she had had present commodity, she would have adjoined as a retraction to the other. Sidney. Were I alone to pass the difficulties, Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done, Nor faint in the pursuit. Shakspeare. If his subtilities could have satisfied me, I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry, as I ever made it. Stilling feet. These words are David's retractation, or laying down of a bloody and revengeful resolution. South. They make bold with the deity, when they make him do and undo, go forwards and backwards by such countermarches and retractations as we do not repute to the Almighty. Hoodward. She will, and she will not, she grants, denies, Consents, retracts, advances, and then flies. RETREAT, in a military sense. An army or body of men are said to retreat when they turn their backs upon the enemy, or are retiring from the ground they occupied: hence every march in withdrawing from the enemy is called a retreat. That which is performed in sight of an active enemy, who pursues with a superior force, is the most important; and is a manœuvre the most calculated to display the prudence, courage, and address, of an officer who commands. The most famous retreat in ancient history was that of Xenophon. RETREAT is also a beat of the drum, at the firing of the evening gun; at which the drummajor, with all the drums of the battalion, except such as are upon duty, beats from the campcolors on the right to those on the left, on the parade of the encampment: the drums of all the guards beat also; the trumpets at the same time sounding at the head of their respective troops. This is to warn the soldiers to forbear firing, and the sentinels to challenge, till the break of day that the reveille is beat. The retreat is likewise called setting the watch. RETRENCH', v. a. & v. n. J Fr. retrancher. away; confine; live within narrow limits, as to expense: the act of lopping away; entrench ment. In some reigns they are for a power and obedience that is unlimited; and in others are for retrenching, within the narrowest bounds, the authority of the princes, and the allegiance of the subject. Addison's Freeholder. The want of vowels in our language has been the general complaint of our politest authors, who nevertheless have made these retrenchments, and consequently encreased our former scarcity. Addison. We ought to retrench those superfluous expenses to qualify ourselves for the exercise of charity. Can I retrench? yes, mighty well, Atterbury. Pope. RETRENCHMENT, in the art of war, any kind of work raised to cover a post, and fortify it against the enemy. RETRIBUTE, v. a.RETRIBUTER, n. s, RETRIBUTION, RETRIBUTOR, adj. RETRIBUTIVE. Fr. retribuer; Lat. retribuo. To pay back; make repay ment of; all the derivatives corresponding. The king thought he had not remunerated his people sufficiently with good laws, which evermore was his retribution for treasure. Bacon's Henry VII. In good offices and due retributions, we may not be pinching and niggardly: it argues an ignoble mind, where we have wronged to higgle and dodge in the amends. Hall. All who have their reward on earth, the fruits Of painful superstition, and blind zeal, Nought seeking but the praise of inen, here find Fit retribution, empty as their deeds. Milton. Both the will and power to serve him are his upon so many scores, that we are unable to retribute. unless we do restore; and all the duties we can pay our Maker are less properly requitals than restitutions. Boyle. There is no nation, though plunged into never such gross idolatry, but has some awful sense of deity, and a persuasion of a state of retribution to men after this life. South. It is a strong argument for a state of retribution hereafter, that in this world virtuous persons are very often unfortunate, and vicious persons prosperous. Addison's Spectator. Something strangely retributire is working. RETRIEVE', v. a. Fr. retrouver. cover; restore; repair; regain. Clarissa. To re The bodies they forsook, and wish to live. Dryden. With late repentance now they would retrieve Philomela's liberty retrieved, Philips. Cheers her sad soul. Your intent In going back to school to Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire. Shakspeare. should handle Princes, if they use ambitious men, it so, as they be still progressive, and not retrograde. Bacon. Their wand'ring course, now high, now low, then hid, Progressive, retrograde, or standing still, The account, established upon the rise and descent of the stars, can be no reasonable rule unto distant nations, and by reason of their retrogression, but temporary unto any one. Browne. Two geomantick figures were displayed; One when direct, and one when retrograde. Dryden. As for the revolutions, stations, and retrogradations of the planets, observed constantly in most certain periods of time, it sufficiently demonstrates, that their motions are governed by counsel. and Ray. Latin retro RETROMIN'GENCY, n. s. Į RETROMINGENT, adj. mingo. The quality of staling backwards: the adjective corresponding. The last foundation was retromingency, or pissing backwards; for men observing both sexes to urine backwards, or aversly between their legs, they might conceive there were feminine parts in both. Browne's Vulgar Errours. By reason of the backward position of the feminine parts of quadrupeds, they can hardly admit the substitution of masculine generations, except it be in retromingents. RETROSPECT, n. s. RETROSPECTION. Browne. Lat. retro and specio. Look thrown RETROSPECTIVE, adj. Supon things behind or things past: act or faculty of looking back; looking backwards. As you arraign his majesty by retrospect, so you condemn his government by second sight. Addison's Freeholder. Covered with skin and hair keeps it warın, being naturally a very cold part, and also to quench and dissipate the force of any stroke that shall be dealt it, and retund the edge of any weapon. RETURN', v. n., v. a., &> Fr. retourner; RETURN'ABLE, adj. [n. s. RETURN'ER, n. s. RETURN LESS, adj. re and turn. To come or go back; come again; come again to the beginning of a series; retort; recriminate; answer: to repay; give or send back; transmit; give account of: as a noun substantive, the act of coming, going, restoring, or paying back; revolution; retrogression; profit; advanin law, allowed tage; remittance: returnable is, to be reported back: returner, he who pays money: returnless, not admitting return. Return him a trespass offering. 1 Samuel vi. 3. Thy Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head. 1 Kings ii. 44. At the return of the year, the king of Syria will come up. Id. xx. 22. Whoso rolleth a stone, it will return upon him. Proverbs xxvi. I am in blood As rouzed with rage, with rage doth sympathize; Weapons hardly fall under rule; yet even they have returns and vicissitudes; for ordnance was known in the city of the Oxidraces in India, and is what the Macedonians called thunder and lightning. Bacon's Essays. As for any merchandise you have bought, ye shall Bacon. have your return in merchandise or gold. As to roots accelerated in their ripening, there is the high price that those things bear, and the swiftness of their returns; for, in some grounds, a radish comes in a month, that in others will not come in two, and so make double returns. Id. Seasons return, but not to me returns Id. Probably one fourth part more died of the plague than are returned. Graunt's Bills of Mortality. Pope. The all of thine that cannot die Through dark and dread Eternity, Returns again to me, And more thy buried love endears Than ought, except its living years. Byron. RETURN, RETURNA, or RETOURNA, in law, is used in divers senses. 1. Return of writs by sheriffs and bailiffs is a certificate made by them to the court, of what they have done in relation to the execution of the writ directed to them. This is written on the back of the writ by the officer, who thus sends the writ back to the court whence it issued, to be filed. 2. Return of a commission, a certificate or answer sent to the court whence the commission issues, concerning what has been done by the commissioners. 3. Returns, or days in bank, are certain days in each term, appointed for the return of writs, &c. RETZAT, the name of two rivers and a creek of Bavaria: the latter has an area of 3400 square miles, and 520,000 inhabitants. The capital is Anspach. RETZIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants, natural order twenty-ninth, campanacea: CAPS. bilocular: COR. cylindrical, villous without, stigma bifid. REU, the son of Peleg, father of Serug, and great-grandfather of Abraham. He was born about the time of the division of the earth, and died in his 207th year. He REUCHLIN, or CAPNIO (John), LL. D. a learned German, born at Pforzheim, in 1450. He he studied grammar under John de Lapide, went to Paris with the bishop of Utrecht, where rhetoric under Gaguinus, Greek under Tiphernus, and Hebrew under Wesselus. He became doctor of philosophy at Basil in 1749, and LL.D. of Orleans; where he taught Greek, and published a grammar, lexicon, and vocabularies, in that language. He next went to Rome, where Hermolaus Barbarus persuaded him to change his name to Capnio, which in Greek means the same as Reuchlin in German, i. e. smoke. was made ambassador to Frederick III., who granted him many favors, but after that emperor's death he was banished, and went to Worms, where the elector palatine employed him to defend his cause at Rome, where he made a celebrated oration before the pope on the rights of the German princes and churches. He revived the study of Hebrew, and died in 1522. The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum are ascribed to him. REVE', n. s. Sax. genera, a governor. The bailiff of a franchise or manor. The reve, the miller, and the mincing lady prioress, speak in character. Dryden. REVEAL', v. a. Fr. reveler; Lat. revelo. REVEALER, n. s. To show; discover; lay REVELATION. SOpen: the noun substantives corresponding. The sufferings of this life are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans viii. 18. Be ashamed: speaking again that which thou hast heard, and revealing of secrets. Ecclus. xli. 23. The habit of faith in divinity is an argument of things unseen, as a stable assent unto things inevident, upon authority of the divine revealer. Browne's Vulgar Errours. Light was the wound, the prince's care unknown, She might not, would not, yet reveal her own. REV'EL, v. n. Skinner derives it from REV'ELLER, n. s. Fr. reveiller, to awake; Lye REV'ELRY, from Belg, raveelen, to rove REVEL-ROUT. loosely about, which is countenanced by the old phrase, revel-rout. Perhaps all are from Lat. re and vigilia. To feast with clamorous merriment: and (of Lat. revello), to drive back: revelry is, jollity; mirth: reveller, one who indulges in revels: revel-rout, a tumult; tumultuous festivity. That revelled here in Sherewood, Though he ne'er shot in his bow. Those who miscarry escape by their ling the humours from their lungs. There let Hymen oft appear Donne. Ben Jonson. flood revel- Milton. In saffron robe with taper clear, Friend's History of Physic. We know not this-the blood flows on too fast; Byron. REVEL, a town of France, in the department of the Upper Garonne, is situated not far from the great canal of Languedoc. It has a population of 3800, who manufacture woollens, linen, stockings, and caps. During the civil wars of the sixteenth century it was taken and fortified by the Calvinists, but afterwards dismantled. Thirty miles south-east of Toulouse. REVELATION is the act of revealing or making a thing public that was before unknown; it is also used for the discoveries made by God to his prophets, and by them to the world; and more particularly for the books of the Old and New Testament. See BIBLE, CHRISTIANITY, MIRACLE, PROPHECY, RELIGION, and THEOLOGY. The principal tests of the truth of any revelation are, the tendency of its practical doctrines; its consistency with itself, and with the known attributes of God; and some satisfactory evidence that it cannot have been derived from a human source. In every revelation confirmed by this evidence many doctrines are to be looked for which human reason cannot fully comprehend; and these are to be believed on the testimony of God, and suffered to produce their practical consequences. This kind of belief has place in arts and sciences, as well as in religion. Whoever avails himself of the demonstrations of Newton, Bernouilli, and others, respecting the resistance of fluids, and applies their conclusions to the art of shipbuilding, is as implicit a believer, if he understand not the principles of fluxions, as any Christian; and yet no man will say that his faith is not productive of important practical consequences. This is a subject respecting which we have felt a strong desire to be at once plain and copious in the present work; and, for reasons which will appear at the close, what may seem briefly discussed in this article will be resumed in that of THEOLOGY. As a country we are recovering and but recovering-in common with the other nations of Europe from the storm of infidelity and every sort of discord which began in revolutionary France. During its progress not only new and excellent expositions and defences of the evidences of our faith have appeared in England and placed the whole subject in renewed and living light, but one of the greatest moral experiments upon infidelity that was ever tried, or that perhaps ever can be tried, may be said to have been completed. Lardner and Paley and Porteus and Watson (to say nothing of existing writers) must on the other hand have lived in vain, if the evidences of Christianity may not be popularised with more facility, and left to their own fair effect upon the minds of men with more confidence than ever; while on the other hand it will indeed appear that nations are never to profit by experience, if the international history of Europe for the last thirty years shall not give new scope to the arguments for Christianity, and show the true tendencies of atheism. Connected with these great facts, and by no means inferior to any other consideration in our view of its importance, is the interesting situation of this country at the present period, with regard to education and the circulation of the Bible. How mightily calculated to act upon each other are the noble engines which are everywhere at work to promote these objects! But the more we attempt to educate all classes, and especially those neglected groupes of society to whom education and all its advantages are novelties, the more in all the ardor of novelty must we expect to see the spirit of enquiry rising about us-and the real taste of truth mingling with much of the pride of supposed discoveries in morals and religion. Each class of society, too, will act strongly, and, on the whole, beneficially on every other; while all classes will be stimulated more than ever to discuss every thing they have believed or are taught to believe. The cultivation of the mind educes enquiry: but sorry we are to add that some distinguished promoters of liberal enquiry have been, at any rate, imagined, to be indisposed to religion; and to slight its evidences. Here arises therefore a double reason for the plain and full exhibition of them: it is due at once to science and religion. We should state the presumption in favor of revealed religion (to trace the argument fairly from its origin) in the following way. There is a God and He is infinitely benevolent. In the boundless heavens, the teeming earth, the cheerful seas, He has opened volumes of truth and wisdom inviting every eye. We have read them with attention, we claim the privilege of thinking and reasoning about them with impartiality and independence of mind; and whether by the light of science we search the arcana of nature, or confine ourselves to those observations on her works which may be as easily made by the ploughman as by the philosopher, no one truth is supported by such variety of proof as the being of a beneficent Author of all: springs of happiness, evidently designed, open every where at our feet, and supply the unquestionable sources of natural religion. One thing however is left unsatisfied-the human mind. Nature teaches us to ask questions about her God which she cannot answer. This is an anomaly. Every thing seems to lead up to man: he has a more exquisitely finished form than any creature of his size, and a power of reflection, and therefore of anticipation, possessed by no other creature: he arrives at the position with which we have commenced; he finds it the capital truth of nature, without which all the conclusions of science are halftruths only, but he cannot proceed. The very being of nature's God seems to include a hearty determination in God to make his creatures happy, by adapting an object to every faculty of enjoyment; and all their senses are faculties of enjoyment. But here is an appetite for truth unprovided for either therefore this must remain an inexplicable mystery, or rather a contradiction to the whole series of facts that argue a benevolent designer in the works of nature, or nature herself suggests the highest probability of a further revelation from God; and here we rest the connexion between natural and revealed religion. We have some hope of all who desire to retain God in their knowledge, and would reason with all who avow that desire. The Bible professes to contain that revelation from God which every consistent deist must be enquiring for-it demands a reasonable service only, from its most devout admirers, and can therefore have nothing to fear from an investigation of its claims. He who hates a man for not being a Christian is not himself a Christian, lord Littleton has well said. Weak Christians and violent sceptics are each likely to be improperly affected by the revival of the deistical controversy, the former by undue apprehensions, the latter by a premature exultation; but, whether the triumphs of the one or the fears of the other are to be realised, we deem it a paramount duty to request both, as much as possible, to suppress mere emotions, and in the spirit of untrembling deliberation to allow the arena to be cleared and the conflict to be fairly and openly decided. But to return:- -By revealed, as distinguished from natural religion, we are to understand that knowledge of religion which was originally communicated in a supernatural way. A revelation of this kind must either be by an immediate infallible inspiration, or illumination of every particular person, for informing and directing him with regard to the knowledge and practice of religion; or by God's making an extraordinary discovery of himself and of his will to some person or persons, who should be commissioned to communicate it to others. In the former case it could not be properly called extraordinary or supernatural revelation; for if it were a universal infallible light, imparted to every single person in every nation and every age, from the beginning of the world, it would be as common and familiar to every one as the common light of reason, and by being universal would cease to be extraordinary. Whereas, if there be such a thing as revealed religion, or if it has pleased God to make discoveries of his will to mankind with respect to religious truth and duty, in a way of extraordinary revelation, the most natural mode of doing it, and that which is best accommodated to the present state of mankind, seems to be that the revelation should be communicated to some person or persons, to be by them communicated to others in his name; at the same time furnishing them with sufficient proofs and credentials, to show that they were indeed sent and inspired by him, and that the doctrines and laws which are the matter of such revelation, and which they are authorised to publish to the world in his name, were really and originally communicated by revelation from him. This method admits of sufficient proof being given to satisfy well-disposed minds, and of provision being made for instructing men, unless it be their own fault, in the knowledge of religion, and engaging them to the practice of the duties which it requires: and at the same time there is room for the exercise of reason in examining the nature of the evidence, and the trial of men's sincerity and diligence, of their impartial love of truth, and their openness to receive it. Two principal questions present themselves to our consideration with regard to this kind of revelation. Its usefulness and expediency, and even the necessity of it in the present state of mankind, and its proofs and evidences. It is acknowledged by lord Bolingbroke, a writer of distinguished rank among the opposers of revelation (Works vol. ii. p. 468, ed. 4to.), that an extraordinary action of God upon the human mind, which the word 'inspiration is now used to denote, is not more inconceivable than the ordinary action of mind upon body, or body on mind;' and that it is impertinent to deny the existence of any phenomena, merely because we cannot account for it.' Moreover as God can, if he thinks proper, communicate his will to mankind, he can also do it in such a manner as to give to those to whom it is originally and immediately made a full and certain assurance of its being a true divine revelation. Besides, God can commission those to whom he has made an extraordinary revelation of his will to communicate to others what they have received from him; and can furnish them with such credentials of their divine mission as are sufficient to prove that he sent them, and that the |