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 528 NOVIKOFF NOTES master or mistress of novices, whose duty it is to examine their characters and fitness for the religious state, and to try their strength by ex- posing them to the most serious obstacles to perseverance which they are likely to encoun- ter in the order. The period of probation, called the novitiate or noviceship, must be, ac- cording to the council of Trent, at least a year. The reformatory regulations published by Pius IX. make a novitiate of two years obligatory in almost all religious orders. The council of Trent, session 25, canon 17, pre- scribed that female novices after the expira- tion of their novitiate should return to their home in the world, and be carefully examined by the bishop of the diocese, to ascertain whether they are under constraint or decep- tion, that they are fully aware of the duties and privations of monastic life, and that they enter it with freedom. NOVIKOFF, Nikolai Ivanovitch, a Russian au- thor, born at Tikhvensk, near Moscow, in 1744, died there, Aug. 11, 1818. He early published "The Painter," on the plan of the "Specta- tor," which acquired popularity, and, in con- junction with his biographical work on Rus- sian authors (St. Petersburg, 1772), attracted the notice of Catharine II., with whose con- sent he established a typographical society at Moscow for the circulation of cheap books and the first circulating library in Russia ; but he was obliged to leave Moscow on account of his alleged partiality in his publications for the writings of French philosophers and revolu- tionists. After the death of the empress in 1 79 6, he received permission to return. Among his works is a collection of historical docu- ments and material, entitled " The Old Russian Library" (10 vols., St. Petersburg, l773-'5). NOVOGEORGIEVSK, formerly MODLIN, a town of Poland, in the government and 19 m. N. W. of the city of Warsaw, at the confluence of the Bug with the Vistula; pop. in 1867, 9,886. It is strongly fortified, and contains a citadel and an arsenal. The town was founded by Napoleon in 1809, under the name of Modlin. The present name was adopted by the Russian government after its occupation of the town in 1831. It held out against the Russians from January to November, 1813, when it surren- dered to avoid starvation. The revolted Poles gained possession of it in December, 1830, and retained it till after the fall of Warsaw in Sep- 'tember, 1831. NOWELL, Alexander, an English clergyman, born at Readhall, Lancashire, in 1507, died in Oxford in J602. He was educated at Oxford, was admitted fellow of Brasenose college in 1540, and three years later was appointed sec- ond master of Westminster school. He took orders in 1550, and became prebendary of Westminster in 1551. On the accession of Queen Mary he went to the continent to escape persecution, and in 1554 was at Strasburg with Jewel, Grindal, and others. In the dis- putes among the exiles Nowell took moderate ground and favored mutual concessions. Re- turning home, he became dean of St. Paul's in 1560. He was chosen prolocutor of the low- er house in 1563, became canon of Windsor in 1594, and principal of Brasenose college in 1595. He published Jewel's " Apology " (1566) ; but his principal work is his " Cate- chism " in Latin, Catechismus, sive prima Institutio Disciplinaque Pietatis Christiana, Latine explicata (1570). It was translated into English, and into Greek by W. Whitaker. An abridgment (Oatechismus Parvus) was made nearly at the same time, and also trans- lated into English. NOX (Or. N), in classical mythology, the goddess of night, the daughter of Chaos and sister of Erebus (Darkness), and, according to the Hesiodic theogony, one of the very first created beings. By her brother Erebus she became the mother of ^Ether (the Air) and Hemera (Day), and she is said to have given birth without any husband to Thanatos (Death), Dreams, Momus, the Hesperides, Nemesis, and similar beings. In later poets she is merely the personification of the darkness of night. She is represented as a winged goddess, covered with a dark, star-spangled robe, or sometimes riding in a chariot accompanied by the stars, and holding in her arms the gods of sleep and death as two boys. NOXUBEE, an E. county of Mississippi, bor- dering on Alabama, and intersected by Noxu- bee river ; area, about 700 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 20,905, of whom 15,798 were colored. It has a nearly level surface and an excellent soil. The Mobile and Ohio railroad passes through Macon. The chief productions in 1870 were 3,619 bushels of wheat, 516,155 of Indian corn, 19,707 of oats, 30,835 of sweet potatoes, 15,473 bales of cotton, 69,044 Ibs. of butter, and 25,000 gallons of molasses. There were 1,511 horses, 3,308 mules and asses, 3,131. milch cows, 6,064 other cattle, 2,570 sheep, and 19,196 swine; 1 cotton factory, 10 flour mills, and 3 saw mills. Capital, Macon. NOTES, George Rapall, an American clergyman, born in Newburyport, Mass., March 6, 1798, died in Cambridge, June 3, 1868. He grad- uated at Harvard college in 1818, studied the- ology at the divinity school in Cambridge, was licensed to preach in 1822, and was ordained pastor of a church at Brookfield, Mass., in 1827, and afterward of a church at Petersham. In 1839 he received from Harvard college the de- gree of D. D., and in 1840 was chosen Hancock professor of Hebrew and other oriental lan- guages, and Dexter lecturer on Biblical litera- ture. His works, chiefly in the department of Hebrew philology, included new transla- tions of the book of Job (1827), the Psalms, the Prophets (3d ed., 2 vols., 1866), Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles (1846), and a new translation of the New Testament published after his death (1869). NOTES, John Humphrey, an American perfec- tionist, born in Brattleboro, Vt., Sept. 3, 1811.