RIVAL, a term applied to two or more persons who have the same pretensions; and which is properly applied to a competitor in love, and figuratively to an antagonist in any other pursuit.
Definition. 1 IS a current of fresh water, flowing in a BED or CHANNEL from its source to the sea.
The term is appropriated to a considerable collection of waters, formed by the conflux of two or more BROOKS, which deliver into its channel the united streams of several RIVULETS, which have collected the supplies of many RILLS trickling down from numberless springs, and the torrents which carry off from the sloping grounds the surplus of every shower.
Utility of rivers. 2 Rivers form one of the chief features of the surface of this globe, serving as voiders of all that is immediately redundant in our rains and springs, and also as boundaries and barriers, and even as highways, and in many countries as plentiful storehouses. They also fertilize our soil by laying upon our warm fields the richest mould, brought from the high mountains, where it would have remained useless for want of genial heat.
Origin of their names. 3 Being such interesting objects of attention, every branch acquires a proper name, and the whole acquires a sort of personal identity, of which it is frequently difficult to find the principle; for the name of the great body of waters which discharges itself into the sea is traced backwards to one of the sources, while all the contributing streams are lost, although their waters form the chief part of the collection. And sometimes the feeder in which the name is preserved is smaller than others which are united to the current, and which like a rich but ignoble alliance lose their name in that of the more illustrious family. Some rivers in-
deed are respectable even at their birth, coming at once in force from some great lake. Such is the Rio de la Plata, the river St Laurence, and the mighty streams which issue in all directions from the Baical lake. But, like the sons of Adam, they are all of equal descent, and should take their name from one of the feeders of these lakes. This is indeed the case with a few, such as the Rhone, the Rhine, the Nile. These, after having mixed their waters with those of the lake, resume their appearance and their name at its outlet.
But in general their origin and progress, and even the features of their character, bear some resemblance (as has been prettily observed by Pliny) to the life of man. The river springs from the earth; but its origin is in heaven. Its beginnings are insignificant, and its infancy is frivolous; it plays among the flowers of a meadow; it waters a garden, or turns a little mill. Gathering strength in its youth, it becomes wild and impetuous. Impatient of the restraints which it still meets with in the hollows among the mountains, it is restless and fretful; quick in its turnings, and unsteady in its course. Now it is a roaring cataract, tearing up and overturning whatever opposes its progress, and it shoots headlong down from a rock; then it becomes a full and gloomy pool, buried in the bottom of a glin. Recovering breath by repose, it again dashes along, till tired of the uproar and mischief, it quits all that it has swept along, and leaves the opening of the valley strew'd with the rejected waste. Now, quitting its retirement, it comes abroad into the world, journeying.