directed the rehearsals and performances of Der Ring at Bayreuth, and in 1877 paid fhiswiirst visit to England to conduct the Wagner Festival at the Albert. Hall. There in 1187Q he founded the Richter Concerts, which were ~a revelation to London 'musical circles of the masterly personality of theiconductor, and his influence upon the orchestra; in 1885 he became conductor of the Birmingham' Triennial Festival, ' and was created ~Mus. Doc. Oxon. hanoris causal In 1882-Richter also conducted a famous series of performances of Wagnerfs works (including the first in England of Die M eistersinger and Tristan) at Drury Lane, and in 1900 became conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. He had established 'his position as one of the 'most richly gifted and the most experienced of modern conductors, supreme in the interpretation of Beethoven, Wagner- and Brahms. T
RICHTER, JEREMIAS BENJAMIN -(]f762-1807), German
chemist, was born at Hirschberg in Silesia on the 10th of March
1762, became a mining official at Breslau in 1794, and in 1800
was appointed assessor to the department of mines and chemist
to the royal porcelain' factory at Berlin, where he died on the
4th of April 1807. To him belongs the merit of carrying! out
some of the earliest determinations of the quantities .by weight
in which acids saturate bases and bases acids, “and of arriving
at the' conception that those amounts' of-different bases which
can saturate the same quantity of a particular acid are equivalent
to each other. He was thus led to conclude that chemistry is
a, branch of applied mathematics and to endeavour to trace a law
according to which' the quantities of different bases required
to saturate a given acid formed -an arithmetical, and the
quantities of acids saturating a given base a geometrical, progression; His results were- published in his Anfangsgrun-den
der Stochiometrie oder M esskunst chemischer Elemenle (1792-=94);
and Uber die neueren Gegenstdnde in der Chemie (1792-1892),
but it was long before they were properly appreciated, or he
himself was- accorded due credit for them. . This was partly
because some of his work was wrongly ascribed to C. F. Wenzel
by Berzelius through amistake which was only corrected in
1841 by Germain Henri Hess (1802-1850), professor of chemistry
at St Petersburg, and author of “ the laws of constant heat-sums
and of thermoneutrality *' (see THERMOCHEMISTRY).
RICHTER, JOHANN PAUL FRIEDRICH (1763-1825), usually
called JEAN PAUL, famous 'German humorist, 'was born at
Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, on the' 21st of March 1763. His father
was a schoolmaster and organist at Wunsiedel, but in 1765 he
became a pastor at Ioditz near Hof, and in '1776 at Schwarzenbach,
where he died in 1779. After attending the gymnasium
at Hof, Richter went in 1781 to the university of Leipzig.
His original intention was to enter his father's profession, but
theology did not interest him, and he soon devoted himself
wholly to the study of literature. Unable to maintain himself
at Leipzig he returned in 1784 to Hof, where he lived with his
mother. From 1787 to 1789 he served as a tutor at Topen,
a village near Hof; and afterwards he taught the children of
several families at Schwarzenbach.
Richter began his career as a man of letters with Granldndische Prozesse and Auswahl aus des Te1Q'els Papieren, the former of which was issued in 1783-84, the latter in 1789. These works were not received with much favour, and 'in later life Richter himself 'had little sympathy their satirical tone. His next' book, Die unsiahtbare Loge, a romance, published in 1793, had all the qualities which were soon to make him famous, and its power was irnmediatelyrecognized by some of the best critics of the day. Encouraged by the reception of Die unsichtbare Loge, he sent forth in rapid succession Hesperns (1795), Biographrlsche Belustigungen unter der Gehirnschale einer Riesin (1796), Leben des Quintus Fixlein (1796), Blumen- Frucht- und Dornenstilcke, oder Elzestand, Tod und H ochzeit des Armenadvokaten Siebenkds ~ (1796-Q7)', '» Der J ubelsenior (1797), and Das Kampaner Tal (1797). This series of writings won for Richter an assured place in German literature, and during 'the rest of his life every work he produced was welcomed by a wide circle of admirers. "
a
After his mother's death he went in 1797 to Leipzig, rand in the following year to Weimar, where he had much pleasant intercourse with Herder, by whom he was warmly appreciated. He -did not become intimate with Goethe and Schiller, to both of whom his literary methods, Were repugnant; but in Weimar, ass elsewhere, his remarkable conversational powers and his genial manners made him a favourite in general society. In 180 I he married Caroline Meyer, whom he met in Berlin in ~1800. They lived first at»Meiningen, then at Coburg; and finally, in -ISO4, they settled at Bayreuth. Here' Richter spent a quiet, simple and happy life, constantly occupied, with his work as a writer. In 1808 he was fortunately delivered from anxiety as to outward necessities by the prince-primate, K. T. von Dalberg, who gave him a pension of a thousand florins. Before settling at Bayreuth, Richter had published his most, ambitious novel, Titan (1800-3); and this was'followed' by FlegeUahre (1804-5), two works which he himself 'regarded as his masterpieces.) -His later imaginative works were 'Dr Katzenbergers Badereise (1809), Desi Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flat: (1809), Leben Fibels (1812), and Der Kornet, oder Nikoldus Marggraf' (1820-22). In I/orschule der ' Aestlzetik (1804), he expounded his ideas on art; he discussed 'the principles of education in 'Levana, oder Erziehungslelzre (1807); and the opinions suggested by current events he set forth in Friedenspredigt (1808), Ddmrnerungen- fur Deutschland (1869), 'Mars und Phobus T hronwechsel im J ahre 1814 (1814), and Polilische Fastenpredigten (I8I']).V Inhis last years he began Wahrheit aus Jean Pauls Leben, to which additions from'his papers and other sources were made after his death by C. Otto and E. Forster. In 1821 Richter lost his only' son, a youth of the highest promise; and he never quite recovered from- this shock; He died of dropsy, at Bayreuth, on the 14th November 1825 .', ' "V
Schiller saidof Richter that he would have been worthy” of admiration “ if he had made as good use of his riches as other men made of' their poverty.” And it is true that in the form of his writings he never d-id full justice to his great powers; In working out his conceptions he found it impossible to restrain the expression of any powerful feeling by which he might happen"to be moved. 'I He was equally'unable to resist the temptation to bringin strange facts or notions Twhich occurred to him. Hence every one of his works is irregular in structure, andi his' style lacks directness, precision and grace. But his imagination was one of extraordinary fertility, and .he had a surprising power of suggesting great thoughts by means of the simplest incidents and relations; The love of' nature was one of Richter's deepest pleasures; his expressions of ' religious feelings are also marked 'by a truly “poetic spirit, for to Richter visible things were but the symbols of the invisible, and in 'the unseen realities alone he found elements which seemed to him to give significance and dignity tohuman life. His humour, the most distinctive of his qualities, cannot be dissociated from the other characteristics of his writings. It mingled with all his thoughts, and to some extent determined the form in which he embodied even his most serious reflections. That it is sometimes extravagant and grotesque cannot be disputed, but it is never harsh norgvulgar, and generally it springs naturally- from the perception of the incongruity between ordinary facts and ideal laws. Richter's personality was deep' and many-sided; wi th all his willfulness and eccentricity he was a man of a pure and sensitive spirit, 'with a passionate scorn for pretence and an ardent enthusiasm for truth and goodness. Richter's Sdmtliche Werke appeared in 1826-28 in 60 vols., to which' were added 5 vols of Literarischer Nachlass in 18 6-38¢' a second edition was published in 1840-'42 (33 vols.); a thirdi in 1860-* 62 (34 vols.). The last complete edition is that editedby R. Gottschall (60 parts, I€g9). Editions of selected worlrs appeared in I6 vols. (1865), in iirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur (edited by P. Nerrlich, 6 vols., 1884-87), &c. The chief collections of Richter's correspondence are: Jean-Pauls Briefe an F. H. Jacobi (1828); Briefwechsel Jean<Pauls mit seinem Freunde C. Otto (1829-33); Brigfwechsel:zwisclien H. Voss und Jean Paul (1833); Briefe an eine ugendfreundzn (1858); P. Nerrlich, Jean Pauls Briefwechsel mit seiner Frau und seinem Frennde Otto (1902), See further
