NELSON'S RIVER ISEPAUL. 



171 



whose works have been so popular as Mr Nelson's. 

 His treatise entitled a Companion to the Festivals and 

 Fasts, especially, has gone through a great number 

 of editions. Among his other works are the Whole 

 Duty of a Christian ; the Duty of frequenting the 

 Christian Sacrifice (8vo); an Address on the Means 

 of Doing Good ; a Letter on the Trinity ; the Prac- 

 tice of True Devotion (12mo) ; Transubstantiation 

 contrary to Scripture (4to); a Letter on Church 

 Government; a life of his old tutor, bishop Bull, 

 &c. 



NELSON'S RIVER, in the British possessions in 

 North America, flows from lake Winnipeg into Hud- 

 sou's bay ; Ion. 92 466' W.; lat. 57 2' N. A part 

 of the river is called the Saskashawan. Its whole 

 length is about 1450 miles. 



NEMAEAN GAMES, so called from the small 

 town of Argolis, where they were celebrated (Nemsea, 

 hi the Peloponnesus), originated, according to tradi- 

 tion, in the funeral games which were established in 

 honour of Opheltes (see Hypsipyle), who was killed 

 in his youth by a dragon. 1 he heroes who went to 

 Thebes called him Archemorus (the beginning of sor- 

 row). He was the son of Lycurgus and Eurydice. 

 Funeral games at the graves of distinguished men or 

 favourite individuals, were very common in ancient 

 times. Those of Opheltes, according to tradition, 

 had this peculiarity, that they were renewed every 

 three years. Another account relates, that the 

 Nemaean games were established by Hercules, in 

 honour of Jupiter, after he had destroyed the 

 Nemaean lion, whose den was about fifteen stadia 

 from Nemaea. A third account combines these two 

 reports, stating that these games originated in the 

 funeral games of Archemorus, but were renewed by 

 Hercules, in honour of Jupiter. The plain of Nemaea 

 is now inhabited by a single shepherd. Three Doric 

 columns of the temple of Jupiter stand in the centre, 

 with ruins scattered around. The Nemaean games 

 were less solemn than the Olympic and Pythian. 

 Sometimes, though not very often, time was divided 

 by Nemaeads (in the same manner as it was com- 

 monly divided by Olympiads and Pythiads). The 

 Chronicon of Eusebius gives the second year of the 

 fifty-third Olympiad as the first of the Nemaeads. 

 The Nemaean games were partly gymnastic (cor- 

 poreal), and partly musical (intellectual), and resem- 

 bled, in their regulations, the famous Olympic 

 games, (q. v.) The judges of the combats ( agono- 

 thetae) were chosen from Argos, Sicyon, and Corinth, 

 and wore, in commemoration of the origin of the 

 celebration, black mourning garments. They were 

 distinguished for their impartiality. Originally, the 

 reward of the victor was a wreath of olive-branch ; 

 afterwards, of green ivy. See Pindar. 



NEM^AN LION. See Hercules, and Nemcean 

 Games. 



NEM. CON.; the contraction of nemine contra- 

 dicente, which signifies, " no one opposing," or 

 " unanimously." 



NEMESIS, in the Greek mythology ; according 

 to some, the daughter of Erebus and Night ; accord- 

 ing to others, of Night alone : other accounts make 

 her the daughter of A/*H (Justice), or of Jupiter and 

 Necessity, or of Ocean and Night. She is the god- 

 dess of retribution, the tamer of the passions, the 

 avenger, the enemy of pride and haughtiness ; and 

 she watches over the observance of the honours due 

 to the dead ; on which account a yearly festival, in 

 memory of the departed, was called, by the Greeks, 

 Nemesia. Nemesis is represented under the figure 

 of a majestic female, clothed in a tunic, with a 

 peplum thrown over her, and a crown (which is 

 sometimes surrounded by stags and a Victory) on her 

 head. With the right hand she grasps a part of her 



garments over her breast, and thus forms the ell 

 measure ; in her left hand she holds a cup, or a 

 bridle, &c. On coins, she appears drawn in a car 

 by dragons, sometimes wearing a mural crown, and 

 rarely winged. The great number of coins and 

 gems on which she is round, proves her worship to 

 have been extensive and popular. She is also 

 called Adrastea, from Adrastos, who, according to 

 tradition, erected the first temple to her in Adrastea, 

 or in Cyzicus ; and Rhamniisia, from a small village 

 of Attica, two miles from Marathon, where stood a 

 statue of her, made by Phidias, from the marble 

 brought thither by the Persians, for the purpose of 

 erecting a trophy of their expected victory. She is 

 sometimes considered the same as Leda. 



NEMOURS ; a French town, in the department 

 of Seine-et-Marne, three and a half leagues south of 

 Fontainebleau. It has 4150 inhabitants. It origi- 

 nated with a castle called Nemus. Louis XIV. 

 gave the duchy of Nemours to his brother Philip of 

 Orleans ; and the house of Orleans retained it until 

 the revolution. The second son and fourth child of 

 the present king of the French, Louis Charles Philip 

 Rafael, bears the title of duke of Nemours, which 

 was his title before his father ascended the throne. 

 He was born October 25, 1814. February 3, 1831, 

 he was elected, by the Belgic national congress, 

 king of the Belgians ; but his father declined the 

 offered crown, in a formal audience, February 17, to 

 avoid disturbing the peace of Europe. Lafitte was 

 then prime minister. 



NENNIUS, an ancient British historian, abbot of 

 Bangor, is generally said to have flourished about 

 the year 620, and to have taken refuge at Chester at 

 the time of the massacre of the monks of that mon- 

 astery. Bishop Nicolson, however, contends, that 

 from his own book, it is evident that he did not exist 

 before the ninth century. He composed several 

 works, of which catalogues are given by Bale and 

 Pitts ; but the only one remaining is his Historia Bri- 

 tonum, or Eulogium Britannia, which is published 

 in Gale's Hist. Brit. Scrip (Oxon. 1691). 



NEOCASTRO. See Navarino. 



NEOLOGISM (from the Greek vis, new, and x^s, 

 a word); a new word or phrase, or new use of a word ; 

 in fact, every innovation in a language, after it has 

 had a classical epoch. The difficulty of prescribing 

 a just medium in regard to the introduction of new 

 words and phrases, is easily seen, because as long as 

 a language is spoken, it must change and develope 

 itself; and the greatest power on earth would be 

 unable to retain it unchanged. On the other hand, 

 a language is exposed to the greatest corruption if it 

 is left open to all the neologisms* of careless writers. 

 Great genius generally gives currency to a neologism. 

 In the last century, the orthodox in Germany called 

 their opponents neologists, and their doctrines neo- 

 logy. 



jNEOPHYTE (from vtos, new, and $11, plant); in 

 the Eleusinian and other mysteries, a person newly 

 initiated ; among the early Christians, a new convert 

 from paganism ; in the monasteries, a novice. 



NEORAMA; an invention of Allaux, a French- 

 man, for representing the interior of a large building, 

 in which the spectator appears to be placed. Every 

 thing is exhibited to the life by means of groups and 

 shading. The first neorama was exhibited at Paris, 

 in 1827, and represented the interior of St Peter's 

 church in Rome, with the doors open, and a distant 

 prospect. See Panorama. 



NEPAUL; a mountainous country in the northern 

 part of Hindustan, lying between lat. 26 20' aid 

 30 20' N., and Ion. 80 and 88 E., having Thibet, 

 from which the Ilimala mountains separate it, on the 

 north, and the British province of Bengal and Oude 



