REVELS 



REVERE 



677 



instead of being the obscurest, one of the clearest 

 documents relating to the development of thought 

 and feeling in primitive Christian times. 



Literature. For the text of the Apocalypse, which is 

 more unsettled than that of any other New Testament 

 book (the five uncial MSS. present the unusually large 

 proportion of 1650 various readings in somewhat over 

 400 verses), B. Weiss's edition, with critical notes 

 (Leip. 1891), ought to be consulted. On the modern 

 critical questions, besides the recent works of Volter, 

 Spitta, and others already named, the best introductions 

 are those of Renss (6th ed. 1887), Weiss (2d ed. 1889; 

 Eng. trans.), and Holtzmann (EM. 2d ed. 1886; also 

 special introduction to his Hand-Commentar on Revela- 

 tion, 1891 ). Of older works see also Bleek's Lectures on 

 the Apocalypse (1862; Eng. trans. 1875). Much useful 

 information is given in Gloag's Introduction to the 

 Johnnnine Writings (L891); also in Farrar's Early Days 

 of Christianity ( 1882), Kenan's L'Antechrist ( 1873 ; Eng. 

 trans. ), and Chauffard's L' Apocalypse et son Intcrprita- 

 ttOH hittorique (1888). Of commentaries the most im- 

 portant or useful are those of Ewald ( Latin, 1828 ), Lucke 

 (1832), De Wette (1848), Ewald (German, 1862; Eng. 

 trans.), Reuss (1878), Holtzmann (1891), and Spitta 

 ( 1889 ; this work being specially useful for the account 

 it takes of the mass of current apocalyptic material 

 which presumably was at the disposal of authors and 

 editor). The number of authors on the fulfilled and 

 unfulfilled prophecies of the Apocalypse has been very 

 great; most of them until very recently wrote on the 

 assumption that every one of these either has received 

 or is destined to receive a fulfilment recognisable as 

 exact, and they can be classified according to their views 

 of the manner of this realisation. Those, for example, 

 who, following the indication of Augustine, think that 

 the millennium has already come or even is already past, 

 may fairly be called preterists. Of those we may men- 

 tion Grotiux, who identified Gog and Magog with the 

 Turks in Europe, and Hengstenberg, who judged the 

 millennium to have ended in 1848. All those, on the 

 other hand, who think that the millennium, in any 

 definite sense that can have been intended by the author, 

 is yet to come, may equally justly be called 'futurists,' 

 but they are of very various degrees, some holding that 

 none of the special preliminary events which are de- 

 scribed as leading up to the millennium have as yet 

 taken place ; while others, sometimes referred to as the 

 ' continuous historical ' school ( of which Bengel is per- 

 haps the most brilliant example), read into the book 

 ( with very wide divergences as to detail) what they con- 

 sider to have been the leading incidents in the political 

 or ecclesiastical history of Europe for the last eighteen 

 centuries. Of the first description are most of the so- 

 called ' millennarian ' writers; to the second belong the 

 followers of Mede (1C27). Apart from these definite 

 schools ought to be classed those interpreters of the 

 spiritualising or idealising order who were represented 

 in ancient times by the Alexandrians, and whose method 

 has often been found in modern times a convenient 

 refuge for exegetical timidity or helplessness. Recent 

 commentators with any character for sobriety to lose 

 have, as a rule, been exceedingly cautious in dealing with 

 he predictive element in the Apocalypse, some main- 

 taining that its prophecies admit of a variety of fulfil- 

 ments, but without attempting concrete interpretations 

 - <f the past, and still less definite forecasts of the future, 

 by their light ; while others go so far as to deny that the 

 > ook is predictive in the strict sense at all, and hold that 

 it was from the very first intended to be read as a more 

 or less imaginary picture of the kind of vicissitudes 

 through which the church militant has passed and may 

 be expected to pass before it reaches its final triumph. 

 See Duterdieck (in Meyer's Commentary, 1859; new 

 ed. 1887), Lee (in Speaker 1 'i Commentary, 1881), Boyd 

 Carpenter ( in New Testament Commentary for Enijlish 

 Readert, 1883), Milligan (in SchafTs Commentary, 1883, 

 and in Expositor* Bible, 1889), and Simcox (in Cam- 

 bridye Bible for fithooli and CoUejei, 1890 ). 



Revels, MASTER OF THE, the name of an officer, 

 also called ' Lord of Misrule,' formerly attached to 

 royal and other distinguished houses. It was his 

 function to preside over the amusements of the 

 court, or of the nobleman to whose house he was 

 Attached, during the Christmas holidays. The 



universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the 

 Inns of Court had also their Lord of Misrule. 

 This officer became a permanent appendage to the 

 English court in the reign of Henry VIII., and his 

 duties included the keeping of the tents and 

 pavilions which accompanied the sovereign on a 

 royal progress, as also the keeping of the dresses 

 and masks used in entertainments given at court, 

 and the providing of new ones when required. In 

 Queen Elizabeth's time the Mastership of the 

 Revels was divided into several distinct offices. 

 The office practically fell into desuetude about 

 the eud of the 17th century. See FOOLS (FEAST 

 OF) ; and Chambers's Book of Days. 



Revenue. The public revenue of the civilised 

 states of the world is in every case treated of in 

 the articles on the several countries in the section 

 dealing with finance ; thus, the various elements of 

 the British revenue at different periods, as com- 

 pared with the expenditure, is somewhat fully 

 given at GREAT BRITAIN, Vol. V. p. 376. The 

 inland revenue is distinguished from the Customs 

 Duties (q.v.), and includes (1) the Excise (q.v.), 

 comprising alcohol duty, liquor and luxury licenses; 

 (2) Stamps, with the 'death duties' probate, 

 account, legacy, and succession duty ; (3) Taxes 

 property and income tax, land-tax, inhabited house 

 duty (see TAXES). The right of the Commons to 

 regulate taxation and the outlay of the national 

 income is treated at PARLIAMENT, Vol. VII. p. 

 774. Below is a comparative table of the gross 

 revenue of the principal civilised states for the 

 years 1889 or 1890 : 



France 123,424,000 



Russia 04,787,000 



Great Britain 80,304,300 



Austria-Hungary.. 87,681,000 



United States 80,616,000 



Italy 65,405,000 



German Empire.... 62,692,000 

 Spain 31,886,000 



The revenue of Canada is 7,970,000; Cape 

 Colony, 4,340,000 ; New South Wales, 9,063,397 ; 

 Victoria, 8,676,081 ; British India, 56,166,000. 

 In 1895-96 the revenue of Great Britain exceeded 

 100,000,000 ; in 1897-98 it was 106,614,000, be- 

 sides 8,000,000 from local taxation ; and with that 

 of all the dependencies was well over 200,000,000. 

 For Revenue Officers, see COASTGUARD. 



Reverberatory Furnace, a furnace so con- 

 structed that ores and other materials may be 

 heated in it without coming in direct contact with 

 the fuel. It consists essentially of three parts 

 viz. a fireplace at one end ; in the middle a flat 

 bed or sole, on which the material to be heated is 

 placed ; and at the other end a chimney to create 

 a draught and to carry off the smoke or fume. 

 Between the fireplace and the bed a fire-bridge is 

 placed, and the whole built over with a flat arch, 

 dipping towards the chimney. The flame plays 

 over the fire-bridge, and the heat is reflected, or 

 reverberated, on the material beneath ; hence the 

 name. See COPPER, LEAD, and IRON (puddling 

 furnace). 



Revere, PAUL, famous for his midnight ride, 

 was l>orn in Boston, Massachusetts, 1st January 

 1735, the son of a goldsmith from Guernsey, whose 

 trade he followed after serving as a lieutenant of 

 artillery in the expedition against Crown Point 

 (1756). He also engaged in copperplate printing, 

 and l>efore the Revolution constructed a gun- 

 powder-mill. A keen patriot, he was one of the 

 party that destroyed the tea in Boston harbour, 

 and he was at the head of a volunteer committee, 

 consisting of thirty young mechanics, who formed 

 a secret society to watch the British. When it 

 was known that the latter intended to move, 

 Revere crossed over to Charlestown, and on April 

 18, 1775, the night before Lexington and Concord, 

 at a signal rode on to Lexington and to Lincoln, 

 rousing the minute-men as he went ; at Lincoln he 



