Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/75

 numismatics, and his letters on Arabic coinage (in Eichhorn's Repertorium, vols. ix.–xi.) form, according to De Sacy, the basis of that branch of study. To comprehensive knowledge and very wide reading he added a sound historical judgment. He was not, like Schultens, deceived by the pretended antiquity of the Yemenite Kasīdas. Errors no doubt he made, as in the attempt to ascertain the date of the breach of the dam of Marib.

Though Abulfeda as a late epitomator did not afford a starting point for methodical study of the sources, Reiske's edition with his version and notes certainly laid the foundation for research in Arabic history. The foundation of Arabic philology, however, was laid not by him but by De Sacy. Reiske's linguistic knowledge was great, but he used it only to understand his authors; he had no feeling for form, for language as language, or for metre.

In Leipzig Reiske worked mainly at Greek, though he continued to draw on his Arabic stores accumulated in Leiden. Yet his merit as an Arabist was sooner recognized than the value of his Greek work. Reiske the Greek scholar has been rightly valued only in recent years, and it is now recognized that he was the first German since Sylburg who had a living knowledge of the Greek tongue. His reputation does not rest on his numerous editions, often hasty or even made to booksellers' orders, but in his remarks, especially his conjectures. He himself designates the Animadversationes in Scriptores Graecos as flos ingenii sui, and in truth these thin booklets outweigh his big editions. Closely following the author's thought he removes obstacles whenever he meets them, but he is so steeped in the language and thinks so truly like a Greek that the difficulties he feels often seem to us to lie in mere points of style. His criticism is empirical and unmethodic, based on immense and careful reading, and applied only when he feels a difficulty; and he is most successful when he has a large mass of tolerably homogeneous literature to lean on, whilst on isolated points he is often at a loss. His corrections are often hasty and false, but a surprisingly large proportion of them have since received confirmation from MSS. And, though his merits as a Grecian lie mainly in his conjectures, his realism is felt in this sphere also; his German translations especially show more freedom and practical insight, more feeling for actual life, than is common with the scholars of that age.

For a list of Reiske’s writings see Meusel, xi. 192 seq. His chief Arabic works (all posthumous) have been mentioned above. In Greek letters his chief works are Constantini Porphyrogeniti libri ''II. de ceremonies aulae Byzant.'', vols. i. ii. (Leipzig, X751-66), vol. iii. (Bonn, 1829); ''Animadv. ad Graecos auctores'' (5 vols., Leipzig, 1751–66) (the rest lies unprinted at Copenhagen); ''Oratorum Graec. quae'' supersunt (8 vols., Leipzig, 1770-73); ''App. crit. ad Demosthenem'' (3 vols., ib., 1774-75); Maximus Tyr. (ib., 1774); Plutarchus (11 vols., ib., 1774-79); Dionys Italic. (6 vols., ib., 1774–77); Libanius (4 vols., Altenburg, 1784-97). Various reviews in the Acta eruditorum and ''Zuverl. Nachrichten'' are characteristic and worth reading. Compare D. Johann Jacob Reiskens von ihm selbst aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibung (Leipzig, 1783).

RÉJANE, GABRIELLE [] (1857–), French actress, was born in Paris, the daughter of an actor. She was a pupil of Regnier at the Conservatoire, and took the second prize for comedy in 1874. Her début was made the next year, during which she played attractively a number of light—especially soubrette—parts. Her first great success was in Henri Meilhac’s Ma camarade (1883), and she soon became known as an emotional actress of rare gifts, notably in Décoré, Germinie Lacerteux, Ma cousine, Amoureuse and Lysistrata. In 1892 she married M. Porel, the director of the Vaudeville theatre, but the marriage was dissolved in 1905. Her performances in Madame Sans Géne (1893) made her as well known in England and America as in Paris, and in later years she appeared in characteristic parts in both countries, being particularly successful in Zaza and La Passerelle. She opened the Théatre Réjane in Paris in 1906. The essence of French vivacity and animated expression appeared to be concentrated in Madame Réjane's acting, and made her unrivalled in the parts which she had made her own.

RELAND, ADRIAN (1676–1718), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Ryp, studied at Utrecht and Leiden, and was professor of Oriental languages successively at Harderwijk (1699) and Utrecht (1701). His most important works were Palaestina ex veteribus monumentis illustrata (Utrecht, 1714), and Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum. (See also Burman, Traj. Erud., P.z96 seq.).

RELAPSING FEVER (Febris recurrent), the name given to a specific infectious disease occasionally appearing as an epidemic in communities suffering from scarcity or famine. It is characterized mainly by its sudden invasion, with violent febrile symptoms, which continue for about a week and end in a crisis, but are followed, after another week, by a return of the fever.

This disease has received many other names, the best known of which are famine fever, seven-day, bilious relapsing fever, and spirillum fever. As in the case of typhoid, relapsing fever was long believed to be simply a form of typhus. The distinction between them appears to have been first clearly established in 1826, in connexion with an epidemic in Ireland.

RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE, a philosophic term which was much used by the philosophers of the middle of the 19th century, and has since fallen largely into disuse. It deserves explanation, however, not only because it has occupied so large a space in the writings of some great British thinkers, but also because the main question for which it stands is still matter of eager debate. We get at the meaning of the term most easily by considering what it is that “ relativity ” is opposed to. “ Relativity ” of knowledge is opposed to absoluteness or positiveness of knowledge. Now there are two senses in which knowledge may claim to be absolute. The knower may say, “ I know this absolutely,” or he may say, “ I know this absolutely.” With the emphasis upon the “ know ” he asserts that his knowledge of the matter in question cannot be affected by anything whatever. “ I know absolutely that two and two are four” makes an assertion about the knower's intellectual state: he is convinced that his certain knowledge of the result of adding two to two is independent of any other piece of knowledge. With