Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/368

 EICKMAN

EIVET

sophical grounds only, rejecting all theo logical arguments and ignoring the Christian doctrine. D. Nov. 14, 1825.

RICKMAN, Thomas &quot; Clio,&quot; bookseller and writer. B. July 27, 1761. Eickman was born of Quaker parents at Lewes, and he there became intimate with Thomas Paine. They were both members of the Headstrong Club. He contributed verse, under the name of &quot;Clio,&quot; to the Black Divarf, and came to be known by that name. In 1783 he opened a bookselling business in London. Paine lodged with him, and wrote there, in 1791-92, the second part of his Bights of Man. His house was a meeting-place of reformers (Home Tooke, Mary Wollstonecraft, etc.), and he often incurred persecution by circu lating Paine s books. He was loyal to Paine to the end, and wrote a useful biography of him (Life of Paine, 1819). Eickman held the same Deistic views as Paine, and gave such names as Volney, Eousseau, and Paine to his children. He wrote The Atrocities of a Convent (3 vols.), Bights of Discussion, and a few other works. D. Feb. 15, 1834.

RIEHL, Professor Aloys, Ph.D., LL.D., Austrian philosopher. B. Apr. 27, 1844. Ed. Vienna, Innspruck, Munich, and Gratz Universities. In 1870 he began to teach at Gratz University, and in 1878 he was appointed professor of philosophy there. In 1882 he became professor of philosophy and Director of the Philosophical Seminary at Freiburg. He passed to Kiel in 1895, Halle in 1898, and Berlin in 1905. Eiehl describes himself as a philosophical Monist. He advocates psycho-physical parallelism, and rejects the idea of a separable spiritual principle. His chief work is Der philo- sophische Criticismus und seine Bedeutung fur die positive Wissenschaft (2 vols., 1876-87). But his Eationalism is plainer in his Giordano Bruno (1900) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1905). He has an honorary degree from Princeton University, and is a Privy Councillor of Germany.

663

RIGNANO, Eugenic, Italian writer. Eignano is the editor of the important international scientific review, Scientia. In his Essays in Scientific Synthesis (Eng. trans., 1918), chapter vi, he discusses &quot; The Eeligious Phenomenon.&quot; He predicts the gradual disappearance of religion, and says that &quot; we may regard it with tranquil serenity,&quot; as it &quot;no longer responds to our needs&quot; (p. 186).

RITCHIE, Professor David George,

M.A., LL.D., philosopher. B. Oct. 26, 1853. Ed. Jedburgh Academy, and Edin burgh and Oxford (Balliol) Universities. He took first-class honours in classics at Edinburgh and a first-class in classical moderations in the final classical school at Oxford. In 1878 he became a fellow of Jesus College, and in 1881 tutor there. From 1882 to 1886 he was also a tutor at Balliol. From 1894 until his death he was professor of logic and metaphysics at St. Andrews University. He was President of the Aristotelian Society in 1898-99. Professor Eitchie s writings usually deal with political philosophy, but in his post humous Philosophical Studies (1905) he emphatically rejects a personal Deity (p. 230). The only God he admits is &quot; the highest or ideal good &quot; (p. 252). He com plains somewhat bitterly that his academic position prevented him from being more outspoken in life. D. Feb. 3, 1903.

RIYET, Gustave, French writer and politician. B. Jan. 25, 1848. Ed. Paris University. He was a professor of rhetoric at Dieppe, and was deposed for writing, under the influence of Victor Hugo, poetry of a very advanced character. After teach ing for some further years at Meaux, then at the Lycee Charlemagne, he in 1877 deserted the schools for journalism. He wrote in the Homme Libre, the Voltaire, and other Eationalist papers. In 1878 he received a position in the Ministry of the Interior, and in the following year he was chef de cabinet in the Ministry of Fine Arts. He was elected to the Chambre in 664