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NICOLAS that Nicolas had a beautiful wife whom he abandoned for a life of celibacy, but afterward, unable to keep his resolution, returned to her, and justified his conduct by licentious princi- ples, which became the basis of the Nicolaitan sect. Eusebius says that they soon became ex- tinct, but according to Tertullian they contin- ued to exist under another name, and their heresies passed into the sect of the Cainites. It is suggested by Mosheim that the church fathers confounded them with the Gnostics, and by Neander that the name is employed in the Apocalypse in a purely symbolical sense, and signifies seducers of the people. NICOLAS, Sir Nicholas Harris, an English anti- quary, born at East Looe, in Cornwall, March 10, 1799, died near Boulogne, Aug. 3, 1848. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1808, and was made lieutenant in 1815. On the conclusion of peace he studied law, and was called to the bar in 1825. He was chosen a member of the council of the society of anti- quaries, but his imprudence and fiery temper caused him to be expelled after he had appear- ed once at their meeting ; and he thereupon began a series of attacks on the society. In 1826 he became joint editor of the " Retrospec- tive Review." His most important works are : "Life of Secretary Davison " (1823) ; Notitia Historica (1824), which was remodelled, under the title of " Chronology of History" (1835), for Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopaedia;" "Sy- nopsis of the Peerage of England " (1825 ; new ed. by W. Courthope, " Historic Peerage of England," 1857) ; Testamenta Vetusta (1826) ; "History of the Battle of Agincourt" (1827) ; "Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor " (2 vols., 1832, un- finished) ; "History of the Orders of Knight- hood of the British Empire" (4 vols. 4to, 1841 -'2) ; "Observations on the Institution of the Order of the Garter," in vol. xxxi. of Archceologia ; and "History of the Royal Navy" (2 vols. 8vo, 1847, unfinished). He prepared for Pickering's Aldine edition of the British poets the lives of Chaucer, Surrey, Wyatt, Collins, Cowper, Thomson, Burns, and Henry Kirke White, and edited the poems of Davison, the "Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey," the " Siege of Carlaverock," the "Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII.," a "Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483," "Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, written by Herself," and the "Letters and Despatches of Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson" (7 vols. 8vo, 1844-' 6). When he died he was editing the papers of Sir Hudson Lowe. NICOLE, Pierre, a French moralist, born in Chartres, Oct. 19, 1625, died in Paris, Nov. 16, 1695. He graduated at the university of Paris in 1644, and for several years held a professor- ship in the Port Royal community. He was one of the authors of their school books, and assisted in their controversy with the Jesuits. According to the abbe Goujet, he had a share, either by advice or correction, in several of NICOMACHUS 435 Pascal's "Provincial Letters," of which he made an elegant Latin translation under the assumed name of William Mendrock (Cologne, 1658). He was the principal author of De la perpetuite de la foi de VJ&glise catholique touchant reucharistie, published under the name of Arnauld. He shared in the persecu- tions which befell the Port Royalists, and was obliged to leave Paris in 1677. His fame rests upon his Essais de morale et instructions the- ologiques (25 vols. 12mo, 1671 et seq.). There is a life of him by Goujet (1732). NICOLET, a central county of Quebec, Cana- da, bounded N. W. by the St. Lawrence, and intersected by the Becancour; area, 593 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 23,262, of whom 22,621 were of French origin or descent. It is traversed by the Three Rivers division of the Grand Trunk railway. Capital, Becancour. NICOLLET, a S. E. county of Minnesota, bound- ed E. and S. W. by the Minnesota river ; area, about 400 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,362. Its surface is level, and contains several lakes, of which Swan lake is the largest. The soil is fertile. The Winona and St. Peter railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 315,803 bushels of wheat, 83,256 of Indian corn, 264,565 of oats, 32,411 of barley, 36,158 of potatoes, 24,446 tons of hay, 5,389 Ibs. of wool, 250,844 of butter, and 4,117 gal- lons of sorghum molasses. There were 1,879 horses, 3,189 milch cows, 788 working oxen, 3,386 other cattle, 1,619 sheep, and 1,982 swine; 2 manufactories of brick, 3 of furniture, 1 tan- nery, and 1 flour mill. Capital, St. Peter. NICOLLET, Jean Nicolas, a French explorer, born at Cluses, Savoy, July 24, 1786, died in Washington, D. C., Sept. 11, 1843. He was a pupil of Laplace, and came to the United States in 1832 for a scientific tour. After exploring the southern states, he entered the great basin embraced by the sources of the Red, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers. In 1836 he had extended his observations to the sources of the Missis- sippi. Returning, he was engaged by the war department to revisit the far west and prepare a general report and map for the government. In 1841 Nicollet presented to the association of American geologists a communication on the geology of the upper Mississippi and Mis- souri. He published Lettre sur les assurances qui ont pour "base les probdbilites de la duree de la me humaine (Paris, 1818) ; Memoire sur la mesure d'un arc de parallele moyen entre le pole et Vequateur (1826) ; and, with Reynaud, Cours mathematique d Vusage de la marine (2 vols., 1830). NICOLO DA PISA. See PISANO. . NICOMACHCS. I. A painter of Thebes, Greece, who flourished in the middle of the 4th cen- tury B. C. Cicero ranks him with Apelles and Protogenes, and Plutarch extols his genius. Pliny says he used only four colors, and that he was the first to represent Ulysses with the pileus or sailor's cap. His finest works found their way to Rome. Of these, Pliny mentions