REAL 



6508 



REAL PROPERTY 



Real (Sp., royal). Obsolete 

 Spanish and Portuguese coin still 

 current in Brazil In Spain up to 

 1868 the real was the tenth part of 

 an escudo (q.v.) and of nominal 

 value 2id. In Portugal, from 1854 

 till 1911, the gold milreis or 1,000 



Real. Obverse and reverse of the 

 Spanish coin. Actual size, U in. 



reis was the standard. Fifty and 

 100 reis nickel coins were also 

 minted, and 20, 10, and 5 reis 

 bronze coins. The Mexican real or 

 Mexican shilling, once circulating 

 in the U.S.A., had a nominal value 

 of 12 cents. 



Realgar OR RUBY SULPHUR. 

 Native red sulphide of arsenic. The 

 realgar which occurs in commerce 

 is artificially prepared by sublim- 

 ing a mixture of arsenic and sul- 

 phur ores. Its chief use is in the 

 tanning industry, where it is em- 

 ployed, mixed with lime, for re- 

 moving hair from the skins. It is 

 used for making Indian or Bengal 

 fire in signal lights. Artists employ 

 native realgar as a pigment. It is 

 found native in Hungary. 



Realism. In literature, term 

 applied to the school of writers of 

 fiction who describe life with strict 

 fidelity to actual fact and detail, 

 as opposed to the schools of ro- 

 manticism or classicism. The 

 realist tendency, often called also 

 naturalism, is found scattered in 

 all modern literatures and at 

 various periods, but became crys- 

 tallised into a definite school, 

 mainly under French influence, 

 in the second part of the 19th cen- 

 tury. The painstaking dissection 

 of character is seen earlier in Stend- 

 hal or Balzac, but Flaubert moved 

 forward and achieved a master- 

 piece in Madame Bovary. He was 

 followed by the de Goncourts, J. 

 K. Huysmans, de Maupassant, 

 Zola, and many lesser figures. 

 Heated controversy arose round 

 the alleged tendency of the realists 

 to emphasise the sordid and cor- 

 rupt in life ; but their influence on 

 the novel has been far-reaching, 

 although their lengthy and labori- 

 ous elaboration of detail has given 

 place to a more eclectic form. 



In English literature realism has 

 been tempered by characteristic 

 moderation. George Eliot, Mere- 

 dith, George Moore, Hardy, Wells, 

 and Bennett represent phases of its 

 growth, and the influence is seen in 



the more recent stress on detailed 

 psychological analysis in the novel, 

 as in James Joyce or "Dorothy 

 Richardson. Gorky, Tchekov, 

 Strindberg, Sudermann, Couperus, 

 Hamsun, are typical of their re- 

 spective countries, and the cor- 

 responding tendencies in drama 

 are seen in such writers as Ibsen, 

 Hauptmann, and Galsworthy. 



Realism. In art, the direct re- 

 presentation of any subject as it is, 

 a treatment, literally, that excludes 

 idealism or romanticism. But the 

 true work of art, however realistic 

 its treatment, must perforce con- 

 tain some elements of idealism, or 

 fail in its purpose. Realism made 

 its entry into French painting with 

 Gustave Courbet, and strongly 

 influenced all subsequent European 

 art. In sculpture it expressed itself 

 in widely different manners, 

 through Carpeaux, Barye, and 

 Rodin. The French example has 

 affected Britishsculpture./See Ideal- 

 ism ; Naturalism ; Romanticism. 



Realism (L. Lat. realis, from res, 

 thing). Philosophical term with 

 two distinct meanings. As op- 

 posed to nominalism (q.v.), it is 

 the theory, held by certain of the 

 schoolmen, that general ideas, the 

 universals, had an existence inde- 

 pendent of individuals and the in- 

 dividual mind. As opposed to 

 idealism (q.v. ), it is the theory that 

 external objects have an existence 

 independent of any thought about 

 them, and that our knowledge of 

 them is immediate or intuitive. 



Reality (L. Lat. realitas, from 

 res, thing). In philosophy, the state 

 or quality of being real, the " thing- 

 ishness " of anything. That is real 

 which is true and existent, such 

 existence being absolute and neces- 

 sary, either external and altogether 

 independent of thought, or internal 

 and dependent upon thought, but 

 not upon the exercise of thought 

 about it. Reality means some- 

 thing, possesses significance, but is 

 not the subject of thought. The 

 term is sometimes opposed to 

 actuality, which rather indicates 

 the nature and degree of reality at- 

 taching to real objects. Various 

 kinds of reality have been dis- 

 tinguished : empirical, belonging 

 to all objects of experience; ob- 

 jective, given to things as objects 

 of sense-perception ; subjective, in 

 reference to a fact which is the 

 subject of consciousness. See 

 Metaphysics ; Philosophy. 



Realm, Word, a variant of the 

 French royaume, meaning a king- 

 dom. It is still used chiefly in an 

 official sense. See Defence of the 

 Realm : King ; Sovereign ; State. 



Realpolitik (Ger., policy of 

 reality). Term used during the last 

 thirty years of the German empire 



to denote the political attitude 

 inaugurated by Bismarck and 

 pushed to extreme lengths by his 

 successors. The adherents of Real- 

 politik maintained that the politi- 

 cian should look primarily to the 

 material interests of his nation, 

 disregarding abstract theories and 

 humanitarian ideals. See Bis- 

 marck ; Germany ; Politics. 



Real Presence. Term used in 

 theology to denote the doctrine 

 that the living Christ is actually 

 present in the experience of the 

 Church and the individual believer, 

 especially in the Sacrament of the 

 Eucharist. The term "real" distin- 

 guishes this belief from the theory 

 that Christ is only "symbolically" 

 present in the sacrament. 



Different views are held as to 

 what constitutes the Real Presence 

 and how it is produced. One 

 holds that it is corporeal and pro- 

 duced by Transubstantiation (q.v.). 

 Another that it is purely spiritual 

 an experience within the soul of 

 the participant. Though in modern 

 usage the term has almost always 

 a sacramental connexion, in the 

 N.T. it has a much wider signifi- 

 cance. Both S. Paul and S. John 

 lay the utmost stress upon the 

 mystical union between the be- 

 liever and the risen Lord. To be 

 " in Christ " and for Christ to be 

 " in us " is the prerogative of every 

 Christian. Perhaps the fullest 

 enunciation of the doctrine is found 

 in the words of S. Paul, " I live, 

 yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 

 See Eucharist ; Incarnation. 



Real Property. One of the 

 two sections into which property is 

 divided under English law. In 

 early times actions at law were of 

 two kinds, real and personal. A 

 real action was where the plaintiff 

 asked the court to award him the 

 thing (Lat. res) sued for. A per- 

 sonal action, as for debt, detinue, 

 and trespass, was where the plaintiff 

 simply asked for a sum of money, a 

 debt or damages. The only res that 

 was worth suing for in those days 

 was some freehild, either land, or 

 some freehold estate, in or arising 

 out of land ; and if a plaintiff were 

 dispossessed of any of these, the 

 court would reinstate him in them. 

 There were no long leases in those 

 days. Land was generally held for 

 a freehold estate. Its few leasehold 

 tenancies were usually mere yearly 

 holdings ; and therefore no real 

 action would lie in respect of them. 

 They were called chattel interests 

 in land. In this way property in 

 England came to be divided into 

 real and personal ; real being those 

 kinds of property in respect of 

 which a real action could be 

 brought ; while everything else was 

 personal. 



