Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/663

 She was virtuous and intellectual, and her house the resort of all men of learning. There the great Corneille read his tragedies, and there Bossuet, at the age of sixteen, displayed those oratorical talents for which he afterwards became so celebrated. She lived in the seventeenth century.

RAMSAY, MARTHA LAURENS, born In Charleston, South Carolina, November 3rd., 1759. She was the daughter of Henry Laurens, whose ancestors were Huguenots. She spent ten years in England and France, during the latter part of which time she resided at Paris with her father, who was acting there as minister plenipotentiary from the United States. While there, her father gave her five hundred guineas, the greater part of which she employed in purchasing French Testaments for distribution, and in establishing a school. She returned to Charleston in 1785, and in 1787 married Dr. David Ramsay. . Mrs. Ramsay was a woman of piety, learning, and great benevolence. She assisted her husband in his literary pursuits, fitted her sons for college, and performed all her domestic duties in the most exemplary manner, showing herself a pattern for her sex, and proving how salutary the enlightened moral influence of woman may become. She died in June, 1811, aged fifty-one.

RAYTRA, FELETTO ELEONORA, OF CASALE, the wife of George Feletto, Counsellor of Villa and Lord of Melazzo. She was very much praised by contemporary authors, and has left many small poems, remarkably well written. She flourished in 1559; but no dates of the events of her life are to be obtained.

READ, CATHARINE, an English lady, who distinguished herself by portrait-painting, both in oil and crayons. One of her first and best performances, was the likeness of Queen Charlotte, painted immediately after her arrival in England. Another remarkable portrait of her painting, was that of the female historian, Mrs. Macaulay, represented in the character of a Roman matron, weeping over the lost liberties of her country. About 1770, Miss Read went to the East Indies, where she resided some years; but on her return, still continued to exercise her profession to extreme old age. She died about 1786.

REBEKAH, of Bethuel, and wife of Isaac the patriarch, is one of the most interesting female characters the Bible exhibits for the example and instruction of her sex. Her betrothal and marriage arc graphic pictures of the simple customs of her maiden life, and her own heart-devotion to the will of God. No wonder her beauty, modesty, and piety, won the love and confidence of Isaac at once. She was his only wife, and thus highly favoured above those who were obliged to share the heart of a husband with handmaidens and concubines. The plague-spot of polygamy which has polluted even the homes of the chosen of God did not fasten its curse on her bridal tent. So distinguished was this example, that ever since, the young married pair have been admonished to be, as "Isaac and Rebecca, faithful."