11 HE 
Tliere is but one species, viz. R. lateri- 
flora. 
RHETICUS (George Joachim), in 
bipgraphy, a noted German astronomer 
and mathematician, was born at Feldkirk, 
in Tyrol, the 15th of February, 1514. After 
imbibing the elements of the mathematics 
at Tiguri, with Oswald Mycone, he went to 
Wittemberg, where he diligently cultivated 
that science. Here he was made master of 
philosophy in 1535, and professor in 1537. 
He quitted this situation, however, two 
years after, and went to Fruenberg to put 
himself under the assistance of the cele- 
brated Copernicus, being induced to this 
step by his zeal for astronomical pursuits, 
and the great fame which Copernicus had 
then acquired. Rheticus assisted this astro- 
nomer for some years, and constantly ex- 
horted him to perfect his work, De Revolu- 
tionibus, which he published after the death 
of Copernicus, viz. in 1643, folio, at No- 
rimberg, together with an illustration of the 
same in a narration, dedicated to Schoner. 
Here too, to render astronomical calcula- 
tions more accurate, he began his very ela- 
borate canon of sines, tangents, and se- 
cants, to fifteen places of figures, and to 
every ten seconds of the quadrant, a design 
which he did not live quite to complete. 
The canon of sines, however, to that radius, 
for every ten seconds, and for every single 
second in the first and last degree of the 
quadrant, computed by him, was published 
in folio, at Franckfort, 1613, by Pitiscus, 
who himself added a few of the first sines 
computed to twenty-two places of figures. 
But the larger work, or canon of sines, 
tangents, and secants, to every ten seconds, 
was perfected and published after his death, 
viz. in 1596, by his disciple, Valentine Otho, 
mathematician to the Electoral Prince Pa- 
latine. 
After the death of Copernicus, Rheticus 
returned to Wittemberg, viz. in 1541 or 
1542, and was again admitted to his office 
of professor of mathematics. The same 
year, by the recommendation of Melanc- 
thon, he went to Norimberg, where he 
found certain manuscripts of Werner and 
Regiomontanus, He afterwards taught 
mathematics at Leipsic, From Saxony he 
departed a second time, for what reason is 
not known, and wentlo Poland ; and from 
thence to Cassovia, in Hungary, where he 
died December the 4th, 15 '6, near sixty- 
three years of age. 
His Narratio de libris Revolutionum Co- 
pernici, was first published at Gcdunum, in 
RHE 
quarto, 1540, and afterwards added to the 
editions of Copernicus’s work. He also com- 
posed and published Ephemerides, accord- 
ing to the doctrine of Copernicus, till the 
year 1551. 
Rheticus also projected other works, and 
partly executed them, though they were 
never published, of various kinds, astrono- 
mical, astrological, geographical, chemical, 
&c. as they are more particularly mentioned 
in his letter to Peter Ramus, in the year 
1568, which Adrian Romanus inserted in 
the preface to the first part of his idea of 
mathematics. 
RHETORIC, from the Greek word 
to speak, may be defined the art of speak- 
ing with persuasion. 
This art, like all others, is the result of 
observations and experiments made by men 
of good capacities and of enlightened minds. 
After multiplied and often defective essays, 
those principles are at length discovered, 
which distinguish between the good and the 
bad, between the faulty and the perfect. 
These principles, when redubed to method, 
and well arranged, save succeeding enquir- 
ers much pains and trouble, considerably 
shorten the road to knowledge, and mate- 
rially assist in the formation of a correct 
judgment. As in respect to poetry, it is 
contended, that though accurate rules of 
criticism will not bestow genius, they will 
check redundancy and bombast, and detect 
all the errors into which thb competitors 
for the laurel are too apt to be betrayed, so 
with regard to the precepts of rhetoric it 
may safely be asserted, that though they 
will not generate that energy of mind which 
rises to the highest flights of eloquence, 
they will effectually warn the orator against 
incongruity in the disposition of his matter, 
absurdity in argument, and the false glitter 
of ornament which amuses instead of con- 
vincing, or those injudicious attempts to 
interest the feelings which excite ridicule 
rather than sympathy. 
This will be the more manifest if we con- 
sider that the foundation of eloquence is 
right reason, and that its exercise implies , 
the possession of that faculty both in the 
speaker and the hearer. It was well ob- 
served by the Stagyrite, that rhetoric is 
nearly allied to logic. 
In displaying the utility of the art of rhe- 
toric Quintilian expresses himself in the 
following forcible terms : “ If in any thing 
the Creator has distinguished us from the 
rest of the animals, it is by the gift of 
speech. They surpass us in strength, in pati- 
