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"nounced to fuch a true penitent, devout, and hum"ble foul, I could not but have thefe comfortable "thoughts, that what was thus declared remitted upon "earth, would be remitted in heaven alfo. After this, I

gave him the Sacrament of the Lord's-fupper, which as "it is men's duty often to receive in the time of health, "fo at the hour of death, he faid, it was a neceffary viaticum, he thought, for the great journey he was now a-going.'

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RAY (BENJAMIN), a moft ingenious and worthy Hift. of man, poffeffed of good learning, but ignorant of the world; men's Soindolent and thoughtlefs, and often very abfent. He was ciety at a native of Spalding, where he was educated under Dr. Spalding, Neve, and afterwards admitted of St. John's College, P. xxxii. Cambridge. He was perpetual curate of Surfleet, of which he gave an account to the Spalding Society; and curate of Cowbitt, which is a chapel to Spalding, in the gift of trustees. His hermitage of ofiers and willows there. was celebrated by William Jackfon of Bofton, in a MS. heroic poem. He communicated to the Royal Society an account of a water-fpout raised off the land in Deeping fen, printed in their "Tranfactions," vol. XLVII. P. 447, and of an ancient coin to " Gent. Mag. 1744. There are feveral differtations by him in that mifcellany. He was Secretary to the Spalding Society 1735. Mr. Pegge, about 1758, had a confultion with Dr. Taylor, refidentiary of St. Paul's, and a friend of Ray's, to get him removed to better fituations; and the Doctor was inclined to do it: but on better information, and mature confideration, it was thought then too late to tranfplant him. He died a bachelor at Spalding in 1760. See his communications to the Society, in the Reliquiæ Galeana, pp. 57, 58, 63. He alfo communicated in MS. "The truth of the Chriftian religion demonftrated from the report that was propagated throughout the Gentile world about the birth of Chrift, that a Meffiah was expected, and from the authority of heathen writers, and from the coins of "the Roman emperors to the beginning of the fecond

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general perfecution under Domitian," in ten fections, never printed. Alfo a MS. catalogue of houfehold goods, furniture, and ten pictures, removed out of the prefence chamber, 26 Charles II. 14 Dec. 1668, from Mr. Brown, and of others taken out of the cupboard in the chamber, 24 Dec. 1668, by Mr. Church. Thefe were in number

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Niceron, tom. II.

69. (Percy Church, efq. was fome time page of honour and equerry to the queen mother Henrietta Maria.) A MS. catalogue of Italian princes, palaces, and paintings, 1735, now in the Society's Mufeum. 1740, a large and well-written history of the life and writings of the great botanift, his namefake, by Mr. Dale, which was read, and approved. John Ray's account of Cuba, where he was on fhore fome months. Mr. Johnfon calls him his kinfman, and fays in honour of him, he finds an infcription on the lower ledge of an altar tomb, on which lies a mutilated alabafter knight in armour and mail in Gofberkirke, alias Gofberton chapel, now a fchool at Surfleet, to belong to Nicholas Kie, who was sheriff of Lincolníhire 5 and 6 Edw. I. 1278, and died 1279 or 80.

REAL (CESAR VICHARD de St.), a polite writer in French, was the fon of a counfellor to the fenate of Chamberri in Savoy, where he was born; but it is not mentioned in what year. He came very yonng to France, was fome time a difciple of M. de Varillas; and afterand eloge at the head of wards diftinguifhed himself at Paris by feveral ingenious his works. productions. In 1675, he returned to Chamberri, and went thence to England with the duchefs of Mazarine; but foon after came back to Paris, where he lived a long time, without title or dignity, intent upon literary purfuits. He returned a fecond time to Chamberri in 1692, and died there the fame year, pretty old, but not in the beft circumftances. He was a man of great parts and penetration, a lover of the fciences, and particularly fond of hiftory, which he wished to have ftudied in a very different manner from what it ufually is, not as a bare recital of facts and fpeeches, but as a picture of human nature under its various modes of wifdom, folly, knavery, and madnefs. He wrote a piece with this view, "De l'ufage de l'Hiftorie, Paris, 1672," 12m0; which is full · of fenfible and judicious reflections. In 1674, he publifhed," Conjuration des Efpagnols contre le Republique "de Venice en 1618," 12mo. We have had hiftorians," fays Voltaire," but not a Livy. The style of The ConLouis XIV. fpiracy of Venice' is comparable to that of Salluft: it is "evident the abbé de St. Real had him in his eye, and "perhaps has furpaffed him." He loft as much reputation by his "La Vie de Jefus Chrift," publifhed four years after, as he had gained by his "Confpiracy of Venice." He wrote many other things: fome to il

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luftrate

luftrate the Roman hiftory, which he had made his particular ftudy; fome upon fubjects of philofophy, politics, and morals; and notes upon the two firft books of Tully's "Letters to Atticus," of which he made a French tranflation.

A neat edition of his works was published at the Hague 1722, in 5 vols, 12mo, without the letters to Atticus; which however were printed in the edition of Paris 1745, in 3 vols. 4to, and fix 12mo.

REAUMUR (RENE-ANTOINE FERCHAULT fieur de), a French philofopher, was born of a good family in 1683 at Rochelle, where he was grounded in letters. Then he was fent to Poitiers for philofophy; and, in 1699, went to Bourges to ftudy the law. In the mean time, he had early difcovered a turn for mathematics and phyfics; and he now went to Paris, to cultivate thefe fciences. So early as 1708, he was judged worthy to be a member of the academy of fciences; and he foon juftified the choice that was then made of him by that fociety. He made innumerable obfervations, and wrote a great number of pieces, upon the various branches of natural philofophy. His "Hiftory of Infects," in 6 vols. 4to, at Paris, is his capital work. Another edition was printed in Holland in 12 vols. 12mo. He died in 1757, not of age, although he was old, but of the confequences of a fall. He is an exact and clear writer; and there is an elegance in his ftyle and manner, which is not always to be found among thofe who have made only the fciences their ftudy. He is reprefented alfo as a man of an amiable compofition, and with qualities to make him beloved as well as admired. He left a great variety of papers and natural curiofities to the academy of fciences.

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REDI (FRANCIS), an Italian phyfician and very polite fcholar, was defcended from a noble family, and born at Arezzo in Tufcany, 1626. His firft ftudies were made Niceron, at Florence, whence he removed to Pifa, and there was tom. III. admitted doctor in philofophy and medicine. His ingenuity and fkill in thefe and other fciences acquired him great reputation; and Ferdinand II, duke of Tufcany, chofe him his firft phyfician. His conftant employ did not hinder him from cultivating the belles lettres: he devoted much of his time to the ftudy of the Italian tongue, and contributed not a little towards compiling

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the dictionary of La Crufca. Menage, in his "Origines "de la Langue Italienne," acknowledges himself obliged to him for many particulars. Redi was a lover of learned men, and ready to ferve them in any way he could. He was a member of feveral academies in Italy; of la Crufcą at Florence, of the Gelati at Bologna, and of the Arcadiens at Rome. He was fubject to the falling fickness in his latter years; yet neither abandoned books, nor his bufinefs. He wrote upon vipers, and upon the generation of infects; and he compofed a good deal of poetry, fome of which he published himself, and fome was publifhed after his death by order of the great duke, his mafter. All his writings are in Italian; and his language is fo fine and pure, that the authors of the dictionary of la Crufca have often cited it as a standard of perfection. He died in 1697. Maft of his works are tranf lated into French and into Latin.

REGIOMONTANUS, an illuftrious aftronomer, whofe real name was Joannes Mullerus, was born at Regiomon- Konigsberg in Franconia, 1436. He was taught his gramtani vita a mar at home, and at twelve years of age fent to Leipfic; where he took a violent turn to aftronomy, and wifely applied himself to arithmetic and geometry, as neceffary to comprehend it rightly. But there was then nobody at Leipfic, who could lead him into the depths of this fcience; and therefore, at fifteen, he removed to Vienna, to study under the famous Purbachius, who was the profeffor there, and read lectures with the highest reputation, Greater friendship and affection could not fubfift, than between Regiomontanus and Purbachius; and therefore it is no wonder, that the former fhould make all conceivable progrefs under the latter. About that time cardinal Beffarion came to Vienna, to negotiate fome affairs for the pope; who, being a loyer of aftronomy, had begun to make a Latin verfion of Ptolemy's " Almageft;" but, not having time to go on with it, defired Purbachius to continue the work, and for that purpofe to return with him into Italy, in order to make himself master of the Greek tongue, which at prefent he knew nothing of. Purbachius confented to the cardinal's propofals, provided Regiomontanus might accompany him, and fhare the tafk; and all things were agreed on, when Purbachius died in 1461. The fcholar of courfe fucceeded the mafter to the deftined office, as well as in his profefforship,

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and attended the cardinal the fame year to Rome; where the first thing he did was to learn the Greek language, though in the mean time he did not neglect to make aftronomical obfervations, and to compofe various works in that fcience. The cardinal going to Greece foon after, Regiomontanus went to Ferrera, where he continued the study of the Greek language under Theodore Gaza; who explained to him the text of Ptolemy, with the commentaries of Theon: till at length he became fo perfect in it, that he could compofe verfes, and read like a critic, in it. In 1463, he went to Padua, where he became a member of the univerfity; and, at the request of the ftudents, explained Alfraganus, an Arabian philofopher. In 1464, he removed to Venice, to attend his patron Beffarion; and, the fame year, returned with him to Rome, where he waged war with Georgius Trapezuntius, whom he had terribly offended, by animadverting on fome paffages in his tranflation of Theon's Commentary. Not long after, being weary of rambling about, and having procured a great number of manufcripts, which was one main object of his travels, he returned to Vienna, and performed for fome time the offices of his profefforship, Afterwards he went to Buda, at the invitation of Matthias Corvinus the king of Hungary, who was a lover of letters and fciences, and founded a rich and noble library there; but, on account of the wars, came and fettled at Nuremberg in 1471. He fpent his time here, in conftructing inftruments, in making obfervations, and pubifhing books, fome his own, fome other people's: he publifhed here the five books of Manilius's " Aftronomicon." In 1474, pope Sixtus IV, conceived a defign of reforming the calendar; and fent for Regiomontanus to Rome, as the propereft and ableft perfon to accomplish his purpofe. Regiomontanus was very unwilling to interrupt the ftudies he was engaged in at Nuremberg; but receiving great promifes from the pope, who alfo for the prefent named him archbishop of Ratifbon, he confented at length to go. He arrived at Rome in 1475, and died there the year after; not without a fufpicion of being poifoned by the fons of Trapezuntius, who carried on the enmity begun by their father: but Paul Jovius relates, that he died of the plague.

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He did great fervice to aftronomy, as well as his master Purbachius. The latter was born at Peurbach, a town upon the confines of Auftria and Bavaria, in 1423; and

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