126 HIV 
impression on his mind, that he determined to renounce the 
world and enter the monastic state. Accordingly, at the age 
of twenty-one, he became a noviciate in the abbey of Mar- 
moutier, belonging to the Benedictines of the congregation of 
St. Maur, and took the vows in the year 1705. After com¬ 
pleting his courses of philosophy and divinity, he was trans¬ 
ferred to the abbey of St. Florence at Saumur, where his 
order was establishing a kind of academy, consisting of such 
members as were most distinguished by their talents and li¬ 
terature, for the purpose of studying the Scriptures in their 
original languages, the councils, the fathers, and the histo¬ 
rians of the church, without being shackled hy the trammels 
of the schools. To the objects of this society he devoted his 
attention with laborious diligence for several years, and ac¬ 
quired those stores of knowledge, and that judicious critical 
discrimination, which are discoverable in his subsequent 
works. In the year 1716, he was removed to the monastery 
of St. Cyprian at Poitiers, where he formed the plans of a his¬ 
tory of the bishops of that diocese, and of a bibli'otheque of 
the authors of Poitou; but the other labours in which he was 
engaged prevented him from carrying them into execution. 
During the following year, his superiors called him to Paris, 
and assigned him the task, conjointly with other members, 
of drawing up a history of illustrious men of the Benedictine 
order. The collections which he made for such an under¬ 
taking were very considerable; but the design miscarried, by 
a fatality not uncommon to works confided to a diversity of 
hands. Being now at liberty to select his own subject, he 
undertook to write “ A Literary History of France,” the plan 
of which he had already conceived. However, before he be¬ 
came wholly occupied on this work, he gave to the public, 
through the medium of the Dutch press, another favourite 
production, entitled, “ The Necrology of Port-Royal in the 
Fields, &c., containing historical Eulogies; with the Epitaphs 
of the Founders and Benefactors of that Monastery, &c.,” 
1723, 4to., preceded by a long historical preface. In this 
work he discovered so strong an attachment to the memory 
and cause of Amauld and Quesnel, while he distinguished 
himself by his zealous support of the appellants against the 
bull Unigenitus, that he incurred the displeasure of his supe¬ 
riors, who ill the same year compelled him to retire to the 
abbey of St. Vincent, at Mans. Here he spent the remainder 
of his life laboriously employed on his great design, in which 
he was assisted by some learned members of that community. 
In the year 1773, he gratified the high-raised expectations of 
the learned world, by publishing the first volume under the 
title of “ The Literary History of France: treating of the Ori¬ 
gin and Progress, of the Decline and the Revival of Learning 
among the Gauls and among the French; of their respective 
Taste and Genius for Literature in each Age; of their ancient 
Schools, and the Establishment of Universities in France; 
of the principal Colleges; of the Academies of Sciences and 
Belles-lettres,” &c. in 4to. This was followed at different 
periods by other volumes, till the author had printed the 
ninth, which includes the first years of the twelfth century, 
when, owing to the intenseness of his application, and his 
strict observance at the same time of the austerities enjoined 
by the rule of his order, he brought on an incurable flux, 
which carried him off towards the beginning of 1749, in the 
sixty-sixth year of his age. This work was afterwards ex¬ 
tended to twelve volumes. It has been compared, and not 
undeservedly, with the “ Memoirs” of the learned Tillemont, 
for accuracy of citation, and depth of research ; and it will be 
found to furnish the reader with much interesting matter, not 
only on the subjects already mentioned in our abridgment of 
the title, but also relating to the lives of the learned men who 
flourished in the ages of which it treats, their genius and 
talents, their works, and the different editions of them, and 
the merit of the latter as weighed in the scales of judicious 
and liberal criticism. Moreri. Nouv. Diet. Hist. 
RIVIERE, or Riverius (Lazare), a celebrated physician, 
was born at Montpellier in 1589. He studied physic in the 
university of his native city, and was admitted to the degree 
of doctor in 1611. He obtained a medical professorship at 
Montpellier in 1622, which he occupied during life with 
& 1 V 
great reputation. This professor was the first who succeeded 
in establishing the use of chemical remedies in the Montpel¬ 
lier school. He was the author of several works, chiefly re¬ 
lative to practice, in which he was a considerable improver. 
In the theoretical part of medicine he copied much from 
Sennertus, and often without acknowledgment. The follow¬ 
ing are the principal works of Riverius: “ Praxis Medica 
cum Theoria,” very frequently reprinted: in this work he 
treats of the diseases of the human body, from the head to 
the feet, with brief descriptions, but a fuller method of cure. 
“ Observationes Medic® et Curationes insignes,” containing 
many valuable cases and observations; “ Methodus Curan- 
darum Febrium;” “ Institutiones Medicae.” He died in 
1655. Halleri Bibl. Med. 
RIVIERE AU BG5UF, a river of North America, which 
falls into the Mississippi, in the lower end of Lake Pepin. 
It is 30 yards wide. 
RIVIERE DES HURONS, a river of Lower Canada, 
which, after a winding course, falls into the Richlieu, at Fort 
Chambly. 
RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, a river of Lower Canada, 
which issues from the Lake of the Mountains, and running 
along the northern shore of the island of Montreal, divides 
it from Isle Jesus; after which it joins the St. Lawrence. 
RIVIERE MAHAUT, La, a town of the island of 
Guadaloupe, sffuated in a bay to which it gives name. 
Lat. 16. 27. N. long. 61. 46. W. 
RIVIERE PILOTE, a town on the south coast of the 
island of Martinico. 
RIVIERE ROUGE, a river of the United States, in the 
North-western Territory, which falls into Lake Michigan, in 
Green bay. 
RIVIERE SALEE, a town on the south coast of the 
island of Martinico. 
RIVINA, (so named by Plumier, in honour of Rivinus, 
Professor of Medicine at Leipsic.) in botany, a genus of the 
class tetrandria, order monogynia, natural order of holo- 
racete, atriplices, (Juss.J Generic Character.—Calyx: 
perianth four- leaved, coloured, permanent; leaflets oblong- 
ovate, blunt. Corolla none, unless the calyx be taken for 
it. Stamina: filaments four or eight, shorter than the calyx, 
approaching by pairs, permanent. Anthers small. Pistil: 
germ large, roundish. Style very short. Stigma simple, blunt. 
Pericarp: berry globular, placed on the green reflex calyx, 
one-celled, with a point curved in. Seed one, roundish, 
lens-shaped, nigged. Essential Character. —Calyx: four¬ 
leaved (or, corolla four-petailed) permanent. Berry contain¬ 
ing one lens-shaped seed. 
1. Rivina humilis, or downy rivina, a shrub from eight to 
twelve feet high.—Racemes simple, flowers four-stamened, 
leaves pubescent.—Native of the West Indies. 
2. Rivina laevis, or smooth rivina, a shrub from six to 
eight feet high,—Racemes simple, flowers four-stamened, 
leaves ovate acuminate, smooth, flat, stem round.—Native of 
the West Indies. 
3. Rivina Brasiliensis, or wave-leaved rivina.—Racemes 
simple, flowers four-stamened, leaves ovate, waved and 
wrinkled, stem grooved. 
4. Rivina octandra, or climbing rivina.—Racemes simple, 
flowers eight-stamened or twelve-stamened, leaves elliptic, 
smooth. This rises with a climbing woody stalk to the height 
of twenty feet, covered with a dark gray bark. Leaves oval- 
lanceolate, near three inches long, and an inch and half 
broad, smooth, entire, on short foot-stalks. The flowers 
come out in long bunches from the side of the branches, 
shaped like those of the second sort. The berries are blue, of: 
the same size with those of the other. 
Browne says, it stretches a great way among the neigh¬ 
bouring shrubs and bushes, the main stalk being seldom 
under an inch or two in diameter, and throwing out a few 
slender branches towards the top, which are generally 
adorned with flowers at their extremities. The berries make 
the principal part of the food of the American thrush or 
nightingale; they contain a very oily seed, and after the bird 
has swallowed many of them, he frequently flies to tfie next 
bird- 
