Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/132

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
RUS
872
RUT

to London in 1767, and was for some time employed as a corrector of the press by Mr. Strachan, the well known printer. He published a number of works both in prose and verse, of no great value; but their success was such as to encourage him to adopt literature as his profession. His best work, "The History of Modern Europe," in 5 vols. 8vo, is possessed of considerable merit, and still retains its place in the literature of our country. He published also a "History of Ancient Europe;" a "History of America;" "Sentimental Tales;" "Fables, Sentimental and Moral;" several tragedies, &c., and also left a considerable number of works unfinished at his death. Dr. Russell spent the closing years of his busy life near Langholm, and died there in 1793 in the fifty-second year of his age.—J. T.

* RUSSELL, William Howard, LL.D., the most notable of English newspaper correspondents, was born in Dublin in 1821, and educated at Trinity college, Dublin. He had been connected with the Times and other London newspapers as a reporter and correspondent, at home and abroad, and had given evidence of superior abilities and power of graphic writing, when, on the breaking out of the war with Russia, he was commissioned by the "leading journal" to accompany, as its correspondent, the British expeditionary army to the East. The merits and results of Mr. Russell's Crimean letters are too well known to require comment. His letters were collected and republished in two volumes in 1855-56: another edition, carefully revised by the author so as to be of permanent historical value, was issued in 1857. In 1857 he proceeded to India as correspondent of the Times during the Indian mutiny, and performed his new duty with his usual success. Of his "Indian experiences," his work, "My diary in India in the year 1858-59," published in 1860, is a record. Returning to England, he founded the Army and Navy Gazette, and was conducting it when once more he obeyed the summons of the Times, and proceeded to the States to chronicle the war of secession, and the aspects of society in the South and the North. His letters had been read with great interest, but when General M'Clellan began his inarch southwards, early in 1862, the Federal secretary-at-war refused Mr. Russell leave to accompany the army, and he returned to England. Mr. Russell is the author of a little work—"Rifle Clubs and Volunteer Corps," 1859; and in 1857 received the degree of LL.D. from Trinity college, Dublin.—F. E.

RUST, George, a learned divine, a native of Cambridge, and educated there, was appointed dean of Connor about the end of 1661 by Bishop Jeremy Taylor, whom he succeeded as bishop of Dromore in 1667. He was the author of a "Discourse of Truth," on Prov. xx. 27, and other works. He died in 1670.

RUSTICI, Giovanni Francesco, an eminent Italian sculptor, was born at Florence of a noble family, about 1470. Whilst studying and modelling in the garden of the Medici, which had been opened as a sort of academy, Rustici was singled out by Lorenzo the Magnificent, and placed as a pupil with Andrea del Verrochio, and, when he left Florence, with Leonardo da Vinci. One of Rustici's earliest works was a bronze Mercury for a fountain in the Medici palace, and which was made to turn round by the falling water. He also executed rilievi of the Annunciation in bronze and in marble; a Leda and other classical figures; and for the guild of merchants three colossal bronze statues—St. John, a Pharisee, and a Levite, for the baptistery of Florence. These were regarded as the finest modern works produced in bronze up to that time; but Rustici was very inadequately remunerated, and became so disgusted that for some time he seems to have neglected his profession. He was a man of great moral worth, generosity, and devotion, but of somewhat eccentric manners. One of his whims was to keep a number of animals about his house and gardens, and among the rest he had a room full of different kinds of serpents, whose habits he delighted to watch. He modelled horses with great spirit, and these and other things he used to present to his friends. He also modelled in terra cotta for the convent of Santa Lucia a rilievo of "Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the Garden," which was afterwards vitrified by G. Delia Robbia. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Rustici accepted an invitation from Francis I. of France, who assigned him a palace for his residence, and bestowed on him a handsome pension. Rustici executed some minor works, and prepared the design of a colossal equestrian statue of Francis. But Rustici always worked slowly, and Francis died before the model was ready; and his successor not only refused to have it completed, but deprived the sculptor of his house and pension. Rustici found shelter for his old age in a French abbey, where he died in 1550.—J. T—e.

RUTHERFORD, Daniel, a Scottish physician and botanist, was born at Edinburgh in December, 1749, and died in the same city on 15th December, 1819, in the seventieth year of his age. He was the son of Dr. John Rutherford, one of the founders of the medical school of Edinburgh. He was educated at the high school, and afterwards entered the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1772. He wrote a thesis "De Aere Mephitico," and he is considered as the discoverer of nitrogen or azote. In 1773 he visited Paris, and afterwards proceeded to Italy, whence he returned to Edinburgh in 1775, in order to settle as a physician. On 1st December, 1786, he was admitted professor of medicine and botany in the university of Edinburgh, and continued to lecture till his death. He did much to increase the funds and capabilities of the garden. He was appointed king's botanist, and he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was more eminent as a physician than as a botanist.—J. H. B.

RUTHERFORD, Samuel, a famous divine of the Covenant, was born about 1600 in the parish of Nisbet, Roxburghshire. Nothing is known with certainty of his childhood or youth. In 1617 he entered the university of Edinburgh, and became M.A. in 1621. He was also elected one of the regents of the college, and it fell to him to teach the class of humanity. This office he held for two years only, and then devoted himself to the study of theology. In 1627 he was ordained minister of the parish of Anwoth, in the stewartry of Kircudbright, but without any engagement to the bishops. Rutherford entered on his pastoral labours with great earnestness and industry; his people were, as he says, "the objects of his tears, care, fear, and daily prayer." His pastorate was marked by its affectionate fidelity and great success. But sad changes were impending, and in 1636, by the influence of Sydserff, bishop of Galloway, he was forbidden to exercise his ministry. The court of high commission confirmed the sentence, and he was ordered before the 20th of August to confine himself to the city of Aberdeen during the king's pleasure. His principal offence was his preaching against the articles of Perth, and his publication—"Exercitationes Apologeticæ pro divina gratia," for Arminianism rose along with prelacy. He remained for above a year and a half in this virtual exile, and during this period wrote many of those extraordinary letters, unsurpassed in holy rapture and unction, breathing a spirit of such devotion as if he had been a seraph incarnate, and filled with such joyous transport as if he had been caught up into the third heaven, and his heart yet throbbed with the unearthly sensation. The Aberdeen doctors attacked the southern stranger; Dr. Barron, their leader, was furious and very personal; but Rutherford calmly says, "three yokings laid him bye." His popularity so grew in Aberdeen—for life and language so saintly could not but command esteem and affection—that his alarmed antagonists petitioned that he should be banished still farther north, or else sent out of the kingdom. But the process was unexpectedly stopped; the "Tables" had met at Edinburgh, and episcopacy was doomed to a speedy fall. In February, 1638, he returned to Anwoth, and his attached flock speedily rallied around him. The famous general assembly met in Glasgow that same year, and he was one of the delegates. By the commission of that assembly he was appointed professor of divinity at St. Andrews, the city of Edinburgh pleading hard at the same time to get him as one of its ministers. Much to the regret of his attached and weeping parishioners and of the entire county, Rutherford bowed to the decision, repaired to St. Andrews in October, 1639, and was inducted also as colleague to Mr. Blair in the parish church. He was in 1643 sent up to the Westminster assembly, and about that time published his "Lex Rex," in reply to some drivelling on the part of the ex-bishop of Ross. His attendance and his faithfulness during the debates were exemplary. He published at this time the "Divine Right of Presbytery," a learned work that called forth a reply from Mather of New England, and also an attack by Milton in one of his smaller poems. In 1645 he sent out the "Trial and Triumph of Faith," an able and practical treatise; in 1646 the "Divine Right of Church Government," a vigorous reply to the Erastian theory; in 1647 "Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners;" in 1648 "Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, or Rebuke of Antinomian Extravagances;" and in 1649 "Free Disputation against pretended Liberty of Conscience," a tractate against independency,