RAYNAL, WILLIAM THOMAS, or the Abbé Raynal, was born about the year 1712, and received his education among the celebrated order of the Jesuits, and became one of their number. Their value and excellence chiefly consisted in assigning to each member his proper employment. Among them it was that Raynal acquired a taste for literature and science, and by them he was afterwards expelled, but for what reason is not certainly known, although the abbé Barruel attributes it to impiety. Soon after this event he associated with Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderot, by whom it is said, he was employed to furnish the articles in theology for the Encyclopédie; but he employed the abbé Yvon to furnish them for him, whom Barruel allows to have been an inoffensive and upright man.
His first work, which is justly regarded as an eminent performance, is entitled “Political and Philosophical History of the European Settlements in the East and West Indies.” The style of this work is animated; it contains many just reflections both of a political and philosophical nature, and has been translated into every European language. We believe this performance was followed by a small tract in the year 1780, entitled “The Revolution of America,” in which he pleads the cause of the colonists with much zeal, censures the conduct of the British government, and discovers an acquaintance with the principles of the different factions, which has induced a belief that he had been furnished with materials by those who knew the merits of the dispute much better than any foreigner could reasonably be supposed to do.
The French government instituted a prosecution against him on account of his history of the East and West Indies; but with so little severity was it conducted, that sufficient time was allowed him to retire to the dominions of his Prussian majesty, by whom he was protected, notwithstanding he had treated the character of that sovereign with very little ceremony. Even the most despotic princes showed him much kindness, although he always animadverted on their conduct without reserve; and he lived in the good graces of the em- Raynal, press of Russia. At one period the British house of commons shewed him a veryingular mark of respect. The speaker having been informed that Raynal was a spectator in the gallery, public business was instantly suspended, and the stranger was conducted to a more honourable situation. But when a friend of Dr Johnson's asked him respecting the same personage, "Will you give me leave, doctor, to introduce to you the abbe Raynal?" he turned on his heel, and said, "No sir."
A love of liberty was the principal trait in Raynal's character, of which he gave no proper or accurate definition in his earlier writings; but when he beheld the abuse of liberty in the progress of the French Revolution, he nobly attempted to retrieve its errors. In the month of May 1791, he addressed to the Constituent Assembly, a letter the most eloquent, argumentative, and impressive, that perhaps was ever composed upon any subject whatever. He observes among other things: "I have long dared to speak to kings of their duty; suffer me now to speak to the people of their errors, and to their representatives of the dangers which threaten us. I am, I own to you, deeply afflicted at the crimes which plunge this empire into mourning. It is true that I am to look back with horror at myself for being one of those who, by feeling a noble indignation against arbitrary power, may perhaps have furnished arms to licentiousness. Do then religion, the laws, the royal authority, and public order, demand back from philosophy and reason the ties which united them to the grand society of the French nation, as if, by exposing abuses, and teaching the rights of the people and the duties of princes, our criminal efforts had broken these ties? But, no!—never have the bold conceptions of philosophy been represented by us as the strict rule for acts of legislation."
He afterwards completely proves, that it was not the business of the assembly to abolish every ancient institution; that the genius of the French people is such, that they never can be happy or prosperous but under a well regulated monarchical government; and that, if they wished not the nation to fall under the worst kind of depopulation, they must increase the power of the king.
Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of "A History of the Parliament of England," &c., "History of the Stadtholderate"; "The History of the Divorce of Catharine of Arragon by Henry VIII." and a "History of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz," in four volumes; but he committed many of his papers to the flames during the languishing reign of Robespierre. He was deprived of all his property during the revolution, and died in poverty in the month of March 1796, in the 84th year of his age.
Ray, in Optics, a beam of light emitted from a radiant or luminous body. See Light and Optics.
Inflected Rays, those rays of light which, on their near approach to the edges of bodies, in passing by them, are bent out of their course, being turned either from the body or towards it. This property of the rays of light is generally termed diffraction by foreigners, and Dr Hooke sometimes called it deflection.
Reflected Rays, those rays of light which, after falling upon the body, do not go beyond the surface of it, but are thrown back again.
Refrailed Rays, those rays of light which, after falling upon any medium, enter its surface, being bent either towards or from a perpendicular to the point on which they fell.
Pencil of Rays, a number of rays issuing from a point of an object, and diverging in the form of a cone.