REKA RELIGION. 



839 



himself transcribed or purchased, was bought, after 

 his death, by Suhm of Copenhagen. His life, writ- 

 ten by himself, with impartiality and frankness, \va 

 continued to his death by his wife, and published, 

 at Leipsic, in 1783. The excellent Pita Reiskii 

 by Morus (Leipsic, 1777) should be compared with 

 H. 



REKA ; Russian for river, as Tchernaiarefca 

 (Black river). 



RELATION (Italian relazione) was the name 

 given to the full and minute account which a Vene- 

 tian ambassador was obliged to render, on his return, 

 to the council of the Pregadi, respecting the state of 

 the country to which he had been sent, its foreign 

 and domestic relations, the character of the prince, 

 chief officers and people. These, together with the 

 reports which the ambassadors were obliged to 

 make every week, were preserved in the archives. 

 As early as 1268, the senate passed a law obliging 

 the ambassadors to write down every thing remark- 

 able which fell under their observation. In 1465, 

 the word relazione came into use. The last of these 

 relazioni mention the beginning of the French 

 revolution. They were often copied by order of 

 patrons of science, so that many are found in the 

 libraries at Rome, Paris, Berlin ; some are in Gotha, 

 and several in smaller libraries of Italy. In the 

 beginning of 1831, a number of them were sold 

 among the manuscripts of the late lord Guildford. 

 The circumstance that Venice stood, in early times, 

 in very important relations to all the principal 

 powers of Europe, particularly to Spain and the 

 sultan, when the Porte was at the apex of its power, 

 renders the relazioni one of the most important and 

 most interesting sources of modern history. 



RELEGATIO (exile) ; a punishment in use 

 among the Romans, particularly under the emper- 

 ors. The name has been retained in the govern- 

 ment of German universities. See Consilium Abe- 

 undi. 



RELICS ; the remains or supposed remains of 

 holy persons, saints or martyrs, or some objects 

 belonging to them, or in some way connected with 

 them. These relics were multiplied particularly 

 after the crusades. Thus in some places are shown 

 the shroud in which the body of Christ was laid, 

 pieces of the cross, of objects surrounding the sepul- 

 chre, and relics of Mary, Joseph, and the holy men 

 of the early Christian church. At first, these ob- 

 jects were only held in high esteem ; but eventually 

 superstition ascribed to such relics miraculous 

 powers, and a system of fraud was countenanced by 

 the Roman clergy for their profit : honours, little 

 short of divine, were paid to these objects, and more 

 virtue was attributed to a splinter of the cross than 

 to the word of the Saviour. 

 RELIEF. See Relievo. 



RELIEF, in law ; a certain sum of money, which 

 the tenant, holding by military service, and being 

 at full age at the death of his ancestor, paid to the 

 feudal lord at his entrance on the possession of the 

 estate. 



RELIEVO (Italian), OR RELIEF; sculptured 

 work, raised above a surface with which it is con- 

 nected. It has several gradations (basso, mezzo, 

 and alto-relievo). Originally, with the Greeks, it 

 was very flat, as in the instance of the lion on the 

 gate of Mycenas, perhaps the most ancient pre- 

 served relief. Phidias brought it to perfection ; 

 and the cornices and metopes of the Parthenon, 

 and the temple of Apollo at Bassae, near Phigalia, 

 in Arcadia, preserved by a fortunate accident, are 

 yet unrivalled models of relievo. In the sculpture 

 of the later Romans, who strove to supply by tech- 

 nical execution what was wanting in spirit, the 



high relief (altissimo relievo) was adopted, in which 

 the figures were so raised as to stand almost en- 

 tirely out from the ground, which was covered 

 with other figures, in low relief. Probably works 

 in precious stones of several layers, cameos in pie- 

 tre dure, occasioned these attempts, of which the 

 collection of antiques at Dresden contains remark- 

 able specimens. It was the intention of Algardi 

 and his followers to carry relief still farther. They 

 even attempted perspective representations, includ- 

 ing landscapes. A misconception of the true limits 

 of sculpture and glyptics, in relation to painting, 

 was the cause of these aberrations from a just taste, 

 which have maintained themselves in medals. Thor- 

 waldsen has restored to the relief its true and sim- 

 ple character, whilst Canova's relievi strive too 

 much to imitate painting. Another kind of relief 

 has been employed of late, which, however, is not 

 to be commended. On medals, particularly, the 

 figures have been represented on an elevated sur- 

 face, as if cut in an onyx of two layers. For all 

 these kinds of work, the Greeks had the general 

 name avay>.u<px; also y^a.vra a.ta.y\u^at,, because 

 they were frequently painted. As yet, no Greek 

 reliefs en creux have been found, such as were used 

 in Egypt slightly raised sculpture, in a depressed 

 surface, often filled with colours. In hard stones, 

 these can be worked only with the best steel. 



RELIGION. This word, defined in so many 

 ways, is derived from the Latin religio (a sacred 

 oath, or obligation), but that which it signifies, is 

 as old as man and his relation to God, whom it pre- 

 supposes. Man is not only placed in a certain re- 

 lation towards the Deity, but is naturally led to the 

 idea of his existence, the comprehension, in some 

 degree, of his nature, and the study of his own re- 

 lations towards him. This disposition and capacity, 

 rude as its early manifestations may be, makes man 

 a religious being. Religion, therefore, in its widest 

 sense, may be defined to be the sentiment and 

 knowledge of our relation to God, and of the great 

 variety of consequences flowing therefrom. Reli- 

 gion is also used in English for piety, or the disposi- 

 tion to do what the individual believes to be the 

 will of God. The religious disposition, and the 

 degree of religious knowledge, show themselves in 

 various ways; and the communication of this know- 

 ledge, as it relates to supernatural subjects, must 

 be often effected in a symbolical way ; and the 

 forms in which the religious feeling expresses itself 

 (forms of worship), must be of a symbolical charac- 

 ter. The variety in the modes in which the reli- 

 gious feeling manifests itself in different nations, 

 [jives rise to the idea of positive religion. A posi- 

 tive religion is religion modified by the peculiar de- 

 velopment of the religious disposition, by peculiar 

 views respecting the relation of man to God, and 

 of his destiny, as well as by peculiar customs and 

 symbols of worship. In this sense we speak of a 

 Mohammedan, pagan, Christian, Jewish religion. 

 A particular form of religion becomes predominant 

 t>y a variety of causes; by the growing authority of 

 ;radition, or the intellectual superiority of particu- 

 lar men, who imbue families, tribes, nations, with 

 ;heir own religious notions, by the blending of poli- 

 tics and religion, and not unfrequently by persecu- 

 tion itself. The adherents of most religions, more- 

 over, refer the establishment of their own particular 

 r onn of faith to the direct interference of the Deity 

 whom they worship. It is the province of the phi- 

 osophy of religion to investigate the original prin- 

 ciple of all religions, and the most hidden causes of 

 the variety in the development of this great, eter- 

 nal, original principle. The history of religion 

 hows the historical development of this principle, 



