when he was nearly 40, by the publication of "Peg Woffington," which was
followed in 1856 by "It is Never too Late to Mend," and in 1861 by "The
Cloister and the Hearth," the last his best and the most popular; several
of his later novels are written with a purpose, such as "Hard Cash" and
"Foul Play"; his most popular plays are "Masks and Faces" and "Drink"
(1814-1884).

READING (61), capital of Berkshire, on the Kennet, 36 m. N. of
London; a town of considerable historic interest; was ravaged by the
Danes; has imposing ruins of a 12th-century Benedictine abbey, &c.; was
besieged and taken by Essex in the Civil War (1643); birthplace of
Archbishop Laud; has an important agricultural produce-market, and its
manufactures include iron-ware, paper, sauce, and biscuits.

READING (79), capital of Berks Co., Pennsylvania, on the Schuylkill
River, 58 m. NW. of Philadelphia; has flourishing iron and steel works;
population includes a large German settlement.

REAL, an old Spanish silver coin still in use in Spain, Mexico, and
some other of the old Spanish colonies, also is a money of account in
Portugal; equals one-fourth of the _peseta_, and varies in value from 21/2
d. to 5d. with the rise and fall of exchange.

REAL, a legal term in English law applied to property of a permanent
or immovable kind, e. g. land, to distinguish it from _personal_ or
movable property.

REAL PRESENCE, the assumed presence, really and substantially, in
the bread and wine of the Eucharist of the body and blood, the soul and
divinity, of Christ, a doctrine of the Romish and certain other Churches.

REALISM, as opposed to Nominalism, is the belief that general terms
denote real things and are not mere names or answerable to the mere
conception of them, and as opposed to idealism, is in philosophy the
belief that we have an immediate cognition of things external to us, and
that they are as they seem. In art and literature it is the tendency to
conceive and represent things as they are, however unsightly and immoral
they may be, without any respect to the beautiful, the true, or the good.
In Ruskin's teaching mere realism is not art; according to him art is
concerned with the rendering and portrayal of ideals.

REALM, ESTATES OF THE, the Sovereign, the House of Lords, and the
House of Commons in Great Britain.

REAL-SCHULE, a German school in which languages, sciences, and arts
are taught to qualify for apprenticeship in some spe