wearying them out.-A paviour, after long and fruitless attempts, caught him just getting out of his charriot at his own door, in Bloomsbury-fquare, and fet upon him. Why, you rascal,' said the doctor, do you pretend to be paid for such a piece of work? why you have spoiled my pavement, and then covered it over with earth to hide your bad work.' Doctor,' faid the paviour, 'mine is not the only bad work that the earth hides! You dog you,' faid the doctor, are you a wit? you must be poor, come in;' and paid him. Nobody," adds Mr. Richardfon, "ever practifed this rule, of ufing all mankind ill,' lefs than Dr. Mead (who told me himself the story, and) who, as I have been informed by great physicians, got as much again by his practice as Dr. Radcliffe did.'

RAINOLDS (JOHN), an eminent English divine, was born at Pinto in Devonshire, in 1549, and fent to Merton-college, Oxford, in 1562. He removed to Corpus Chrifti-college, of which he became first scholar, and then fellow. He took both the degrees in arts and divinity. In 1598, he was made dean of Lincoln; but being unwilling to quit an academical life, he exchanged his deanery the year following, for the presidentship of Corpus Chrifti-college. Queen Elizabeth offered him a bishoprick; but he modeftly refused it, and faid Nolo Episcopari in good earnest. He died in 1607, after having published a great number of books. The learned have beftowed most uncommon praises upon this divine. Bishop Hall, a very competent judge, obferves, that "that he alone was a well-furnished library, full of all faculties, of all ftudies, of all learning. The memory, the reading of that man, were to a miracle." Dr. Crakanthorp fays, that "for virtue, probity, integrity, and piety, he was fo eminent, that, as Nazianzen speaks of Athanafius, to name him is to commend virtue itself." He had a hand in tranflating part of the Old Testament, by command of James I. He was inclined to Puritanifm, but with fuch moderation, that he continued a conformist to the church of England. He was thought to fhorten his life by too fevere application to his ftudies; but, when his friends urged him to defift, he used to reply, that he would not lofe the end of living for the fake of life;" non propter vitam vivendi perdere caufas.

་

RALPH (JAMES), a writer in poetry, politics, and history, was born we know not where, nor of what family. His defcent was mean; but he raised himfelf from obfcurity by his merit. He was a school-mafter at Philadelphia, in North America; which remote fituation not fuiting his active mind, he came to England about the beginning of the reign of George II. and by his attendance and abilities recommended himself to the patronage of fome great men. He published a poem, enti

tled

tled "Night," of which Pope thus takes notice in the Dunciad:

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia hows,
And makes night hideous-anfwer him, ye owls!

He wrote fome pieces for the ftage, of which an account may be seen in the "Biographia Dramatica." Though he did not fucceed as a poet, he was a very ingenious profe writer. His " History of England," commencing with the reign of the Stuarts, is much eftemed, as were his political pamphlets; fome of which were looked upon as mafter-pieces. He was concerned in writing effays in feveral periodical papers, particularly "Old England; or, Jeffery Broadbottom's Journal, and The Remembrancer." His laft publication, entitled, "The Cafe of Authors by Profeffion," is efteemed an excellent and entertaining performance. He loft all hopes of preferment by the death of Frederic prince of Wales; and died at Chiswick, after a long fuffering from the gout, Jan. 24, 1762.

RAMAZZINI (BERNARDIN), an Italian physician, was born of a good family at Carpi near Modena, in 1633. When he had laid a foundation in grammar and claffical literature in his own country, he went to Parma to study philofophy; and, afterwards applying himself to phyfic, took a doctor's degree there in 1659. Then he went to Rome, for the fake of penetrating ftill further into his art; and afterwards fettled in the dutchy of Caftro. After fome time, ill health obliged him to return to Carpi for his native air, where he married, and followed the business of his profeffion; but in 1671, at the advice of fome friends, he removed to Modena. His brethren of the faculty there conceived at firft but meanly of his learning and abilities; but, when he had undeceived them by publications, their contempt, as is natural, was changed into jealoufy, In 1682, he was made profeffor of phyfic in the university of Modena, which was just founded by duke Francis II.; and he filled this office for eighteen years, attending in the mean time to practice, and not neglecting polite literature, of which he was always fond. In 1700, he went to Padua upon invitation, to be a profeffor there: but the infirmities of age began now to him. He loft his fight, and was forced to read and write with other people's eyes and hands. Nevertheless, the fenate of Venice made him rector of the college in 1708, and also raised him from the fecond profefforship in phyfic to the firft. He would have refused these honourable posts; but, being over-ruled, performed all the functions of them very diligently to the time of his death. He died in 1714, upon his birth-day, Nov. 5, aged 81. He compofed many works upon medical and philofophical fubjects: his book "De Morbis Artificum,” will always be useful. His works were collected and published at London, 1716, in 4to; which is a better edition than that of Geneva the year after, because more correct.

come upon

Kk 2

RAMEAU

RAMEAU (JOHN PHILIP), an illuftrious musician, ftyled
by the French, the Newton of harmony, was born at Dijon,
Sept. 25, 1683. After having learned the rudiments of mufic,
he left his native country, and wandered about with the per-
formers of a ftrolling opera. At eighteen, he compofed a mu-
fical entertainment, which was reprefented at Avignon: after
wards, travelling through part of France and Italy, he correct-
sed his ideas of mufic by the practice of the harpsichord; and
then went to Paris, where he perfected himself under John
Louis Marchand, a famous organift. He became organist of
the cathedral church of Clermont in Auvergne, and in this re-
'tirement ftudied the theory of his art with the utmost affiduity.
His application gave birth to his "Traité de l' Harmonie,
Paris, 1722;" and to his "Nouveau Syftême de Mufique
Theorique, Paris, 1726." But the work, for which he is moft
celebrated, is his "Demonftration du Principe de l' Harmonie,
Paris, 1750;" in which, as his countrymen fay, he has fhewn,
that the whole depends upon one fingle and clear principle,
namely, the fundamental bafe: and it is in this refpect that he is
by them compared to Newton, who, by the fingle principle of
gravitation, explained the phænomena of the Phyfical World.

With fuch extraordinary talents as these, and a fupreme style
in mufical compofition, it had been a national reproach, had
Rameau been fuffered to remain organist of a country cathedral.
He was called to Paris, and appoined to the management of the
opera: his mufic was of an original caft, and the performers com-
-plained at first that it could not be executed; but he afferted the
contrary, and evinced it by experiment. By practice he ac-
quired a great facility in compofing, fo that he was never at a
lofs to adapt founds to fentiments. It was a faying of Quinault,
that "the poet was the musician's fervant; but Rameau
would fay, "Give me but a Holland Gazette, and I will fet it
to mufic:" and we are almost ready to concur with him, inaf-
much as we have known the London Cries of "The laft dying
fpeech of the malefactors who were executed this morning at
Tyburn," &c. to be fet, and fung moft harmoniously.
king, to reward his extraordinary merit, conferred upon him the
ribband of the order of St. Michael; and, a little before his death,
raised him to the rank of Nobility. He was a man of good mo-
rals, and lived happily with a wife whom he tenderly loved.
He died at Paris, Sept. 12, 1764; and his exequies were cele-
brated with great mufical folemnity.

The

As a theorist, the character of Rameau stands very high, and
Handel always fpoke of him with great refpect; but as a mufical
compofer, his merit (it seems) remains to be fettled. Befides
the tracts above mentioned, there are extant of his, "Genera-
tion Harmonique, Paris, 1737;" and "Nouvelles Reflexions
fur la Démonstration," &c..