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 " a reverent and
open-minded Agnostic " (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. " Neither he nor
his father," Knight says (p. 301), " ever
belonged to the Unitarian community," as
had been claimed. Nichol was sceptical
about immortality, and rejected the Chris
tian idea of God. " An omnipotent bene
ficence," he said, " is flatly contradicted
by the facts of the universe every hour "
(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 " his mind was turned away from the Church of Scotland," 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). " In religion he thought for himself, and, of course, arrived at his own conclusions," 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
