s also used for the demanding of a person, or thing, to be delivered up to the prince or state to which it properly belongs; when, by any irregular means, it is come into another's possession.

**Reclaiming**, in falconry, is taming a hawk, &c., and making her gentle and familiar.

A partridge is said to reclaim, when she calls her young ones together, upon their scattering too much from her.

**Reclination** of a plane in dialling. See **Dialling**.

**Recluse**, among the Papists, a person shut up in a small cell of an hermitage, or monastery, and cut off, not only from all conversation with the world, but even with the house. This is a kind of voluntary imprisonment, from a motive either of devotion or penance.

The word is also applied to incontinent wives, whom their husbands procure to be thus kept in perpetual imprisonment in some religious house.

Recluses were anciently very numerous. They took an oath never to stir out of their retreat; and having entered it, the bishop set his seal upon the door; and the recluse was to have every thing necessary for the support of life conveyed to him through a window. If he was a priest, he was allowed a small oratory, with a window, which looked into the church, through which he might make his offerings at the mass, hear the ringing, and answer those who spoke to him; but this window had curtains before it, so that he could not be seen. He was allowed a little garden, adjoining to his cell, in which he might plant a few herbs, and breathe a little fresh air. If he had disciples, their cells were contiguous to his, with only a window of communication, through which they conveyed necessaries to him, and received his instructions. If a recluse fell sick, his door might be opened for persons to come in and assist him, but he himself was not to stir out.

**Recognition**, in law, an acknowledgment; a word particularly used in our law-books for the first chapter of the statute 1 Jac. I. by which the parliament acknowledged, that, after the death of queen Elizabeth, the crown had rightfully descended to king James.

**Recognizance**, in law, is an obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act; as to appear at the assizes, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like. It is in most respects like another bond: the difference being chiefly this, that the bond is the creation of a fresh debt or obligation de novo, the recognizance is an acknowledgment of a former debt upon record; the form whereof is, "that A. B. doth acknowledge to owe to our lord the king, to the plaintiff, to C. D. or the like, the sum of ten pounds," with condition to be void on performance of the thing stipulated: in which case the king, the plaintiff, C. D. &c. is called the cognizor, *is qui cognoscit*; as he that enters into the recognizance is called the cognizor, *is qui cognovit*. This being certified to, or taken by the officer of some court, is witnessed only by the record of that court, and not by the party's seal; so that it is not in strict propriety a deed, though the effects of it are greater than a common obligation; being allowed a priority in point of payment, and binding the lands of the cognizor from the time of enrolment on record.

**Recoil**, or **Rebound**, the starting backward of a fire-arm after an explosion. Mercennius tells us, that a cannon 12 feet in length, weighing 6400 lb. gives a ball of 24 lb. an uniform velocity of 640 feet per second. Putting, therefore, \( W = 6400, w = 14, V = 640, \) and \( v = \) the velocity with which the cannon recoils; we shall have (because the momentums of the cannon and ball are equal) \( Wv = wV; \) and so \( v = \frac{wV}{W} = \frac{24 \times 64}{6400} = 24; \) that is, it would recoil at the rate of 24 feet per second, if free to move.

**Recollection**, a mode of thinking, by which ideas sought after by the mind are found and brought to view.

**Reconnoitre**, in military affairs, implies to view and examine the state of things, in order to make a report thereof.

Parties ordered to reconnoitre are to observe the country and the enemy; to remark the routes, conveniences, and inconveniences of the first; the position, march, or forces of the second. In either case, they should have an expert geographer, capable of taking plans. plans readily; he should be the best mounted of the whole, in case the enemy happen to scatter the escort, that he may save his works and ideas. See War.