Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/40

REI may be, then our belief and knowledge of an external universe of other minds, and our physical sciences of the "ideas" of sense, may remain as firm as on the opposite hypothesis—our manner of conceiving and speaking about things only being in some respects changed. Berkeley and Reid between them helped to develope the philosophical discovery—that the very objects given in sense are the real things of the sensible world. The best philosophers seem now satisfied to leave in abeyance, in the meantime, the ulterior question—Are the real things, thus immediately given in sense, transient and ideal things, which are nevertheless evolved in that regular order on which human life and action depend; or are they also in themselves things permanent and independent of perception? They are willing, at the present stage, to waive this question, provided that, whether transient or permanent in themselves, these "things given in sense" are recognized as the sufficient door of entrance to all the treasures of nature and man—of physical and moral science. The beliefs which constitute the common sense or reason of mankind are those in which men think and feel sufficiently alike to form strong regulative principles, which restrain the eccentricities and paradoxes of individuals. Now, is it necessary, it may be asked, to treat the opinion that the real thing given in sense is (as it seems to be in our phenomenal consciousness) dependent on being perceived, as an individual paradox, which must be crushed, in order to maintain our confidence in the common faith of mankind? The fact is that, in regard to this opinion, while speculative men differ, the mass of mankind do not seem to have any judgment at all. They do not raise a question so subtile and speculative. The actions and opinions of men may be practically governed by a strung intellectual force, which restrains individual eccentricities on all matters within its sphere, and which gravitates towards reality, without determining or even conceiving unpractical questions of speculative metaphysics about the Real. It is away from this question about the essence of the sense-given world, that the controversies with scepticism in the present age are to be found. Not what is the sense-given material in itself, but how far may we go in the moral interpretation of what is signified by that given material, whatever it may be, is the question around which our now current questions circulate. In meeting them, while we feel the great value of Reid's strong common sense and shrewd insight into his own conscious experience, we are apt to complain of his defective familiarity with that higher conscious experience, which is represented by the great philosophical systems of the past and present. He is disposed to put aside that mass of philosophical speculation as mere hypothesis, and to accept the uncritical experience of the many, instead of drawing from each great system fresh light for the interpretation of his own conscious experience, fresh help in the struggle with our original intellectual corruption, and aid in the gradual approximation to a scientific knowledge of the divine ideas—the gradual reconciliation of human to divine science, which goes on from age to age. The want of a genuine historical criticism of philosophical opinions and systems is, after the example of Reid, a characteristic defect in Scottish philosophy.

For a study of the philosophy of Reid—in addition to his own works, with the relative criticism of Sir W. Hamilton—the reader may examine, among much besides in subsequent literature, the contemporary criticism of Priestley, the more recent comments of Dugald Stewart, Thomas Brown, and Royer Collard, and the Philosophie Ecossaise of Cousin.—A. C. F.  REID,, Major-general, was the son of the minister of Kinglassie in Fife, and was born in 1791. After completing his early education he made choice of the military profession, and was entered as a cadet at Woolwich. He received his first commission in 1809 as a lieutenant of the royal engineers, and served with distinction under the duke of Wellington throughout the Peninsular war, in which he received several wounds. He took part in the bombardment of Algiers in 1816. He was subsequently sent out to Barbadoes in 1832 as captain of the engineers, who were employed in re-erecting the government buildings blown down by the hurricane of 1831. He next sought and obtained a command under Sir De Lacy Evans in the ill-fated British auxiliary expedition to Spain. On his return to England he devoted his undivided attention to the subject of storms, which had first attracted his notice while serving in the Windward islands, and in 1838 he published his celebrated work under the title of—"An Attempt to develop the Law of Storms." Lord Glenelg, who was at that time secretary of state for the colonies, was so much struck with the work that, unsolicited, he appointed the author, with whom he was personally unacquainted, to the government of Bermuda. Colonel Reid set himself zealously to promote the improvement of the island by the erection of buildings, the establishment of public institutions, and the introduction of a better system of agriculture, so that the appearance of the country became completely changed. His services were rewarded by the appointment in 1846 to the government of the Windward islands. He discharged the duties of this office with his accustomed energy and zeal, but resigned it in 1848 in consequence of the home government having reversed a decision of his, of which they at first approved. He published in 1849 the result of his investigations respecting his favourite subject during his residence in the Windward islands, under the title of—"The Progress of the Development of the Law of Storms." In 1851 he was appointed chairman of the executive committee of the Great Exhibition, and contributed greatly by his tact and his administrative ability to the success of that undertaking. As soon as this important task was completed he was made a K.C.B., and intrusted with the government of Malta. In this new post his wise and vigorous rule gained him the confidence of the people, and the approbation of the government, at whose wish his period of service was prolonged beyond the usual term. He had just returned home with the rank of major-general, when he died in October, 1858. Sir William Reid was an honourable and upright man, modest, retiring, and amiable, but firm, and a sagacious, high-minded administrator.—J. T.  REILLE,, Comte, Marshal of France, was born at Antibes (Var), 1st September, 1755. He entered the army at the age of eighteen, and served his first campaign under Dumouriez against the combined armies of Austria and Prussia. His military services did not terminate till the final overthrow of Napoleon, when he covered Paris with his division against the last advance of the allies. The career of Marshal Reille was altogether unique. With the exception of Egypt and Russia, he appears to have served in every country through which the French eagles were carried. He fought against the duke of Brunswick, Suwarrow, Wurmser, the Archduke Charles, Mina, Hill, and Wellington. His ubiquity seems to have brought him into every episode of war, however peculiar. He fought in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, and in Flanders. He served in the campaigns of Valmy, Montenotte, Zurich, Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and the Pyrenees. He assisted at the siege of Toulon, penetrated the blockade of Genoa, held command in the camp of Boulogne, watched the great leaguer of Stralsund on the part of the emperor, and was actually on board ship at one of Villeneuve's sea-fights. He began his campaigns as a subaltern of infantry, and ended them in command of a corps d'armée at Waterloo. After a career of dangers without a parallel in the lives of any of his compeers, he survived in peace and quiet to an extreme old age, and witnessed, after the interval of half a century, the establishment of a second empire. Louis Philippe created General Reille a marshal in 1847, and he died in 1859.—J. T.  REIMARUS,, the famous author of the "Wolfenbüttel Fragments," born at Hamburg, 22nd December, 1694. After completing his studies at Jena, and travelling through Belgium and England, he was appointed rector of the gymnasium at Wismar (1723), and in 1727 obtained the professorships of Hebrew and mathematics in the Hamburg gymnasium, the duties of which he most honourably discharged till his death on the 1st March, 1765. He was a man of solid and extensive learning, which he particularly exhibited in his edition of "Dio Cassius" (begun by Fabricius); and at the same time a profound and independent thinker. His works on natural religion, on the "Kunsttriebe der Thiere," and his "Vernunftlehre," went through several editions. His fame, however, chiefly rests on the so-called "Wolfenbüttel Fragments," which by their author were never intended for publication, but only to be circulated in MS. among his friends. But Lessing having procured a copy, published it as the work of an unknown writer found in the Wolfenbüttel library (1777-78). The authorship of Reimarus, however, has since been fully established. We need scarcely add that these fragments contain the severest deistical attacks on revelation, and gave rise to the dispute between Lessing and Johann Melchior Götze (q.v.).—K. E.  REINAGLE: the name of a family of painters of great ability, 