R I C 
R I C 79 
Valuable; estimable; precious; splendid; sumptuous. 
Earth, in her rich attire, 
Consummate lovely smil’d. Milton. 
Having any ingredients or qualities in a great quantity or 
degree. 
So we th’ Arabian coast do know 
At distance, when the spices blow, 
By the rich odour taught to steer, 
Though neither day nor star appear. Waller. 
Fertile; fruitful. 
There are, who, fondly studious of increase, 
Rich foreign mould on their ill natured land 
Induce. __ Phillips • 
Abundant; plentiful. 
The gorgeous East with richest hand 
Pours on her sons barbarick, pearl and gold. Milton. 
Abounding; plentifully stocked: as, pastures rich in 
flocks. Having something precious.—Groves whose rich 
trees wept odorous gums and balms. Milton, 
To RICH, v. a. [from the noun. Dr. Johnson gives the 
word in the passage from Shakspeare’s K. Lear as an ad¬ 
jective. But to rich is certainly one of our old verbs.] 
To enrich. Obsolete. 
Then he shall be riched so, 
That it maie fade nevermo. Goiver. 
To / 'itch his country, let his words lyke flowing water fall. 
Dr ant. 
Of all these bounds, 
With shadowy forests, and with champions rich'd. 
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, 
We make thee lady. Shakspeare. 
RICHARD I.; his reign and character, see England* 
576. His exploits in the Holy Land, see Egypt, 323.— 
Richard II., see England, 602, 606. —Richard III., 
see England, 620, 625. 
RICHARD (John), a French advocate and theological 
writer in the 17th and the early part of the 18th centuries, 
was bom at Verdun, in Lorraine, about the year 1638. The 
first part of his education he received at Pont-a-Mousson, 
and was then sent to Paris, where he studied law and divi¬ 
nity. Afterwards he was admitted an advocate at Orleans; 
but more for the sake of possessing the rank and privileges 
connected with that title, than from any design to practise 
at the bar. His inclination led him to devote his time and 
talents to the composition and publishing of sermons. By 
his numerous productions of this description he acquired 
celebrity In the year 1700, he began to publish a com¬ 
pilation, under the title of “ A Moral Dictionary, or, Uni¬ 
versal Pulpit-Science,” which, in 1715, was extended to 
6 vols. 8vo. It consists of striking sentiments and reason¬ 
ings on a great variety of subjects, selected from the works 
of French, Spanish, Italian, German, and other divines, 
arranged in alphabetical order. 
RICHARD (of St. Victor), a celebrated divine and Scrip¬ 
ture commentator in the 12th century, was a native of Scot¬ 
land, who went to pursue his studies at the University of 
Paris. According to Cave, his fame as a writer commenced 
about the year 1150. In 1164, he was elected prior of his 
monastery; where he died in the year 1173, equally respect¬ 
ed for his virtues as for his learned attainments. Concerning 
his merits as a writer, Dupin observes, that “ he shews a great 
deal of subtlety in his theological treatises, and argues me¬ 
thodically, with an exactness becoming an able logician. 
His critical pieces are very accurate, for the time in which he 
lived. His style, however, is not very elevated; on which 
account his pious treatises, though abounding in excellent 
matter, are greatly deficient in weight and energy.” His 
works consist of critical observations and remarks on some of 
the historical parts of the Old Testament, relating to the 
tabernacle, and the temple of Solomon; allegorical and 
moral “ Commentaries" on several of the Psalms, the Song of 
Songs, and the Apocalypse; questions on certain difficult 
passages of St. Paul’s epistles, and other parts of the Bible, 
part of which is printed among the works of Hugh of St. 
Victor; and numerous critical, doctrinal, and practical trea¬ 
tises, which are particularized by Cave. The whole of them 
have been frequently printed in a collective form; and the 
best edition is said to be that of Rouen, in 1650, in 2 vols. 
folio. Cave's Hist. Lit. 
RICHARD’S CASTLE, a parish of England, in Here¬ 
fordshire; 7 miles north of Leominster. Population 582. 
RICHARDI A, (so named by Linnseus, from one Richard¬ 
son) ; in botany, a genus of the class hexandria, order mono- 
gynia, natural order of stellatae, rubiacese, ( Juss.) Gene¬ 
ric Character.—Calyx: perianth one-leafed, six-parted, 
erect, acuminate, shorter by half than the corolla. Corolla 
one petalled, cylindric-funnel-shaped; border six-cleft, 
acute, erect. Stamina: filaments six, very short. Anthers 
roundish, small, at the incisures of the corolla. Pistil: germ 
inferior. Style filiform, the length of the stamens, three- 
parted at top. Stigmas blunt. Pericarp none. Seeds three, 
round on one side, angular on the other, at top wider, gib¬ 
bous. It varies, according to Gartner, with the calyx and 
corolla eight-cleft, and eight stamens.— Essential Character. 
—Calyx six parted. Corolla one-petalled, subcylindric. 
Seeds three. 
1 . Richardia scabra.—Stem high, brachiate, somewhat 
jointed, obsoletely four-cornered, hispid with stiffish scat¬ 
tered reflex hairs. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, alternately 
nerved, quite entire, subpetioled, rugged. Flowers in termi¬ 
nating heads, and also heaped into whorls; the former ra¬ 
diate with four or more leaves, alternately larger and smaller. 
Corollets as in asperula, slender and long, but six-cleft, 
and the fruit consisting of three seeds: thus it differs from 
Spermacoce in number and other circumstances.—Found by 
Houstoun at Vera Cruz. 
RICHARDSON (Jonathan), a painter and a writer, was 
born about 1665. He was apprenticed to a scrivener in 
London; but when he became free on the death of his master, 
after six years’ service, he pursued his natural inclination for 
the arts of design, and entered as a pupil with Riley the 
portrait painter, whose niece he afterwards married. He ac¬ 
quired as much professional skill as a late and defective 
education, and the want of genius, could promise, being 
reckoned one of the best English painters of a head that had 
hitherto appeared; but there his excellence ended, for he 
drew nothing well below it, and was void of imagination, 
dignity, and grace. From the state of the art at that period, 
however, he was able to rise to the summit of his profession 
after the death of Kneller and Dahl. He would not have 
been entitled to biographical commemoration as an artist, 
had he not displayed considerable judgment and feeling in 
his writings. He published in 1719 two discourses in an 
8 vo. volume, entitled “ An Essay on the whole Art of Criti¬ 
cism as it relates to Painting;” and “ An Argument in Be¬ 
half of the Science of a Connoisseur.” He had a son, who 
received an advantage which the father wanted, that of a 
classical education, and who travelled into Italy. They 
jointly published, in 1722, “An Account of some of the 
Statues, Bas-reliefs, Drawings and Pictures in Italy, &c., with 
Remarks by Mr. Richardson, senior and junior,” which is a 
valuable performance. The style of the elder, who was a 
formal man, is stiff and full of singularities and quaintnesses 
which excited some ridicule; but it is strongly expressive, and 
his observations are instructive and judicious. The father 
and son, who were united in cordial affection, published to¬ 
gether in 1734 “ Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Mil¬ 
ton’s Paradise Lost, with the Life of the Author, and a Dis¬ 
course on the Poem,” 8vo. Of the notes, Bishop Newton 
says, “ There are strange inequalities in them, some extrava¬ 
gances, and many excellences; there is often better sense 
than grammar or English; and he sometimes hits the true 
meaning of the author surprisingly, and explains it properly.” 
Richardson also attempted poetry, and a volume of his poems 
was published in 1776, with notes by his son. They are 
chiefly on moral and religious topics, and have little poetical 
merit 
