cule in England, upon abolition of the monasteries; such as the parings of St. Edmund's toes, the girdle of the Virgin Mary, &c. The honoring the relics of saints, on which the church of Rome afterwards founded the superstitious and lucrative use of them, as objects of devovotion, as a kind of charms or amulets, principally appears to have originated in the very ancient custom of assembling at the cemeteries or burying-places of the Christain martyrs, for the purpose of commemorating them, and of performing divine worship. The practice of depositing relics of saints and martyrs under the altars in churches, was at last thought of such importance, that St. Ambrose would not consecrate a church because it had no relics; and the council of Constantinople in Trullo ordained, that those altars should be demolished under which there were found no relics. The rage for procuring relics for this and similar purposes became so excessive that, in A. D. 300, Theodosius the Great was obliged to pass a law, forbidding the people to dig up the bodies of the martyrs, and to traffic in their relics. Such was the origin of that respect for sacred relics which was afterwards perverted, and became the occasion of innumerable processions, pilgrimages, &c. In the end of the ninth century, it was not sufficient to reverence departed saints, and to confide in their intercessions and succours, to believe them endued with a power of healing diseases, working miracles, and delivering from all sorts of calamities and dangers; their bones, their clothes, the apparel and furniture they had possessed during their lives, the very ground which they had touched, or in which their carcasses were laid, were treated with veneration, and supposed to retain the virtue of healing disorders both of body and mind, and of defending such as possessed them against the assaults and devices of the devil. In consequence of this, a new and lucrative trade was opened both in Europe and in the east. Public credulity was imposed upon, and relics of saints were multiplied without number; while the Greeks found a rich prey in the superstition of the Latin relic-hunters. The Roman Catholics in Great Britain do not acknowledge any worship to be due to relics, but merely a high veneration and respect, by which means they profess to honor God, who, they say, has often wrought very extraordinary miracles by them. Relics are forbidden to be used or brought into England by several statutes; and justices of peace are empowered to search houses for popish relics, which, when found, are to be defaced and burnt, &c.

RELICT, n. s. Old Fr. relicte; Lat. relicta. A widow; a wife desolate by the death of her husband.

If the fathers and husbands were of the household of faith, then certainly their relicts and children cannot be strangers in this household.

Chaste relict!

Sprat's Sermons.

which the tenant holding by knight's service, grand serjeantry, or other tenure (for which homage or legal service is due), and being at full age at the death of his ancestor, paid unto his entrance.

RELIEF, CHURCH OF, or RELIEF, PRESBYTERY OF, a set of Presbyterians, in Scotland, who differ from the established church only as to the submission to the law of patronage. See ADvOWSON, PATRONAGE, and PRESENTATION. Many violent settlements, as they are called, of unpopular clergymen in various parishes in Scotland, had repeatedly taken place, in consequence of the rigorous exercise of the law of patronage, which was always a very unpopular measure among strict Presbyterians; and some of these presentees had been so exceedingly unpopular that they were obliged to be settled in their churches and benefices by the force of military power. Grievances of this kind had repeatedly taken place, and been often complained of, before any attempt was made for relief from them, till 1752; when the Rev. Mr. Thomas Gillespie, minister of Garnock, in Fifeshire, was deposed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and for no other fault, but merely, from a scruple of conscience, refusing to have any hand in a violent settlement of this kind, where the presentee was to be settled in opposition to the inclination of the parishioners. This disobedience to the supreme ecclesiastical court was punished with a formal and solemn deposition. Mr. Gillespie was soon after joined in communion by Mr. Thomas Boston of Jedburgh, and several other clergymen of the Church of Scotland, particularly the Rev. James Baine, minister of Paisley, who was settled in a relief church of Edinburgh; all of whom differed from the established church in nothing but the rigorous exercise of the law of patronage, which the church holds to be lawful and expedient, and their opponents to be highly criminal. On this principle these dissenting clergymen constituted themselves into a society, with Presbyterian powers, under the name of the Presbytery of Relief; and being soon followed by great numbers of people, who considered patronage as a piece of unjustifiable ecclesiastical, or rather civil tyranny, imposed on the church of Scotland by a tory party in the reign of queen Anne, merely to be avenged of the Presbyterian Whigs for their zeal against the house of Stuart; they, in a few years, erected churches of Relief (meaning thereby relief from the oppression of patronage) in a great number of parishes throughout Scotland. For farther particulars respecting this sect, we refer the reader to a treatise entitled Historical Sketches of the Church, published in 1774, by the Rev. James Smith, who succeeded Mr. Gillespie in the Relief Church at Dunfermline, but who afterwards returned to the established church, and died minister of a chapel in connexion with the establishment in Dundee. RELIEVE', v. a.“ RELIEVABLE, adj. RELIEF', n. s. RELIEVER, n. s. RELIE'VO.

Fr. relief, reliever; Spanrelievar; Ital. relievo; Lat. relevo. To raise up; revive; support; succor; ease; free from pain, or painful duty; hence change a military guard; to

right legally; recommend or set off by interposition the adjective and noun substantives corresponding relievo is (from the Italian) the prominence of a figure or picture.

For this relief, much thanks; 'tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. Shakspeare. Hamlet. Honest soldier, who hath relieved you? -Bernardo has my place. Give you good night. Shakspeare. Thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen, Tending to some relief of our extremes. Milton. Neither can they, as to reparation, hold plea of things, wherein the party is relievable by common law. Hale.

Parallels, or like relations, alternately relieve each other; when neither will pass asunder, yet are they plausible together.

Browne.

He found his designed present would be a relief, and then he thought it an impertinence to consider what it could be called besides. Fell.

So should we make our death a glad relief From future shame. Dryden's Knight's Tale. A convex mirrour makes the objects in the middle come out from the superficies: the painter must do so in respect of the lights and shadows of his figures, to give them more relievo and more strength.

Dryden.

TO RELIEVE THE SENTRIES is to put fresh men upon that duty from the guard, which is generally done every two hours, by a corporal who attends the relief; to see that the proper orders are delivered to the soldier who relieves.

To RELIEVE THE TRENCHES is to relieve the guard of the trenches, by appointing those for that duty who have been there before.

RELIEVO, OF RELIEF, in sculpture, &c., is the projecture of a figure from the ground or plane on which it is formed; whether that figure be cut with the chisel, moulded, or cast. There are three kinds or degrees of relievo, viz. alto, basso, and demi-relievo. The alto relievo, called also haut-relief, or high relievo, is when the figure is formed after nature, and projects as much as the life. Basso relievo, bass-relief, or low relievo, is when the work is raised a little from the ground, as in medals, and the frontis

pieces of buildings; and particularly in the histories, festoons, foliages, and other ornaments of friezes. Demi relievo is when one half of the figure rises from the plane. When, in a bassorelievo, there are parts that stand clear out, detached from the rest, the work is called a demibasso. In architecture, the relievo of the ornaments ought always to be proportioned to the magnitude of the building it adorns, and to the distance at which it is to be viewed.

RELIEVO, or RELIEF, in painting, is the degree of boldness with which the figures seem, at a due distance, to stand out from the ground of the painting. The relievo depends much upon the depth of the shadow, and the strength of the light; or on the height of the different colors, bordering upon one another; and particularly on the difference of the color of the figure from that of the ground; thus, when the light is so disposed as to make the nearest part of the figure advance, and is well diffused on the masses, yet insensibly diminishing, and terminating in a large spacious shadow, brought off insensibly, the relievo is said to be bold, and the clair obscure well understood.

RELIGHT, v. a. Re and light. To light

anew.

His power can heal me, and relight my eye. Pope. RELIGION, n. s. Fr. religion; Lat. RELIGIOUS, adj. & n. s. religio. See below. RELIGIOUSLY, adv. Virtue, as founded

upon piety and the expectation of future rewards and punishments; a system of revealed faith and worship: religionist, a bigot; a. religious person: the adjective and adverb corresponding in sense with religion: religious is also used for exact; strict: and, as a noun substantive, for a man professedly devoted to religion.

It is a matter of sound consequence, that all duties are by so much the better performed, by how much the men are more religious, from whose abiHooker. lities the same proceed.

When holy and devout religious christians Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them from thence;

So sweet is zealous contemplation!

Shakspeare.

Equity in law is the same that spirit is in religion, what every one pleases to make it sometimes they go according to conscience, sometimes according to law, sometimes according to the rule of court. Sel en.

If we consider it as directed against God, it is a breach of religion; if as to men, it is an cffence against morality. South.

France has vast numbers of ecclesiasticks, secular and religious. Addison's State of the War. What the protestants would call a fanatick is in the Roman church a religious of such an order; as an English merchant in Lisbon, after some great disappointments in the world, resolved to turn capuchin. Addison.

By her informed, we best religion learn, Its glorious object by her aid discern. Blackmore. The lawfulness of taking oaths may be revealed to the quakers, who then will stand upon as good a foot for preferment as any other subject; under such a motley administration, what pullings and hawlings, what a zeal and bias there will be in each religionist to advance his own tribe, and depress the others.

Swift. Religion or virtue, in a large sense, includes duty to God and our neighbour; but, in a proper sense, virtue signifies duty towards men, and religion duty

to God.

Watts.

Her family has the same regulation as a religious house, and all its orders tend to the support of a constant regular devotion. Law.

But I am staggered when I consider that a case may happen in which the established religion may be the religion of a minority of the people, that minority, at the same time, possessing a majority of the property, out of which the ministers of the establishment are to be paid. Bp. Watson.

RELIGION. Religion is, according to Cicero, derived from relegere, to reconsider; but according to Servius, and most modern grammarians, from religare, to bind fast. The reason assigned by the Roman orator for deducing the term from relego is given in these words, 'qui autem omnia, quæ ad cultum deorum pertinerent, di. ligenter retractarent, et tanquam relegerent, sunt dicti religiosi ex relegendo.' The reason given by Servius for his derivation of the word is 'quod mentem religio religet.' If Cicero's etymology be the true one, the word religion will denote the diligent study of whatever pertains to the worship of the gods; but according to the other derivation, which we prefer, it denotes that obligation which we feel on our minds from the relation in which we stand to some superior power. Religion is sometimes distinguished from theology, in that the former chiefly regards a number of practical duties, and the latter a system of doctrinal truths. But theology, fully considered, embraces both doctrine and practice. Mankind are distinguished from the brutal tribes, and elevated to a higher rank, by the rational and moral faculties with which they are endowed; but they are still more widely distin

guished from the inferior creation, and more highly exalted above them, by being made capable of religious notions and sentiments. The slightest knowledge of history is sufficient to inform us that religion has ever had a powerful influence in moulding the sentiments and manners of men. It has sometimes dignified, and sometimes degraded, the human character. In one region or age it has been favorable to civilisation and refinement; in another it has occasionally cramped the genius, depraved the minds, and deformed the morals of men. The varieties of religion in this general view of the term are almost innumerable; and the members of every distinct sect must view all who differ from them as more or less mistaken with respect to the most important concerns of man: wherever, however, human society consists, we are certain of finding religious opinions and sentiments. The great variety of religions that have been established among mankind may be reduced to four classes, viz. the Jewish, the Christian, the Pagan, and the Mahometan.

The first two claim our attention as the great divisions of Revealed Theology. See THEOLOGY. The last two are treated of in this work under the articles POLYTHEISM and MAHOMETANISM.

RELINQUISH, v. a. Lat. relinquo. To RELINQUISHMENT, n. s. S forsake; abandon; leave; desert: the noun substantive corresponding.

Government or ceremonies, or whatsoever it be

which is popish, away with it: this is the thing they require in us, the utter relinquishment of all things popish. Hooker..

The English colonies grew poor and weak, though the English lords grew rich and mighty; for they placed Irish tenants upon the lands relinquished by the English.

Davies.

The habitation there was utterly relinquished.

The king-becoming graces As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude;

I have no relish of them. Shakspeare. Macbeth. I love the people;

Though it do well, I do not relish well Their loud applause. Shakspeare. not have relished among my other discredits. Had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would Id.

of lions, without which, their greatest dainties The ivory feet of tables were carved into the shape would not relish to their palates.

Hakewill on Providence.

We have such a relish for faction, as to have lost that of wit. Addison's Freeholder. Some hidden seeds of goodness and knowledge give him a relish of such reflections as improve the mind, and make the heart better. Addison.

When liberty is gone, Life grows insipid, and has lost its relish. Id. A theory which, how much soever it may relish of wit and invention, hath no foundation in nature. Woodward.

He knows how to prize his advantages, and relish the honours which he enjoys. Atterbury.

It preserves some relish of old writing. Pope. The pleasure of the proprietor, to whom things become familiar, depends, in a great measure, upon the relish of the spectator. Seed.

You are to nourish your spirit with pious readings, and holy meditations, with watching, fastings, and prayers, that you may taste, and relish, and desire that eternal state which is to begin when this life ends. Men of nice palates would not relish Aristotle, as drest up by the schoolmen. Baker.

RELIVE', v. n.

Law.

Re and live. To revive; to

live anew. Not used.

The thing on earth, which is of most avail, Any virtue's branch and beauty's bud, Reliven not from any good.

RELOVE', v. a.

return. Not used.

Spenser.

Re and love. To love in

To own for him so familiar and levelling an affection as love, much more to expect to be reloved by him, were not the least saucy presumption man could be guilty of, did not his own commandments make it a duty. Boyle.

RELUCENT, adj. Lat. relucens. Shining transparent; pellucid.

In brighter mazes, the relucent stream

Plays o'er the mead.

RELUCT, v. a.

Thomson's Summer, Latin reluctor. To

struggle again or hard

RELUCTANCE, or RELUCTANCY, n... ly: the noun-substanRELUCTANT, adj. tive means repugnance; RELUCTATE, V. n. resistance; unwillingRELUCTATION, n. s. ness: reluctant; unwilling reluctate, to resist; struggle against. The king prevailed with the prince, though not without some reluctation. Bacon's Henry VII. Adam's sin, or the curse upon it, did not deprive him of his rule, but left the reatures to a rebellion

or reluctation.

Bacon.

Reluctant; but in vain! a greater power Now ruled him. Id. Paradise Lost.

A little more weight added to the lower of the marbles, is able to surmount their reluctancy to separation, notwithstanding the supposed danger of thereby introducing a vacuum. Boyle.

Bear witness, heaven, with what reluctancy Her helpless innocence I doom to die. Dryden. Many hard stages of discipline must he pass through, before he can subdue the reluctances of his corruption. Rogers.

How few would be at the pains of acquiring such an habit, and of conquering all the reluctancies and difficulties that lay in the way towards virtue.

Atterbury.

That pellucid gelatinous substance, which he pitches upon with so great reliance and positiveness, is chiefly of animal constitution. Woodward. They afforded a sufficient conviction of this truth, and a firm reliance on the promises contained in it. Rogers.

No prince can ever rely on the fidelity of that man who is a rebel to his Creator.

Id.

The pope was become a party in the cause, and could not be relied upon for a decision. Atterbury. Resignation in death, and reliance on the divine mercies, give comfort to the friends of the dying.

Clarissa.

REMAIN', v. n., v. a. & n. s. Į
REMAINDER, adj. & n. s.

Lat. remaneo. To be left out of a larger quantity or number; continue; not to be comprised: to await; be left to: as a nounsubstantive, relic; memento; the body as left by the soul (generally used in the plural): remainder, refuse left; that which is left; remnant in law, the last chance of inheritance.

Bake that which ye will bake to-day; and that which remaineth over lay up until the morning. Exodus xvi. 23. That that remains shall be buried in death. Job xxvii. 15. If what you have heard shall remain in you, ye shall continue in the Son. 1 John ii. 24. Such end had the kid; for he would weaned be Of craft, coloured with simplicity; And such end, pardie, does all them remain That of such falsers friendship shall be fain.

Spenser.

What madness moves you, matrons, to destroy The last remainders of unhappy Troy? Dryden.

That a father may have some power over his children is easily granted; but that an elder brother has so over his brethren remains to be proved. Locke.

Could bare ingratitude have made any one so diabolical, had not cruelty come in as a second to its assistance, and cleared the villain's breast of all remainders of humanity? South. If he, to whom ten talents were committed, has

squandered away five, he is concerned to make a Rogers. double improvement of the remainder.

If these decoctions be repeated till the water comes off clear, the remainder yields no salt. Arbuthnot. I grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences, more than their small remain of life seemed destined to undergo. Pope.

But fowls obscene dismembered his remains, And dogs had torn him. Id. Odyssey.

Of six millions raised every year, for the service of the publick, one third is intercepted through the several subordinations of artful men in office, before the remainder is applied to the proper use. Swift.

REMAINDER, in law, is an estate limited in lands, tenements, or rents, to be enjoyed after the expiration of another particular estate. As if a man seised in fee simple grants lands to A for twenty years, and, after the determination of the said term, then to B and his heirs for ever here the former is tenant for years, remainder to the latter in fee. In the first place, an estate for years is created out of the fee, and given to A, and the residue and the remainder of it is given to B. Both their interests are in fact only one estate; the present term of years, and the remainder afterwards, when added together, being equal only to one estate in fee. Blackstone.

The word remainder is no term of art, nor is it necessary in passing a remainder. Any words sufficient to show the intent of the party, will create a remainder; because such estates take their denomination of remainder from the manner of their existence after they are limited. See Fearne on Remainders.

There is this difference between a remainder and a reversion: in case of a reversion the estate granted, after the limited time, reverts to the grantor or his heirs; but by a remainder it goes to some third person, or a stranger.

REMAINS, ORGANIC. One of the first observations which were made after the distinction of rocky masses, in reference to their component parts, was the almost invariable order of relative position which the different species maintain with respect to each other. Different rocks are seen piled upon one another in mountain ranges; and, in digging into the depths of the earth, a perpetual and varying succession of strata is discovered. But no change of place has been found between the upper and lower orders of the series. The lines of junction of the different species, and the strata into which they are individually divided, are parallel to one another. From hence the conclusion seems striking; first, that their com

ponent parts must formerly have been in a state of fluidity; and, secondly, that the lower rocks in position must have been the first in formation Their division, therefore, into two grand classes, distinguished no less by their relative position than by the obvious characters of their composition, is scientific. A crystalline texture, and the absence of extraneous fossils, mark the series which is lowest in position, and justify the name of primordial; while the earthy composition of the higher series, and the different bodies which they envelope, from fragments of the preceding class to remains of organised bodies, authorise no less for these the appellation of secondary. Both these divisions of rocks are traversed by