He affirmeth that tunny is fat upon the rising of the Pleiades, and departs upon Arcturus. Browne's Vulgar Errours. Your author always will the best advise, Fall when he falls, and when he rises, rise. To rise i' the world, Roscommon. No wise man that's honest should expect. Otway. Indeed you thanked me; but a nobler gratitude Rose in her soul; for from that hour she loved me. Id. Phoebus! stay; The world to which you fly so fast, From us to them can pay your haste Waller. Upon a breach with Spain, must be considered the present state of the king's treasure, the rise or fall that may happen in his constant revenue by a Spanish war. Temple. With Vulcan's rage the rising winds conspire, And near our palace rolls the flood of fire. Dryden. The hill submits itself In small descents, which do its height beguile; And sometimes mounts, but so as billows play, Whose rise not hinders, but makes short our way. Id. Bullion is risen to six shillings and five pence the ounce; i. e. that an ounce of uncoined silver will exchange for an ounce and a quarter of coined silver. Locke. Ash, on banks or rising grounds near rivers, will thrive exceedingly. Mortimer's Husbandry. All wickedness taketh its rise from the heart, and the design and intention with which a thing is done, frequently discriminates the goodness or evil of the action. Nelson. From such an untainted couple, we can hope to have our family rise to its ancient splendour of face, air, countenance, and shape. Tatler. A thought rose in me, which often perplexes men of contemplative natures. Numidia's spacious kingdom lies Ready to rise at its young prince's call. Spectator. Addison. The great duke rises on them in his demands, and will not be satisfied with less than a hundred thousand crowns, and a solemn embassy to beg pardon. Id. on Italy. Those, that have been raised by some great minister, trample upon the steps by which they rise to rival him. South. If two plane polished plates of a polished lookingglass be laid together, so that their sides be parallel, and at a very small distance from one another, and then their lower edges be dipped into water, the water will rise up between them. Newton.. No more shall nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriours meet with hateful eyes. Pope. The bishops have had share in the gradual rise of lands. Swift. The archbishop received him sitting; for, said he, I am too old to rise. Earl of Orrery. RISIBLE, adj. Fr. risible; Lat. risibilis. Having the faculty or power of laughter, or of exciting laughter. How comes lowness of stile to be so much the propriety of satyr that without it a poet can be no more a satyrist, than without risibility he can be a Dryden. man ? RISK, n. s. & v. a. Į Fr. risque; Span. riesRISK'ER. go. Hazard; danger; chance of harm: to place in danger; risker corresponding. He thither came, t' observe and smoak What courses other riskers took. Butler, Some run the risk of an absolute ruin for the gaining of a present supply. L'Estrange. When an insolent despiser of discipline, nurtured into contempt of all order by a long risk of licence, shall appear before a church governor, severity and resolution are that governor's virtues. South. Who would hope new fame to raise, Or risk his well-established praise, That, his high genius to approve, Had drawn a George, or carved a Jove? Addison. By allowing himself in what is innocent, he would run the risk of being betrayed into what is not so. Atterbury. An innocent man ought not to run an equal risk with a guilty man. Clarissa. RITCHIE (Joseph), an English traveller, one of the unfortunate victims of the passion for African discovery, was born at Otley in Yorkshire, and obtained a situation in the office of the English consul at Paris, where he first became acquainted with the plans of the African association. In conjunction with captain G. F. Lyon he went to Tripoli; and, in March 1819, the party set out for Mourzouk, in Fezzan, under the escort of Mukni the bey. They resided at Mourzouk some months in distress, arising from the want of funds, and the treacherous conduct Ritchie fell a sacrifice in November of this year. of the bey. To this hardship and vexation Mr. Captain Lyon returned to England, and in 1821 published A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa, in 1818, 19, and 20, accompanied by Geographical Notices of Soudan, and of the Course of the Niger, 4to. RITE, n. s. RITUAL, adj. & n. s. RITUALIST, n.s. Fr. rit; Lat. ritus. Solemn act of religion; external observance : ritual is solemnly ceremonious; a book of solemn ceremonies ritualist, he who is skilled in rituals. The ceremonies, we have taken from such as were before us, are not things that belong to this or that sect, but they are the ancient rites and customs of the church. Hooker. Is is by God consecrated into a sacrament, a holy rite, a means of conveying to the worthy receiver the benefits of the body and blood of Christ., Hammond's Fundamentals. When the prince her fun'ral rites had paid, He ploughed the Tyrrhene seas. Dryden. than these several pieces of antiquity in the particuA heathen ritual could not instruct a man better lar ceremonies, that attended different sacrifices. Addison's Remarks on Italy. Instant I bade the priests prepare Prior. If to tradition were added certain constant ritual and emblematical observances, as the emblems were expressive, the memory of the thing recorded would remain. Forbes. . RITSON (Joseph), a celebrated antiquary, was born in 1752, at Stockton-upon-Tees, in the county of Durham, and was brought up to the profession of the law. But his literary enquiries were by no means confined within the limits of his profession; and he was, perhaps, the most successful of those persons by whom the investigation of ancient English literature and antiquities was cultivated in the latter part of the eighteenth century: He died October, 1803. The following is a list of Mr. Ritson's publications :1. Observations on Johnson's and Steevens's Edition of Shakspeare; 2. Quiss Modest, in defence of ditto; 3. Cursory Criticisms on Malone's Edition of Shakspeare; 4. Observations on Warton's History of English Poetry; 5. Descent of the Crown of England, in a large Sheet; 6. Spartan Manuel; 7. Digest of the Proceedings of the Savoy Court; 8. Office of Constable explained; 9. Jurisdiction of the Court Leet; 10. A Collection of English Songs, 3 vols.; 11. Ditto of Scottish Songs, 2 vols.; 12. English Anthology, 3 vols.; 13. Minot's poems, 2 vols.; 14. Metrical Romances, 3 vols.; 15. Bibliographia Poetica; and, 16. Treatise on Abstinence from Animal Food. RITTBERG, a small principality of the government of Minden, belonging to Prussia. It lies on the Ems, contains an area of sixty-five square miles, and has about 12,000 inhabitants, chiefly Catholics. A number of these are spinners and weavers; and the district requires an annual import of provisions. RITTENHOUSE (David), an eininent American mathematician, was the son of a farmer in Pennsylvania. His parents put him apprentice to a watch-maker; and astronomy became the object of his enquiries; and, by procuring a few books on the subject, he soon made great progress in the science. The first public display he gave of his ingenuity was in 1768, when he completed his New Orrery, which gave universal satisfaction; and the trustees of the college of Philadelphia conferred on him the honorary degree of M. A. Not long after this he cominunicated, by his friend Dr. Smith, to the American Philosophical Society, a Projection of the transit of Venus, calculated from Halley's Tables; in consequence he was appointed by them, with several others, to make the necessary preparations for observing the transit at his house at Norristown. This transit happened on the 3d of June, 1769; and Mr. Rittenhouse obtained the applause of the astronomers of Europe, who esteemed his observation of this singular phenomenon extremely accurate and ingenious. After the American war he successively filled the offices of treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, and director of the national mint. He succeeded the venerable Franklin as president of the American Philosophical Society, which office he filled with high reputation. He died in June 1796. RITTERHUSIUS (Conrad), a learned German civilian, born at Brunswick in 1560. He was professor of civil law at Altdorf, and published a variety of works, particularly as a civilian; together with an addition of Oppian in Greek and Latin: he was moreover an excellent critic; his notes upon many eminent authors having been inserted in the best editions of them. He died in 1613. RITZEBUTTEL, a bailiwic belonging to Hamburgh, containing the harbour of Cuxhaven, and lying near the North Sea, between the Elbe and the Weser. Its area, without including the small island of Neuwerk, is twenty square miles, and its population 4000. It is very fertile. RITZEBUTTEL, the chief place of the above bailiwic, is a neat small town, with 1500 inhabitants. Fifty-four miles W. N. W. of Hamburgh, and one south of Cuxhaven. RIVAGE, n. s. French rivage. A bank; a coast. Not in use. Through riven clouds and molten firmament, The fierce three-forked engine making way, Both lofty towers and highest trees hath rent. O Cicero ! I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks; but ne'er till now Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. Id Shakspeare. Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament, To rive their dangerous artillery Upon no christian soul but English Talbot. Id. The neighbouring forests, formerly shaken and riven with the thunder-bolts of war, did envy the sweet peace of Druina. Howel's Vocal Forest. As one he stood, escap'd from cruel fight, Sore toiled, his riven arms to havock hewn. Milton. Had I not been blind, I might have seen Yon riven oak, the fairest of the green. Let it come; Dryden. Let the fierce lightning blast, the thunder rive me. Rowe. Freestone rives, splits, and breaks in any direction. Woodward. RIVEL, v. a. Sax. genifled; Belg. huyfelen, rumpled. To contract into wrinkles. Not in use. Then drooped the fading flowers, their beauty fled, And closed their sickly eyes and hung the head, And, riveled up with heat, lay dying in their bed. Dryden. Alum stipticks, with contracting power, Shrink his thin essence like a riveled flower. Pope. RIV'ER, n. s. Fr. riviere; Lat. rivus. RIVER-DRAGON, n. s. A land-current of water; RIV'ERET, a considerable stream running into the sea: a river-dragon is a poetical name for the crocodile: riveret and rivulet diminutives of river: river-god, the tutelary deity of a river: riverhorse, the hippopotamus. RIV'ER-GOD, RIV'ER-HORSE, RIV'ULET. It is a most beautiful country, being stored throughout with many goodly rivers replenished with all sorts of fish. Spenser. Bringing all their riverets in, There ends; a new song to begin. Drayton. The river-dragon, tamed at length, submits Rose, Milton's Paradise Lost. As plants ambiguous between sea and land, By fountain, or by shady rivulet, Milton. Id. The first of these rivers has been celebrated by the Latin poets for the gentleness of its course, as the other for its rapidity. Addison on Italy. I saw the rivulet of Salforata, formerly called Albula, and smelt the stench that arises from its water, which Martial mentions. Id. The veins, where innumerable little rivulets have their confluence into the common channel of the blood. Bentley. His wig hung as strait as the hair of a river-god rising from the water. Arbuthnot and Pope. I would have a man's wit rather like a fountain, that feeds itself invisibly, than a river, that is sup plied by several streams from abroad. Swift. RIV'ET, n. s. & v. a. Fr. river, to rivet; Ital. ribato. A fastening pin clenched at both ends: to drive in or clench à rivet; fasten with a rivet; fasten strongly. If all our fire were out, would fetch down new Out of the hand of Jove; and rivet him To Caucasus, should he but frown. Ben Jonson. What one party thought to rivet to a settledness, by the influence of the Scots, that the other rejects. King Charles. Thus hath God not only rivetted the notion of himself into our natures, but likewise made the belief of his being necessary to the peace of our minds and Tillotson. happiness of society. The verse in fashion is, when numbers flow So smooth and equal, that no sight can find The rivet where the polished piece was joined. Dryden. Till fortune's fruitless spite had made it known, Her blows not shook but rivetted his throne. Id. Where we use words of a loose and wandering signification, hence follow mistake and error, which tions, wherein the terms stand for undetermined those maxims, brought as proofs to establish proposiideas, do by their authority confirm and rivet. Locke. In rivetting, the pin you rivet in should stand upright to the place you rivet it upon; for, if it do not stand upright, you will be forced to set it upright after it is rivetted. Moron. They provoke him to the rage Of fangs and claws, and, stooping from your horse, Rivet the panting savage to the ground. Addison. Rivet and nail me where I stand, ye powers! Congrete. A similitude of nature and manners, in such a degree as we are capable of, must tie the holy knot, and rivet the friendship between us. Atterbury. This instrument should move easy upon the rivet. Sharp. RIVINA, in botany, American nightshade, a genus of the monogynia order, and tetrandria class of plants. The perianth is four-leaved, colored, and permanent, the leaflet oblong-egged and obtuse: COR. none. There are four or eight filaments, shorter than the calyx, approaching by pairs, permanent: the antheræ are small. The germ is large and roundish; the style very short; the stigma simple and obtuse. The berry is globular, sitting on the green reflected calyx, one-celled, with an incurved point. There is by Tournefort, and piercea by Miller. It grows one rugged seed. This plant is called solonoides naturally in most of the islands of the West will stain paper and linen of a bright red color, Indies. The juice of the berries of the plant and many experiments made with it to color flowers have succeeded extremely well in the following manner: the juice of the berries was pressed out, and mixed with common water, putting it into a phial, shaking it well together for some time till the water was thoroughly tinged; then the flowers, which were white and just fully blown, were cut off, and their stalks placed into the phial; and in one night the flowers have been finely variegated with red: the flowers on which the experiments were made were the tuberose and the double white narcissus. RIVOLI, a town of Piedmont, Italy, at the foot of the Alps, on the great road which leads over Mount Cenis into Savoy. It has some 'manufactures of linen, woollens, and silk. On an eminence stands a castle, in which Victor Amadeus II. of Sardinia, after having abdicated his throne in favor of his son, and endeavoured to resume it, died, in 1732, a state prisoner. The prospect from this eminence, and in particular the view of Turin, through a spacious alley of trees, is most imposing. Population 5100. Nine miles west of Turin. RIVOLI, a small place in the north-east of Lombardy, on the Adige, twelve miles north-west of Verona. It is only remarkable as the scene of one of Buonaparte's victories. At Arcole, in the preceding November, his plans had been repeatedly baffled by the Austrians; but here they had complete success (14th and 15th January, 1797) both on the field and in the pursuit. RIZZIO (David), an Italian musician, who about 1563 attended the Piedmontese ambassador to Scotland, where, by his professional skill, he obtained great favor with Queen Mary. She appointed him her French secretary, and showed him such marks of distinction as gave offence to lord Darnley and other nobles, who, with great brutality, assassinated him in her presence. See MARY and SCOTLAND. Tradition assigns to Rizzio the amelioration, not to say the invention, of the Scottish music; and it is unquestionable that his skill in the performance of the national melodies on the lute tended not a little to their general improvement and popularity; but many of the airs which have been ascribed to Rizzio, as Cowden Knowes, Gala Water, and others, are easily traced to more remote periods. ROACH, n. s. From Lat. rutilus, red-haired. A river fish. A roach is a fish of no great reputation for his dainty taste his spawn is accounted much better than any other part of him: he is accounted the water sheep for his simplicity and foolishness; and it is noted that roaches recover strength, and grow in a fortnight after spawning. Walton's Angler. Swift. If a gudgeon meet a roach, He dare not venture to approach! Yet still he leaps at flies. ROAD, n. s. Sax. ɲad; Fr. rade, route. From RIDE. Properly a horse or carriage way; large way; path; inroad: place for ships to anchor in; journey; course. ROAD, in navigation, a bay, or a place of anchorage, at some distance from the shore, whither ships or vessels occasionally repair to receive intelligence, orders, or necessary supplies; or to wait for a fair wind, &c. The excellence of a road consists chiefly in its being protected from the reigning winds and the swell of the sea; in having a good anchoring-ground, and being at a competent distance from the shore. Those which are not sufficiently enclosed are termed open roads. A ROAD is an open way, or public passage, forming a communication between one place and another. Of all the people in the world, the Romans took the most pains in forming roads; and the labor and expenses they were at in rendering them spacious, firm, straight, and smooth, are incredible. They usually strengthened the ground by ramming it, laying it with flints, pebbles, or sands, and sometimes with a lining of masonry, rubbish, bricks, &c., bound together with mortar. In some places in the cidevant Lionnois, F. Menestrier observes that he has found huge clusters of flints cemented with lime, reaching ten or twelve feet deep, and making a mass as hard and compact as marble; and which, after resisting the injuries of time for 1600 years, is still mattocks, &c.; and yet the flints it consists of scarcely penetrable by all the force of hammers, are not bigger than eggs. The most noble of the Roman roads was the Via Appia, which was carried to such a vast length that Procopius reckons it five days' journey to the end of it, and Lipsius computes it at 350 miles: it is twelve feet broad, and made of square free-stone, generally a foot and a half on each side; and, though this has lasted for above 1800 years, yet in many places it is several miles together as entire as when it was first made. The ancient roads are distinguished into military, subterraneous roads, &c. The military roads were grand roads, formed by the Romans for marching their armies into the provinces of the empire; the principal of these Roman roads in England are Watling Street, Ikonild Street, Foss Way, and Erminage Street. Double roads, among the Romans, were roads for carriages, with two pavements, the one for those going one way, and the other for those Would you not think him a madman, who, whilst returning the other: these were separated from About the island are many roads, but only one harbour. Cason was desirous of the spoil, for he was, by the former road into that country, famous and rich." I should be still Knolles. Peering in maps for ports and roads ; The Volscians stand Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road wasted Northumberland with fire and sword. Bacon. each other by a causeway raised in the middle, paved with bricks, for the conveniency of footpassengers; with borders and mounting stones from space to space, and military columns to mark the distance. Subterraneous roads are those dug through a rock, and left vaulted; and that of Puzzuoli near Naples, which is nearly half a league long, is fifteen feet broad, and as many high. MODERN ROADS.-If the modern roads of Great Britain, and particularly those of England, do not as yet equal the most firm and durable of the ancient undertakings of this kind, it cannot be from the want of attention to the subject, either on the part of the legislature or the people. Our turnpike acts would of themselves make an ample volume; parliamentary enquiries into the general subject of road-making, as well as into its local applications, have often been adverted to; and commissioners for carrying into effect the decisions of the national wisdom comprise the names of almost every respectable squire and beneficed clergyman (!) and lawyer of the country. M. Dupin, the ablest perhaps of modern writers on the commercial power of England, is far more enamoured with our road-making system than we can profess ourselves to be; he calculates that in the South of England alone we have an extent of public road, unequalled for its conveniences, that measures 46,000 leagues, and attributes it entirely to the well organised public spirit of the country. He contrasts in this respect the conduct of the British government, too, with that of France: the former not only granting the inhabitants a credit and funds, but leaving them to carry on themselves those works in which they are so materially interested; whilst in the latter the government obliges the inhabitants to pour their funds into its own treasury, to enable it to execute after its own manner, and when it shall seem good in its own eyes, that which concerns only the governed. How very far,' he says, are we from participating in the spirit of the administration and the parliament of Great Britain! We, who scarcely confide to the zeal of the inhabitants the repair of a village foot-path! We, who, before a basket of pebbles can be thrown upon the smallest departmental road, require imperatively that the future expense of this basketful shall be carried to the budget of the arrondissement, then to that of the départment, then submitted to the grand council of bridges and highways, sitting in a bureau at Paris, at the distance of 200 leagues from the situation of the work!' He holds up to deserved ridicule the 'lenteurs savantes d'une comptabilité profonde,' and the 'formalités bureaucratiques,' which must be encountered before a public work of any description can be undertaken in France; the consequences of which are, that, with a strong corps of engineers des ponts et chaussées scattered over every part of the country, the few new works which are commenced proceed with all imaginable leisure, and the old ones are suffered gradually to decay. Matters of this kind, he says, are very differently managed in England. There houses, ships, carriages, and machines, are kept constantly in the best condition, and have an appearance of freshness, neatness, nay, of brilliancy, which is only adopted partially, and that even by a small number of people, on the continent. It is remarkable, he adds, that the most economical nations, and those the most enlightened as to their pecuniary interests, such as the Dutch, the Swedes, and the English, adopt, with common consent, the system of constant repair; while the Italians, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, &c., the worst calculators, and the most improvident, wait generally till an edifice falls into ruins before they think of beginning to repair it. It is the same in England, he observes, with regard to the roads; they are habitually kept solid, smooth, and easy, equally economical for the transport of commerce, and the convenience and expedition of travelling. But in France, even in the midst of profound peace,' says M. Dupin, scarcely can the government be prevailed upon to assign, for the maintenance of our roads, the third part of the sums which are furnished by the inhabitants of England alone-a country that does not equal in surface a third part of France.' All this may contribute to put our readers in good humor with what is often a dry and dusty subject; but, while we shall shortly endeavour to do justice to the real modern improvements in road-making, we conceive that this writer admires, through ignorance of its details, some of the worst parts of our system. It is a dear and bad system, and a third part of the immense expenditure it involves would appear fully equal, on a better plan of administration, to accomplish the complete intersection of the country with good roads. The surveyor of parish roads is chosen from ten men named by a vestry meeting; or, if necessary, more than one are appointed, the selection being in the justices at the quarter-sessions. The works and the money are under the management of the surveyor, and the control is in the local magistracy. A surveyor may perform the office gratuitously, but it is in the power of the parish to name and pay a salaried and professional one. The business is neglected by all; and it is doubly neglected when the commissioners are numerous, or it falls into the hands of some one who makes an interest for himself, in power or patronage, or something else; or, finally, every thing is transacted by an attorney, not always the most honorable member of his profession. As to hired surveyors, their collusions with the contractors are numerous; and while the wretched but cunning people who form vestries contrive to waste and spoil the funds, from the spoil of which they all in turn contrive to derive a profit, there is either no efficient control, or there is no control at all, as the accounts are passed under the direction of the attorney, himself dependent on the vestry and the parish for his favor and his profits. It is unquestionable that double the money is often raised for these roads that would be required under a prudent direction, free from all local interests. Bergman quotes this general view of the subject; we shall extract from M. Dupin a passage grounded on the recent parliamentary enquiries. It is introduced by the following |