fact that it has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. He wrote also accounts of ancient schools of philosophy, the Ionians, the Pythagoreans and the Megarians. Beside these important historical works, he published a large number of treatises of which the following may be mentioned: Versuch zur Verständigung über die neueste deutsche Philosophie zeit Kant (1853); Die christliche Philosophie bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (2 vols., 1858-59), a work which supplemented the Geschichte; Abriss der philosophischen Logik (1824); Ueber das Verhältnis der Philosophie zum Leben (1835); Historia philosophiae Graeco-Romanae (in collaboration with Preller, 1838; 7th ed., 1888); Kleine philosophische Schriften (1839-40); System der Logik und Metaphysik (1856); Encyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (1862-64); Ernest Renan, uber die Naturwissenschaften und die Geschichte (1865); Ueber das Böse und seine Folgen (1869). Of these latter, the one best known in England is the History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, which, by reason of the excellence of its arrangement and its judicious quotations and notes, is almost indispensable to the student of ancient philosophy.
RITTER, KARL (1779-1859), German geographer, was born
at Quedlinburg on the 7th of August 1779, and died in Berlin
on the 28th of September 1859. His father, a physician, left
his family in straitened circumstances, and Karl was received
into the Schnepfenthal institution then just founded by
Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811) for the purpose of
testing his educational theories. The Salzmann system was
practically that of Rousseau; conformity to natural law
and enlightenment were its watchwords; great attention was
given to practical life; and the modern languages were
carefully taught, to the complete exclusion of Latin and Greek.
Ritter already showed geographical aptitude, and when his
schooldays were drawing to a close his future course was
determined by an introduction to Bethmann Hollweg, a banker
in Frankfort. It was arranged that Ritter should become
tutor to Hollweg's children, but that in the meantime he should
attend the university at his patron's expense. His duties as
tutor in the Hollweg family began at Frankfort in 1798 and
continued for fifteen years. The years 1814-19, which he
spent at Göttingen in order still to watch over the welfare
of his pupils, were those in which he began to devote
himself exclusively to geographical inquiries. He had already
travelled extensively in Europe when in 1817-18 he brought
out his first masterpiece, Die Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur
Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen (Berlin, 2 vols., 1817-1818). In 1819 he became professor of history at Frankfort,
and in 1820 professor extraordinarius of history at Berlin,
where shortly afterwards he began also to lecture at the military
college. He remained in this position till his death. The
second edition of his Erdkunde (1822-58) was conceived on a
much larger scale than the first, but he completed only the
sections on Africa and the various countries of Asia. The
service rendered to geography by Ritter was especially notable
because he brought to his work a new conception of the subject.
Geography was, to use his own expression, a kind of physiology
and comparative anatomy of the earth: rivers, mountains,
glaciers, &c., were so many distinct organs, each with its own
appropriate functions; and, as his physical frame is the basis
of the man, determinative to a large extent of his life, so the
structure of each country is a leading element in the historic
progress of the nation. Moreover, Ritter was a scientific
compiler of the first rank. Among his minor works may be
mentioned Vorhalle europäischer Völkergeschichten vor Herodot
(Berlin, 1820); Die Stupas . . . an der indobaktrischen
Königsstrasse und die Kolosse von Bamiyan (1838); Einleitung zur allgemeinen vergleichenden Geographie (Berlin, 1852); “Bemerkungen über Veranschaulichungsmittel räumlicher Verhältnisse bei graphischen Darstellungen durch Form u. Zahl,” in the Trans. of the Berlin Academy, 1828. After his death selections from his lectures were published under the titles Geschichte der Erdkunde (1861), Allgemeine Erdkunde (1862), and Europa (1863). Several of his works (e.g. the “Palestine” volumes
of his Erdkunde) were translated into English. “Karl Ritter” foundations were established in his memory at Berlin and Leipzig, for the furtherance of geographical study.
See G. Kramer, Karl Ritter, ein Lebensbild (Halle, 1864 and 1870; 2nd ed., 1875); W. L. Gage, The Life of Karl Ritter (London, 1867); F. Marthe, “Was bedeutet Karl Ritter für die Geographie,” in Zeitsch. der Ges. f. Erdk. (Berlin, 1879). All Ritter's works mentioned above were published at Berlin.
RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a religious rite or custom), a term of religion, which may be defined as the routine of worship. This is a "minimum definition"; "ritual" at least means so much, but may stand for more. Without some sort of ritual there could be no organized method in religious worship. Indeed, viewed in this aspect, ritual is to religion what habit is to life, and its rationale is similar, namely, that by bringing subordinate functions under an effortless rule it permits undivided attention in regard to vital issues. This analogy - for it is safer to regard such applications of individual psychology to social phenomena as only analogies - may be carried a step further. Just as the main business of habit is to secure bodily equilibrium in order to allow free play to the mental life, so the chief task of routine in religion is to organize the activities necessary to its stability and continuance as a social institution, in order that all available spontaneity and initiative may be directed into spiritual channels. Such organization will naturally affect far more than the forms of worship; but these at least, to judge from the past history of religion, cannot but submit extensively to its influence. The nature of religion, as the sociologist understands it, is bound up with its congregational character. In order that inter-subjective relations should be maintained between fellow-worshippers, the use of one or another set of conventional symbols is absolutely required; for example, an intelligible vocabulary of meet expressions, or (since this is, perhaps, . not indispensable) at any rate sounds, sights, actions and so on, that have come by prescription to signify the common purpose of the religious society, and the means taken in common for the realization of that purpose. In this sense, the term "ritual," as meaning the prescribed ceremonial routine, is also extended to observances not strictly religious in character.
But, whilst ritual at least represents routine, it tends, historically speaking, to have a far deeper significance for the religious consciousness. A recurrent feature of religion, which many students of its phenomena would even consider constant and typical, is the attribution of a more or less self-contained and automatic efficacy to the ritual procedure as such. Before proceeding to considerations of genesis, it will be convenient briefly to analyse the notion as it appears in the higher religions. Two constituent lines of thought may be distinguished. Firstly, there is the tendency to pass beyond the purely petitionary attitude which as such can imply no more than the desire, hope or expectation of divine favour, and to take for granted the consummation sought, a deity that answers, a grace and blessing that are communicated. Only when such accomplishment of its end is assumed can efficacy be held to attach to the act of worship. Secondly, there is the tendency to identify such a self-accomplishing act of worship with its objective expression in the ritual that for purposes of mutual understanding makes the body of worshippers one.
The Magical Element in Ritual.- Exactly similar tendencies - to impute efficacy, and to treat the ritual procedure as the source of that efficacy - are typically characteristic of magic, and their reappearance in religion can hardly be treated as a coincidence, seeing that magic and religion would appear to have much in common, at any rate during the earlier stages of their development. In magic a suggestion is made orally, or by dramatic action, or most often in both ways together, that is held ipso facto to bring about its own accomplishment. A certain conditionality attaches to the magical operation, inasmuch as each magician is subject to interference on the part of other magicians who may neutralize his spell by a
