G4 NIC 
mate, on the fpot; and, fhortly after the return of the 
others to Tranquebar, when theobjedft of converfion was 
abandoned in thefe iflands, thirteen more perifhed ; and 
the only furviving miffionary, the Rev. J. G. Haenfel, 
publifhed in 1813, a work from which we have already 
made fome extracts. When the particulars there ftated 
are confidered, the amiable perfeverance of the miflionaries 
will be more a matter of furprife than their want of fuc- 
cefs : fince the inhabitants of thefe iflands have not yet 
reached that ftate of civilization which mud precede the 
fuccefsful preaching of the Gofpel; and the fafts there 
recorded fhow the good fenfe of the Quakers, who, in their 
■ plans for the converfion of favages, aim in the firft: place 
at leading them to adopt the purfuits and habits of civi¬ 
lized man. To proclaim the truths of Chriftianity to fucli 
half-humanized beings as the inhabitants of the Nicobar- 
iflands is indeed to throw pearls before fwine. Mr. Haen- 
fel’s fketch of their charabler will confirm this opinion. 
He not merely reprefents them as “ addicted to the vileft 
lufts without any fenfe of fliame,” but as fo deftitute of 
every religious fentiment, that “ they have not even a 
word in their language to exprefs their idea of God.” It 
is added, moreover, that thefe iflanders do not defire to 
know any thing about their Creator: “ When we told 
them, (continues this miffionary,) that we were come hi¬ 
ther for no other purpofe but to make them acquainted 
with their Creator and Redeemer, and to bring them the 
■ glad tidings of falvation, and begged them only to take 
it to heart, and reflect on what we thus made known to 
-them in the name of God, they laughed at us. They ob- 
ferved, that they could not believe that the fufferings of 
one man could atone for the fins of another ; and there¬ 
fore, if they were -wicked, what we told them of a cruci¬ 
fied Saviour would not help them ; but they infilled that 
they were good by nature, and never did any thing wrong. 
as we well knew." 
We cannot help lamenting that fo many amiable men 
fhould have facrificed their lives to fo little purpofe; and 
we truft that no indifcreet zeal will fend others on the 
fame errand to this unhealthy region, till a fairer profpedt 
opens than was prefented to thefe Danifli miflionaries. 
Haenfel''s Letters on the Nicobar Iflands. AJiatic IteJ ear dies, 
voi. iii. 
NICOCH'ARES, a Greek comic poet in the age of 
Ariftophanes. 
NJC'GCLES, a king of Paphos, who reigned under the 
protection of Ptolemy, king of Egypt. He revolted from 
his friend to the king of Perfia; upon -which Ptolemy or¬ 
dered one of his fervants to put him to death, to ftrike ter¬ 
ror into the other dependent princes. The fervant, un¬ 
willing to murder the monarch, advifed him to kill him- 
felf. Nicocles obeyed, and all his family followed his ex¬ 
ample ; 310 years before the Chriftian era. 
NIC'QCLES, an ancient Greek poet, who called phy- 
ficians a happy race of men, becaufe light publifhed their 
good deeds to the world, and the earth hid all their'faults 
-and imperfections. 
Ni'COCOR, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of 
Cayor, near the fea : forty miles north-weft of Amboul. 
NICOC'RATES, a king of Salamis, in Cyprus, who 
made himfelf known by the valuable collection of books 
which he had. Aihen. 1. 
NICO'CREON, a tyrant of Salamis, in the age of 
Alexander the Great. He ordered the philofopher Anax- 
arch us to be pounded to death in a mortar. 
NICODE'MUS, [Greek.] A man’s name. A follower 
of Jefus Chrift. He was a Jewifh Pharifee, and a ruler 
among his people. At firft, though he conceived fome 
efteem for our Saviour, yet he was alhamed to profefs it, 
and fo came to him by night for inftruCtion. When he 
had complimented our Saviour with fome honorary titles, 
as an excellent teacher, and hinted his defire to learn 
fomewhat, Jefus told him, he could not become a true 
member of his church, except he was born again, and his 
nature wholly renewed. Grofsiy ignorant of regenera- 
N I C 
tion,and of the OldTeftament oracles relative thereto, Ni- 
codemus afked, How one could re-enter into his mother’s 
womb, and be born again ? Jefus alked, If he was a teacher 
in Ifrael, and knew not thefe things ? and told him, that 
the new birth he fpoke of, was effe&ed by fpiritual influ¬ 
ence ; and that, if he could not believe what was fo often 
experienced on earth, how would he believe information 
concerning heavenly and eternal things ? He informed 
him, that, as the brazen ferpent was lifted up in the wil- 
dernefs, for the general means of cure to the ferpent-bit- 
ten Hebrews, fo himfelf fliould be quickly lifted up on the 
crofs, for the falvation of all the ends of the earth. John 
iii. 1-21. Nicodemus, when afterwards he fat in the fan- 
hedrim, and heard the members raging at their officers for 
not apprehending our Saviour, and deriding the people 
who believed on him, as ignorant and accurfed, alked. 
If it was according to the law, which they pretended to 
know fo well, to condemn a man before they heard him ? 
Thefe furious bigots alked Nicodemus, If he too was a 
Galilean ? and bade him read the Scriptures, and he would 
find, that never a prophet came out of Galilee ; (forget¬ 
ting that both Jonah and Nahum came out of it.) When 
our Saviour was crucified, Nicodemus ftill more openly 
avowed himfelf a Chriftian, and affifted Jofeph of Ari- 
mathea to inter the facred corpfe. John vii. 45-52. xix. 
39, 40. A fpurious gofpel, called by fome the A6is of 
Pilate, is alcribed to Nicodemus; but it is plainly marked 
with forgery. 
NICOLA'I (John), a learned French Dominican monk, 
was born at Monza, a village in the diocefe of Verdun, 
near Stenay, in the year 1594. When only twelve years 
old, he Was placed in a convent of Dominicans; and he 
took the vows at the age of fixteen. Afterwards he was 
fent to Paris, where he diftinguilhed himfelf by his lite¬ 
rary acquirements, and was admitted to the degree ofD.D. 
by the faculty of the Sorbonne, in the year 1632. For 
twenty years’ he filled, with high reputation, the chair of 
profelfor of divinity in the houfe belonging to his order, 
of which he was elected prior hi 1661. He died in 1673, 
at the age of feventy-eight. He fpehta confiderable por¬ 
tion of his time in commenting on the works Of St. Thomas 
Aquinas, whofe principles he attempted to reconcile with 
fuch as differ widely from the genuine notions of the 
Auguftinian fchool: hence his criticifms have been warmly 
contefted by the followers of St. Thomas and St. Augui- 
tine. In 1657, he publilhed “ S. Thomte Aquinatis Ex- 
pofitio continua fuper Quatuor Evangeliftas, &c.” folio, 
with numerous notes ; and he proceeded to publiffi the 
other works of that doctor, in fucceeding years, till at 
length he edited the whole, in 19 vols. folio. He alfo 
publifhed the “ Pantheologia” of father Rainier of Pifa, 
which is a theological dictionary, having the fubjedts ar¬ 
ranged in alphabetical order : with the corrections and 
fupplementary matter of father Nicolai, it made its appear¬ 
ance at Lyons in 1655, in 3 vols. folio; and again, in 1670, 
with new additions. Father Nicolai was alfo the author 
of, 3. Gallia; Dignitas adverfus prsepofterum Catalanke 
aflfertorum vindicata, &c. 1644, 4to. written by way of 
reply to father Mefplede’s “ Cataiania Gallias vindicata.” 
4. A tranflation into indifferent French verfe of the alle¬ 
gorical Latin poem by Charles Beys, entitled, “Ludo- 
vici XIII. Jufti noncupati, Gallise et Navarrae Regis, tri- 
umphalia Monumenta,” 1649, folio ; for which perform¬ 
ance the court gave hirn a penfion of fix hundred livres. 
5. Feftivus Fratrum prasdicatorum S. Jacobi pro natali 
regio plaufus, &c. i6($i, 4to. 6. De Jejunii Chriftiani et 
Chriftianse abftinentiae vero ac legitimo ritu, &c. Difler- 
tatio. 7. Four Dlflertations, in Latin, on the ftubject of 
baptifm, as praCtiied in the ancient churches, written in 
controverfy with father de Launoy; and various Diflerta¬ 
tions, Thefes, &c. in controverfy with MM. Arnauld and 
Nicole. In the Bibliotheque of the writers belonging to 
theorder of St. Dominic, a treatife is attributed to him, 
entitled “ De Ritu antiquo et hodierno Bacchanaliorum," 
which Gronovius has given, with his name, in the-feventh 
3 volume 
