Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/581

NIC of his opinions was never questioned. Yet wisely as he could decide questions involving the interests of others, he rarely was successful in undertakings of his own. For list of works see Watt's Bibliotheca.—R. H.  NICIAS, a celebrated Athenian general. He was connected with the aristocratic party in Athens; but his honourable character and his princely munificence rendered him rather a favourite than otherwise with the populace. As a military commander he was cautious and successful. He took Minoa in 427 .; in 425 he made an inroad into the Corinthian territory; and in 424, along with Nicostratus and Autocles, he commanded a maritime expedition against the island of Cythera, which Thucydides informs us submitted the more readily because Nearchus had had some previous intercourse with several of the inhabitants. In the following year he commanded jointly with Nicostratus in Chalcidice. In 421 he succeeded in arranging the terms of a peace with Sparta, which is known in history as the peace of Nicias. Along with Alcibiades and Lamachus he directed the disastrous Sicilian expedition, which was fitted out by the Athenians in 415. For a time he conducted the war with success, but at last the Athenians were utterly defeated before Syracuse. Nicias, though bowed down with disease as well as grief, was unremitting in his exertions to cheer his retreating army. But after a time he was compelled to surrender, and the Syracusans avenged themselves for their protracted sufferings during the siege by putting him to death.—D. M.  NICIAS, one of the most distinguished painters of antiquity, was famous for his chiaroscuro; for the delicacy of his execution, especially in the portraits of women; and for his animals. He painted in encaustic, that is, in colours prepared with wax, and which were burnt into the picture by means of a cauterium, or hot iron, after it was completed. Nicias was practising his art as early as 350 .; he was, however, then young, and appears to have been a painter of statues, then a profession among the Greeks, as their sculptors were in the habit of colouring their works, to give them as much as possible a life-like character. Thus it was that Nicias was employed to paint some of the statues of Praxiteles, as mentioned by Pliny. His circumlitio can mean nothing else, and we know from Plato and from Plutarch, as well as from remains, that the Greeks painted both their sculpture and their architecture. Among the most celebrated works of Nicias was the "Region of the Shades," from the Odyssey of Homer, which he presented to the city of Athens, having before refused to sell it to Ptolemy I. of Egypt, says Plutarch, for the enormous sum of sixty talents (about £14,000 sterling). This must have been when he was old and rich, about 300 .—(Wornum, Epochs of Painting.)—R. N. W.  * NICOL,, Scotch painter, was born at Leith in July, 1825. He was apprenticed to a house painter in Edinburgh, but in his spare hours studied so diligently in the Trustees academy that, on the expiration of his apprenticeship, he was found qualified to fill the office of teacher of drawing in the Leith academy. Whilst occupying this post he laboured with success to obtain more artistic culture, and about 1847 established himself in Dublin as a portrait painter and teacher. The peculiarities of Irish character attracted his attention, and he was induced to dedicate his pencil to the representation of scenes of familiar Irish life. He returned to Edinburgh in 1850, and the following year made his debut at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, London, and the Scottish Academy, in both cases with decided success—his subjects being "Done up Intirely," and "Spirits an' Tibbaky." Of this class of pictures, including the well known "Did it Pout with its Betsy," "Toothache," &c.—mostly of small size and careful execution—he has continued to furnish examples, occasionally to the London exhibitions, more frequently to those of Edinburgh. The oddities of Irish expression and character being rendered with a good deal of dry humour in these pictures, they have met with much success. Several of his pictures have been engraved. Mr. Nicol is an associate of the Scottish Academy.—J. T—e.  NICOLAI,, a distinguished German litterateur, was born at Berlin 18th March, 1733. By his father, a bookseller, he was intended for the bookselling trade, in which he served an apprenticeship at Frankfort-on-the Oder. After returning to his native town in 1752, he preferred living on a small competency and beginning a literary career. By his letters on the state of belles-lettres, 1756, he became favourably known, and formed numerous literary acquaintances, particularly with Lessing and M. Mendelssohn, with whom he joined in the publication of the celebrated "Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften," the editorship of which was afterwards conferred on Weisse at Leipsic. Two years later, 1759, Nicolai and his friends began the still more important "Briefe die neueste Literatur betreffend," 24 vols., in which they were assisted by the best writers of Germany, and exercised a widely spread and most beneficent influence on the development of German literature. By this time Nicolai had been compelled, by the death of his brother, to take charge of the paternal bookshop, yet he did not allow this circumstance to interfere with his literary occupations. The "Briefe" were followed by the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, a critical journal on the largest scale, which, however, in the course of time sank into insignificance and dullness, and by its superficial rationalism drew upon itself and its founder the attacks, and even the derision of Herder, Wieland, Fichte, Lavater, and others. Nicolai, a man of excellent common-sense, but devoid of higher faculties, proved indeed unable to follow the rapid rise of German literature, particularly of German philosophy, under such guidance as the genius of Kant. But Nicolai's exertions and merits in the field of criticism should not be forgotten, and his love of truth and right will always command respect. Besides his contributions to periodical literature, he published some novels, a "Journey through Germany and Switzerland," and several works of a miscellaneous character. He died, January 8, 1811.—(See Life and Remains by Göckingk, 1820.)—K. E.  NICOLAI,, a musician, was born in Berlin in 1809, where he died in 1849. He was a pupil of Bernhard Klein, composer of the oratorios of "Jephtha "and "David "and other works, and for ten years director of the Singing Academy at Berlin. Nicolai's first publications appeared in 1831; he went in 1835 to Rome; resided some years in Italy, and while there, besides pursuing his musical studies, he was a correspondent of the Leipsic Musical Gazette. After this he lived for a time at Vienna, where he was distinguished as a conductor, and he was appointed kapellmeister of the opera house at Berlin in 1847. He was a successful composer in the popular style, and wrote several works for the stage, and many detached vocal pieces. His best known productions are the "Il Templario," (founded on Ivanhoe), and the "Die Lustige weiber von Windsor" (founded on the Merry Wives).—G. A. M.  NICOLAS,, G.C.M.G. and K.H., an eminent genealogist and a distinguished peerage lawyer and writer, was born 10th March, 1799, the fourth son of John Harris Nicolas, Esq., commander R.N., and Margaret Blake, his wife, a lady descended maternally from some of the most ancient houses in the counties of Cornwall and Devon. Paternally, Sir Harris sprang from a French Breton family, a scion of which, Abel Nicolas, came to England on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and settled as a merchant at Looe in Cornwall, where his descendants continue still resident. In recent times the Nicolas family has been honourably associated with the naval service, and Sir Harris himself, previously to adopting the profession of the law, was a lieutenant in the royal navy. His commission as such bears date 28th March, 1815, to which rank he was promoted after active duty as midshipman in the boats of the Pilot (which his brother commanded), at the capture of several armed vessels on the coast of Calabria. On the 6th May, 1825, he was called to the bar by the Hon. Society of the Inner Temple, and from that period devoting himself almost entirely to antiquarian and genealogical pursuits, and to that branch of the legal profession connected with peerage claims, he conducted to a successful result several great peerage cases, and produced many masterly literary works, which evidence at once his critical acumen, his wondrous industry, and his deep research. Sir Harris Nicolas deserves to be ranked with Camden, Dugdale, and Selden. In profound knowledge, in the capabilities and resources of an astute and powerful mind, he far surpassed the host of antiquaries who preceded him, and he has left memorials of his ability and perseverance which will be prized as long as the literature of our country lasts. With the true liberality of superior intellect, he was ever ready to impart the information he possessed to his professional brethren; and the writer of this brief notice—himself a fellow-labourer in the fields of historical research—can from experience bear the amplest testimony to the kindness and generosity of heart, as well as to the high intellectual endowments of Sir Harris Nicolas. Sir Harris died at Capècure, near Boulogne, on the 3d of August, 1848, and was 