RICKMAN, THOMAS. 



RIDINGER, JOHN ELIAS. 



100 



the prince was obliged to resign his secular sovereignty of Regens- 

 burg, Ascbaffenburg, Frankfurt, Witzlar, &c., which he had before 

 possessed, together with his archbishopric and primacy of Regens- 

 burg, but the pension was continued by Maximilian, king of Bavaria. 

 In 1817 the university of Heidelberg honoured Jean Paul with the 

 diploma of doctor of philosophy, and three years afterwards he was 

 elected an ordinary member of the Academy of Sciences of Munich. 

 From the time of his settlement at Baireuth, Jean Paul pursued his 

 literary occupations as zealously as ever, and only now and then made 

 either little excursions into tho neighbouring country, or short 

 journeys to Heidelberg, Munich, Berlin, and Dresden. Among the 

 works which belong to this last and happiest period of his life, we 

 shall only mention ' Vorschule der Aesthetik,' 3 vols., Hamburg, 1804; 

 ' Katzenbergers Badereise,' 2 vols., Heidelberg, 1809; 'Des Feld- 

 prediger Schmelzle Reise nach Fla'tz,' Tubingen, 1809 ; ' Der Komet, 

 oder Nicolaus Markgraf,' 3 vols., Berlin, 1820-22. 



During the last years of his life he was attacked by a complaint in the 

 eyes, which at the beginning of the year 1826 terminated in complete 

 blindness. His physical powers also began to decline, and he died on 

 the 14th of November 1825. Some time before his death he had made 

 preparations for a complete edition of his works. This plan was exe- 

 cuted by his friend Dr. Otto, who edited the works of Jean Paul in 

 60 small 8vo volumes, Berlin, 1826-28. Other editions have since 

 appeared. 



Whether we consider Jean Paul as a man or as an author, he is one 

 of the most wonderful phenomena that Germany has ever produced. 

 He was simple-hearted as a child, and his kindness, benevolence, and 

 purity of conduct were unparalleled ; yet with all this he had courage 

 enough to struggle fearlessly with a world of adversity, without losing 

 one particle of his cheerful and humorous temper. His works, which 

 are all written in prose, and most of which may be called humorous 

 novels, evince the deepest and most intense feeling, a most profound 

 knowledge of human nature, and an intimate acquaintance with almost 

 every department of science. His earliest writings are sometimes of a 

 satirical nature, and show that he had not yet reached the height of 

 pure humour which appears in his later works. Some of his works, 

 such as the ' Levana ' and ' Vorschule der Aesthetik,' are not novels, 

 but philosophical discussions full of profound thought ; but even here 

 his bumour sometimes gushes forth and enlivens the abstruseness of 

 philosophical inquiry. Notwithstanding these great qualities of Jean 

 Paul, there are some circumstances which prevent his writings from 

 being as popular as they deserve to be. His ideas and conceptions 

 are too profound to be understood and appreciated by the many, and 

 his thoughts are expressed in a language which presents considerable 

 difficulties even to a German. His sudden transitions, his associations 

 of ideas, the frequent distortions of his sentences, in which parenthesis 

 is put into parenthesis, cause such difficulties to the ordinary reader, 

 as will at first deter him from undertaking the task of searching for 

 the sterling matter which is concealed under such a disguise. Jean 

 Paul moreover possessed an inexhaustible stock of knowledge on all 

 subjects, and his works abound in allusions which can only be under- 

 stood by those who have made such subjects their study. The number 

 of those who fully appreciate the merits of Jean Paul is, even in 

 Germany, comparatively few; but these few are the best and most 

 enlightened of the nation, and the power which his works exercise 

 over them is greater than that of any other writer. The time when 

 Jean Paul shall be fully appreciated is yet to come. The best key to 

 his writings is a work called ' Wahrheit aus Jean Paul's Leben,' in 8 

 vole., Breslau, 1826-33, which was commenced by Jean Paul himself, 

 and after his death continued and completed by Dr. Otto. Another 

 very useful work in this respect is, R. 0. Spazier, 'Jean Paul Friedrich 

 Richter, ein biographischer Commentar zu seinen Werken,' 5 vols, 

 Leipzig, 1833; H. Doring's 'Leben und Characteristik Richtera,' in 2 

 vols., Gotha, 1826, is a very indifferent work. 



English translations of some and extracts from others of the 

 works of Jean Paul have appeared in various magazines, and as sepa- 

 rate publications; but the choicest specimens, which are also most 

 faithfully translated, are those given in ' German Romance/ by T. 

 Carlyle, who has also written some excellent essays on the life and 

 writings of Jean Paul. (See Carlyle's 'Miscellanies,' vols. i. and ii.) 



RICKMAN, THOMAS, a distinguished writer on gothic architecture, 

 was born at Maidenhead on June 8th 1776, and brought up by bis 

 father, a member of the Society of Friends, who was a surgeon and 

 apothecary in that town, to the same profession. He went in 1797 to 

 London, where he became for a while assistant, first to Mr. Stringer, 

 chemist to the royal family, and next to Mr. Atkinson, in Jermyn- 

 street; but disliking the confinement, he changed not his situation 

 only but his vocation also, and entered into the employment of Messrs. 

 Day and Green, extensive grocers, at Saffron Walden. His residence 

 at Saffron Walden was not however of very long continuance, for in 

 compliance with the wishes of his father, who was anxious that he 

 should complete his medical education, he went again to London, and 

 " walked the hospitals ;" after which he returned in 1801 to his father, 

 who was then settled at Lewes, but did not remain with him above 

 two years, when he repaired again to the metropolis, and engaged 

 himself as clerk to a corn-factor. Little likely as this seemed to bo to 

 lead him nearer to his ultimate destination, it nevertheless proved a 

 stepping-stone to him, BO far that ho became a partner in the business. 



In 1808, about the time of the death of his first wife (his cousin Lucy 

 Rickman, to whom he had not been married above a year), he removed 

 to Liverpool, where ho made another change, for he took a situation 

 in the counting-house of one of the principal insurance-brokers there. 

 Uncongenial and unpromising as it apparently was in itself, this new 

 situation proved the making of his fortune and fame ; for as the 

 attention to business it required occupied him only a few hours in the 

 day, he devoted his leisure to the study of architecture. 



Having once taken up this study, he pursued it zealously ; examined 

 ancient buildings with diligence in a word, educated himself; and 

 perhaps saw all the clearer because he was not trammeled in his 

 inquiries by the prejudices and conventionalities of a professional 

 education. He was also industrious with his pencil, and carefully 

 noted all those distinctions in the different mode s of the pointed stylo 

 on which he founded his valuable system of classification for it. 

 About this period he married his second wife, Christiana Homer, sister 

 to Thomas Horner, the artist who painted the large panorama of 

 London in the Colosseum, in the Regent's Park. 



On the grant of a million for additional churches being made by 

 parliament, Rickman, who had previously made attempts at original 

 design, became a competitor, and a design sent in by him being 

 accepted, he determined to establish himself as an architect : he quitted 

 Liverpool and removed to Birmingham, as being in his opinion a likelier 

 situation for obtaining practice from various quarters. Having no 

 practical experience at that time himself, and being unacquainted with 

 the business routine of the profession, he engaged Mr. Henry 

 Hutchinson as his managing assistant in all matters of business, and 

 after his death (1830) entered into partnership with Mr. Hussey. In 

 1835 he married his third wife, Elizabeth Miller of Edinburgh, by 

 whom he had a son, and who survived him. Some years previous to 

 his decease he had had an apoplectic attack ; but his naturally strong 

 constitution prevailed against its effects, and he continued to exercise 

 his profession up to the time of his death, which happened on the 4th 

 of March 1841. 



Had Rickman been known only as a writer, his ' Attempt to 

 discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England ' (originally written 

 for a publication called ' Smith's Panorama of Science and Art,' but 

 greatly extended as a separate work, and improved in each fresh 

 edition), would have obtained for him celebrity, for it became a 

 standard work, and is still one almost indispensable to the student. 

 The work however having attracted general attention beyond the 

 limits of the profession, recommended him to all lovers of gothic 

 architecture, opened the road to extensive practice, and procured him 

 patronage in very influential quarters, where as a sectarian he could 

 hardly look for direct countenance and employment. It is to be 

 observed however that by the time his profession brought him much 

 into contact with the clergy, he had withdrawn from the Society of 

 Friends. The following churches all of them being in one or other 

 of the gothic styles were designed and erected by him: Oulton, 

 near Leeds ; Hampton Lucy, near Stratford-on- Avon, Warwickshire; St. 

 Philip and St. Jacob, and St. Matthew, King's-Down, Bristol; St. George, 

 Birmingham ; St. George, Chorley ; St. George, Barnsley ; St. Peter's and 

 St. Paul's, Preston ; Mellor, Over Dar wen, Lower Darwen, and Tackholes, 

 in the parish of Blackburn ; two churches in Carlisle ; St. David's, Glas- 

 gow ; St. Jude's, Liverpool ; Lower Hardress, Canterbury ; Grey Friars, 

 Coventry ; Whittle-le- Woods, Lancashire ; Ombersley, Worcestershire ; 

 Stretton-on-Dunsmoor, Warwickshire ; and Loughborough, Leicester- 

 shire ; he also built the Chapel and Asylum for the Blind, Bristol, and 

 the Roman Catholic chapel at Redditch, besides several private resi- 

 dences, in which he applied the principles he had acquired from his 

 study of gothic structures. At Cambridge he executed the new court 

 and buildings (begun in 1827) of St. John's College ; Rose Castle, the 

 palace of the Bishop of Carlisle, was restored by him. Perhaps hardly 

 any individual in the profession had been employed upon so many 

 churches as Rickman ; and his churches are certainly superior to the 

 so-called gothic edifices of his predecessors. But none of them that 

 we have seen show evidence of much original inventive or construc- 

 tive genius ; and his work is one that suggests rather diligence and 

 good practical common-sense than philosophic power. But after every 

 abatement is made, it must be granted that to Rickman more than 

 any other man is due the great advance which has within the past few 

 years been made in the knowledge and appreciation of gothic archi- 

 tecture in this country. 



RIDINGER, JOHN ELIAS, was born in 1695 at Ulm in Suabia, 

 and was instructed in drawing by his father, who was a schoolmaster, 

 and in the rudiments of painting by Christopher Rasch. His genius 

 led him to animal painting. " He was," according to Fuseli, " one of 

 the greatest designers of animals of every denomination whom the 

 annals of painting can produce." His biographer in the ' Conversations 

 Lexicon ' says : " No painter ever represented with such truth the 

 characters of wild animals. His delineations of them are, as it were, 

 their natural history. They take the spectator into the recesses of 

 the forest, amidst lions, tigers, and other wild beasts, whose figures, 

 dens, and modes of life, are represented by him with the accuracy of a 

 naturalist. His landscapes are always suited to the animals. He was 

 less happy in the representation of the human figure and of tame 

 animals, for instance, horses. His paintings are rare, for he painted 

 but little, his time being almost wholly taken up by his numerous 



