461 



NESSELRODE, COUNT. 



NEUHOFF, THEODOR VON. 



182 



accordingly adopted Trajan as his successor, and associated him with 

 himself in the government. Nerva died in the beginning of A.D. '98, 

 after a reign of sixteen months and nine days. (Dion. Ixviii. 4.) 



(Dion; Aurelius Victor ; Eutropius; the younger Pliny.) 



NESSELRODE, KARL ROBERT, COUNT VON, w>se name is 

 largely identified with the diplomacy of Russia during the first half of 

 the 19th century, is a nobleman of Hanoverian extraction, though a 

 Russian subject, his ancestors having settled in Livonia a few gene- 

 rations since. He was born December 14, 1780, at Lisbon, where his 

 father was ambassador from Russia. He was early devoted to the 

 diplomatic service, and acted in subordinate capacities at Berlin, Stutt- 

 gardt, and the Hague, where in 1805-6 he became charge d'affaires. 

 In 1807 he was sent to Paris as ambassador, where he negociated with 

 the then Emperor Napoleon I. the securing of Malta as a Russian out- 

 post in the Mediterranean. He also assisted the French emperor in 

 forming the great northern confederacy. On the accession of Alex- 

 ander Le became his secretary, and in that capacity shifted his political 

 opinions from side to side, in accordance with Russian policy, appear- 

 ing at one time as the advocate of France and Xapolr on, and at another 

 being ready to sacrifice them in any way that could subserve the 

 interests of Russia. In 1814 he was a party to the convention by 

 which Marmont surrendered Paris to the Allies, and afterwards signed 

 the peace of Paris. He wo* sent as Russian plenipotentiary to the 

 congress of Vienna, and in that capacity took part in the dismember- 

 ment of Poland ; and accompanied Alexander, as a member of the 

 Holy Alliance, at the congresses of Aix-la Chapelle, Troppau, Layhacli, 

 and Verona. Since that period, till a recent date, Count Nesselrode 

 has served under three successive emperors of Russia as minister for 

 foreign affairs. The part which he took in the political intrigues 

 which preceded the late war against Russia is too recent to need 

 repeating here. Count Nesselrode bears a European reputation as a 

 sagacious but perhaps somewhat unscrupulous minister, when sup- 

 porting what he considers the interests of his country. 



NESTORIUS, a celebrated hereeiarch of the 5th century, the 

 founder of the NESTOHIANS, an important and early sect of Christians. 

 He waa a Syrian by birth, and became patriarch of Constantinople in 

 428, under the reign of Theodosius II. He showed himself very 

 zealous against the Arians and other sectarians ; but after some time 

 a prieit of Antioch named Anastasius, who had followed Nestorius to 

 Constantinople, began to preach that there were two persons in Jesus 

 Christ, and that the Word, or divinity, had not become man, but bad 

 descended upon the man Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, and that the 

 two natures became morally united as it were, but not hypostatically 

 joined into one pen-on ; and that when Jesus died it was the human 

 person and not the divinity that suffered. This doctrine, being not 

 only not discountenanced, but supported by Nestorius, was the origin 

 of the Nestortan schism. Nestorius refused to allow to the Virgin 

 Mary the title of Tbeotokoe, or Mother of God, but allowed her that 

 of Cbristotokos, or Mother of Christ. Nestorius met with numerous 

 opponents, among others Eusebim of Dorylaeum ; and the controversy 

 occasioned great disturbances in Constantinople. Cyril, bishop of 

 Alexandria in Egypt, with his characteristic violence, anathematised 

 Nestorius, who in bis turn anathematised Cyril, whom he accused of 

 degrading the divine nature and making it subject to the infirmities of 

 the human nature. [CrBiL OF ALEXANDRIA.] The Emperor Theo- 

 dosius convoked in 431 a general council at Kphesus to decide upon 

 the question. The council, which was attended by 210 bishops, con- 

 demned the doctrine of Nestorius, who refused to appear before the 

 council, as many Eastern bishops, and John of Antioch among the 

 rest, bad not yet arrived. Upon this the council deposed Nestorius. 

 Soon after Jobu of Antioch and his friends came, and condemned 

 Cyril as being guilty of the Apolliuarian heresy. The emperor, being 

 appealed to by both parties, after some hesitation sent for Nestorius 

 and Cyril, but it appears that he was displeased with what he con- 

 sidered pride and obstinacy in Nestorius, and confined him to a 

 monastery. But as his name was still a rallying word for faction, 

 Theodosius banished him to the deserts of Thebais in Egypt, where 

 he died some time after 439, as he was living when Socrates wrote his 

 history. His partisans however spread over the East, and have con- 

 tintlt d to this <:ay to form a separate church, which is rather numerous, 

 especially in Mesopotamia, where their patriarch resides at Diarbekr. 



The Nestorians at one time spread into Persia, and thence to the 

 roast of Coromandel, where tho Portuguese found a community of 

 them at St. 1 homo 1 , but they persecuted them and obliged them to 

 turn (toman Catholics. 



Eutyche*, in his zeal to oppose the Nestorians, fell into the opposite 

 extreme of saying that there was only one nature in Christ, namely, 

 the divine nature, by which the human nature had become absorbed. 

 [Etmcnra.] 



(Hatoirt rfu Natorianime, by Father Doucin, a Jesuit, 1698 ; and a 

 J)itiertati(m on the Syrian Nutoriani, in the fourth volume of the 

 Eibliotheca Orientalii of J. S. Assemani.) 



NKTSCHKR, CASPAR, waa born in 1619 at Heidelberg, from 

 which [ilace Ms fiimily removed to Arnheim. In this city he was 

 adopted by Dr. Tullekena, a rich physician, who placed him first under 

 Kotter, a painter of poultry and dead game, and afterwards under 

 Oherard Terburg, at Deventer. On the completion of his studies ho 

 let out on his travels, intending to pass some time in Italy, but he got 



no farther than Bordeaux, where he married, and after the birth of his 

 eldest son, in 1661, returned to Holland and settled at the Hague. 



Caspar Netscher was one of the best painters of the Dutch school 

 on a small Ecale. The necessity of providing for a numerous family 

 obliged him to devote a considerable portion of his time to portraifc- 

 painting, in which he acquired great reputation. His most admired 

 works are however his Convert ation pieces. His colouring is true ; he 

 is a master of chiaroscuro ; and his touch is delicate. Above all how- 

 ever he is remarkable for his skill in representing linen, white satin, 

 silks, and velvet, the draperies of which are east in large and elegant 

 folds. All the accessories the furniture, ornaments, Turkey carpets, 

 &c., are painted with fidelity and minuteness, yet they do not divert 

 attention from the figures, with which they form a harmonious whole. 

 King Charles II. invited him to London, but he declined that honour, 

 preferring the enjoyment of an established reputation in his own 

 country. He died in 16S4, aged forty-three years. 



THEODORE NETSCHER, his eldest son, who was born in 1661, was his 

 father's disciple. He went at an early age to Paris, where he remained 

 twenty years, highly esteemed, and acquiring considerable wealth by 

 possessing the art of taking an agreeable likeness. He was employed 

 to paint avast number of portraits of the principal p f rsons about the 

 court, especially the ladies. In 1715 he came to London as paymaster 

 of the Dutch forces, and was introduced to the court by Sir Matthew 

 Decker. He remained in England six years, and acquired large sums 

 of money by bis painting. After his return to the Hague he lost a 

 considerable sum through some deficiency in his accounts, and retired 

 in disgust to Hulst, where be died in 1732. 



CONSTANTINF. NETSCHER, the second son of Caspar, bom in 1670, 

 closely imitated the style of his father, but he (lid not neglect the 

 study of nature. He attained to a considerable degree of excellence, 

 and was solicited by the Duke of Portland, whose portrait he had 

 taken, to go with him to England, but he was too infirm to uii'lertake 

 the voyage, being severely afflicted with the gravel, which at last 

 carried him off, in 1722. at the age of fifty-two years. 



NKUBECK, VALERIUS WILHELM, was born at Arnstadt in 

 Thuringia, January 21, 1765. He studied at Gottingen and Jena, at 

 which latter university he took his degree as doctor of medicine, and 

 practised first at Liegnitz, and afterwards at Steinau. His only pro- 

 fessional production was his thesis, ' De Natatione frigida, magno 

 Sanitatis Prsesidio;' it being as a poet that he acquired his literary 

 reputation, chiefly however by his didactic poem entitled ' Die Gesund- 

 brunnen ' (or Mineral Springs), a production that has been extolled by 

 Scblegel an the very best that had then appeared in the language, 

 enriched with admirable descriptions and imagery, aud one in which 

 the German hexameter verse is treated with the greatest ability. It 

 was first published at Breslau in 1795, and in 1798 a splendid folio 

 edition of it appeared at Leipzig. Among bis other productions is a 

 translation of Dr. F. Sayer's 'Dramatic Sketches of the Aucient 

 Northern Mythology,' and several contributions, both iu prose and 

 poetry, to various literary journals. 



NEUHOFF, THEODOR VON, known at one time as King 

 Theodore, a German adventurer, was born towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century, of the noble family of the counts of La Mark in 

 Westphalia. His father was an officer in tho French service, and he 

 himself obtained a lieutenant's commission in the regiment of Alsace. 

 He afterwards went to Spain, and gained the favour of Cardiual 

 Alberoni, who gave Mm the rank of colonel in the Spanish service 

 In Spain he married a lady of honour to the queen, whom he deserted, 

 and carried off her jewels. He then travelled through Sweden, 

 Holland, Italy, ic., under different names and titles, and at last was 

 put in prison for debt at Leghorn. On coming out of prison, he met 

 with several Corsican leaders, among the rest with the canon Orticoni, 

 who had known him at Genoa in 1732, and he proposed to undertake 

 the cause of the Corsicans, who were then at war with the Genoese ; 

 he spoke of his high connections and his means of being useful in 

 various ways. The Corsicans were in the predicament of drowning 

 men catching at straws. Orticoni believed or seemed to believe the 

 adventurer, and promised to use his influence to have him named 

 king of Corsica, on condition that he should first bring substantial 

 assistance to his countrymen. Neuhoff upon this sailed for Tunis, 

 where he succeeded in persuading the Bey to lend him arms and 

 ammunition, promising him in return the exclusive trade of the 

 island and station there for his piratical vessels. The Bey entered 

 into his views, and gave him ten pieces of cannon, four thousand 

 muskets, with ammunition, shoes, corn, and about ten thousand gold 

 sequins. He sailed from Tunis on board an English vessel with his 

 cargo and a retinue of sixteen persons, including two French officers, 

 and several Turks, and arrived on the 12th of March 1736, in the 

 roads of Alesia, on the eastern coast of Corsica. In the following 

 April the general assembly of Corsicans elected Theodor for their 

 king, and he swore to the draught of a constitution for the new king- 

 dom which was then proclaimed. (Botta, ' Storia d'ltalia,' b. 42.) 

 He exercised the regal power for some months, coined money, 

 distributed patents of nobility, instituted an order of knighthood, and, 

 to evince his firmness, put to death three persons, members of dis- 

 tinguished families. He undertook many enterprises against the 

 towns still held by the Genoese, captured Porto Vecchio, but failed 

 before Bastia. Before long however, through the failure of his 



