NIC 
Macedonia, and afterwards to the metropolitan fee of 
Heraclea in Thrace. He wrote a Commentary upon Six¬ 
teen of the Orations of Gregory Nazianzen, of which a Latin 
verfion, from a mutilated and imperfedt copy, was given by 
James Billy in his edition of that father’s works. The 
fame editor alfo gave a Latin verfion of the Notes of Ni¬ 
cetas upon fome Poems of Gregory Nazianzen, which 
were publiilied in Greek at Venice, in 1563, 4to. under the 
affumed name of Cyrus Dadybrenjis , a bifhop of Paphla- 
gonia. Nicetas was the author of “ Canonical Anfwers” 
to queftions propofed by a certain bifhop, named Conftan- 
tine, which John Leunclavius publifhed in Greek and 
Latin, in the fifth book of his Jur. Graec. Rom. He is 
faid by fome to have been the compiler of “ A Catena 
upon the Book of Job,” from the commentaries of a num¬ 
ber of Greek fathers ; while others maintain that it is ra¬ 
ther to be attributed to Olympiodorus. A Latin verfion 
of this work was given by Paul Comitolo, 1587, 410. and 
it was publiilied in Greek and Latin at London, by Pa- 
tricius Junius, in 1637, folio. Nicetas is alfo thought to 
have been the author of “ Catenae upon the Pfalms, and 
Song of Songs,” printed at Bafil in 1552 ; and of others 
on Luke, Matthew, &c. Gen.Biog. 
NICE'TAS (Achominatus), furnamed Choniates, a 
modern Greek hillorian, born at Chone in Phrygia, flou- 
rilhed in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and 
filled a dignified Ration in the court of Conftantinople. 
At the capture of that city by the Franks, in 1204, he 
withdrew with a young woman whom he refcued from the 
enemy, and married her at Nice in Bithynia, where he 
died in 1206. He wrote a period of Byzantine Hiftory, 
from the death of Alexius Comnenus, where Zonaras 
ceafes, to the year 1203, being eighty-five years, in twenty- 
one books, w'hich are ftill extant. They were printed with 
the verfion of Jerome Wolff at Bafil in 1557; and were 
inferted in the Louvre edition of the Byzantine Hiftorians, 
of 1647. To this writer alfo are attributed the five firft 
books of the “ Treafure of the Orthodox Faith,” tranf- 
lated by Morel, and printed in 1580. 
NICETE'RIA, a feftival at Athens, in memory of the 
vidlory which Minerva obtained over Neptune, in their 
difpute about giving a name to the capital of the country. 
NI'CETY. J'. Minute accuracy of thought.—Nor 
was this nicety of his judgment confined only to litera¬ 
ture, but was the fame in all other parts of art. Prior .— 
Accurate performance or obfervance.—As for the work- 
manlhip of the old Roman pillars, the ancients have not 
kept to the nicety of proportion and the rules of art fo 
much as the moderns. Addifon on Italy. —Faftidious deli¬ 
cacy; fqueamifhnefs.—So love doth loathe difdainful 
nicety. Spenfer. 
He them with fpeeclies meet 
Does fair intreat; no courtfing nicety. 
But fimple true, and eke unfeigned fweet. Spenfer. 
Minute obfervation; punctilious difcrimination; fub- 
tilty.—If reputation attend thefe conquells, which de¬ 
pend on the finenefs and niceties of words, it is no won¬ 
der if the wit of men fo employed fiiould perplex and 
fubtilize the fignification of founds. Locke. —His conclu- 
fions are not built upon any niceties, or folitary and un¬ 
common appearances, but on the molt fimple and obvi¬ 
ous circumftances of thefe terreftrial bodies. Woodward. — 
Delicate management; cautious treatment; 
Love fuch nicety requires, 
One blaft will put out all his fires. Swift. 
Effeminate foftnefs.—Niceties, in the plural, is generally 
applied to dainties or delicacies in eating. 
NICE'Y, a town of France, in the department of the 
Yonne: fifteen miles eaft of Tonnerre. 
NICH'ABURG, a town of Periia, in Chorafan, famous 
for a mine of turquoife-ftones in its neighbourhood : 
thirty miles fouth of Mefchid. 
NICH'E, /. in architecture, a hollow funk into a wall, for 
the commodious placing of a ftatue. The word is French, 
N I C 51 
from the Italian nicchio, a fith-thell; the ftatue being en- 
clofed as in a fliell, or perhaps on account of the Ihell 
wherewith the tops of fome of them are adorned.— Niches, 
containing figures of white (tone or marble, fhould not be 
coloured in their concavity too black. Wotton. 
They not from temples nor from gods refrain. 
But the poor lares from the niches feize, 
If they be little images that pleafe. Dryden. 
On the fouth a long majeftick race 
Of ^Egypt’s priefts the gilded niches grace. Pope. 
Station in life.—The heirs to titles and large eftates are 
well enough qualified to read pamphlets againft religion 
and high-flying ; whereby they fill their niches, and carry 
themfelves through the world with that dignity which 
beft becomes a fenator and a fquire. Swift's Micellanies . 
NICH'ED, adj. placed in a niche. 
NICH'IL. See Nihil. 
NIC'HOLAiF, an improving town of Ruflia, at the 
diftance of forty miles from Cherfon, fituated on the Bog, 
which is here a fine river without either bar or cataraCf. 
The ftreets of Nicholaef are wide; its atmolphere is healthy ; 
and the patronage of government, joined to the exam¬ 
ple of many foreigners refiding here, bids fair to render 
itfoon the third city of Ruflia. Yet not many years have 
elapfed fince Nicholaef was a village. Clarke's Travels in 
Iiujfia. 
NIC'HOLAS, [Gr. a conquerer of the people.] A 
man’s name. 
NIC'HOLAS, (St.) wliofe feftival is noticed in our re¬ 
formed calendar, was once in this country, as he is ftill in 
moll parts of the continent, held in the higheft venera¬ 
tion. His true and genuine hiftory marks him to have been 
confpicuous through life for piety, meeknefs, charity, and 
every other of the fofter and more amiable qualities. Hei 
was born in the fourth century, at Patura, a city of Lycia, 
of reputable parents, who early initiated him in the doc¬ 
trines of the Chriltian faith, which he praflifed in fo ex¬ 
emplary a manner as to receive the patronage of Conftan- 
tine the Great, and through him become the head of the 
church, or bifhop, of Myra. He died about the year 392. 
His legendary life abounds too greatly with abfurd ftate- 
ments_ of miraculous powers to warrant recital, beyond 
what is abfolutely neceffary in explanation of the origin 
of the various patronages which fuperftition formerly af- 
figned to him, and which are yet credited by thofe of the 
Latin and Greek churches. Milner, in his Hiftory of Win- 
chefter, defcribes a curious font preferved in the cathedral 
of that city; and applies the carvings on it to the life and 
miracles of this faint. 
When he was an infant, and confequently dependent 
upon the fuftenance with which Providence has fo boun¬ 
tifully provided the female parent, he never could be in¬ 
duced to receive fuch natural fupport on Wednefdays or 
Fridays ; a virtuous and exemplary attention to the ordi¬ 
nances of the church, which marked him (juftly, could we 
but believe the fable) “as a pattern for future infants,” 
and caufed him to be regarded as their peculiar faint and 
patron, under the endearing title of “ Child-Bifhop.” 
St. Nicholas,as the child or boy bifhop, is ufually depidled 
in Roman-catholic countries, furrounded by naked chil¬ 
dren ; or, in fome inftances, with the emblematical device 
of “ two boys in a tub;” the caufe of which latter has 
been very minutely explained by an Italian author, who, 
for the edification of the papifts, publiilied this faint’s life 
in the year 1645. “ The fame of St. Nicholas’s virtues 
was lo great,” fays the ingenious writer, “ that an Afiatic 
gentleman, on fending his two fons to Athens'for educa¬ 
tion, ordered them to call on the bifhop for his benedic¬ 
tion ; but they, getting to Myra late in the day, thought 
proper to defer their vifit until the morrow, and tookup 
their lodgings at an inn, where the landlord to fecure 
their baggage and effedts to himfelf, murdered them in 
their fleep, and then cut them into pieces, faking them, 
and putting them into a pickling-tub, with fome pork 
which was there already, meaning to fell the whcle as fuch. 
The 
