Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/737

* RAGLAN. 649 RAGTJET. years afterwards. He took part in all the great actions of the Peninsular campaign and pained special distinction at the storming of Badajoz (1812). In 1815 he served under the Duke of Wellington in Belgium, and lost his right arm at Waterloo. From 1815 to 1818 he was secretary of the British Embassy at Paris. He was mem- ber of Parliament for Truro in 1818-20 and 182G- 29. When Wellington was appointed master of the ordnance in 1819, he again chose Somerset as his secretary: and three years afterwards Somerset accompanied his chief to the Congress of Verona. In 1827 the Duke was appointed commander-in- chief of the British .rmy and called Somerset to the Horse Guards as his military secretary. This office he held till the death of Wellington in 1852. He was then made master-general of the ordnance, and in October was called to the House of Peers as Baron Raglan of Raglan in Monmouthshire. In 1854 he was appointed, with the rank of gen- eral, commander of the English forces despatched to operate against Russia. See Crimean War. EAGNAROK, riig'na-rek'. In Scandinavian mythology, the end of the world, and the fall of the gods before the combined demon hosts of the world. The word rafinnriik really means 'judgment of the gods." but it has been conceived sophistically to mean "twilight of the gods.' and as the Gfjttcr- ddnnncninfi has formed the basis of the Wagnerian music-drama Drr liiufi des yihehoifieii. The fun- damental conception of the ragnariik is the end of the Golden Age. brouglit about by the conflict of the two types of Norse gods, known respectively as .<Esir and Vanir, and by the -Esir's violation of their oaths. The chief source of these concep- tions is the poem of the Elder Edda, called the Y'oluspa, a mixture of heathen and Christian conceptions. The l)attle between the gods and demons is ushered in with the appearance of the divine war maidens, the Walkyries. Balder, the beautiful god. is dead, through Loki's malignant ti'eachery, and his fate seals the doom of the other gods. The giant watchman Eggther strikes his harp, and in each of the three worlds, that of the giants, the -Esir, and Hel, a cock crows calling the warriors to the battle. The hell- hound Garme bays aloud ; the wolf Fenrir tears his chain. On the earth men are engaged in bloodshed and incest. Floods rise everywhere. The old world tree, the ash Yggdrasil, sways to its roots. Then the god Heimdaler sounds his horn, calling the gods to the fray. In mighty array the demon hosts come marching against the gods from the east, north, and south. Odin engages in combat with Fenrir; Freyr with Surtr; Thor with the serpent Midgard; all the three gods fall in the struggle. The demons are masters of the battle-field. The sun grows black, the earth sinks into the sea, the stars fall from heaven. Vapor and fire rage, the high flame licks the sky. The world and the gods are gone. But from out of the flood rises a new earth which unsown grows grain, and the ^-Esir come again. Consult Chantepie de la Saussaye, The Religion of the Teutons (Boston, 1902). RAGOZIN, ra-go'zen, Z^naide Alexe'ievna (18.35—). A Russian-American author, born in Russia, where she was educated. After several years spent in travel, she emigrated to the United States in 1874. Among her published works are: The Stor>i of Chaldea (1886); The Story of Assyria (1887); The Story of Media, Bahylon, and Persia (1888) ; The Story of Vedic India (1895) ; all in the "Story of the Nations" series; and five volumes of biography in "Tales of the Heroic Age" series. She translated from the French Anatole Leroy Beaulieu's The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians. RAGTIME. The popular title given to the humorous dance or vocal music of negro origin and characteristics, which has had gi'eat vogue since the early nineties of the last century. The- oretically, the music of such compositions is an excessive exaggeration of syncopation. The general lack of instruments other than of per- cussion, among the different .frican races, of necessity inclined them to punctuate their melo- dies with strongly marked pulses or accents. Crude emotional effects are gained by increased noise and abrupt syncopation. The vei-y exag- geration of ragtime proved its strongest appeal to the general public. See Negro Melodies. RAGtTENEAU, rag'n6', Paul (1605-80). A French missionary and explorer, born in Paris, France. He became a .Jesuit priest, and in 16.36 was sent as a missionary to Canada, where for a time he labored among the Hurons. In 1640 he went among the hostile Iroquois in an unsuc- cessful attempt to secure the release of some French prisoners. Ten years later, as Father Superior, he was active in gathering the renmant of the Hurons who had escaped the massacres by the Iroquois. In 1657 with another priest and a few lay companions he visited the Onondaga tril)e of Iroquois; while among them a plot was formed to murder him, and he escaped with great difficulty. In 1666 he returned to France, where he labored as the agent for the missions in New France. His writings give a good picture of the conditions under which the .Jesuits of New France labored, and one of his Relaeions (that for 1648) contains the first mention of Niagara Falls. He wrote Vie de la Here Saint Aufiustine, rrligieiise hospitaliire de Quebec en la Xouvelle Franee (Paris, 1672), Relaeion de ce qui s'est passe de plus remarquables cs missiotis des Peres de la Compagnie en la Xourclle France during the years 1645-52 and 1650-57 (7 vols., Paris, 1647-57), and other works. Consult The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, edited by Reu- ben Gold Thwaites (73 vols.. Cleveland, Ohio, 18i)6-l!)01). Consult, also, Parkman, The Jesuits of North America (Boston, 1867, later ed., 1897). RAGUET, ra-ga', Condy (1784-1842). An American merchant and political economist. He was born in Philadelphia, studied at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and having shipped in 1804 as supercargo to Santo Domingo, published upon his return a Short Account of the Present State of Affairs in St. Domingo. In 1805 a second voyage resulted in A Circumstantial Ac- count of the Massacre in St. Domingo. He took part in the War of 1812, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and from 1822 to 1827 was United States consul at Rio .Janeiro. When sub- sequently made charge d'affaires, he negotiated a treaty with Brazil. He was an exponent of free trade, and wrote on that subject The Prin- ciples of Free Trade (1835). His other works include A)i Inquiry into the Causes of the Present State of the Circulating Medium in the United States (1815) and On Currency and Banking (1839).