Ricius, Paul. See Ricci.
Rickards, Saml'ki., an English clergyman, was born in 17!^>5; entered Oriel College, Oxford, in 1814; obtained the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1815, and graduated in second-class honors in 1817. He was feUow of Oriel College in 1819 to 1823, and vicar of Stow, Langtoft, Suffolk, from 1832 until his death, in 1865. He was the author of the Christian Householder, or Book of Fa mill/ Prayers (1849, 12rao): — Short Ser- mons for Family Readiny (1849, 8vo) : — several other Prayer-books : — also Reliyious Tracts, etc. See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer, A uthors, s. v.
Rickman, Thomas, a distinguished English archi- tect, was t)orn at Maidenhead in 1776. Although nn- settle<l in early life, he seems always to have had a love for architecture, and to have studied it carefully. In 1808 he began to give his full attention to it, and wrote the Classification of (Jothic Styles, which has rendered him famous. He afterwards resided in Birmingham, and acquired great celebrity by his Gothic churches and other structures. He died in March, 1841. He is well known as an author by his (Jotliic Architecture, an Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in Enyland, etc. (Loud. 1817, 8vo). There is a later and better edition l)y Parker (Oxford, 1862, 8vo). See Alli- bone, l)irt. if Jirit. unit A mer. A uthors, s. v,
Riculphua (Fr. Riculfc), bishop of Soissons, died about 9<I2. He entered upmi this see between 883 and 892, and assisted in the council of Verberie in 892 and of Kheims in 89.S. In 900, in the latter city, he con- secrated archbisliop Ilervi'-, and excommunicated the murderers of archbislmp Foul(|ues. He made himself celebrated l)y the constitution which ho established in his church in 8H9. This had for its object the correc- tion of tlic ignorance of I lie clergy, aiul has been re- printed s(?vcral limes since 1(51.'>, It may be found in the supplement to the Connies des (limles of Pierre de la Lande, and in vol. ix of the Conciles of Labbe. Sec Gallia ChrLiliana ; Hist. Litter, de la France. — Iloefer, Nouv. Jiioy. (j'enerale, s. V.
Rid. See Isaiah di Teani,
Riddha, in Arabic mythology, is coincidence with the divine will ; one of the five principal virtues which swim about on the sea of passions and tribulations.
Riddle (!n"'n, chidah'; lit, complication, Judg, xiv; Ezek, xvii, 2; Sept, aiviyfia, Trp6jSKi]^a\ Vulg, prohlema, jn-opositio ; A, V, elsewhere "dark saying," " dark speech," " dark sentence," " hard question ;" once [Hab, ii, 6] "proverb"). The Hebrew word is derived from a root cognate to an Arabic one meaning " to bend oif," " to twist," and is used for artifice (Dan. viii, 23), a proverb (Prov. i, 6), a song (Psa. xlix, 4; Ixxviii, 2), an oracle (Numb, xii, 8), a parable (Ezek. xvii, 2), and in general any wise or intricate sentence (Psa. xciv, 4; Hab. ii, 6, etc.), as well as a riddle in our sense of the word (Judg. xiv, 12-19). In these senses we may com- pare the phrases c!Tpo(p)) Xoytov, OTpotpai Trapo/SoXwi' (Wisd. viii,8; Ecclus. xxxix, 2),and irfptTrXoK)) Xoyuiv (Eurip. J'han. 497), and the Latin scii-pus, which ap- pears to have been similarly used (Aul. Gell. Aoc^ Att, xii, 6). Augustine defines an enigma to be any "ob- scura allegoria" {De Trin. xv, 9), and points out, as an instance, the passage about the daughter of the horse- leech in Prov. xxx, 15, which has been elaborately ex- plained by Bellermann in a monograph on the subject {.Fnigmata Hebraica [Erf. 1798]). Manj' passages, although not definitely propounded as riddles, may be regarded as such — e. g. Prov. xxvi, 10, a verse in the rendering of which every version differs from all others. The riddles which the queen of Sheba came to ask of Solomon (1 Kings x, 1 ; 2 Chron. ix, 1) were rather " hard questions" referring to profound inquiries. Solo- mon is said, however, to have been very fond of the rid- dle proper, for Josephus (A nt. viii, 5, 3) quotes two pro- fane historians (Menander of Ephesus, and Dins) to au- thenticate a story that Solomon proposed numerous rid- dles to Hiram, for the non-solution of wliich Hiram was obliged to pay a large tine, until he summoned to his as- sistance a Tyrian named Abilemon, who not only solved the riddles, but propounded others which Solomon was himself unable to answer, and consequently in his turn incurred the penalty. The word ahnyixa occurs only once in the New Test. (1 Cor. xiii, 12, "darkly," tV ah'iyi.iaTi; comp. Numb, xii,8; Wettstein, A'', T, ii, 158) ; but, in the wider meaning of the word, many instances of it occur in our Lord's discourses. Thus Erasmus ap- plies the term to Matt, xii, 43-45, In the Apocrypha we find (Wisd, xlvii, 15) TrapalSoXaTg alviypurujr. The object of such implicated meanings is obvious, and is well explained by Augustine : " Manifestis pascimur, obscuris exercemur" {De Doct. Christ, ii, 6), The word ah'iyfia, taken in the extensive meaning of its root, aij'og, certainly applies to an immense portion of the sa- cred writings — viz. as a narrative or tale, having an ap- plication to jiresent circumstances: Odyss. (xiv, 508), a fable, bearing moral instruction ; Hesiod, Oper. (p. 202), which nearly approaches to the nature of a parable [see Pakaui.k]; a pointed sentence, saying, or proverb (Theocritus, xiv, 13). See Phophkcy; Provkub. Ac- cording to Lenncp, the word «(i'iy/ta, taken substantive- h', means " aiiythinij obscure."