sought ordination. His first appointment was to the curacy of Brading, a secluded village in the Isle of Wight. Though eminently moral and noble-minded, he was not imbued with that spirit of vital godliness which he afterwards manifested. This great revolution in his religious sentiments resulted from the perusal of Wilberforce's Practical View, which was then exerting immense influence. From this time Legh Richmond became an earnest preacher of the word, and was assiduous in pastoral visitation and instruction. It was in the Isle of Wight that he met with those well-known persons who figure in his narratives. He remained seven years at Brading; but in 1805 he was appointed one of the preachers at the Lock chapel, London. Shortly afterwards he was presented with the living of Turvey, Bedfordshire. In 1814 he was appointed chaplain to the duke of Kent. Earnest in his advocacy of every noble project, he was welcomed to every platform, and exerted himself to promote the interests of the various religious societies. This exemplary man died in 1827. Beside the "Annals of the Poor," originally published in the columns of the Christian Guardian, Legh Richmond was the author of sermons and other works, and published a selection from the writings of the reformers and early protestant divines of the Church of England, with memorials of their lives and writings.—D. G.
RICHOMME, Joseph Théodore, a celebrated French engraver, was born at Paris, May 28, 1785. He studied design under M. Regnault, and engraving under J. J. Coigny. In 1806 he won the grand prize for engraving. One of the works which secured his reputation, was his brilliant print of the Adam and Eve of Raphael, 1814. After the same master he also engraved a Holy Family, the Virgin of Loretto, and the Triumph of Galatea. Other celebrated prints by him are the Neptune and Amphitrite of Giulio Romano; and the portraits of Louis XVIII. and Duchess d'Angoulème, after Gerard. Richomme was a member of the Académie des beaux-arts and a knight of the legion of honour. During his later years he maintained an atelier whence proceeded several of the best French line engravers of the present day. He died September 22, 1849.—J. T—e.
RICHTER, Jean Paul Friedrich, generally called Jean Paul, one of the greatest of humorists, was born at Wunsiedel, near Baireuth, March 21, 1763, where his father was pastor. He received his education in the gymnasium of Hof, and then proceeded to Leipsic, in order to be prepared for the church. The study of theology, however, did not satisfy his restless mind, and he fixed on belles-lettres and the study of literature. At that period. Pope, Swift, and Young among the English, and Hamann and Hippel among the Germans, were his favourite authors. From reading he passed to writing, and published the first fruits of his genius, the "Grönländische Prozesse," at the age of twenty. His straitened circumstances compelled him to return to Hof, where he struggled on, studying and writing without meeting with any marked success. The care of an aged mother, chiefly dependent on his support, drove him to Schwarzenbach, a small place in the neighbourhood of Hof, where he set up as a teacher. The drudgery of this life, however, in no way interfered with the free development of his genius, for he had already become accustomed to idealize even the meanest things; and, indeed, no author has known like him to shed the light of poetry around the household cares and joys of German middle-class life. It was only after the publication of his "Unsichtbare Loge," in 1792, that he began to meet with the sympathies of the public, and to derive any considerable income from his works. Ultimately, however, he was able to settle again at Hof (1794), and to devote himself exclusively to literary labours. Here he wrote "Hesperus," "Quintus Fixlein," "Blumen, Frucht, und Dornenstücke," &c.; and when after the death of his mother he left his Tusculum, and reappeared at Leipsic, his name was already one of the brightest in German literature. The friendship of Herder attracted him to Weimar, where he formed acquaintances with all the leading authors of the time. He was a great favourite with the fair sex, and particularly during his stay at Berlin he was overwhelmed with the attention paid to him. In 1801 he married Caroline Mayer, the daughter of a judge at Berlin, and then fixed his home successively at Meiningen, Coburg, and lastly at Baireuth. Prince Dalberg, primate of Germany, and a generous promoter of literature, in 1809 settled a pension of one thousand florins on him, which after the resignation of the primate was paid by the king of Bavaria. His latter years were embittered by a protracted disease of the eyes, which some time before his death resulted in blindness. A still heavier blow to him was the death of his only son, then a student at Heidelberg. From that moment he rapidly sank, and died on the 14th November, 1825. Jean Paul was one of the most original geniuses of Germany, and his inner life can only be appreciated in his own country. His works, more perhaps than those of any modern author, have defied the art of the translator. His humour is of the sentimental kind, and sensibility may be considered the essence of his mind. True to nature, which he read with so keen an eye, he blends the coarsest reality with the most exquisite pathos. With an almost maidenly softness and purity he sings the praises of love and friendship, and has by this "fine phrenzy" endeared his novels particularly to female readers, although they may often have missed his real meaning; for he is fond of stuffing his pages with the odds and ends of his reading, with far-fetched similes and unintelligible paradoxes. This is the reason why, even in his lifetime, anthologies and selections were extracted from his works. He often brings the most discordant things together, and fails in giving his thoughts a concise form. Artistic completeness and correctness are altogether wanting in his novels, and he had so little plastic power that he never was able to put his thoughts in rhyme. Life in Germany since the days of Jean Paul has undergone so many and material changes, that he begins to recede into the ranks of those authors who are invariably praised, but invariably left unread. Two statues have been erected to his memory, one at Baireuth by King Lewis of Bavaria, and the other at Wunsiedel, his birth-place. His complete works, inclusive of his remains, comprise no less than sixty-five volumes (edition of 1826-38). His life was written by his son-in-law, Spazier, 5 vols.; by Döring, 2 vols.; by Funck, 1839, and others.—K. E.
RICIMER, a Gothic chieftain brought up at the court of Valentinian, emperor of the West, early obtained military distinction, and rose to the dignity of count of the empire. Having defeated an invasion of Italy by the Vandals, and crushed the titular emperor, Avitus, he became so powerful as to be able to nominate at his pleasure the emperor of the West. His own barbarian origin rendered him averse to assume the imperial title, but he was careful to retain in his hands the substance of power. Through his influence Majorian was made emperor in 457, but becoming an obstacle to his plans, was put to death in 461. Severus, and afterwards Anthemius, filled for a brief space the vacant throne. In 472 Ricimer took Rome, and made Olybrius emperor. He died in the same year of a fever, having made and unmade five Roman emperors.—G.
RICKMAN, Thomas, an eminent architect and writer on Gothic architecture, was born 8th June, 1776, at Maidenhead, Berkshire, where his father, a member of the Society of Friends, practised as a surgeon and apothecary. It was the wish of the elder Rickman that his son should adopt his principles, and succeed to his business. In the former the architect remained at least ostensibly unchanged, till the inconsistency of the leading church-builder being a Quaker seems to have led to his withdrawal from the body. His medical studies he continued till about 1803, when he left his father, and became a clerk in a commercial office. He does not appear to have turned his thoughts towards art in general, or architecture in particular, till about 1808, when, having obtained a situation as clerk in an office at Liverpool, where the hours were short, he began to occupy his spare time with the pencil; was led step by step from copying to studying Gothic buildings, and eventually to systematize his drawings and observations until he had evolved his theory of the chronology and distinctive characters of the several styles of English Gothic. He now laboured long and steadily in substantiating his views, making studies from books and prints, and visiting every old church within reach. At length (1817) he published his "Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England," a work that was at first only intended as an article for a forgotten publication of that day. Rickman's essay met with extraordinary favour. Gothic architecture had been rendered popular by etchings and engravings, and abundantly illustrated and described. It was not even then a novelty to arrange and classify chronologically the varieties of English Gothic according to peculiarities of leading forms and details; but Rickman, perhaps from his never having been under professional, antiquarian, or ecclesiological training, and from his plain counting-house habits, handled the subject in a lucid,
