517 



NOETUS. 



NOLLET, JEAN ANTOINE. 



518 



situation, and the time which he devoted to the society of his friends, 

 he should have produced so many works which bear the stamp of 

 original genius. It would be here impossible even to enumerate all 

 his productions. He was a contributor to the ' Biographie Universelle' 

 and other publications, and the originator of the ' Grand Dictionnaire 

 Historique,' while almost daily publishing various works of a more 

 popular character, such as his ' Souvenirs de la Jeunesse,' ' Ines de las 

 Serras,' ' Les Fantaisies du Docteur Ndophobus," ' Dernier Banquet des 

 Girondina,' and ' Franciscus Colutnna,' his last and perhaps most 

 remarkable novel. In 1834 the French Academy did him the tardy 

 justice of electing him a member of their body in the place of Mons. 

 Laya. 



At length, tinder the effects of constant application, Nodier's health 

 gradually gave way. The evening before Christmas, 1843, was the 

 last in which he was permitted to enjoy the society of his literary 

 friends. Three days after he was taken with a serious illness, more 

 lingering than painful, and expired on the morning of the 27th of 

 January 1844. 



Nodier's peculiar characteristic as a ' litterateur ' is that he devoted 

 the energies of his mind to no special subject, but wrote on almost 

 every subject, and that in a way whicli leads one to suppose that, had 

 he attached himself to it, he might have attained great eminence. 

 As a poet bis merit consists in the purity of his style and diction, his 

 hostility to the innovations which have been introduced in French 

 literature, and his faithful adherence to their best classical models. In 

 one respect he deserves especial praise, the substance and moral of his 

 writings are as pure as his style. 



There is a short but very interesting biography of Nodier by his 

 friend Francis Wey, Paris, 1845; and also in the ' Portraits litlcYaires 

 de Ste. Beuve ; ' to these two works we are chiefly indebted for the 

 materials of this article. 



NOE'TUS, a native of Ephesus or Smyrna, and contemporary with 

 Origen, is chiefly known in ecclesiastical history for the heterodox 

 opinions which he advanced respecting the Trinity. He appears to 

 have believed in only one divine person, and to have denied the dis- 

 tinct and proper personality of the Word and Spirit. He is said by 

 Kpiphaniug to have asserted that the Father was begotten, suffered, 

 and died, and that in reality he was Christ. From this opinion Noetus 

 and his followers were called Patripassians, that is, persons who 

 believed that the Father alone had suffered for the sins of men ; but it 

 has been remarked by Beausobre (' Hist, de Maniche'e,' p. 533) with 

 considerable truth, " that this opinion is BO absurd and so manifestly 

 contrary to many texts of the New Testament, that it appears scarcely 

 possible that it should be maintained by any reasonable man ; which 

 make* him suspect that this was not the opinion of those persons, but 

 a consequence which the orthodox drew from their principles." 

 Noetus is also said to have maintained that he was Moses and that 

 his brother was Aaron ; but it is more probable, as Beausobre has 

 remarked, that Xoetus and his brother only pretended to defend the 

 unity of God, as it had been taught by Moses and Aaron. 



The followers of Noetus probably joined Sabellius, whose explana- 

 tion of the doctrine of the Trinity was nearly the same as that of 

 Nottus appears to have been. 



NOLAN, LEWIS EDWARD, Captain in the 15th Hussars, was 

 the son of the late Major Nolan of the 70th Regiment, and for some 

 years Vice-Consul at Milan. He entered the Austrian army at an 

 early nge, and served in Hungary and on the Polish frontier. In 1839 

 he obtained a commission as ensign in the 4th Foot, from whence in 

 the following month he exchanged into the 15th Hussars, then sta- 

 tioned at Madras. Here his talents and enerpry attracted the attention 

 of the late Sir Henry 1'ottinger, then governor, who appointed him to 

 a post on his staff. In addition to his knowledge of the languages of 

 modern Europe, he mastered the native dialects, and entered actively 

 into the details of the military system in the East. On returning 

 home he proceeded on a tour through Russia, and inspected most of 

 the military posts in that empire. The results of his professional 

 studies were published by him in 1853 in a work of nomc merit, on the 

 niization, Drill, and Manoeuvres of a Cavalry Corps.' Upon the 

 breaking out of the war with Russia in the following year, he was 

 commissioned to proceed to Turkey for the purpose of making arrange- 

 ments for the purchase and support of horses for the cavalry regi- 

 ment*. On reaching the Crimea he was placed on the staff of ; 

 Brigadier-General Sir R. Airey, K.C.B., and was the bearer of the 

 written command from Lord Kaglan, ordering the t cavalry to make 

 the fatal charge at the battle of Balaklava, in which th'e gallant captain 

 was one of the first to fall. 



NOLLEKKNS, JOSEPH, was born in Dean-street, Soho, London, ! 

 August 11, 1787; his father, Francis Joseph Nollekens, who was an 

 in tiit of much ability for compositions of landscape and figures after 

 the manner of Watteau, was a native of Antwerp. The senior Nolle- 

 kens died January 21, 1748, and his widow soon after married again 

 and went to reside in Wales. These circumstances may nerve to 

 account for Joseph's neglected education, for hin literary attainments 

 scarcely extended to an ordinary knowledge of reading and writing ; 

 nor docs he appear to have endeavoured in after lift: to make up for 

 his deficiencies. At the age of thirteen he wag placed with Schee- 

 makers, the sculptor, and while with him obtained some prizes from 

 the Society of Arts, who afterwards voted him filty guineas, while he 



was at Rome, for his Timoclej before Alexander. He set out for 

 Rome in 1760, and while there was noticed by some of his country- 

 men, among others, by Garrick and Sterne, both of whom sat to him 

 for their busts. That of Sterne, which was in terra-cotta, was, for 

 likeness and character, equal to any which he afterwards produced. 

 In Rome he turned his attention also to a rather lucrative if not 

 particularly dignified branch of art, namely, that of manufacturing 

 antiques, by vamping up fragments, finding either heads and limbs 

 for bodies, or bodies for heads and limbs ; one of the statues thus 

 compounded was the Minerva, afterwards purchased for a thousand 

 guineas, and now in the Newby collection in Yorkshire. Hia dexterity 

 and skill in repairs of this kind were subsequently displayed in some 

 of the Townley Marbles. While at Rome he also purchased for a 

 trifle, of the workmen by whom they were discovered, a number of 

 fine terra-cottag, which he afterwards disposed of to Mr. Townley, and 

 which are now let into the walls at the British Museum. Among 

 those whose patronage he obtained during his stay in Italy were Lord 

 Ifarborough and the Earl of Besborough, for the first of whom he 

 executed a group of ' Mercury and Venus chiding Cupid.' 



After about ten years of study in Italy, which had been profitable 

 to him in all senses of the term, he returned to London with habits 

 of economy well calculated to kesp what he had acquired and to 

 ensure still further wealth. He established himself iu Mortimer- 

 street, became an associate of the Royal Academy, and was shortly 

 afterwards honoured by the king's Bitting to him for his bust. The 

 royal patronage and the celebrity which his busts of Garrick and 

 Sterne had previously obtained, perhaps as much on account of their 

 subjects as of their own merit, caused him to be almost overwhelmed 

 with employment of that kind : he had sometimes three or four 

 sitters in the course of one day. This constant application to the 

 mere taking of likenesses, if it tended to render him more studious 

 of the mechanical than the intellectual part of his art, was certainly 

 congenial to his inclination, being productive of immediate profit, 

 and suited also to his abilities. The tide of fashiou being once 

 in his favour, the peculiarity of address and bluntness of manners 

 and speech, which might else have proved disqualifications for that 

 branch of his profession, probably contributed in no small degree to 

 recommend him to those who, accustomed to courtesy and polish of 

 manners iu their own circle, were williug to amuse themselves with 

 the oddities of one who had obtained a kind of privilege for freedom 

 of tongue, and however deficient in education, Nollekens was by no 

 means wanting either in shrewdness or tact. 



He had also a good deal of employment in a branch of the art still 

 less favourable than that of bust-making for the display of its higher 

 powers, namely, that of common-place monuments of common-place 

 people. In, such subjects almost the only inspiration that an artist 

 can feel springs out of pecuniary remuneration ; yet there were 

 exceptions even in this case, for the monument to Mrs. Howard of 

 Corby Castle is one of his best productions, pathetic in conception, 

 elegant and tasteful in execution ; as a work of art, very far superior 

 to that by him of Captains Manners, Bayne, and Blair iu Westminster 

 Abbey, which, though a sumptuous, is but a frigid and mechanical 

 work. Notwithstaudiug both his occupations of this kind and his 

 numerous commissions for busts, Nollekens found time to undertake 

 several statues and pieces of poetic sculpture, among which were no 

 fewer than five Venuses, one of them since known by the name of 

 the Rockingham Venus, and one representing the goddess anointing 

 her hair, which last was reckoned by the artist himself ts be his 

 master-piece, and hardly inferior to the antique. Among his groups 

 were a Psetus and Arria and a Cupid and Pysche. 



While wealth was pouring iu upon him year by year, his expenses 

 by no means kept pace with it, nor were they at all increased by his 

 marriage ; for the lady he selected, Miss Mary Welch, though of some 

 beauty and accomplishments, was still more remarkable for her rigid 

 economy ; and though wealthy and childless, both the husbaud and 

 wife carried their notions of frugality even to penuriousness. Nolle- 

 kens died on the 23rd of April 1823, at the age of eighty-six, dividing 

 with the exception of a few legacies (amounting to about 60001.), the 

 whole of his vast property (somewhat more than 200,000i) between 

 his friends Francis Palmer, and Francis Douce, the well known anti- 

 quary, and leaving to each of his executors, Sir W. Beechey, and 

 Thomas Smith, only 1001. each. Smith, who had been in the sculptor's 

 studio, had expected a very considerable legacy ; consequently it is 

 not a matter of much surprise if his biography of the old sculptor is 

 entirely free from, that admiration of his subject which most biographers 

 entertain. 



NOLLET, JEAN ANTOINE, a distinguished French philosopher, 

 was born at Pimprd, in the Noyonnais, iu 1700. It being the intention 

 of his father, who held a farm in that part of France, that he should 

 embrace the ecclesiastical profession, he was sent to the college of 

 Beauvais, in order that he might prosecute the study of theology ; but 

 his taste inclining him to cultivate the physical sciences the intention 

 was abandoned, and he was never otherwise connected with the church 

 than by holding deacon's orders wit|j the title of AbW. On leaving 

 the college he went to Paris, where he attended a course of lectures 

 on natural philosophy, the subjects of which he studied with great 

 diligence, repeating in his humble dwelling the experiments which 

 he had seen performed in public. He passed many of his leisure hours 



