rearwardly 
rearwardly (rer'ward-li), adv. In a rearward 
direction; toward the rear; rearward. [Objec- 
tionable.] 
Having a handle . . . extending rearwardly beyond the 
suction tube. The Engineer, LXV. 374. 
reascend (re-a-send'), v. i. and t. [< re- + 
ascend.] To ascend, mount, or climb again. 
Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down 
The dark descent, and up to reascend. 
Milton, P. L., ill. 20. 
He mounts aloft and reascends the skies. Addison. 
reascension (re-a-seu'shon), n. [< re- + ascen- 
sion.] The act of reascending; a remounting. 
reascent (re-a-senf), n. [< re- + ascent.] A 
rise of ground following a descent. 
Hence the declivity is sharp and short, 
And such the reascent. Cowper, Task, i. 827. 
reason 1 (re'zn), . [< ME. reson, resun, resoun, 
raisottn, reisun, < OF. reson, resoun, reison, rea- 
soun, reason, raisou, raisoun, raisun, F. raison, F. 
dial, roison = Pr. razo, raxio = Cat. raho = Sp. 
reason = Pg. rasSo = It. ragione, < L. ratio(n-), 
reckoning, list, register, sum, affair, relation, 
regard, course, method, etc., also the faculty of 
reckoning, or of mental action, reason, etc., < 
reri, pp. ratus, think: see rate' 1 '. Reason 1 is a 
doublet of ratio and ration."] 1. An idea acting 
as a cause to create or confirm a belief, or to 
induce a voluntary action ; a judgment or be- 
lief going to determine a given belief or line 
of conduct. A premise producing a conclusion is said 
to be the reason of that conclusion ; a perceived fact or re- 
flection leading to a certain line of conduct is said to be a 
reason for that conduct ; a cognition giving rise to an emo- 
tion or other state of mind is said to be a reason of or for 
that state of mind. 
And be ready always to give an answer to every man 
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. 
1 Pet. iii. 15. 
Give you a reason on compulsion ! If reasons were as 
plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason 
upon compulsion. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 264. 
2. A fact, known or supposed, from which an- 
other fact follows logically, as in consequence 
of some known law of nature or the general 
course of things ; an explanation. 
No sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; 
no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy. 
Shak., As you Like it, v. 2. 39. 
Not even the tenderest heart, and next our own, 
Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh. 
KeMe, Christian Year, 24th Sunday after Trinity. 
3. An intellectual faculty, or such faculties col- 
lectively, (o) The intellectual faculties collectively 
(b) That kind and degree of intelligence which distin- 
guishes man from the brutes. 
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up 
mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned 
unto me, and I blessed the most High. ... At the same 
time my reason returned unto me. Dan. iv. 36. 
O judgement ! thou art fled to brutish beasts, 
And men have lost their reason. 
Shak., J. C., iii. 2. 110. 
For smiles from reason flow, 
To brute denied. Milton, P. L., ix. 239. 
(c) The logical faculties generally, including all that is 
subservient to distinguishing truth and falsehood, except 
sense, imagination, and memory on the one hand and the 
faculty of intuitively perceiving first principles, and other 
lofty faculties, on the other. 
The knowledge which respecteth the Faculties of the 
Mind of man is of two kinds: the one respecting his Un- 
derstanding and Reason, and the other his Will, Appetite 
and Affection ; whereof the former produceth Position or 
Decree, the later Action or Execution. . . . The end of Logic 
is to teach a form of argument to secure reason, and not 
to entrap it ; the end of Morality is to procure the affec- 
tions to obey reason, and not to invade it ; the end of Rhet- 
oric is to fill the imagination to second reason, and not 
to oppress it. Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 
But God left free the will ; for what obeys 
Reason is free, and reason he made right, 
But bid her well be ware, and still erect ; 
Lest, by some fair-appearing good surprised, 
She dictate false, and misinform the will 
To do what God expressly hath forbid. 
Milton, P. L., ix. 352. 
We may in reason discover these four degrees : the first 
and highest is the discovering and finding out of proofs 
the second, the regular and methodical disposition of 
them, and laying them in a clear and fit order, to make 
their connection and force be plainly and easily per- 
ceived ; the third is the perceiving of their connection ; 
and the fourth is a making a right conclusion. 
Locke, Human Understanding, iv. 17, 3. 
@) The faculty of drawing conclusions or inferences, or 
of reasoning. 
When she rates things, and moves from ground to ground 
The name of reason she obtains by this; 
But when by reason she the truth hath found, 
And standeth flx'd, she understanding is. 
Sir J. Davits, Immortal, of Soul, 25. 
The Latins called accounts of money rationes and ac- 
counting ratiocinatio; and that which we in books of ac- 
ouiits call items they call nomina, that is, names ; and 
4990 
Greeks have but one word, Advos, for both speech and 
reason; not that they thought there was no speech with- 
out reason, but no reasoning without speech. . . . Out of 
all which we may define, that is to say determine, what 
that is which is meant by this word reason when we 
reckon it amongst the faculties of the mind. For reason, 
in this sense, is nothing but reckoning. 
Uobbes, Leviathan, i. 4. 
(e) The faculty by which we attain the knowledge of first 
principles ; a faculty for apprehending the unconditioned. 
Some moral and philosophical truths there are so evident 
in themselves that it would be easier to imagine half man- 
kind run mad, and joined precisely in the same species of 
folly, than to admit anything as truth which should be ad- 
vanced against such natural knowledge, fundamental rea- 
son, and common sense. Shaftesbury. 
Reason is the faculty which supplies the principles of 
knowledge a priori. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Muller, p. 11. 
4. Intelligence considered as having universal 
validity or a catholic character, so that it is 
not something that belongs to any person, but 
is something partaken of, a sort of light in ' Rcaso 
which every mind must perceive. 5. That 
reason 
O God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason 
Would have mourn'd longer. Shak., Hamlet, i. 2. 150. 
Discursive reason, reason in the sense 3 (d) ; the diano- 
etic faculty, or faculty of drawing conclusions and infer- 
ences. Compare intuitive reason, below. 
Whence the soul 
Reason receives, and reason is her being, 
Discursive or intuitive ; discourse 
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, 
Differing but in degree, of kind the same. 
Milton, P. L., v. 487. 
Diversity of reason*. See diversity. Ens of reason. 
See ens. False reason, an inconclusive reason. Feast 
Of reason, (a) Delightful intellectual discourse. 
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl 
The /east of reason and the flow of soul. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i. 128. 
(6) [caps. } In French hist., an act of worship of human rea- 
son, represented by a woman as the goddess of Reason, per- 
formed on November 10th, 1793, in the cathedral of Notre 
Dame, and also in other churches (renamed temples of Rea- 
son) in France on that and succeeding days. The worship 
" - designed to take the place of the suppressed 
which every mind must perceive.-5. That SE^ttrS^&ilfficrfE*e;^SSLto 
which recommends itself to enlightened in- tive reason. See generative. Inreason. (o) In th 
telligence; some inward intimation for which or estimation of reason; reasonably; justly; prope 
ic view 
. . properly. 
great respect is felt and which is supposed to Hl unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have 
be common to the mass of mankind; reason- i ut: " ched her ie- Shak., M. for M., iii. i. 250. 
able measure ; moderation ; right ; what mature . The Oath whlcn bmdB n|m to performance of his ought 
and cool reflection, taking into account the f " *"'' to contai th "'''><>' "hat his chief trust and 
highest considerations, pronounces for, as op- ^eeable to reason ; ,_JR5S5l 
posed to the prompting of passion. will do anything in reason.- Intuitive reason, reason in 
the sense 3 (e) ; the noetic faculty, or sense of primal truth. 
You shall find me reasonable ; If it be so, I shall do that 
that is reason. Shak., M- W. of W., 1. 1. 218. 
Reason is the life of the law ; nay, the common law it- 
self is nothing else but reason. Sir E. Coke, Institutes. 
To subdue 
By force who reason for their law refuse, 
Right reason for their law, and for their King 
Messiah, who by right of merit reigns. 
Milton, P. L., vL 41. 
Many are of opinion that the most probable way of 
bringing France to reason would be by the making an 
attempt upon the Spanish West Indies. 
Addison, Present State of the War. 
6. A reasonable thing; a rational thing to do; 
an idea or a statement conformable to com- 
mon sense. 
And telle he moste his tale as was resoun, 
By forward and by composicionn, 
As ye han herd. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Knight's Tale (ed. Morris), 1. 847. 
It is not reason that we should leave the word of God 
and serve tables. Acts vi. 2. 
Men cannot retire when they would, neither will they 
when it were reason. Bacon, Great Place. 
7. The exercise of reason; reasoning; right 
reasoning; argumentation; discussion. 
Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious. 
Shak., L. L. L., v. 1. 2. 
I follow'd her ; she what was honour knew, 
And with obsequious majesty approved 
My pleaded reason. Milton, P. L., viii. 510. 
, . 
See quotation under discursive reason. Logical reason 
discursive reason. Objective reason. See objective. 
Out of reason, without or beyond reason ; devoid of cause 
or warrant 
If we desyre no redresse of dedis before, 
We may boldly vs byld with bostis out of Reason. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2222. 
Practical reason. See practical. Principle of suffi- 
cient reason, the proposition that nothing happens with- 
out a good and sufficient reason why it should be m it is 
and not otherwise. This doctrine denies, first, that any- 
thing happens by chance or spontaneity, and, second, that 
anything happens by irrational and brute force. It is in- 
extricably bound up with the principle of the identity of 
indiscemibles. It requires that there should be a general 
reason why the constants of nature should have the pre- 
cise values they have. It is in conflict with every form of 
nominalism, teaching that general reasons are not only 
real, but that they exclusively govern phenomena ; and it 
appears to lead logically to an idealism of a Platonic type. 
It is not the mere statement that everything has a cause 
but that those causes act according to general and rational 
principles, without any elementof blind compulsion. The 
principle was first enunciated by Leibnitz in 1710, and has 
met with extraordinary favor, the more so as it has often 
been misunderstood. Pure reason, reason strictly a pri- 
ori; reason quite independent of experience. See pure, 8. 
Reason is pure if in reasoning we admit only definitions 
and propositions known a priori. 
liauineister, Philosophia Definitiva (trans.), 2d ed , 1738, 
[1823. 
Pure reason is that faculty which supplies the principles 
of knowing anything entirely a priori. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Muller, p. 11. 
8. The intelligible essence of a thing or spe- Ratiocinant reason, (a) A reason or cause as it exists 
cies; the quiddity. 
That other opinion, that asserts that the abstract and 
universal rationes, reasons, of things, as distinct from 
phantasms, are nothing else but mere names without any 
signification, is so ridiculously false that it deserves no 
confutation at all. 
Cuduxrrth, Eternal and Immutable Morality, iv. 1. 
9. In logic, the premise or premises of an ar- 
gument, especially the minor premise. 
A premiss placed after its conclusion Is called the Rea- 
son of it, and is introduced by one of those conjunctions 
which are called causal : viz., "since," " because," <tc. 
Whately, Logic, I. j 2. 
By reason!, (o) For the reason that; because. 
'Tis not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their Votes, 
by reason they make so much hast. 
Selden, Table-Talk, p. 108. 
(6) By right or Justice ; properly ; justly. 
And, as my body and my beste oujte to be my liegis, 
So rithflully be reson my rede shulde also. 
Richard the Redeless, Prol. 
By reason Of, on account of ; for the cause of. 
And by reson of gentill fader ought come gentill issue 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), lit 660. 
The days of our years are threescore years and ten ; and 
if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their 
strength labour and sorrow. p s . x c . 10. 
Mr. Bradford and Mr. Collier of Plimouth came to Bos- 
ton, having appointed a meeting here the week before, 
but by reason of foul weather were driven back. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 166. 
The Parliament is adjourned to Oxford, by reason of the 
Sickness which increaseth exceedingly. 
HoiceU, Letters, I. Iv. 20. 
I cannot go so fast as I would, by reason of this burden 
that is on my back. Banyan, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 89. 
We elected a president, as many of the ancients did 
their kings, by reason of his height. 
Addison, Spectator, No. 108. 
, 
in the mind : opposed to ratiocinate reason. 
I have not asked this question without cause causing, 
and reason truly very ratiocinant. 
Urquhart, Rabelais, III. vi. (Davies.) 
(b) The human understanding ; the discursive reason. 
Ratiocinate reason, a reason as an element of the quid- 
dity of things, according to the Aristotelian conception: 
opposed to ratiocinant reason. Reason of State, a po- 
litical motive for a public act which cannot be accounted 
for publicly ; a concealed ground of action by a govern- 
ment or a public officer in some matter concerning the 
state's welfare or safety, or the maintenance of a policy. 
Relation of reason. See relation. Right reason, rea- 
son in sense 5, above. Rime nor reason. See rimel. 
Speculative reason, reason employed about supersensu- 
ous things. Subjective reason, reason which is deter- 
mined by the subject or agent Sufficient reason. See 
principle of sufficient reason, above. Theoretical rea- 
son, reason as productive of cognition. There is no 
reason butt, there is no reason why not ; it is inevitable ; 
it cannot be helped. 
There is no reason but I shall be blind. 
Shak., T. G. ofV.,iL4. 212. 
To do one reasont. (a) To do what is desired, or what 
one desires ; act so as to give satisfaction. 
Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine. 
. . . [I am) resolved withal 
To do myself this reason and this right 
Shak., Tit. And., i. 1. 279. 
Strike home, and do me reason in thy heart. Dryden. 
(6) See rfoi. To have reason, to have reason or right on 
one's side ; be in the right. [A Gallicism.] 
Mr. Mechlin has reason. Foote, Commissary, iii. 1. 
To hear reason, to yield to reasoning or argument ; ac- 
cept a reason or reasons adduced ; act according to ad- 
vice. 
Con. You should hear reason. 
D. John. . . . What blessing brings it 1 
Con. If not a present remedy, at least a patient suffer- 
ance. Shak., Much Ado, i. 3. 6. 
To stand to reason. See stand. = Syn. 1. Inducement, 
etc. (see motive), account, object, purpose, design. 
'At o/tv* 1 Ivct^rm \ * T/TVTT7 .! * / f\\^ . -..' 
