Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/313

 NICHOL

NICHOLSON

school, Silcoates, and City of London School. He was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a fancy-goods dealer, and three years later he was put in charge of the Manchester branch. He there con ceived the design of Tit-Bits, which he began to publish in 1881. Presently he was able to establish the firm of Newnes and Co., which started a large number of successful magazines. In 1891 he founded the Strand Magazine ; in 1893 the West minster Gazette. By 1897 his firm had a capital of 1,000,000. He represented the Newmarket Division in Parliament from 1885 to 1895, and Swansea from 1900 to 1910 ; and he was created a baronet in 1895. Sir George was very generous and philanthropic. In 1898 he financed the South Polar Expedition, and his bene factions were numerous. Although he was the son of a clergyman, and married a clergyman s daughter, he rejected Chris tianity, and was merely a Theist. Hulda Friedrichs tells us in her Life of Sir G. Newnes (1911) that in regard to the idea of a future life he was &quot; a reverent and open-minded Agnostic &quot; (p. 302). D. June 9, 1910.

NICHOL, Professor John, M.A., LL.D.,

\vriter. B. Sep. 8, 1833. Ed. Glasgow Western Academy and University, and Oxford (Balliol College). Nichol, who shared his father s Rationalism, refused to graduate until the theological tests were abolished, and he then passed with first- class honours in the final school. In 1859 he entered Gray s Inn, but he presently abandoned the law for letters and philo sophy, and from 1862 to 1889 he was professor of the English language and literature at Glasgow University. Nichol was one of the most brilliant professors of his university and one of the best popular lecturers on literature. As a Liberal (in his earlier years) and warm social idealist, he took a keen interest in education, and was one of the pioneers of university extension work. Professor Knight, who writes his biography (Memoir of John 553

Nichol, 1896), tells us that he was one of the highest characters he ever met, and an advanced Rationalist. &quot; Neither he nor his father,&quot; Knight says (p. 301), &quot; ever belonged to the Unitarian community,&quot; as had been claimed. Nichol was sceptical about immortality, and rejected the Chris tian idea of God. &quot; An omnipotent bene ficence,&quot; he said, &quot; is flatly contradicted by the facts of the universe every hour &quot; (p. 289). He professed only an ethical regard for Christianity. D. Oct. 11, 1894.

NICHOL, Professor John Pringle,

LL.D., F.R.S.E., astronomer, father of preceding. B. Jan. 13, 1804. Ed. King s College, Aberdeen. He took the highest honours in mathematics and physics, but he was at the time religious, and he simul taneously took a course of divinity and was licensed as a preacher. After a few sermons &quot; his mind was turned away from the Church of Scotland,&quot; his son says (in Knight s Memoir, p. 9). He then became, in succession, master of the Hawick Grammar School, editor of the Fife Herald, master of Cupar Academy, and rector of Montrose Academy. In 1836 he was appointed Regius Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow University. He also lectured much to the public, and wrote a number of popular works on astronomy. His chief work was A Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences (1857). An earnest Theist and idealist, Nichol was a great friend of Martineau, as well as of J. S. Mill, and this has led some to call him a Unitarian. Professor Knight, who knew father and son well, shows that this is wrong (pre ceding paragraph). &quot; In religion he thought for himself, and, of course, arrived at his own conclusions,&quot; his son says (Memoir, p. 58). He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society of Education. D. Sep. 19, 1859.

NICHOLSON, William, inventor. B. 1753. Ed. private schools. At the age of sixteen he entered the service of the 554