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 NICHOLAS and he worked at times 14 and 16 hours a day. His temperance and frugality were as remark- able as his industry ; to create a prestige was his constant object, whether in his own capital or foreign countries. The church, the army, and the secret police were the great engines of his government. In the latter part of his reign he suppressed liberal studies, while the universities of the empire, maintained with great ostentation, were devoted to educating men in sciences useful in war or in adminis- tration. He was strenuously opposed to the liberty of the press in Russia. He was an excellent husband and father. NICHOLAS, Saint, bishop of Myra, born in Pa- tara, Lycia, died about 340. He is invoked as the patron of sailors, merchants, travellers, and captives, and the guardian of schoolboys, girls, and children. He takes rank in the Greek church immediately after the great fathers. Justinian dedicated a church to him in Con- stantinople about 560 ; he has been reverenced in the West since the 10th century, and became one of the favorite patron saints of Italy and northern Europe about the beginning of the 12th. His feast is celebrated on Dec. 6. In works of art St. Nicholas is represented with three children, or three purses, or three balls symbolical of the purses. NICHOLS, lehabod, an American clergyman, born in Portsmouth, N. H., July 5, 1784, died in Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 2, 1859. He grad- uated at Harvard college in 1802, and from 1805 to 1809 was tutor there in mathematics. On Jan. 7, 1809, he was ordained as associate pastor of the first Congregational church in Portland, Me., and was sole pastor from 1814 to 1855, when he received a colleague, and afterward, though retaining his pastorate, re- sided in Cambridge. He received the degree of D. D. from Bowdoin college in 1821, and from Harvard college in 1831 ; and he was for many years one of the trustees of Bowdoin college. He was also for several years vice president of the American academy of arts and sciences. In 1830 he published a work on nat- ural theology, and he left a work nearly ready for the press, entitled " Hours with the Evan- gelists " (2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1859-'64), which embraces an argument for the Christian revela- tion and miracles, directed mainly against the Straussian theory, and a series of critical and philosophical comments on the principal epochs in the life of Jesus. A volume entitled "Re- membered "Words from the Sermons of the Rev. I. Nichols" appeared in Boston in 1860. NICHOLS, John, an English printer, born in Islington, Feb. 2, 1745, died in London, Nov. 26, 1826. At an early age he was apprenticed to the learned printer William Bowyer, and succeeded to the business on his death in 1777. His " Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, F. S. A., and of many of his Learned Friends " (4to, 1782), was recast in 9 vols. 8vo under the title of " Lit- erary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century " 605 VOL. xii. 28 NICKEL 431 (181 2-' 15), and the series further continued by himself and his son, John Bowyer Nichols, under that of " Illustrations of Literary His- tory " (8 vols. 8vo, 1817-'58). From 1778 till his death he was editor and publisher of the " Gentleman's Magazine." NICIAS, an Athenian general of the latter part of the 5th century B. C. He was several times associated with Pericles in command, gaining a reputation for prudence and incor- ruptibility ; and on the death of Pericles he was conspicuous as the opponent of Cleon and other demagogues. He early gained a repu- tation for mildness, liberality, and piety ; but his timidity and superstition made him an ob- ject of ridicule. He sacrificed every day, as- sociated much with diviners, and kept a sooth- sayer in his own house that he might know the will of the gods both in public and private affairs. In the Peloponnesian war he was dis- tinguished rather for prudence than genius, but was almost always successful. He conquered the island of Minoa in 427, ravaged the island of Melos and the Locrian coast in 426, gained a victory over the Corinthians in 425, and in conjunction with two colleagues captured the island of Cythera, belonging to Lacedsemon, in 424. But on the death of Cleon a treaty was concluded with the Spartans, called the peace of Nicias (421). Nicias and Alcibiades were now open rivals, and the demagogue Hyperbo- lus strove to procure the banishment of one or the other of them ; but through their uni- ted efforts Hyperbolus himself was ostracized. In 415 the Athenians, in spite of Nicias, re- solved to send an expedition to Sicily. Ni- cias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus were appointed to the command ; but Alcibiades was soon recalled, Lamachus was slain before Syracuse, and Nicias was left to conduct operations alone. At first he was successful, but on the arrival of the Spartan commander Gylippus with succors for the town, he sent home for reinforcements and permission to resign. Re- enforcements were sent under Demosthenes and Eurymedon, but the second request was re- fused, and Nicias continued the war, but with constantly failing fortunes. He was about to retreat when an eclipse of the moon occurred, and this Nicias regarded as an injunction from the gods to remain until the next full moon. The delay proved fatal. The Syracusans forced the Athenians to a naval engagement, destroyed their fleet, and when they attempted to escape by land pursued and captured them. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death, Eury- medon having fallen (413). NICKEL, a silver-white, malleable, and duc- tile metal, discovered by Cronstedt in 1751. It is represented by the symbol Ni; its atomic weight is 58-8, and its specific gravity is 8'279, increasing to 8'666 when forged. It is closely allied to iron and cobalt, and is associated with them in meteorites and many ores. The principal ore of nickel is the arsenide, to which the ancient miners gave the name of Kupfer-