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ROUND TABLE

1638

ROUSSEAU

were promptly christened The Rough Riders, which name they since bear with pride. Among the first to be,ordered to the front and brigaded with the First and Tenth Regular Cavalry under Brigadier-General Young, they played an important part in the Santiago campaign in which took place some of the hardest fighting of the Spanish-American War, Before disbanding in 1898 a Rough Riders7 Association was formed, to which members of the regiment are eligible, the right to membership to descend to the oldest son.

Round Table, The, a table, according to Arthurian tradition, designed by Merlin, a Welsh sage and enchanter of the 5th century, for Uther Pendragon, a British king, to seat 50 knights at feasts. According to the legend, these knights were to be distinguished for piety, courage and fidelity; they originally formed a military order known as The Knights of the Round Table, but the organization also became a theocratic one. As they gathered round the table, the seat was reserved (styled the seat-perilous) for the knight of their number, or who was afterwards to appear, whose achievement of the Holy Grail was certain. In due time the vacant seat was filled by the Arthur of romance, a brave, virtuous and accomplished knight, whose exploits fill all the poetry of the middle ages. He was the son of Uther Pendragon by Igerna, and was educated and instructed by Merlin, who figures in Spenser's Faerie Queen, in the tales and romances of medieval chivalry and in Tennyson's Idyls of the King. Arthur woos and weds Guinevere and makes her his queen; he has, however, to wage war for her with Sir Lancelot (son of the king of Brittany and one of the knights of the Round Table). Much of the legend of this knight (who was father of Sir Galahad by Elaine) has to do with his (Lancelot's) guilty love for Guinevere and with the exploits he performed in her service. The Round Table is fabled to have been constructed in imitation of the one which Joseph of Arimathea established in imitation of that used at the Last Supper. According to another tradition, Arthur himself established the Round Table at York and founded at Winchester his order of knighthood.

Rousseau (rod'so'}, Jean Baptiste, a great lyric poet of France, was born at Paris, April 16, 1670, the son of a shoemaker, when quite young he began writing pieces for the theater which were unsuccessful. In 1712 he was banished for failing to make" good a charge of libel brought against a fellow writer, and spent the remainder of his life abroad, a part of the time in Switzerland. At Brussels he became acquainted with Voltaire, who first was his friend and then his enemy. His sacred odes and songs, and especially his epigrams, took high rank. Rousseau died at Brussels, March 17, 1741.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, a noted Swiss-French philosopher, was born at Geneva, June 28, 1712. In 1741 he set out to make his fortune at Paris. Here he lived in a dirty, shabby inn, earning a livelihood by copying music. Here he met Therese le Vas-seur, who lived with him the remainder of his life. He wrote for Diderot's Encyclopedia, but first came into notice through his Discourse on Arts and Sciences, which won a prize. His independence of thought and the freshness of his brilliant style made him celebrated and welcome in society. In 1753 he brought out a successful opera, full of sparkling airs, one of which is the well-known hymn-tune: Rousseau's Dream. In 1760 his romance of The New He'loise was at once received with applause. Two Tears later came the Social (Contract and ftmile. The first of these three works raised Rousseau to the first rank as a writer of romance; the second, as a political socialist; the third, as a writer on education. His New Heloise, by its passion, influenced the society and literature of France, Italy and Germany, and its idyllic pictures and fine descriptions touched the fashionable world with a love for country life and simple ways; while the whole book was a lesson on the rights of the poor and the duties of the rich. The Social Contract taught that no laws are binding unless agreed upon by all the people, and Rosseau's " liberty, equality and fraternity " became a war-cry of the French Revolution. His ideas on children's training, set forth in £mile, were used by great teachers like Froe-bel and Pestalozzi, but in a part of the book he showed himself a deist in religion, and horrified the church as much as he disgusted such men as Voltaire and D'Alem-bert. He was denounced by the archbishop of Paris, his book burned, and himself ordered under arrest. He fled the country, and for a while was given a home by the historian Hume in England, where he wrote his famous Confessions. His trials and broken health had made him senselessly suspicious. He distrusted his best friends, and was sure that tho English government sought his life. So he soon went back to France, living in various places provided by his friends, and wrote his Reveries. His delusions increased, so that everywhere he felt that he was watched by spies, and hated even by the children on the streets. He died near Paris, July 2, 1778. See Morley's Memoir.

Rousseau, Loyell Harrison, American soldier, was born in Kentucky, Aug. 4, 1818. He fought in the Mexican War under General Taylor, and on his return practiced law in Louisville. In the Kentucky senate during 1860 he opposed secession, and later raised two regiments of Union men. In

1861,  as   brigadier-general,   he  fought   in Buell's army at the battle of Shiloh, April 7,

1862.   He was in the battle of Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, and at Murfreesboro, Dec. 31,