Rau (Herbert), German rationalist b. Frankfort 11 Feb. 1813. He studied theology and became preacher to free congregations in Stuttgart and Mannheim. He wrote Gospel of Nature, A Catechism of the Religion of the Future, and other works. Died Frankfort 26 Sept. 1876.
Rawson (Albert Leighton) LL.D. American traveller and author, b. Chester, Vermont 15 Oct. 1829. After studying law, theology, and art, he made four visits to the East, and made in ’51–2 a pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca, disguised as a Mohammedan student of medicine. He has published many maps and typographical and philological works, and illustrated Beecher’s Life of Jesus. Has also written on the Antiquities of the Orient, New York, ’70, and Chorography of Palestine, London, ’80. Has written in the Freethinkers’ Magazine, maintaining that the Bible account of the twelve tribes of Israel is non-historical.
Raynal (Guillaume Thomas François) l’abbé, French historian and philosopher, b. Saint Geniez, 12 April, 1713. He was brought up as a priest but renounced that profession soon after his removal to Paris, 1747, where he became intimate with Helvetius, Holbach, etc. With the assistance of these, and Diderot, Pechmeja, etc., he compiled a philosophical History of European establishments in the two Indies (4 vols. 1770 and 1780), a work full of reflections on the religious and political institutions of France. It made a great outcry, was censured by the Sorbonne, and was burnt by order of Parliament 29 May, 1781. Raynal escaped and passed about six years in exile. Died near Paris, 6 March, 1796.
Reade (William Winwood), English traveller and writer, nephew of Charles Reade the novelist, b. Murrayfield, near Crieff, Scotland, 26 Dec. 1824. He studied at Oxford, then travelled much in the heart of Africa, and wrote Savage Africa, ’63, The African Sketch Book, and in ’73, The Story of the Ashantee Campaign; which he accompanied as Times correspondent. In the Martyrdom of Man (’72), he rejects the doctrine of a personal creator. It went through several editions and is still worth reading. He also wrote Liberty Hall, a novel, ’60; The Veil of Isis, ’61, and See Saw, a novel, ’65. He wrote his last work The Outcast, a Freethought novel, with the hand of death upon him. Died 24 April, 1875.
Reber (George), American author of The Christ of Paul, or the Enigmas of Christianity (New York, 1876), a work in which he exposes the frauds and follies of the early fathers.
Reclus (Jean Jacques Elisée), French geographer and socialist, the son of a Protestant minister, b. Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (Gironde), 15 March, 1830, and educated by the Moravian brethren, and afterwards at Berlin. He early distinguished himself by his love for liberty, and left France after the coup d’état of 2 Dec. ’51, and travelled till ’57 in England, Ireland, and the North and South America, devoting himself to studying the social and political as well as physical condition of the countries he visited, the results being published in the Tour du monde, and Revue des Deux Mondes, in which he upheld the cause of the North during the American war. In ’71 he supported the Commune and was taken prisoner and sentenced to transportation for life. Many eminent men in England and America interceded and his sentence was commuted to banishment. At the amnesty of March ’79, he returned to Paris, and has devoted himself to the publication of a standard Universal Geography in 13 vols. In ’82 he gave two of his daughters in marriage without either religious or civil ceremony. He has written a preface to Bakounin’s God and the State, and many other works.
Reddalls (George Holland), English Secularist, b. Birmingham, Nov. 1846. He became a compositor on the Birmingham Daily Post, but wishing to conduct a Freethought paper started in business for himself, and issued the Secular Chronicle, ’73, which was contributed to by Francis Neale, H. V. Mayer, G. Standring, etc. He died 13 Oct. 1875.
Reghillini de Schio (M.), Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics, b. of Venetian parents at Schio in 1760. He wrote in French an able exposition of Masonry, 1833, which he traced to Egypt; and an Examination of Mosaism and Christianity, ’34. He was mixed in the troubles of Venice in ’48, and fled to Belgium, dying in poverty at Brussels Aug. 1853.
Regnard (Albert Adrien), French doctor and publicist, b. Lachante (Nièvre), 20 March, 1836, author of Essais d’Histoire et de Critique Scientifique (Paris, ’65)—a work for which he could find no publisher, and had to issue himself—in which he proclaimed scientific materialism. Losing his situation, he started, with Naquet and Clemenceau, the Revue Encyclopédique, which being suppressed on its first number, he started La Libre Pensée with Asseline, Condereau, etc. His articles in this journal drew on him and Eudes a condemnation of four months’ imprisonment. He wrote New Researches on Cerebral Congestion, ’68, and was one of the French delegates to the anti-Council of Naples, ’69. Has published Atheism, studies of political science, dated Londres, ’78; a History of England since 1815; and has translated Büchner’s Force and Matter, ’84. He was delegate to the Freethinkers’ International Congress at Antwerp, ’85.
Regnard (Jean François), French comic poet, b. Paris. 8 Feb. 1655. He went to Italy about 1676, and on returning home was captured by an Algerian corsair and sold as a slave. Being caught in an intrigue with one of the women, he was required to turn Muhammadan. The French consul paid his ransom and he returned to France about 1681. He wrote a number of successful comedies and poems, and was made a treasurer of France. He died as an Epicurean, 4 Sept. 1709.