RASPAIL, FRANCOIS-VINCENT. 



RAUCH, CHRISTIAN. 



8. ' On the Age and Authenticity of the Zend-avesta,' Copenhagen, 

 1826, was translated into German by F, H. von der Hagen, Berlin, 1826 ; 



9. A small ' Grammar and Vocabulary of the Acra Language.' In the 

 last year of his life he finished a very complete 'Grammar of the 

 Language of Lapland.' A number of essays on linguistic subjects 

 appeared in various journals, and in Vater's ' Vergleichungstafeln ' 

 there is one on 'Die Thrakische Sprachlasse,' which is of great import- 

 ance and interest. Comparative philology is greatly indebted to Rask ; 

 for he was the first who pointed out the connection between the 

 ancient northern and Gothic on the one hand, and of the Lithuanian, 

 Slavonic, Greek, and Latin on" the other hand. 



* RASPAIL, FRANCOIS-VINCENT, is almost equally well known 

 in the departments of science and of French politics. He was born at 

 Carpentras, in the department of Vaucluse, on January 29, 1794. He 

 very early evinced a decided inclination for the study of botany and 

 chemistry, in both of which he made observations that were commu- 

 nicated to and inserted in the scientific journals of France. In 1825 

 he became editor of the natural history department of the ' Bulletin 

 des Sciences.' In 1829, in conjunction with Saigey, he commenced 

 the ' Aunales des Sciences d'Observation,' but which was given up in 

 the following year for want of support. His strong political feelings 

 however had been displayed even earlier, and in 1822 he had published 

 ' Sainte Libertc" ! ton nom n'est pas blaspheme,' and the revolution of 

 July 1830 gave his miud a decided bias. He took an active part 

 against Charles X., he fought at the barricades, inscribed his name as a 

 member of the artillery brigade of the National Guard, and supported 

 republican principles with all his might. The elevation of Louis- 

 Philippe to the throne was consequently disagreeable to Raspail, who 

 opposed the government measures generally, and wrote articles in the 

 ' Tribune,' for which at length he was prosecuted, and sentenced to 

 six months' imprisonment. After his release he was again arrested in 

 1834 as a member of illegal associations, but as nothing could be 

 proved against him he was quickly set at liberty, and he then became 

 chief editor of the ' Reform ateur,' which however had but a short 

 existence. During these eventful periods he by no means neglected 

 his scientific labours. In 1831-32 he published in 5 vols. his ' Cours 

 IJlementaire d' Agriculture et d'Economie Rurale,' an excellent work ; 

 in 1833 his ' Systeme de Chimie Organique,' in which he recommended 

 microscopic as well as chemical investigations into organic objects, 

 and which has been translated into English by Henderson ; and in 

 1837 'Systeme de Physiologie ve'getale et de botanique.' Besides 

 some occasional political pamphlets he wrote, in 1839, ' Lettres sur 

 les Prisons de Paris.' In 1843 he published 'Histoire Naturelle de la 

 Saute" et de la Maladie chez les Ve"ge"taux et chez les Animaux en 

 gdneVal et en particulier chez 1'Homme ; servire de formule pour une 

 nouvelle Mcthode de Traitement hygienique et curatif ; ' second 

 edition, enlarged, in 3 vols., 1846. In 1846 also he published a 

 ' Manuel Annuaire de la Santo", ou Me"decine, et Pharmacie Dornes- 

 tique.' A translation of this was published in English in 1853, under 

 the title of 'Domestic Medicine, or Plain Instructions in the Art of 

 Preserving and Restoring Health by simple and efficient means, edited 

 by G. L. Strauss.' Some of the directions for preserving health are 

 judicious enough, but the great remedy was camphor, exhibited in 

 various form?, and especially as what were termed cigarettes. Raspail 

 sold his medicaments in the form in which our quack medicines are 

 sold, that is, in packets, with the vendor's signature, and an action 

 was brought against him for transgressing the etiquette of the medical 

 profession. It was instituted by Fouquier, physician to the king, and 

 Orfila, dean of the faculty of medicine. Raspail pleaded that he was 

 not a physician, but the inventor of certain medicines, and did not 

 therefore require a diploma to practise. He was however found guilty, 

 and sentenced to a small fine. On the occurrence of the coup-d'dtat in 

 1852 he took a decided part against Louis Napoleon, and was conse- 

 quently imprisoned.- While in confinement at Doullens, his wife died 

 on March 8, 1853, and occasion was taken of her funeral to give a mani- 

 festation of republican feeling and of admiration for his consistency, 

 by a procession exceeding 20,000 persons, who followed the body to 

 its place of interment in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. M. Raspail 

 has not attracted much notice since. Two biographies of him have 

 been published : ' Biographic de F. V. Raspail,' by C. Marchal, Paris, 

 1848, and ' Notice Biographique sur le Citoyen F. V. Raspail.' 



RASTALL, or RASTELL, JOHN, one of our early printers, is 

 said by Bale to have been a citizen of London, and by Pits a native of 

 that city. Wood says he was educated in grammar and philosophy at 

 Oxford, and returning to London, set up the trade of printing. The 

 first work which bears his name as printer, with a date, was published 

 in 1517, the last in 1533. There are numerous others without dates. 

 His residence was at the sign of the Mermaid, at Paul's Gate next 

 Cheapside. He married Elizabeth, sister to Sir Thomas More, with 

 whom Herbert supposes he became intimate in consequence of being 

 employed to print Sir Thomas's ' Dyalogue on the Worship of Images 

 and Reliques,' published in 1529; but, as will hereafter be seen, his 

 eldest sou was born in 1528. 



Bale and Pits ascribe the authorship of various works to John Rastall; 

 the most remarkable of which is his ' Anglorum Regum Chronicon, or 

 Pastyme of People,' a work of extreme rarity, reprinted in 1811 in 

 the ' Collection of English Chronicles.' He translated from French 

 into English the Abridgment of the Statutes before the reign of 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. V. 



Henry VII., and also abridged those of that reign which were made in 

 English, as likewise those of Henry VIII., including the twenty-third 

 and twenty-fourth of his reign. He also compiled several law-books. 

 Of these, his ' Exposition of Law Terms and the Nature of Writs,' and 

 the book called ' Rastall's Entries,' continued long in use. He became 

 a convert to the Reformed religion by means of a controversy with 

 John Frith. Rastall published ' Three Dialogues,' the last of which 

 treats of purgatory, and was answered by Frith. On this, Rastall 

 wrote his ' Apology against John Frith,' which the latter answered 

 with such strength of argument as to make a convert of his opponent. 

 Rastall also wrote a book called ' The Church of John Rastall,' which 

 was placed in the list of prohibited books published by Bishop Bonner, 

 annexed to his injunctions, in 1542. He died at London in 1536, 

 leaving two sons, William (noticed below), and John, who became 

 afterwards a justice of the paace. 



RASTALL, WILLIAM, son of the above, was born in London in 

 1508, and about 1525 was sent to Oxford, which he left without taking 

 a degree, and entered at Lincoln's Inn for the study of law. In the 

 first of Edward VI. he became autumn or summer reader of Lincoln's 

 Jnn ; but on the change of religion he retired with his wife to Louvain, 

 whence he returned on the accession of Queen Mary. In 1554 he was 

 made a serjeant-at-law, one of the commissioners for the prosecution 

 of heretics, and in 1588, a little before Mary's death, one of the justices 

 of the Common Pleas. Queen Elizabeth renewed his patent as justice, 

 but he preferred retiring to Louvain, where he died August 27, 1565. 

 From 1530 to 1534 (Dibdin, in his edition of Herbert's 'Ames,' thinks 

 till 1554), William Rastall carried on the business of a printer, in 

 conjunction with his practice as a lawyer. When Justice Rastall he 

 published ' A Collection of the Statutes in Force and Use,' in 1557. 



RASTOPCHIN. [ROSTOPCHIN.] 



* RAUCH, CHRISTIAN, an eminent German sculptor, was born at 

 Arolsen in the principality of Waldeck, on the 2nd of January 1777. 

 He early showed an aptness for art, and received instructions in it from 

 the sculptor Professor Ruhl of Cassel. In his twentieth year he went 

 to Berlin, having being presented to an office in the court of the 

 Queen of Prussia ; but his spare hours were all devoted to art. He 

 here secured the friendship of Count Sandrecky with whom he set 

 out in 1804 on a tour through a part of France to Genoa, and thence 

 to Rome. There with the advice and aid of William von Humboldt, 

 then Prussian minister in that city, he devoted himself to the 

 study of the antique, while he availed himself of the friendly instruc- 

 tion of the chief living sculptors, Canova and Thorwaldsen. After a 

 due probation he produced several original works, among others, 

 bassi-rilievi of ' Hippolitus and Phsedra ; ' a ' Mars and Venus wounded 

 by Diomedes ; ' a ' Child praying,' &c. But he began still more to 

 distinguish himself in the line to which he has continued to owe 

 his chief celebrity, that of portraiture; besides abundant private 

 patronage, he received from the King of Prussia commissions to 

 execute a colossal bust of the King of Prussia, and a life size bust of 

 the queen ; and from the King of Bavaria, a bust of Rafael Menga. 

 In 1811 he was recalled to Berlin, to execute a monumental statue of 

 the Queen Louise. His design was approved, and his health having 

 failed he was permitted to proceed to Carrara to complete the work, 

 which he did in 1813, in a style that secured his reputation. He then 

 went on to Rome where he remained till 1822, when he returned to 

 Berlin, where he has since resided. During his second residence in 

 Rome Rauch was chiefly engaged on busts and statues ; he executed 

 for the King of Prussia, besides a marble statue of the king himself, 

 monumental statues of Generals Bulow and Scharnhorst. By 

 1824 he had executed with his own hand seventy marble busts, twenty 

 of them being of colossal size. Among the more important of his 

 later works may be mentioned two colossal bronze statues of Field 

 Marshal Blucher ; the first, representing the hero in vehement action, 

 was erected with great solemnity at Breslau, July 9, 1827 ; the second 

 designed after Blucher's death, for the King of Prussia, represents 

 the veteran in repose. 



Another of his principal works is a seated bronze statue of Maxi- 

 milian of Bavaria, erected in 1835 in Munich. The ' Victories ' for 

 the Walhalla, near Ratisbon, are also from his chisel. A well-known 

 statue of Gothe, modelled from the life, is the most perfect repre- 

 sentation of the great poet of modern Germany. Statues in marble 

 or bronze of Schiller, Schlieirmacher, and others of his chief contem- 

 poraries, and of Luther, Albert Diirer, and other famous Germans of 

 an older time, serve to show the high estimation in which his works 

 are held by his countrymen ; while bronze statues of two or three of 

 the old Polish kings, which he executed for Count Raczynski, to be 

 placed in Posen Cathedral, and a bas-relief erected at Dublin in 

 memory of Miss Cooper, show that his ability is appreciated beyond 

 Germany. His chief work however is the grand monument of 

 Frederick the Great of Prussia, erected in the finest part of Berlin. 

 This work, in the design of which Rauch was assisted by Professor 

 Schinkel, the architect, and wbich called into exercise all the resources 

 of the two artists, was commenced in 1830. The general model was 

 completed in 1839; the colossal model of the king was not however 

 ready till 1842, and the statue was cast in 1846. Four more years 

 were required for the execution of the bas-reliefs, and the statues of 

 military commanders, ministers, judges, literary men, &c., and figures 

 of the Virtues and the like, which were to be placed around the base. 



