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modern would think it beneath his dignity to quote either in speech or writing, one of which condenses more wit than could be extracted from all that was ever said or written by the doctrinaires of the Edinburgh Schools.-LOCKHART.

R.

Race. Properly a root, lineage, has an old meaning of taste or flavour. Hence the modern word 'racy.' Blackstone, commenting on Shakspeare, ascribes to race and raciness in wine the meaning of tartness, but in this he is probably mistaken.

None of our parts so poor

But was a race of Heaven.

SHAKSPEARE, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 3.

There came, not six days hence, from Hull a pipe
Of rich Canary, which shall spend itself

For my lady's honour.

Greedy. Is it of the right race?

MASSINGER, A New Way to Pay Old Debts.

Such comfort to us here your letter gives,

Fraught with brisk racy verses.-COWLEY.

Rack. An old word, meaning to wreak to the full.

For it so falls out

That what we have we prize not to the worth

Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,
Why then we rack the value.

SHAKSPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1.

Rack-rent is only the full value of the tenement, or near it. BLACKSTONE, Commentaries.

Rage. Once used for any powerful emotion.

RAILE-RAPTURE.

His prophetic rage

Given by Apollo.-CHAPMAN.

Chill penury repressed their noble rage.-GRAY.

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Italian Opera. It was pleasant enough to see the most refined persons of the British Nation dying away and languishing to notes that were filled with a spirit of rage or indignation. I remember an Italian verse which ran thus: 'and turned my rage into pity'—which the English for rhyme's sake translated and into pity turned my rage.' By this means the soft notes that were adapted to pity in the Italian fell upon the word 'rage' in the English. It often happened that the finest notes in the air fell upon the most insignificant words, and I have heard the most beautiful graces, quivers and divisions bestowed upon 'then,' 'for,' and 'from,' to the eternal honour of the English particles.-ADDISON.

Raile. To roll. The word does not appear later than the middle of the seventeenth century.

The purple blood eke from the herte's vein,
Doune railed right fast in most rufull wise.

CHAUCER, Lamentation of Mary Magdalen.

A woman sitting sorrowfully wailing,

Rending her yellow locks like wiry gold,

About her shoulders carelessly down trailing,

And streams of tears from her fair eyes forth railing.

SPENSER, Fairy Queen.

Light was the wound, but through her amber hair
The purple drops down railed bloody red;

So rubies set in flaming gold appear.-FAIRFAX, Tasso.

Rapture. Not always applied to emotions of the mind or senses.

For those dogmas are long since exploded which asserted the rapture of the first morn and the solidity of the heavens, in which the stars were supposed fastened like nails in the vaulted roof of a hall.-BACON.

R

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RASCAL-RATHE.

Then from a dewy mist

Broke swift-foot Iris to her, and from all the darts that hiss't At her quick rapture.-CHAPMAN.

And thick into the ship he threw his flash,

That 'gainst a rock or flat her keel did dash,
In headlong rapture.-DRYDEN.

Sometimes, to give variety to our amusements, the girls sang to the guitar, and while they formed a concert my wife and I would stroll down the sloping field that was embellished with blue bells and centaury, talk of our children with rapture and enjoy the breeze that wafted with it health and harmony. In this manner we began to find that every situation in life might bring its own peculiar pleasures-every morning waked us to a repetition of toil, but the evening repaid it with vacant hilarity. -GOLDSMITH.

Rascal. A Saxon word for a lean animal.

If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch,
But rather moody mad, and desperate stags.

SHAKSPEARE, I Henry VI, iv. 2.

Grannie, these Capons must one charger fill,

That rascal spare, but all the fat ones kill.-OGILBY.

How will a right greyhound fix his eye on the best buck in a herd, and follow him and him only through a whole herd of rascal game.-ISAAC WALTON.

When he [Pope] had exasperated the Dunces, and threats of violence and personal assault were brought to him, the dauntless little champion never for an instant allowed fear to disturb him, or condescended to take any guard in his daily walks, except occasionally his faithful dog to bear him company.' 'I had rather die at once,' said the gallant little cripple, 'than live in fear of those rascals.'-THACKERAY.

6

Rathe. This old Saxon word, meaning 'early,' existed till the time of Milton, but now only survives in the comparative 'rather.'

REAR REASON.

O dere cosin mine Dan John, she saide,
What aileth you so rathe for to arise.

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CHAUCER, The Shippmanne's Tale.

And commonliche in every need
The werst speeche is rathest herde,

And leued till be answerde.-GOWER.

Too rathe cut off by practise criminall

Of secrete foes.-SPENSER, Fairy Queen, iii. 3.

The rather lambs bene starved with cold.

Id., Shepherd's Calendar.

Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies.-LYCIDAS.

Rear. To raise up.

When Samuel, out of his kinde

In Samarie was a-reared,

Long after he was dead.-GOWER.

And he hath rered to us an horn of helthe in the house of Dauith his child.-WICLIF'S Bible, Luke i.

Most foreign writers who have given any character of the English nation, whatever views they ascribe to it, allow that the people are naturally modest; it proceeds perhaps from this our natural virtue that our orators make use of less gesture or action than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock still and will not so much as rear a finger to set off the best sermon in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars and all public places of debate. We can talk of life and death in cold blood: though our zeal breaks out in the finest tropes and figures it is not able to stir a limb about us. -ADDISON.

Reason. Occurs in the sense of a motto.

Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, married Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury: her reason was 'Till Deith depart.'

Elizabeth, married to Lord Latimer: her reason was 'Till my live's ende.'-Ross's Earls of Warwick.

if you

Now have the goodness to observe what I mean, choose to quarrel with your eldest son, do it: if you are deter

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RECEIPT-RECESS.

mined to be disgusted with the world and go and live in Westmoreland, do so; if you are resolved to quit your country and settle in America, go! Only when you have settled the reason upon which you take one or other of these steps, have the goodness to observe if the words in which those reasons are contained have really any distinct meaning, and if you find they have not, embrace your first-born, forget America, unloose your packages, and remain where you are.-SYDNEY SMITH.

Receipt. Reception of guests; and so, room, space. In building we must respect situation, contrivance, receipt, strength, and beauty.-FULLER.

As for receipt a house had better be too little for a day, than too great for a year.—Id.

Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord –, finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's necessity for the money. If therefore his Lordship delays the receipt of it for three days longer, it will be disposed of with the addition of a tail and some other little appendages to Mr. Hare the famous wild beast man, Mr. Hogarth having given that gentleman a conditional promise of it for an exhibition picture on his Lordship's refusal. -Letter of Hogarth to a Nobleman who delayed payment for his portrait.

Recess. The following instances exhibit a sense that has passed away.

On both sides they made rather a kind of recess than a breach of treaty, and concluded upon a truce.-BACON.

We came into the world we know not how, and live on in a self-nescience, and go hence again and are as ignorant of our recess.-GLANVIL.

In the recess of the jury, they are to consider their evidence. -Sir MATTHEW HALE.

David was become a favourite of the people, and on that account the object of Saul's jealousy to avoid the ill effects of which he prudently retired. During this recess, Saul was seized with his disorder.-WARBURTON.

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