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Nimbus.

Niles was settled in 1828; it is furnished with water-power by a dam built across the river. There are numerous mills of various kinds, foundries, and machine-shops, a national bank, public schools, weekly newspapers, and 8 churches. The outlying districts produce large quantities of lumber, grain, and fruit, which are brought here for shipment.

NILES, HEZEKIAH, 1777-1839; b. Penn.; received an ordinary education and learned the printer's trade. In 1800 he became a member of the firm of Bonsall & Niles, printers and publishers, in Wilmington, Del. The business was not successful, and Niles for several years was a newspaper contributor and editor, being for six years the managing editor of a Baltimore daily. In 1811 he began the publication of Niles's Register, and continued it for 25 years. This weekly paper contained very valuable articles on political and financial subjects, and historical papers of great importance. Niles republished the work in book form (32 vols.) in 1828, and it was continued after his death by W. O. Niles, Jeremiah Hough, and George Beattie until 1849. Niles also published Principles and Acts of the Revolution, 1822. He was a strenuous advocate of a protective tariff.

NILES, JOHN MILTON, 1787-1856; b. Hartford, Conn., and was in early life a farmer. His education was mostly self-acquired, and before he was of age he began the study of law. After his admission to the bar he spent two years in Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania, but in 1817 returned to Hartford and there founded the Times, a democratic newspaper, with which he was connected as editor and contributor for 30 years. He was for some years a county judge, was a member of the general assembly, and in 1829 was made city postmaster by president Jackson, resigning the position on his appointment to fill a vacancy as U. S. senator, 1835–39. He was made postmastergeneral in 1840, and in 1843 was elected U. S. senator for a full term. He published, besides many addresses, orations, and speeches: History of South America and Mexico, and a View of Texas (1839); Life of Commodore Oliver H. Perry (1820); and other books.

NILES, NATHANIEL, 1741-1828; b. R. I.; after graduating at the college of New Jersey in 1766, studied medicine and law, and afterwards theology with Dr. Bellamy, and taught school in New York city. He obtained a license to preach in Congregational churches, and settled in Norwich, Conn. He was confined to no pastorate, but preached as occasion offered, and was accounted earnest and zealous. He was versed in mechanics, and invented a process by which bar-iron could be made into wire by the use of water-power; first employed in a wool-carding factory. He was speaker of the house of representatives of the legislature of Vermont in 1784, having removed to West Fairlee, Orange co., in that state, and was prominent in the politics of his time. At the close of the revolutionary war he was a candidate for national honors, and was member of congress, 1791-97, and a judge of the supreme court. He was chosen presidential elector for six successive administrations, and was appointed one of the censors on the revision of the state constitution. During the revolutionary war he composed a war-song, The American Hero, which became very popular. He contributed a number of valuable essays to the Theological Magazine, and published several sermons, lectures, and essays In 1773 he published Two Discourses on Confession of Sin and Forgiveness, and Four Dis courses on Secret Prayer. In 1777 there appeared two sermons entitled The Perfection of God the Fountain of Good. In 1809, a Letter to a Friend. He wrote a History of the Indian Wars.

NILES. SAMUEL, 1674-1762; b. on Block Island, R. I.; graduated at Harvard university, 1699; became a Congregational minister; preached in Kingston, R. I., from 1702 till 1710; was installed in May, 1711, as pastor of Second church, Braintree, Mass., where he remained till his death. He published A Brief and Sorrowful Account of the Present Churches in New England, 1745; God's Wonder-working Providence for New Eng land in the Reduction of Louisburg, a poem, 1747; Vindication of Divers Important Doctrines, 1752; Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, 1757; and was the author of an unfinished History of the French and Indian Wars, published in Massachusetts historical collection, 3d series, vol. vi.

NILES, WILLIAM WOODRUFF, S.T.D. See page 890.

NIL-GHAU. See NYL-GHAU.

NILOMETER (the measurer of the Nile), the name of two buildings existing in Egypt, one in the island of Rhoda, opposite to Cairo, the other at Elephantine, close to Assouan, in 24° 5' 23" n. lat. The first consists of a square well, in which is placed a graduated pillar of marble, and is called a mekkias or measure; the pillar contains 24 devakhs or cubits, each of which measures 21.386 in., or according to Greaves, 1824 ft., and contains 24 digits; but in its present state it does not appear to have been intended to mark a rise of more than 16 cubits. This pillar is exceedingly slender. The building formerly had a dome, bearing a Cufic inscription, dated 847 A.D., and is said to have been erected by the calif Mamun, or his successor, Wathek Billáh. The first-mentioned monarch is said to have erected another nilometer at the village of Banbenouda, in the Saeed, and to have repaired an old one at Ekhmin. The calif El Motawukkel built the present one. The mode of calculating the increase at the nilometer is rather complex, and to a certain extent arbitrary, political and financial reasons rendering the process a mystery even to the natives. At the present day the Nile is supposed to have

risen to 18 cubits when the canals are cut; this is the height of the lowest inundation; 19 cubits are considered tolerable, 20 excellent, 21 adequate, and 22 complete; 24 are ruinous. In the time of Edrisi, however, 16 cubits were considered sufficient. The object of these nilometers was to measure the amount of taxation to be imposed on the country. The nilometer at Cairo is, however, much more recent than that existing at Elephantine, which consists of a staircase between two walls descending to the Nile. One of these walls has engraved on it a series of lines at proper intervals marking the different elevations to which the river rose under the Cæsars. The cubits here are divided into 14ths or double digits, and measure 1 foot 8.625 inches. This nilometer is described by Strabo. The probability is that many nilometers existed in the days of the Pharaohs, probably one in each city. In the days of Moris 8 cubits were sufficient, but 15 or 16 were required in the time of Herodotus, 456 B.C., and this was the mean under the Romans. According to Pliny, if the inundation did not exceed 12 cubits it produced a famine, 13 starved the country, 14 rejoiced it, 15 was safety, and 16 delight, and this number is symbolically represented by the number of children playing round the river god on statues of the Roman period. The oldest nilometer appears to have been erected at Memphis, and it was transferred by Constantine to a church in the vicinity of the Serapeium; but Julian sent it back to this temple, where it remained till its destruction by Theodosius. At the present day the rise is watched for with anxiety, and proclaimed by four criers.-Herodotus, ii. 13; Strabo, lib. xvii.; Wilkinson, Topogr. of Thebes, pp. 311-17. Hekekyan Bey, Siriadic Monuments (Lond. 1863), p. 145.

NILS SON (MIRANDA), CHRISTINE, b. Sweden, 1843. At an early age showed a taste for music, and although her parents were in humble circumstances, became quite proficient on the violin, learned the flute, and attended fairs and other places of public resort, at which she sang, accompanying herself on the violin. While performing in this manner at a fair at Ljungby in 1857, her voice attracted the attention of F. G. Tornérhjèlm, a gentleman of influence, who sent her to Stockholm, where she received instruction from Franz Berwald. She made her début at Stockholm in 1860, and then went to Paris to continue her musical education, under Masset and Wartel. In 1864 she appeared at the Theatre Lyrique of Paris, as Violetta in Traviata, with such success that she was engaged to sing for three years. She made her first appearance in London in 1867, where she immediately became a favorite. In 1868 she sang the part of Ophelia in the opera of Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas, at the Grand Opera in Paris. During the same year she sang in England at the Handel festival at the Crystal palace. In 1870 she came to America, appearing in concerts and operas, and achieved popularity wherever she was heard. She was married at Westminster abbey, in 1872, to Auguste Rouzaud, a merchant of Paris. After creating great enthusiasm at St. Petersburg, she returned to America with the Strakosch Italian opera troupe, containing such artists as CampaniniMaurel, Capoul, Del Puente, and Annie Louise Cary. She appeared as Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, and sang during the same season in opera with Pauline Lucca. She had retired from the operatic stage for some years, when the failure and death of her husband, 1882, caused her return for a brief season. She was married to count Miranda, 1887. NIMBUS, in art, especially in sacred art, is the name given to the disc or halo which encircles the head of the sacred personage who is represented. Its use is almost universal in those religions of which we possess any artistic remains-the Indian, the Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Greek, and the Roman. In the Hebrew scriptures we trace, in the absence of representations, the same symbolized idea in the light which shone upon the face of Moses at his return from Sinai (Exod. xxxiv. 29-35), and in the light with which the Lord is clothed as with a garment, Ps. ciii. 1, Vulg. (civ. 1, auth. vers.); and in the New Testament in the transfiguration of our Lord (Luke ix. 31), and in the "crowns" of the just, to which allusion is so often made (2 Tim. iv. 8; 1 Peter v. 4; Apoc. iv. 4). Nevertheless, the nimbus, strictly so called, is comparatively recent in Christian art, appearing first toward the end of the 5th century. Later, in Christian art, it became almost a necessary appendage of all representations of God or of the saints. Its ordinary form is the circular or semicircular; a form, indeed, in which later symbolists discover an emblem of perfection and of eternity; but the nimbus of the Eternal Father is often in the form of a triangle, and that of the Trinity an emanation of light, the rays of which form the three arms of a cross. The nimbus of the Virgin is sometimes a simple ring, and sometimes a crown or diadems; occasionally it is encircled by an ornamental border, on which twelve stars are sometimes represented. Her nimbus, as well as that of the divine persons, is commonly of gold; but that of the Virgin Mary is occasionally in colors, as blue, red, purple, or white. The nimbus of the saints is ordinarily the semicircle or lunula. Dedron mentions the curious instance of a picture of the traitor Judas with a black nimbus! In later art the nimbus became lighter and more aerial, melting, as it were, into the picture; and in Raphael's saints it occasionally fades into the very faintest indication of a golden tinge around the head. In connection with the nimbus may also be mentioned two analogous forms-the aureole and the glory. The former is an illumination surrounding, not the head only, but the entire figure. If the figure be upright, the aureole is commonly oval, when it is called the vesica piscis, and is supposed to contain an allusion to the icthys. With a seated figure it becomes circular, and is occasionally divided by radiating bands, in the form of a

wheel; sometimes it taks a quatrefoil form. It is commonly of gold, but occasionally also is in colors. The glory is a combination of the nimbus and the aureole, and is chiefly seen in Byzantine pictures, and those of the early South German school. NIMEGUEN. See NIJMEGEN.

NIMES (anc. Nemausus), a t. of France, capital of the department of Gard, stands in a fertile plain surrounded by vine-clad hills, 30 m. n.e. of Montpellier, with which it is connected by railway. It consists of the town proper (iil built and dirty), and of three handsome suburbs. In the vicinity are the beautiful remains of the Roman aqueduct called the Pont du Gard. The chief of the modern edifices are the Palais-de-Justice, the theater, and the hospitals. The Grande Place is embellished with one of the most magnificent fountains in France. Nimes contains numerous and variously-constituted educational institutions, an important public library, Maria Theresa's museum (in the Maison Carrée), a museum of natural history, etc. It is the general entrepot for the silks produced in the south of France, and its manufactures are principally silk and cotton fabrics. More than 10,000 looms are constantly in operation in the city, and about 6,000 in the immediate vicinity. Shawls, handkerchiefs, lace, brandy, wines, etc., are made. Within the town are numerous and beautiful Roman remains, the chief of which are the amphitheater; the Maison Carrée (square house), a fine specimen of Corinthian architecture; a temple and fountain consecrated to Diana; La Tour Magne (great tower); the baths, and two Roman gates. See Menard's Antiquités de Nimes (1833), and his Histoire de Nimes (7 vols. 1875). Pop. '81, 62,549.

Previously to the Roman invasion, Nîmes—which is supposed to have been founded by a colony from Massilia (Marseille)-was the chief city of the Volcæ Arecomici. It flourished under the Romans, and was one of the great cities of Gaul. It surrendered to the rule of the Visigoths between 465 and 535, and afterwards to that of the Franks. Subsequently it became a possession of Aragon, but was finally restored to France in 1259 by the treaty of Corbeil. The inhabitants adopted Calvinism in the 16th c., and on many occasions suffered severely for their religious principles. In 1791 and and 1815, bloody religious and political reactions took place here.

NIMROD. See BABYLON.

NIMRUD is the present Arabic name for the site of an ancient Assyrian city on the e. bank of the Tigris, about 20 m. below Mosul, thought by many to be Calah spoken of in Gen. x. It is one of a group of cities which anciently were known as Nineveh, or which clustered around the metropolis of that name. The ruins are in the fork formed at the junction of the Tigris and the Zab, are about 5 m. in circumference, and were inclosed by a wall, having towers and gates, the remains of which extend around nearly the whole distance. Excavations made by Layard, Rassam, Loftus, and George Smith, laid open the following buildings: 1. A tower on the n. w. corner of the mound, extending more than 160 ft. and faced with stone to the height of 20 ft.; 2. Temples around the tower; 3. The n. w. palace, 350 ft. square; 4. The center palace, s. of the former: 5. The s. w. palace, built with materials from the n. w. and center; 6. The s.e. palace; 7. The temple of Nebo. According to the inscriptions the city was built B.C. 1320, and having been destroyed in troublous times, was afterwards rebuilt, and continued a royal residence about 170 years. Shalmaneser II., who became king, B.C. 860, conquered the country of the Euphrates, and advancing into Syria met and defeated a confederacy of kings among whom were Benhadad of Damascus, Ahab of Israel, and Baasha the Ammonite. About 720 B.C. Calah ceased to be a capital of the empire, and was finally destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians when they conquered Assyria.

NIMRUD, BIRS. See BABEL, TOWER OF.
NINA, LORENZO, Cardinal. See page 890.
NINDE, WILLIAM X., D.D. See page 890.

NINEVEH, or NI'NUS, a very ancient and famous city, the capital of the great Assyr ian empire, said in scripture (Gen. x. 11) to have been founded by Ninus or Nimrod. It was situated on the e. bank of the Tigris, opposite to the present Mosul. According to the accounts of the classic writers, the city was of vast extent, 480 stadia, or more than 60 m. in circumference. Its walls were 100 ft. high, broad enough for three chariots, and furnished with 1500 towers, each 200 ft. in height. In the Book of Jonah it is described as an exceeding great city of three days' journey." and one "wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand" (children or infants are probably meant). After having been for many centuries the seat of empire, it was taken after a siege of several years and destroyed by the united armies of the Medes under Cyaxares, and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar, about 625 B.C. When Herodotus, not quite 200 years afterwards, and Xenophon visited the spot, there remained only ruins. Tradition continued to point pretty accurately to the site of Nineveh; but it is only of late years that actual explorations have been made. For an account of these see ASSYRIA.

NINGPO, a department in the province of Chekiang, China, comprising the city of that name, the Chusan group of islands, and the cities of Tsike, Funghwa, Chinhai, and Tsiangshan. The port of Ningpo is situated at the confluence of two small streams, in lat. 29° 55′ n., long. 121° 22' e., 12 m. from the sea, on an alluvial flat of extreme fertility, intersected by a net-work of rivulets and canals. Its walls are 5 m. in circumfer ence, about 25 ft. high, 22 ft. wide at the base, and 15 at the top, with six double gates.

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2. Feroher. 3. Dagon. 4. Portal fig

Khorsab

NINEVEH AND ASSYRIA.-1. Nisroch and the holy tree.

10. Cuneiform inscriptions. 11-13. Scenes from Assyrian life. 14. Fly-brush. 15. Axe. 17. Ins

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