer than any other wines. Some wine-cellars, as that of the city of Bremen, have Rhenish wine above 150 years old. (See also Hock, and Moselle Wines.) RHETORIC is the art of clothing the thoughts in the most agreeable and suitable form, to produce persuasion, to excite the feelings, to communicate pleasure. Speech is addressed to the understanding, the will and the taste; it treats of the true, the beautiful and the good; and is, therefore, didactic, critical, and pathetic or practical. These different objects are often united in the same work, which, therefore, partakes of all the three characters above mentioned, but, at the same time, one or the other character so far prevails as to give a predominant temper to the whole. In a narrower sense, rhet oric is the art of persuasive speaking, or the art of the orator, which teaches the composition and delivery of discourses intended to move the feelings or sway the will of others. These productions of the rhetorical art are designed to be pronounced, in the presence of hearers, with appropriate gesture and declamation; and they often, therefore, require a different style of composition and arrangement from those works which are intended for readers, or simply to be read and not oratorically declaimed, and which are embraced in the jurisdiction of rhetoric in its widest sense. The Romans distinguished three kinds of eloquence-the demonstrative, occupied with praise or blame, and addressed to the judgment; the deliberative, which acts upon the will and the inclinations by persuasion or dissuasion; and the judicial or forensic, which is used in defending or attacking. The Greeks divided discourses according to their contents as relating to precepts (oyous), manners (407), and feelings (ran), and as, therefore, calculated to instruct, to please, and to move-a division easily reconcilable with the former. The Romans had, also, a corresponding division into the genus dicendi tenue, mediocre and sublime. Another division of eloquence, founded on the subject to which it relates, is into academical, sacred (pulpit eloquence) and political. The two latter only allow of the lofty flights of eloquence. In the wider sense, as above explained, rhetoric treats of prose composition in general, whether in the form of historical works, philosophical dissertations, practical precepts, dialogues, or letters, and, therefore, includes the consideration of all the qualities of prose composition, purity of style, structure of sentences, figures of speech, &c.; in short, of whatever relates to clearness, preciseness, elegance and strength of expression. In the narrower sense of rhetoric, as the art of persuasive speaking, it treats of the invention and disposition of the matter. The latter includes the arrangement of the parts, which are the exordium or introduction, narration (when necessary), proposition and division, proof or refutation, and conclusion or peroration, and the elocution, which relates to the style, and requires elegance, purity and precision. The delivery, or pronunciation, also falls here. Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian are the principal writers on rhetoric among the ancients; and the most valuable English works on this subject, are Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, Blair's Lectures |