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NIC to a grocer in Perth, and there enjoyed the privilege of the public library, and in the silence of the night wooed the muses. He was in use to rise in the summer mornings before five o'clock, and seated on one of the benches by the banks of the Tay, to write verses, until the hour of seven called him to his daily labours. He became a member of a debating society, where he distinguished himself for sound sense as well as fluency. His first article of any pretensions appeared in Johnstone's Magazine, under the title of the "Il Zingaro." He thus obtained the lasting friendship of Mr. Johnstone, whom he visited in Edinburgh, and was introduced to other literary men. Having with great credit finished his apprenticeship at the age of twenty, and being bent on a literary life, he opened a circulating library in Dundee. He now wrote largely for the newspapers, and delivered popular lectures, and first published in 1835 his volume of poems and lyrics, which met with general approbation. He now removed to Edinburgh where he was kindly received by literary friends, and wrote for literary periodicals. But he soon obtained the appointment of editor to the Leeds Times, with the moderate salary of £100 a year. In the management of this paper he was greatly successful; its circulation increasing under his editorship at the rate of two hundred in the week. In December, 1836, Nicoll revisited Scotland, and was married at Dundee to Alice Suter, a lady of that city. In 1837 his health, never robust, began to show alarming symptoms; and after a struggle to maintain his place he left Leeds for Scotland, and took up his abode in the house of Mr. Johnstone at Laverock Bank, near Leith. He there received the kind attentions of many friends. Sir William Molesworth, whose political interests he had laboriously supported at Leeds, sent him an order for £50, with a kind letter of acknowledgment of his services. His aged parents were sent for; and walking all night a distance of fifty miles, they arrived only a few hours before their talented son breathed his last, at the age of twenty-four, in December, 1837. After a lapse of several years, and when his poetry had become more widely known and more deeply appreciated, his friends projected a monument to his memory close by the place of his birth, and which he had immortalized in song. An unexpectedly large amount, with little solicitation, came in from distant places, and from persons of high eminence and of different political party. An obelisk, fifty feet high, was erected on an eminence, and inaugurated by a large meeting, presided over by the lord provost of Perth, on 29th October, 1857. It has the simple legend—", born 1814; died 1837;" and "I have written my heart in my poems." The volume of Nicoll's poems has passed through several editions. The school of the muses in which Nicoll was reared was identical with that of Burns; and therefore, as might be expected, there is no small identity of thought and expression in their works. Elliot, the poet, has said of him—"Unstained and pure, at the age of twenty-four, died Scotland's second Burns."—H. B—y.  NICOLSON. See.  NICOMACHUS, a physician of Stagira in Macedonia, who lived about 400 ., is only remarkable as having been the father of the philosopher Aristotle. He is said to have been one of the family of the Asclepiadæ, the supposed descendants of Esculapius, and was the physician and friend of Amyntas, king of Macedonia. The name of his wife, the mother of Aristotle, was Phæstras.—F. C. W.  NICOMACHUS ., a Greek mathematician, is supposed to have flourished in the second century of our era. A work on arithmetic, composed by him, is still extant. A treatise on the mystical properties of numbers has also been ascribed to him, but its authenticity is doubtful.—W. J. M. R.  NICOMACHUS, the son and pupil of Aristodemus, was one of the most renowned of the ancient Greek painters. He was particularly distinguished for the vigour and rapidity of his execution, for which he is highly praised by both Plutarch and Cicero—the latter instancing his execution as perfect. Notwithstanding this great ability however, Nicomachus appears, from some remarks of Quintilian, to have been one of those unfortunate painters whose real merits were not fully appreciated till after their death. Pliny notices six finished and one unfinished picture by Nicomachus—the "Tyndaridæ," which was more celebrated than any of his completed works. He is the painter of whom Stobæus relates the anecdote that, hearing some critic remark that he could see no beauty in the "Helen of Zeuxis," observed, "Take my eyes, and you will see a goddess." He lived from about 360 to 300 ., and was the master of some of the most celebrated artists of antiquity—his brother Aristides of Thebes, his son Aristocles, and Philoxenus of Eretria, a battle painter.—(Junius, Catalogus Artificum.)—R. N. W.  NICOMEDES I., King of Bithynia, ascended the throne 278 ., on the death of his father. At the commencement of his reign he was threatened by Antiochus I. of Syria; but though the latter invaded Bithynia he did not hazard a battle. Soon after Nicomedes entered into alliance with the Gauls, who were engaged in the siege of Byzantium. After they had crossed into Asia, he attacked and defeated his brother Zipætes, who had maintained the standard of rebellion against him from the very commencement and had established himself in part of Bithynia. After the death of his third brother he was sole and undisputed sovereign of all Bithynia, and reigned in peace and prosperity till his death. He founded the new capital Nicomedia, which flourished for many successive centuries. It is supposed that Nicomedes died 250. The crown was left to the infant sons of his second wife according to his will, but they did not succeed him. The reign of this monarch was marked by cruelty at its commencement; nor did his cruelty cease till he had rid himself of all rivals, and was firmly established in power against other neighbouring monarchs.—S. D.  NICOMEDES II. was son of Prusias II. In early life he was sent to Rome as a sort of hostage by Prusias, where he remained till 149. He became so great a favourite with the senate, that his father, dreading what might follow, sent Menas ostensibly on an embassy to that body, but really with secret instructions to murder the prince. The legate seeing the state of matters at Rome revealed his father's intentions to the prince, and urged Nicomedes to dethrone him. The ambassador of Attains seconded this proposal; and Nicomedes listened to it. Having left Rome he landed in Epirus, and assumed the title of king; Attains promised to assist him with an army; and the father fled to the citadel of Nicæa where he wrote to the Roman senate. In the city of Nicomedia Nicomedes was joyfully received; and the father was assassinated by order of his son, 149. He assisted the Romans in their war against Aristonicus, 131 .; refused auxiliaries to Marius against the Cimbri, 130 .; united with Mithridates VI. in subduing Paphlagonia, and cunningly transferred the crown of that kingdom to his son. Having married Laodice, widow of Ariarathes VI., he established her in Cappadocia, from which, however, Mithridates drove her. The senate took away from him Paphlagonia—a deserved punishment for his ambition and injustice. He died about 91 ., having reigned fifty-eight years.—S. D.  NICOMEDES III. , the son of Nicomedes II. Mithridates supported against him his brother Socrates, who was induced to assume the title and name of king, and to lead a large army against the rightful heir to the throne. Driven from his country, the latter applied to the Romans, and by their assistance regained his authority. By way of retaliation, and chiefly for the sake of plunder, he was reluctantly induced by the Roman deputies to ravage the territories of Mithridates, who having complained without effect, got together a large army to invade Bithynia. Nicomedes' army was totally routed, and he himself compelled to fly to Pergamus, and thence to Italy. In the peace between Sulla and Mithridates one of the conditions was the restoration of Nicomedes. From this time till his death his reign seems to have been peaceful. He died 74 ., bequeathing his kingdom to the Romans.—S. D. <section end="583H" /> <section begin="583I" />NICOMEDES, a Greek mathematician, is believed to have flourished about one hundred years. He was the inventor of the curve known as the conchoid, and of an instrument for tracing it.—W. J. M. R. <section end="583I" /> <section begin="583Zcontin" />NICON, Patriarch of the Russian church in the seventeenth century, was born near Nijni Novogorod in 1613. In early life he married, and had three children; but they all died young, and grief for their loss induced both parents to renounce the world. Nicon joined himself to a sternly ascetic order inhabiting a convent on the White Sea. Coming up to Moscow on the affairs of his monastery, he met the Czar Alexis, who was pleased with the large daring views and decisive character of the man, and retained him in Moscow by appointing him archimandrite. Soon afterwards the czar nominated him to the archbishopric of Novogorod. Many instances of his zeal and courage as a reformer, and his devotedness as a pastor of souls, while presiding over this important diocese, are related by the Russian <section end="583Zcontin" />