633 



NOUREDDIN. 



NOT, WILLIAM. 



531 



NOUREDDIN (NOOR-ED-DEEU ABSLAN SHAH), Atabek, or Prince, 

 of Moossool and Mesopotamia, of the family of Zenghi, and grand- 

 nephew of the famous Noureddin, sultan of Aleppo and Damascus, 

 succeeded his father Azz-ed-deen Massood, A.D. 1193 (AH. 589), the 

 year of the death of Salah-ed-deen. During a reign of eighteen years 

 he re-establUhed iu some measure the declining power of his house, 

 and compelled the minor princes of his family, who occupied appanages 

 on the frontiers of his territories, to acknowledge his supremacy as 

 lord paramount. An attack with which he and his relative Kootb- 

 ed-deen, prince of Sandjar, were threatened in 1209 from the over- 

 whelming power of Seif-ed-deen, brother of Salah-ed-deen, was averted 

 by the mediation of the Kalif of Baghdad ; and Noureddin died the 

 next year, A.D. 1210 (A.H. 607), regretted by his subjects as a mild and 

 beneficent ruler. His son Azz-ed-deen, after a reign of between seven 

 and eight yean, was succeeded by an infant son bearing the title of 

 Noureddin Arslan II., who survived only a few months. (Abulfeda ; 

 Abul-Faraj ; Da Guinea.) 



NOUHKDDIN (MALEK-AL-MANSSOB NOOB ED-DEEN ALI), the second 

 Riiltau of the dynasty of Tartar or Baharite Mamlukes in Egypt, was 

 placed on the throne by the emirs after the assassination of his father 

 Ibek, AD. 1257 (A.II. 655), at the age of fifteen. HU short reign of 

 two years wai troubled by continual feuds among the Mamluke chief- 

 tains, and nttempta on the part of the Ayoobite princes of Syria to 

 recover the lost sway of their family iu Egypt ; and the apprehension 

 of an irruption of the Moguls under Hulaku, who had taken Baghdad 

 and destroyed the kalifate, showed the necessity of substituting a 

 ruler of matured years aud experience. The Emir Kotuz accordingly 

 assumed the reins of government, A.D. 1259 (A.II. 657), and no more is 

 heard of Noureddin. 



NOVA'LIS, the literary name assumed by Friedrich von Harden- 

 berg, who was born in 1772, at a family estate in Manafeld. HU 

 father, Baron von Hardenberg, had been a soldier in his youth, and 

 was director of the Saxon saltworks. Himself aud his wife, the 

 mother of Novalis, belonged to the religious society of Hernhuters. 

 Novalis was the eldest of eleven children, aud was very delicate 

 in his earlier year*. He was of a dreamy nature, and displayed no 

 extraordinary talent, till a dangerous illness, which att icked him in 

 his ninth year, and could only be cured by painful remedies, awoke 

 him from a kind of intellectual slumber, and he appeared thence- 

 forward as a lively and intelligent child. HU diligence was great, and 

 in hU twelfth year he possessed considerable knowld.lge of the Latin 

 and some acquaintance with the Greek language. He displayed a 

 great predilection for tales (Muhrchen), some of which he invented 

 for the amusement of his brothers. In 1789 ho attended a gymna- 

 sium, and in the following year went to study at Jena, where he 

 remained till 1792, when he went with his brother Erasmus to the 

 university of Leipzig. In the succeeding year he removed to Witten- 

 berg, where hU studies were completed. 



At this time he became acquainted with Frederic Schlegel, and also 

 with Fi elite, whoso system of philosophy he studied with ardour. 

 On leaving Wittenberg he went to Arnstadt, to attend for the first 

 time to practical business. He soon became acquainted with a neigh- 

 bouring lady, called by his biographer Sophia von K., of whom he 

 became violently enamoured. In 1795 he went to Weissenfels, aud 

 was made auditor of the department of which hi* father was director. 

 The death of Sophia and of his brother Erasmus, both in the year 

 1797, was a great shock to NovalU; he however pursued his business 

 with activity, and it is about thU time that hU ' Hymns to Night' are 

 supposed to have been written. In 1798 he was betrothed to a lady 

 called Julia von Ch., and about this time he wrote his ' Pupils at Sais.' 



Returning to Jena, he became acquainted with August Wilheltn 

 Schlegel, and with Tieck, the romauce writer, aud author of the 

 biography to which we ara indebted for all the information that we 

 have respecting the life of Novalis. In 1800 the romance ' Heinrich 

 von Ofterdiogen ' was commenced by Novalis, and was, as he explains 

 in a letter to his friend Tieck, designed to be an apotheosis of poesy. 

 ThU singular work was never finished, although the plan of its con- 

 clusion U preserved. The hero, Heinrich, is an old Qerinan poet, 

 supposed by some to be the author of the ' Nibelun^en-lied," and the 

 purpose of the work is to show the whole world, with every profession 

 and pursuit, on its poetical side. It would little suit most romance 

 readers, as the story is too wild to be interesting, and is merely a 

 thread to connect the author's own thoughts and opinions. The con- 

 clusion of the work, as given by rough notes, was to have been 

 eccentric even for a German enthusiast. Heinrich was to have come 

 into a land where men, beast*, minerals, and even tones and colours 

 hold converse, where the world of tales (Marchenwelt) was to become 

 visible, and the real world to bj considered as a tale. It may ba 

 observed that NovalU regarded the ' Mahrchen,' or popular traditions, 

 with singular respect, and discerned in them, or fancied he discerned, 

 a deep meaning. He was accustomed, pays his biographer, to regard 

 the most ordinary occurrence as a miracle, and the supernatural as 

 something ordinary. 



In 1SOO he was subject to spitting blood, and fell into a weak state. 

 The books which ho then constantly studied were the Bible, and the 

 works of Zinzeudorf and Lavater. He loved to talk of all his pro- 

 jected work*, and professed that he now for the first time knew what 

 powy wan, and designed to re-write ' Ofterdiugen.' On the 19th 



March 1801 he died, in the presence of his friend Frederic Schlegel, 

 before he had completed his twenty-ninth year. 



Novalis" is a writer who will either be read with some degree of 

 enthusiasm or not read at all. Hence while almost idolised by the 

 partisans of the romautic school, he is mentioned with a kind of 

 benevolent contempt by the opponents of that school. His imagina- 

 tion and enthusiasm are most boundless : he darts from prodigy to 

 prodigy with a celerity that cannot be followed, unless the reader 

 allows himself to sympathise with the author. The effects of the 

 ideal philosophy of Fichte, aud tho love of tales so predominant in 

 the romantic school, are plainly discernible in Novalis's works. He 

 had literally constructed an unreal world of his own, and seems to 

 have breathed an atmosphere utterly unlike that of the actual world. 

 A desire of combining religious fervency with philosophy is also 

 apparent ; and thus that combination of speculation and enthusiasm 

 which is found iu the writings of the Alexandrian Platonists and the 

 Mystics was very acceptable to him. The ' Hymns to Night," and the 

 latter part of ' Ofterdingen,' are equally remarkable for the vast power 

 manifested in the construction and the dimness of the construction itself, 

 while here and there the acuteness of some remarks is not to be mis- 

 taken. The ' Pupils at Sais ' is another fragment of a romance, the 

 object of which was to reveal Novalis's views of physical science, for 

 which and mathematics- he had a great taste. If however the works 

 above mentioned are remarkable for singular combination, his spiritual 

 songs (' GeUtliche Lieder ') are no less so for their perfect simplicity 

 and pura spirit of devotion. The posthumous works of Novalis con- 

 tain numerous aphorisms, which show the direction of his studies, a 

 most remarkable turn of thought, aud a love of startling paradox, 

 combined with singular acuteuess. The whole works of Novalis were 

 collected and edited by his friends Tieck and F. Schlegel, with, a 

 biography prefixed by the former. 



NOVIKOV, NIKOLAI IVANOVITCH, born April 27th 174-1 at 

 Tikhvensk, near Moscow, was, if not particularly eminent as a writer, 

 one to whom Russian literature is greatly in Jebted, on account of what 

 he did for the book-trade, and for printing, aud for diffusing a taste 

 for reading among his countrymen. Though his parents were wealthy, 

 he did not receive the very best education, being brought up at home 

 until the age of eighteen, when he entered the government service, 

 and then first began to apply himself to study. Having thus con- 

 ceived a passion for literary pursuits, ha determined upon devoting 

 himself to them exclusively, and accordingly he retired from tha 

 service. One of hU first productions was his ' Zhivopisetz' ('The 

 Painter'), a work somewhat on the plan of 'The Spectator,' and 

 displaying considerable talent and -satiric power in sketchesof manners 

 and characters; and which was long very popular, and has been fre- 

 quently reprinted. Ha shortly afterwards published his ' Opuit ' 

 (Specimen or Essay of a Lexicon of Russian Authors), which has 

 preserved notices of many writers respecting whom littla would other- 

 wUe now be known. Thesa works procure! him the notice of tho 

 Empress Catherine, and he soon after settled at Moscow, where a wide 

 fiald opened itself to him. With the consent of tha government, he 

 established iu that capital a Typographical Society, having for its 

 object the printing of useful books at a cheap rate, and diffusing them 

 through the empire. He also set up the first circulating library, and 

 did very much both to improve the character aud increase the sale 

 of journals and other periodicals. Neither was his attention confined 

 to such improvements, for he helped to introduce many into tha 

 system of school-education. His activity and that of his associates 

 was however looked upon with suspicion, and they were represented 

 as favouring the principles of, if not themselves actually in league 

 with, the philosophers and revolutioaists of France. The consequence 

 was that the society was broken up, aud Novikov received a command 

 to retire to a distant province. After the Emperor Paul's accession 

 he was permitted to return, but he from that time lived almost iu 

 retirement from the world, and devoted to mystic speculations, upon 

 his estate at Tikhveuak, where he died, July 31 (August 11), 1813. 



Novikov has been compared to Franklin, and he was certainly a 

 very active aad useful person. He is said to have possessed in a very 

 extraordinary degree the art not only of gaining over others to his 

 schemes, but of rendering them as eager and zealous in them as 

 himself. Uence, notwithstanding the vast sums which his speculations 

 required, they never were hindered by want of funds. He himself 

 was quite disinterested, hU object being not to enrich himself, but 

 that his schemes should succeed for the benefit of the public : at all 

 events, it is certain that he died poor. 



Among his own publications, in addition to those already mentioned, 

 was a collection of historical documents and materials, entitled ' The 

 Old Russian Library,' 1773-75, in ten volumes, and afterwards continued 

 to twenty more. 



NOY, WILLIAM, a lawyer, whose professional career had a con- 

 siderable influence on British history, was born about tha year 1577. 

 " He was," says Fuller, " for many years tho stoutest champion of the 

 subjects' liberty, until King Charles entertained him to be his attorney." 

 He was made attorney-general on tho 31st of October 1031. Ha had 

 for some years been member of parliament, first for Helston, and 

 subsequently for St. Ives. He was a profound lawyer and judicial 

 antiquary ; but, as Clarendon says, " he could not give a clearer testi- 

 mony that hU knowleJge in the law was greater than all other men's, 



