Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/407

NEO-PLATONISM. 357 NEOTROPICAL REGION. come the doiilit arising from the inadequacy of human conceptions by the theory of man's im- mediate Unouledf^e or intuition of (iod — a theory distinctly akin to the Neo-l'lalonie doctrine that tlic ><oul in a state of ecstasy has the power to transcend all finite limitations. The Italian liumanists. in their reaction against the previous- ly dominant Aristotclianism, paid great devotion to anything that seemed to derive from Plato. Marsilii) licino, especially. l>y his translations of I'lotihus, Porjihyrius. and lamblichus, eontrib- uteil tu the spread of these doctrines. The Cani- liridge Platonists (<i.v.) were not without their af- linities to the Alexandrian teaching; and Words- worth's prevalent idea of the existence of a soul in nature which h(dds converse with the soul of man miylit be traced to the same source. Con- sult: Whittaker. T)ie Xeo-Platonists ((Cambridge, 11101); Bigg, The Christian I'lalonists of Alcx- <in(hia (Oxford, ISSO) ; id., yco-I'latonism (ib., 18115) ; Hipler, ?^eui)lutonische Sliidicn (Vienna, IStlS) ; .Jules Simon. L'ccolc d'Alcrundric (Paris, 1843-45); Kellner. Hellcnismus vnd Christen- Ihum (Cologne, 1865) ; and see Neo-Pythago- EEANISM. NE'OPTOL'EMTJS (Lat., from Gk. NeoTrrAXe- fios. coi)tolciiios) . The son of Achilles and Dei- damia, also called Pj-rrhus. After the death of his father he was taken by Odysseus to Troy, where he was distinguished by his courage, and was one of the band who entered Troy inclosed in the wooden horse. He was the slayer of the aged Priam. He returned with rich spoils to Phthia and married Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. Accordinf; to later legend he brought back with him as part of his booty Andromache, the wife of Hector, and settled in Epirus, and later mar- ried Hermione when he had gone to Phthia to restore Peleus to his throne. He was killed at the altar at Delphi by Orestes, the former lover of Hermione, or by the Delphians. He was buried within the preeincts of the temple, where he was afterwards worshiped as a hero. NE'O-PYTH'AGO'REANISM. The name of one of the two Or;eco-Alexandrian schools of phi- losophy, the other school being the Neo-Platonic. (.See Xeo-Pl.vtonism.) Pythagoreanism was revived in the first century B.C.. by P. Xigidius Figulus, a Roman praetor, but Apollonius of Tyana (q,v,) was the most prominent represen- tative of this attempt to blend Pythagorean philosophy with Oriental theosophy. The Neo- Pvthagoreans regarded it as the greatest task of the philosopher to purify himself from con- nection with matter by the suppression of desire anil by the observance of certain ceremonial rules which were adopted from the earlier Py- thagorean brotherhood. In their theoretical sys- tem, numbers had syndjolic significance. Con- sult: Zcller. Die Pliilosophie drr Grieehen, part iii.: Die naehnristofelixchc Philosophie (3d ed., Leipzig, 1880-81) : Vachcrot, Hinloire critiqve de I'l'rolr d'Me.Tiindrir (Paris, 1840-51); also the histories of philosophy bv T'ebcrweg-Heinze. Win- delbnncl, Enlmann. and P.ergmann. NEORNITHES, ne-nr'nT-thez (Neo-Lat. nom. pi., from Gk. vlos, iico.i. new + dpws, ornis, bird). ][odern birds, as distinguished from those of •Tiirassic times, which are called Archnrnifhes. They are charneterized by fused metacarpals, the second finger longest, and the caudal vertehra> not more than thirteen in number. The group com- prises not only existing groups, but all fossil birds e.vcept .rcha'opteryx. NEOSHO, ne-o'sh6. A city and the countj'- seat of Newton County, Mo., 21 miles .southeast of Joi)lin, on the Saint Louis and San Francisco and the Kansas City. Pittsburg and Gulf rail- roads (ilap: SHssouri, B 5). It has a public school, library, and the Scarritt Collegiate In- stitute (Methodist Episcopal South), opened in l.SSS. The United States (iovcrnment fish hatchery here includes thirteen ponds, well stocked with various species of fish. The city is on the edge of the zinc and lead mining dis- trict of southwestern ilissouri, and manufac- tures foundry and machine-shop products, agri- cultural implements. Hour, etc. Settled in 1839, Neosho was incorporated as a town in 18118, and in 1878 was chartered as a citv. Population, in 1890, 2198; in 1900, 272.5. NEOSHO. A river rising in Morris County, east central Kansas (Map: Kansas, G 3). It Hows southeast through eastern Kansas, then southwest and south through Indian Territory, joining the Arkansas River near Fort Gibson, after a course of about 350 miles. The chief towns on its banks are Oswego, Burlington, and Emporia. Its principal tributary is the Cotton- wood. NEOTROPICAL REGION. In zoogeog- raphy, a prinuirv division embracing South, America and its islands. Central America, and the hot lowlands of Mexico and the West In- dies. Other names proposed for it have been Austro-Columbian. Dendrogoea, and Xotoga-a. Its characteristics are more distinctly marked than in some of the other regions, and indicate a remote antiquity for the mainland areas, and also a long period of isolation from North Amer- ica, It also has some curious resemblances to the Australian Region, especially in the presence of marsupials and ratite birds. It is naturally divided into four subregions by physiographic features. The first, or Brazilian Subregion, com- prises the great forested equatorial area from the Caribbean coast to the pampas of Southern Brazil. The -second, or Chilean Subregion, stretches along the Andean plateaus and the dry coast strip between the Andes and the Pacific, from Peru to about latitude 4° N. The third, or Mexican SubrcL'ion (q.v.). consists of Cen- tral .America and tropical Jfexico. The fourth, or Antillean Subregion. embraces all the W'est Indies except Trinidad and Tobago, which are continental in their characteristics. The region as a whole is characterized by great richness of life, as well as by marks of isolation, Wallace found that it had eight families of mammals ab- solutely confined to it, including the distinct group (Cebid.-e and Hapalid:r) of 'New World' monkeys; the bloodsucking bats (Phyllosto- mid.T) ; the chinchillas, cavies. and three other families of rodents. Nearly all the edentates of the world are collected here — sloths, armadillos, ant-eaters, and the like. It has also many im- portant lesser groups, as the llamas, the opos- sums (save one species), the hutias, the soleno- dons, and many peoiliar carnivores. The absence of certain groups is notable; it has no civets, no insect ivores (save a shrew or two from the North), no wild cattle or sheep, no niniinants, except the llamas and a few deer, and no other hoofed mammals except the tapir (elsewhere