James Wood

“ Realism, as opposed to Nominalism, is the belief that general terms denote real things and are not mere names or answerable to the mere conception of them, and as opposed to idealism, is in philosophy the belief that we have an immediate cognition of things external to us, and that they are as they seem. In art and literature it is the tendency to conceive and represent things as they are, however unsightly and immoral they may be, without any respect to the beautiful, the true, or the good. ”

“ Rational Horizon, a great circle parallel to the horizon, the centre of which is the centre of the earth.
Rationalism, Modern, a speculative point of view that resolves the supernatural into the natural, inspiration into observation, and revelation into what its adherents called reason, when they mean simply understanding, and which ends in stripping us naked, and leaving us empty of all the spiritual wealth accumulated by the wise in past ages, and bequeathed to us as an inheritance that had cost them their life's blood. ”

“ The great builders of the empire, the beginnings of which are to be sought in the 9th century, have been Ivan the Great, who in the 15th century drove out the Mongols and established his capital as Moscow; Ivan the Terrible, the first of the czars, who in the 16th century pushed into Asia and down to the Black Sea; and Peter the Great (q. v.) . Its restless energies are still unabated, and inspire a persistently aggressive policy in the Far East. Within recent years its literature has become popular in Europe through the powerful writings of Pushkin, Turgenief, and Tolstoi. ”

“ He began his career as an admirer of Turner, and finished as a disciple of Thomas Carlyle, but neither slavishly nor with the surrender of his own sense of justice and truth; Justice is the goddess he worships, and except in her return to the earth as sovereign he bodes nothing but disaster to the fortunes of the race ”

“ Agriculture is the prevailing industry, engaging 90 per cent. of the people, although in all not more than 21 per cent. of the soil is cultivated; rye is the chief article of food for the peasantry, who comprise four-fifths of the population. The rich plains, known as the “black lands” from their deep, loamy soil, which stretch from the Carpathians to the Urals, are the most productive corn-lands in Europe, and rival in fertility the “yellow lands” of China, and like them need no manure. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ranke, Leopold von, distinguished German historian, born in Thüringia just 16 days after Thomas Carlyle; began life similarly as a teacher and devoted his leisure hours to the study of history and the publication of historical works; was in 1825 appointed professor of History at Berlin; was commissioned by the Prussian government to explore the historical archives of Vienna, Rome, and Venice, the fruit of which was seen in his subsequent historical labours, which bore not only upon the critical periods of German history, but those of Italy, France, and even England ”

“ 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. ”

“ Riviera, an Italian term for coast-land flanked by mountains, especially applied to the strip of land lying around the Gulf of Genoa from Nice to Leghorn, which is divided by Genoa into the Western and Eastern Riviera, the former the more popular as a health resort; but the whole coast enjoys an exceptionally mild climate, and is replete with beautiful scenery. ”

“ The Rhine-Highland between Bingen and Bonn is the most romantic and picturesque part of its course. As the Lower Rhine it flows in a sluggish, winding stream through the Rhenish Lowlands, enters Holland near Clèves, at Nimeguen bends to the W., and flowing through Holland some 100 m. reaches the German Ocean, splitting in its lowest part into several streams which form a rich delta, one-third of Holland. It is 800 m. in length; receives numerous affluents, e.g. ”

“ Rocky Mountains, an extensive and lofty chain of mountains in North America, belonging to the Cordillera system, and forming the eastern buttress of the great Pacific Highlands, of which the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains form the western buttress, stretching in rugged lines of almost naked rock, interspersed with fertile valleys, from New Mexico through Canada to the Arctic Ocean, broken only by a wonderfully beautiful tract of elevated plateau in southern Wyoming, over which passes the Union Pacific Railroad ”

“ Robert the Devil, the hero of an old French romance identified with Robert, first Duke of Normandy, who, after a career of cruelty and crime, repented and became a Christian, but had to expiate his guilt by wandering as a ghost over the earth till the day of judgment; he is the subject of an opera composed by Meyerbeer. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Rioja (80) , a province of W. Argentina, embraces some of the most fruitful valleys of the Andes which grow cereals, vines, cotton, &c.; some mining in copper, silver, and gold is done. The capital, Rioja (6) , is prettily planted in a vine and orange district at the base of the Sierra Velasco 350 m. NW. of Cordoba.
Riom (10) , a pretty little French town in the dep. of Puy-de-Dôme, noted for its many quaint old houses of the Renaissance period; does a good trade in tobacco, linen, &c. ”

“ Want of ports on the Mediterranean and Atlantic hamper commerce, while the great ports in the Baltic are frozen up four or five months in the year; the southern ports are growing in importance, and wheat, timber, flax, and wool are largely exported. There is a vast inland trade, facilitated by the great rivers (Volga, Don, Dnieper, Dniester, Vistula, &c.) and by excellent railway and telegraphic communication. Among its varied races there exists a wide variety of religions—Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Shamanism, &c. ”

“ Rhenish Prussia (4,710) , the most westerly and most densely populated of the Prussian provinces, lies within the valleys of the Rhine and the Lower Moselle, and borders on Belgium and the Netherlands; is mountainous and forest-clad, except in the fertile plains of the N. and in the rich river valleys, where vines, cereals, and vegetables are extensively cultivated; large quantities of coal, iron, zinc, and lead are mined; as an industrial and manufacturing province it ranks first in Germany. Coblenz (capital) , Aix-la-Chapelle, Bonn, and Cologne are among its chief towns ”

“ Rio Grande (known also as Rio Bravo del Norte) , an important river of North America, rises in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado; flows SE., dividing Texas from Mexico, and enters the Gulf of Mexico after a course of 1800 m.; is navigable for steamboats some 500 m.; chief tributary, Rio Pecos; also the name given to the head-stream of the river Paraná in Brazil and Argentina.
Rio Grande do Norte (310) , a maritime State in the NE. corner of Brazil, called after the Rio Grande, which flows NE. and enters the Atlantic at Natal, the capital of the State. ”

“ Radicals, a class of English politicians who, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, aimed at the political emancipation of the mass of the people by giving them a share in the election of parliamentary representatives. ”

“ Boymans' Museum has a fine collection of Dutch and modern paintings, and the Groote Kerk is a Gothic church of imposing appearance; there is also a large zoological garden; shipbuilding, distilling, sugar-refining, machine and tobacco factories are the chief industries. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Robert II., king of Scotland from 1371 to 1390, son of Walter Stewart and Marjory, only daughter of Robert the Bruce; succeeded David II., and became the founder of the Stuart dynasty; was a peaceable man, but his nobles were turbulent, and provoked invasions on the part of England by their forays on the Borders (1316-1390) .
Robert III., king of Scotland from 1390 to 1406, son of Robert II.; was a quite incompetent ruler, and during his reign the barons acquired an ascendency and displayed a disloyalty which greatly diminished the power of the Crown both in his and succeeding reigns ”

“ Not till 1862 did he appear in the rôle of social reformer, and that was by the publication of “Unto this Last,” in the Cornhill Magazine, on the first principles of political economy, the doctrines in which were further expounded in “Munera Pulveris,” “Time and Tide,” and “Fors Clavigera” (q. v.) , the principles in which he endeavoured to give practical effect to by the Institution of St. George's Guild, with the view of commending “the rational organisation of country life independent of that of cities.” ”

“ Rouen (112) , the ancient capital of Normandy, a busy manufacturing town on the Seine, 87 m. NW of Paris; a good portion of the old, crowded, picturesque town has given place to more spacious streets and dwellings; the old ramparts have been converted into handsome boulevards; has several Gothic churches unrivalled in beauty, a cathedral (the seat of an archbishop) , &c.; the river affords an excellent waterway to the sea, and as a port Rouen ranks fourth in France; is famed for its cotton and other textiles ”

“ Rainy, Robert, eminent Scottish ecclesiastic, born in Glasgow; professor of Church History and Principal in the Free Church College, Edinburgh; an able man, a sagacious and an earnest, a distinguished leader of the Free Church; forced into that position more by circumstances, it is believed, than by natural inclination, and in that situation some think more a loss than a gain to the Church catholic, to which in heart and as a scholar he belongs; b. 1826.
Rajah, a title which originally belonged to princes of the Hindu race, who exercised sovereign rights over some tract of territory ”

“ Education is backward, more than 85 per cent. of the people being illiterate; there are eight universities. Conscription is enforced; the army is the largest in the world. Government is an absolute monarchy, save in Finland (q. v.) ; the ultimate legislative and executive power is in the hands of the czar, but there is a State Council of 60 members nominated by the czar. ”

“ 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” ”

“ In the 50 departments a good deal of local self-government is enjoyed through the village communes and their public assemblies, but the imperial power as represented by the police and military is felt in all parts, while governors of departments have wide and ill-defined powers which admit of abuse. ”

“ Ritter, Heinrich, German philosopher, born in Anhalt; professor successively at Berlin, Kiel, and Göttingen; is distinguished as the author of an able “History of Philosophy” (1791-1860) .
Ritter, Karl, celebrated geographer, born at Quedlinburg; the founder of comparative geography; professor of geography at Berlin; his chief works “Geography in its Relation to Nature,” and the “History of Man” (1779-1859) . ”

“ Reciprocity, a term used in economics to describe commercial treaties entered into by two countries, by which it is agreed that, while a strictly protective tariff is maintained as regards other countries, certain articles shall be allowed to pass between the two contracting countries free of or with only light duties ”

“ 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 ”

“ Richard of Cirencester, an English chronicler, born at Cirencester; flourished in the 14th century; was a monk in the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Westminster; wrote a History of England from 447 to 1066; for long the reputed author of a remarkable work on Roman Britain, now proved to be a forgery; d. 1401.
Richards, Alfred Bate, journalist and author; turned from law to literature; author of a number of popular dramas, volumes of poems, essays, &c. ”