The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 374

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 Nottinghams.h.i.+re, 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 coadjutors.h.i.+p 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 ill.u.s.trative of Goethe's "Faust," of certain of Shakespeare's plays, as well as of Fouque'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 ile 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 princ.i.p.alities 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 a.s.semblies.

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 Ca.s.sel; 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 Wurtemberg, 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 flouris.h.i.+ng seaport on the S. side of the Gulf of Finland, 232 m. W. of St. Petersburg; has a castle, fortifications, cathedral, mediaeval antiquities, &c.; chiefly engaged in commerce; exports largely oats and other cereals, spirits, flax, &c.

REVELATION, name properly applicable to the knowledge of G.o.d, 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 Praeteritist, 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 heads.h.i.+p 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 n.o.ble households to superintend the amus.e.m.e.nts, 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 t.i.tle of respect given to the clergy, Very Reverend to deans, Right Reverend to bishops, and Most Reverend to archbishops.

ReVILLE, 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 etudes 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 cla.s.sical, 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 const.i.tution 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 litterateur and politician, born at Ma.r.s.eilles; 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, c.o.c.ks pleading at the judgment-bar, make strange mummery." The princ.i.p.al 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 n.o.ble 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 aeacus and Minos.