Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/600

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NUG
550
NYE

Secretary Craggs. Nugent's poems are found in Dodsley and other collections, and in a volume published in 1739.—R. H.

NUGENT, Thomas, LL.D., was a laborious and conscientious writer of the last century, whose name is preserved by what he doubtless considered the least of his works—a pocket French and English dictionary. He was born in Ireland, obtained his degree at the university of Aberdeen in 1765, and died in London on the 27th April, 1772. His most considerable work is "The History of Vandalia, the present Mecklenburg," 3 vols. 4to, 1766-73, which contains many historical details not easily found elsewhere. More popular in their day were his books of travel, "The Grand Tour, or a Journey through the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France," 4 vols., 12mo, 1756, and "Travels through Germany, with a particular account of the courts of Mecklenburg," 2 vols.,, 8vo, 1768. He also translated into English Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, Life of Benvenuto Cellini, and other works.—R. H.

NUMA POMPILIUS, according to ancient story, the second king of Rome. On the death of Romulus, Numa, a Sabine, was elected by the Romans to be king of the united nations. He was a just and pious man, and established numerous religious ordinances among the people. By him were instituted the pontifices, the augurs, the salii, the vestals, and the flamens. He was visited by the goddess Egeria, who taught him all that he was to do both towards gods and men. She instructed him in augury and divination, and gave signs to the people that he was favoured by the gods. He divided the lands taken in war among the people, and encouraged husbandry. He caused them also to offer the fruits of the ground in sacrifice, and forbade animals to be offered. The artificers of the city he divided into nine guilds according to their callings. There was peace throughout his long reign of thirty-nine years, and the temple of Janus was never opened. Such is the story of Numa, as generally given by the ancient authorities. He is now, however, almost universally regarded as a mythical personage.—G.

NUMERANIUS, Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 283-84, was the younger son of the Emperor Carus. After the sudden death of his father in the end of the year 283, he took the command of the army then engaged in the Persian war which had been so successfully conducted by Carus. But the soldiers, who regarded the death of Carus as an omen of impending defeat, refused to prosecute the campaign; and Numerianus was compelled to lead them back towards Rome. During the retreat he seldom appeared in public; and at one time his seclusion was protracted so long as to excite suspicion among the army that he had been put to death. Some of the soldiers at length broke into his tent, and found his dead body. Arrius Afer, the prætorian prefect, was believed to have assassinated him; and he immediately suffered death by the hand of Diocletian.—D. M.

NUNEZ, Fernan de Guzman (Nonnius Pincianus, so called from the ancient name of Valladolid, the place of his birth), was born in 1471, and studied at Salamanca and Bologna. He devoted himself during a residence in Italy to the collection of Greek books; and on his return to Spain he was appointed, by Cardinal Ximenez, professor of Greek in the newly-founded university of Alcala. He was also intrusted jointly with Lope de Astuñega with the translation of the Septuagint into Latin. Taking part with the commons of Castile in their struggles against Charles V., he was obliged to leave Alcala, and taught Greek, Latin, and rhetoric at Salamanca, where he died in 1553, leaving his valuable library to the university. He wrote his own epitaph, "Maximum vitæ bonum mors." Besides several commentaries on classical authors, he wrote "Letters to Zurita," a glossary to the works of Juan de Mena, and a valuable collection of proverbs.—F. M. W.

NUÑEZ. See Nonius.

NUTTALL, Thomas, an eminent botanist, was born at Settle in Yorkshire in 1786, and died at Nutgrove, near Wigan, in Lancashire, on 10th September, 1859. He was educated as a printer, and pursued that business for some time in Halifax and Liverpool. His love of natural history, and the hope of bettering his circumstances, induced him to emigrate to Philadelphia in 1808. He came into contact with Professor Barton, and became fond of botany. In 1809 he accompanied Mr. Bradbury in an exploratory expedition into the interior of North America. They ascended the Missouri, and spent two years in visiting the Indians, and in making collections of plants, seeds, minerals, and other objects of natural history. Nuttall continued to prosecute his botanical studies, and in 1818 he published the "Genera of North American Plants." This work did much to advance the botany of the United States. His original occupation as a printer gave him facilities in the preparation of the work. He set up the greater part of the types with his own hand. In 1818 he visited Arkansas and the north-west parts of America, and during sixteen months travelled over five thousand miles of an unexplored country, amidst many dangers and privations. On his return to Philadelphia he published an account of his journey, containing details of the aboriginal inhabitants of different districts, and meteorological observations. In 1822 he was appointed curator of the botanic garden at Harvard university. There he published an "Introduction to Systematic and Physiological Botany," as well as a "Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada." In 1834 he visited the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia river, and published an account of his travels. He visited Vancouver's island, the Sandwich islands, and California, and returned to Philadelphia, round Cape Horn. Some property having been bequeathed to him by a relative in England, he returned to his native country, where he died. He did much to advance our knowledge of the botany of America. A genus, Nuttallia, has been named after him.—J. H. B.

NUVOLONE, Carlo Francesco, known as the Lombard Guido, was born at Milan in 1608, and was the son and pupil of Panfilo Nuvolone. He was distinguished for his Madonnas; and there are several of his works still in the churches and public buildings of Parma, Piacenza, and Cremona.—His brother Giuseppe Nuvolone, born in 1619, followed the manner of the Procaccini, being distinguished for his strong light and shade. Both brothers are sometimes called Panfilo, after their father. Carlo died in 1651; Giuseppe survived until 1703.—R. N. W.

NUWAYRI or NOWAIRI, Shehab eddin Ahmed, a writer of the fourteenth century, probably born in Egypt about 1280. He was eminent as a lawyer and historian, and for his remarkable penmanship.—B. H. C.

NYE, Philip, M.A., an eminent nonconformist divine, was born of a good family in 1596. Having taken his degree at Oxford, where he was educated, he in 1630 became curate of St. Michael's, Cornhill, London. In 1633 he, to escape the tyranny of Laud, passed over to Holland, where he and Goodwin became pastors of an English congregation at Arnheim, formed on the independent model. He returned to England about the year 1641, and was appointed rector of Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire. In 1643 he, with Stephen Marshall, Sir Henry Vane, Sir W. Armour, and others, appeared in Edinburgh as commissioners to treat with the Scotch for their co-operation in the course the English parliament was pursuing, and in the proceedings which ensued he took a principal part; he also preached twice, but, says Baillie, "did not please;" his first discourse was too remote from "the common business," and "he read much out of his paper book;" but "he amended it somewhat the next Sabbath." When the assembly of divines, in choosing the members of which he had much to do, was convened, he soon came to take a leading part in their proceedings, and ultimately became the leader of the "dissenting brethren," who contended for full liberty of conscience and universal toleration. He became rector of Acton on the demise of Dr. Reeve, and in 1647 he was one of the chaplains who attended the commissioners to Charles I. in the Isle of Wight. In 1652 he was appointed one of Cromwell's Triers of ministers. He had a principal hand in the famous apologetical narration, presented to the parliament by the dissenting brethren in 1643; and by his management also was arranged the conference of the congregational churches at the Savoy in 1658, whence issued the "Declaration of the faith, order, and practice of the Congregational churches of England"—an important document which was translated into Latin by Hoornbeck, and is still referred to by continental writers. After the Restoration his papers were seized and lodged at, Lambeth, where they still remain; he was ejected from his preferments, and he was by name virtually excepted from the act of indemnity. He still continued, however, to preach privately as he had opportunity, till 1672, when he died, aged seventy-six. He was a man of great power, a clear and deep thinker, a close reasoner, and a most determined polemic.—W. L. A.