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NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS 515 



again at Paris, where he was appointed in 1823 to 

 the librariansliip of the Bibliotheque cle 1'Arsenal. 

 As a child an ardent Jacobin, he became a royalist 

 at the Restoration, was elected to the Academy in 

 1833. and died 27th January 1844. He was a de- 

 voted student of entomology, philology, and biblio- 

 graphy, but his importance in literature depends 

 mainly upon the intluence his personality exerted 

 on the group of Romanticists of 1830. Most of his 

 literary work is already forgotten, save his delight- 

 fully fresh and fantastic short stories, of which 

 may here be named Smarra, Histoire du Roi de 

 BoMme et de set sept Chateaux, La Fee aux Hfiettes, 

 Ines de las Sierras, La Lerjende de Sceur Beatrix, 

 Franciscu* Columna, and his volume of Fairy-tales. 

 His Souvenirs de Jeitnesse ( 1832) must not 1- taken 

 too seriously. The <uvres Coinnletes ( 12 vols. 

 1832-34) are far from complete. There are Lives 

 by Wey (1844) and Mme. Menessier Nodier ( 1867 ). 

 See also Merimee's admirable eloge. 



Xo'-. See CHAM. 



Xoetians. See PATRIPASSIANS. 



Nogent-le-Rotron, a town in the French 

 department of Eure-et-Loir, prettily situated on 

 the Huisne, 93 miles by rail SW. of Paris. It is a 

 long, well-built place, with the ruined chateau of 

 the great Sully, his violated sepulchre, and a 

 statue of General Saint- Pol, who fell before 

 Sebastopol. The Germans here won two fights, 

 on 21st November 1870 and 6th January 1871. 

 Pop. 7346. 



Noisseville, a village of France, 5 miles E. of 

 Metz, where, on 31st August 1st Septeml>er 1870, 

 lU/aine attacked the German besiegers of Metz 

 with 120,000 men and 600 guns. He had some 

 success on the first day, against the 41,000 men 

 and 138 guns commanded by Manteuttel ; but on 

 the second day gave up the attempt to break 

 through the German line, which had been reinforced 

 during the night by 30,000 men and 162 guns. 



Xola. an episcopal city of Italy, 16 miles ENE. 

 of Naples. It is built on the site of one of the 

 oldest cities of Campania, founded by the Ausonians, 

 and taken by the Romans in the Samnite war, 313 

 B.C. Augustus died here, 14 \.\>. Pop. 7496. 



Noli me tangere. See LUPUS, TUBERCLE. 



Nollekens, JOSEPH, was born in London, llth 

 August 1737, the son of a painter from Antwerp. 

 Being placed in the studio of Scheemakers the 

 sculptor, he made such progress that the Society 

 of Arts repeatedly awarded him valuable prizes. 

 In 1760 he settled in Rome. Garrick, whom he 

 niet there in the Vatican, immediately recognised 

 his countryman as the young sculptor to whom the 

 prizes had been awarded by the Society of Arts, 

 sat to him for his bust, and paid him handsomely 

 for it. He also executed in Rome a bust of Steme 

 in terra cotta, which added greatly to his repu- 

 tation. After residing ten years in Rome he 

 returned to London, where he set up his studio ; 

 and the reputation he had acquired in Rome was 

 such that he immediately had full employment, 

 and within a year after (in 1771) was elected an 

 Associate of the Academy, and a Royal Acade- 

 mician the following year. His forte was in model- 

 ling busts ; and through them he has handed down 

 the likenesses of most of the important personages 

 who figured in Great Britain in the end of the 18th 

 and at the commencement of the 19th century of 

 Samuel Johnson, who was his friend and frequent 

 visitor, of Fox, Pitt, and other political characters. 

 George III. also sat to him. Besides busts, Nolle- 

 kens executed numerous commissions for public 

 monuments and statues. He also executed a 

 number of classical and mythological statues and 



groups. He died in London, 23d April 1823, leav- 

 ing no children to inherit a fortune of 200,000. 

 See J. T. Smith's Nollekens and his Times (1828). 



Nolle Proseqili, a term used in English law 

 to denote that the plaintiff does not intend to go 

 further with the action. 



No Hail's Land, a name applied to outlying 

 districts in various countries, especially at one 

 time to what now corresponds mainly to Griqua- 

 land East (q.v.), and also to a territory of 80,000 

 sq. m. in South Australia. 



Nom de Plume, somewhat doubtful French 

 for nom tie guerre or Pseudonym (q.v.). 



Nominalism, a famous controverted doctrine 

 of the middle ages, respecting the nature of our 

 general or abstract ideas, or of 'nniversals. ' It 

 was contended by some that attractions as a 

 circle in the alatract, beauty, right had a real 

 existence apart from round things, beautiful 

 objects, right actions. This was called Realism. 

 Those who held the opposite view were called 

 Nominalists, because they maintained that there 

 is nothing general but names ; the name ' circle ' 

 is applied to everything that is round, and is a 

 general name ; but no independent fact or pro- 

 perty exists corresponding to the name. Specifi- 

 cally the controversy was as to the existence of 

 ' universal* ' or of genera and species, and arose out 

 of a passage in the Latin translation of Porphyry's 

 Isayoge. The watchwords of three schools were 

 universalia ante res, ' the nniversals before the 

 concrete things," of Platonic Realism ; tinivertalia 

 in re, ' the universals in the thing,' held to be 

 Aristotelian Realism ; imiversalia jiost rein, ' the 

 universals after the thing,' covering both Nomi- 

 nalism (that the universals were but flatus vocis, 

 sounds) and Conceptualism (that the universals 

 had an existence in the mind of the thinker). 



Scholastic Realism of what was regarded as the 

 Aristotelian type prevailed until the llth century, 

 when Roscelin defended a distinctly Nominalistic 

 doctrine. Unhappily he applied his philosophy to 

 the doctrine of the Trinity, and arrived at a tri- 

 theistic heresy, which (and Nominalism with it) 

 was condemned by the church. Henceforward 

 Nominalism carried with it, not unreasonably 

 altogether, a savour of heresy and rationalism, 

 and Realism was dominant, though the contro- 

 versy raged throughout the 12th century. Al>elard 

 was a modified Realist ; Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, 

 and Duns Scotus were Realists of a kind, though 

 in the 13th and 14th centuries the feud between 

 Nominalists and Realists was no longer the central 

 debate of scholasticism. Nominalism triumphed 

 with William of Ockham (died 1347), with whom 

 scholasticism may lie held to have l>egun to dis- 

 solve. See SCHOLASTICISM, and works quoted 

 there ; the articles on the chief mediaeval thinkers ; 

 the article PHILOSOPHY ; and monographs by 

 Exner ( 1841 ), Kohler ( 1858), and Lowe ( 1876). 



Non-combatants. See COMBATANTS. 



Non-commissioned Officers, in the British 

 army (soits-oJKciers in the French, and unter- 

 offizieren in the German), form a most valuable 

 and important class, intermediate between the 

 commissioned officers and the men. It is essential 

 that some persons in authority should live amongst 

 the men, superintend their Mess (q.v.), teach them 

 their drill and duties, take charge of small parties 

 on duty and in the field, and, generally, overlook 

 them in every way. None are so well fitted to do 

 so as those who are selected from amongst the men 

 themselves, after several years' service as private 

 soldiers, for promotion to non-commissioned rank. 

 They must be well qualified by good conduct, tact, 

 temper, education, and knowledge of military 



