105 



RITTENHOUSE, DAVID. 



RIZI, DON FRANCISCO. 



10.; 



a valuable member of the literary fraternity, and to have done perhaps 

 more than any man to introduce a spirit of curiosity respecting our 

 early poets, and of critical exactness in editing their remains. 



The trifling works which he printed before he became settled in 

 London need not be particularised. The first work which brought 

 him into any notice was his ' Observations on the three first volumes 

 of the History of English Poetry,' in a familiar letter to the author 

 (Warton), 4to, 1782. This was the first serious attempt to call the 

 attention of the public to the many inaccuracies and faults of that 

 celebrated work ; a bold and useful service, but dangerous to him who 

 undertook it, as Warton had many and powerful friends, who could 

 not bear to see him so roughly handled, even though they could not 

 deny that almost every one of Ritson's strictures was just. However 

 it must be owned that Ritson addressed himself to the work in a very 

 unamiable spirit, and wrote like a man who was not much accustomed 

 to the intercourse of refined society. The work has become, perhaps 

 j ustly, a bye- word when men would speak of critical abuse. In the 

 nexb year ho published some ' Remarks on the Commentators on 

 Shakspere,' which is to be distinguished from a larger work published 

 by him in 1792, entitled 'Cursory Criticisms on the Edition of Shaks- 

 pere published by Edmund Malone.' In 1783 he also published 'A 

 Select Collection of English Songs, with an Historical Essay on the 

 Origin and Progress of National Song,' of which a second edition was 

 published by Mr. Park in 1813. In 1790 appeared his volume of 

 ' Ancient Songs, from the time of King Henry III. to the Revolution/ 

 reprinted in 1829. This is regarded as one of the most valuable of his 

 works. In 1791 he published 'Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry,' 

 from authentic manuscripts and old printed copies; in 1793, 'The 

 English Anthology,' in three volumes; in 1794, a 'Collection of Scottish 

 Songs,' and in 1795, the very remarkable poems of a forgotten poet, 

 Minot, on events in the reign of Edward III., which have also been 

 reprinted. In the same year he published his large collection of ballads 

 on the exploits of ' Robin Hood,' with much prefatory matter, in which 

 he cannot be said to appear to any great advantage. In 1802 he pro- 

 duced two works in this department of literature : the one, ' Ancient 

 English Metrical Romances,' in 3 vols. 8vo ; the other, ' Bibliographia 

 Poetica,' a catalogue of English poets of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 

 and 16th centuries, with a short account of their writings, a work very 

 imperfect, but to which succeeding writers in this department have 

 been greatly indebted. 



To enumerate however all the works produced by Mr. Ritson in his 

 twenty years' literary career would carry out this article to an unrea- 

 sonable extent. It may be sufficient to add that there are several 

 small works of his under the denomination of Garlands, as the 'Bishopric 

 Garland,' the ' Yorkshire Garland,' the ' Northumberland Garland,' 

 and ' Gammer Gurton's Garland ;' and also several tracts relating to 

 his profession, and especially to the court with which he was more 

 particularly connected. In 1802 he published ' An Essay on Abstinence 

 from Animal Food as a Moral Duty.' 



He died in September 1803. Several tracts have appeared attri- 

 buted to him, and a collection of his correspondence has been published. 

 Some account of his life was published by Mr. Hazlewood in 1824. He 

 had through life the reputation of a surly critic, which his attack on 

 Warton first gained for him, and he was more shunned than courted 

 by his literary contemporaries. 



(Life and Letters of Joseph Ritson, Esq., by Sir Harris Nicolas.) 



RITTENHOUSE, DAVID, was born on the 8th of April 1732, 

 near Germantown in Pennsylvania. His father, who was a small 

 farmer in that province, intended that he should follow the practice of 

 husbandry, and gave him but little education. But young Ritten- 

 house, before he was seventeen years of age, displayed a taste for 

 mechanical and mathematical subjects ; without books or instructors, 

 he is said to have executed a wooden clock, and, similarly to what is 

 related of Pascal, to have covered the ploughs and fences on his 

 father's farm with geometrical figures. This exhibition of uncommon 

 talent, joined to a conviction on the part of the elder Rittenhouse that 

 the delicacy of his son's constitution would render him unfit for the 

 labour of cultivating the ground, induced the father to procure for 

 the youth the tools of a watch and mathematical instrument maker, 

 and to dispense with his services in performing the duties of the farm. 

 Grateful for this favour, the young man worked diligently with his 

 hands during the day, and at night devoted a portion of the time 

 which should have been passed in taking repose, to the prosecution 

 of his .studies. His success appears to have been extraordinarily 

 great, for his biographers assert that, before the age of twenty, he 

 was able to read the ' Principia,' and that he had discovered the 

 method of fluxions, without being aware that this had been already 

 done by Newton and Leibnitz. He also constructed two orreries 

 exhibiting the movements of the planets and their satellites. These 

 machines are said to be still in existence, one in the university of 

 Pennsylvania, and the other in the college of Princeton. 



In 1769, Mr. Rittenhouse was made one of a Committee appointed 

 by the American Philosophical Society to observe the transit of Venus 

 which was to take place in that year, and he was so fortunate as to 

 witness the phenomenon in a temporary observatory which he built 

 for the purpose. His observation and the calculations relating to it 

 gained for him the approbation of the astronomers of Europe, and 

 the title of Doctor in Laws was subsequently conferred on him. In 



1779 he was named one of the commissioners for adjusting a territorial 

 dispute between the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia; in 1786 he 

 was employed in fixing the line which separates Pennsylvania from the 

 state of New York, and in the following year he assisted in deter- 

 mining the boundary between New York and Massachusetts. 



Dr. Rittenhouse was elected a member of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences at Boston in 1782, and of the Royal Society of 

 London in 1795. In 1791 he succeeded Dr. Franklin as president of 

 the American Philosophical Society, to whose ' Transactions ' he con- 

 tributed many papers, chiefly on astronomical subjects. In 1777 he 

 was appointed treasurer of Pennsylvania, and this important office he 

 held with incorruptible integrity till his resignation of it in 1789. 

 In 1792 he received his last appointment, which was that of director 

 of the mint of the United States. In this post his mechanical skill is 

 said to have been highly useful; but in 1795 he was obliged to resign 

 it from bad health, and, after a short but painful illness, he died on 

 the 26th of June 1796. 



*RITTER, KARL, the great improver and promoter of the science 

 of physical and comparative geography, was born on August 7, 1779, 

 at Quedliuburg, about thirty miles south-west from Halle in Prussian 

 Saxony. After receiving his early education at the institute of 

 Schnepfenthal, he proceeded to the University of Halle, whence, in 

 1798, he went to Frankfurt-am-Main as tutor in the family of Count 

 Bethmann-Hollweg. He accompanied his pupils to the university 

 and upon their travels, visiting with them Switzerland, Piedmont, 

 France, and Italy. In 1807 he published, in two volumes, his 

 'Europa; ein geographisch-historisch-statistisches Gemalde ' (picture). 

 In 1817-18 the first edition of his most important work was pub- 

 lished in two volumes, ' Die Erdkunde im Verhiiltniss zur Natur und 

 zur Geschichte des Menschen, oder Allgemeine vergleichende Geo- 

 graphic als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterrichts in 

 physikalischen und historischen Wissenschaften ' (' Geography in 

 relation to the character and history of mankind, or universal com- 

 parative geography as a foundation for study and instruction in the 

 physical and historical sciences '). After its publication he was 

 appointed, in 1819, teacher of history in the gymnasium of Frankfurt- 

 am-Main, and in the following year professor-extraordinary of 

 geography in the university of Berlin. His attention to his favourite 

 study was now more undivided. In 1820 appeared ' Vorhalle euro- 

 paischer Volkergeschichten vor Herodot ' (' Portico of a history of 

 the European peoples before Herodotus 1 )-; and in 1821 the first 

 portion of a second edition of his ' Erdkunde,' upon a greatly enlarged 

 scale. This first portion included Africa, in one volume ; the next 

 eleven, issued between 1832 and 1846 are devoted to Asia in the 

 following divisions : Northern and North-eastern Asia ; North-eastern 

 and Southern of Upper Asia ; South-eastern of Upper Asia; India, in 

 two volumes ; the countries between Eastern and Western Asia ; West- 

 ern Asia Iran, in two volumes ; the terrace-lands of the Euphrates and 

 Tigris river-system ; and Arabia. We may add that Herr Ritter also 

 wrote the article 'Asia' for the 'Penny Cyclopaedia ' in 1834, and in 

 conjunction with Major von Oetzel constructed an excellent atlas of 

 Asia. During this period his official duties were also increased ; he 

 was appointed teacher of statistics in the Military Academy, member 

 of the examination-commission and director of the studies of the 

 Royal Cadet Institute, and was also chosen a member of the Academy, 

 and in February 1848 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal 

 Society of London. His other works have been ' Die Stupas, oder die 

 architectonischen Denkmale aus der Indo-Baktrischen Konigstrasse ' 

 (' The Topes, or architectural monuments of the Indo-Bactrian High- 

 ways ') published in 1838; 'Die Colonisation von Neu-Seeland,' with 

 a map, in 1842; 'Ein Blick in das Nilquellenland ' ('A glance at the 

 sources of the Nile') in 1844 ; 'Der Jordan, und die Beschiffung des 

 Todten Meeres ' (' The Jordan, and the navigation of the Dead Sea') 

 in 1850 ; ' Uber riiumliche Anordnungen auf der Ausseits des Erdballs 

 und ihre Functionen in Entwicklungsgange der Geschichte ' (' On the 

 arrangements in space exterior to the terrestrial globe, and their 

 functions in the progressive development of history '), in the same year; 

 ' Ein Blick auf Palestine und seine christliche Bevolkerung' (' A glance 

 at Palestine and its Christian population ') in 1852; and 'Einleitung 

 zur allgemeinen vergleichenden Geographie, und Abhandlungen zur 

 Begriiudung eine mehr wissenschaftlichen Behandlung der Erdkunde' 

 ('An introduction to universal comparative geography, with essays 

 on the founding of a more scientific treatment of geography ') in 

 the same year. Ritter has also written introductions and prefaces 

 to the following works : ' Das Buch des Landes, von Schech Ebu 

 Ishak el Farsi el Isztracki,' 1844 ; to Blom's ' Das Konigreich Nor- 

 wegen statistisch beschreiben,' 1845 ; to Tarn's 'Portuguesische 

 Besitzungen in Slid- West Afrika,' in 1845 ; to Borbstadt's 'Allgemeine 

 geographische und statische Verhaltnisse in graphische Darstellung," 

 with 38 plates, in 1846 ; to Hoffmeister's ' Briefe aus Indien/ 

 including travels in Ceylon and continental India, Nepaul, and the 

 Himalayas, a part of which travels in Ceylon has been translated 

 into English, in 1847; to a German translation of Diaz del Castillo's 

 'Die Entdeckung und Eroberung von Mexico,' in 1848; and in the 

 same year to Werne's ' Expedition to discover the Source of the 

 White Nile,' which has been published in English. 



RIZI, DON FRANCISCO, a distinguished Spanish painter, was 

 born at Madrid in 1608. He waa the pupil of Vincenzo Carduccio, 



