NECKER, JACQUES, celebrated financier, born at Geneva, banker in Paris; married the accomplished Susanne Curchod, the rejected of Gibbon, and became by her the father of Mme. de Stael; was a man of high repute for probity and business capacity; became in 1777 Director-General of Finance in France, tried hard and honestly, by borrowing and retrenchment, to restore the fallen public credit, but was after five years dismissed; was recalled in 1788, but though the funds rose, and he contributed to their relief two million livres of his own money, was again dismissed, to be once more recalled, only to expose his inability to cope with the crisis and to be forced to retire (1732-1804).

NECTAR, in the regard of the Greeks the drink of the gods, which, along with ambrosia, their food, nourished the ichor, their blood, and kept them ever in the bloom of immortal youth; it was not permitted to mortals to drink of it.

NEEDLE-GUN, a breech-loading gun, the cartridge of which is exploded by a needle.

NEGATIVE, in photography a picture of an object in which the lights and shadows are reversed, so that the shady part appears white and the light in it appears dark.

NEGATIVITY, the name given in philosophy to the negative element determinative or definitive of things and all ideas of things, whereby a thing is this because it is not that, and is seen to be this because it is seen not to be that, an antagonism essential to all forms of being, spiritual as well as material, and to all definite and distinct thought.

NEGRITOES, Spanish name for certain distinctive tribes of a diminutive race resembling negroes, occupying the central portions of some of the Philippine Islands, also known as Aetas or Itas; sometimes loosely used to designate Papuans and all the Melanesian peoples of Polynesia.

NEGROES, the dark race of tropical Africa, distinguished by their dark woolly hair, their black eyes, their flat noses, and their thick lips; they occupy rather a low level in the scale of humanity, and are lacking in those mental and moral qualities which have impressed the stamp of greatness on the other races that have distinguished themselves in the history of the world.

NEHEMIAH, a Jew of the captivity, of royal degree and in high favour, being king’s cup-bearer at the court of Artaxerxes, the Persian king; received a commission from the king to repair to Jerusalem and restore the Jewish worship, and ruled over it for 12 years, till he saw the walls of the city amid much opposition restored; returned afterwards to superintend the reform of the worship, of which the book of the Old Testament named after him relates the story.

NEHUSHTAN (a piece of brass), the name given in contempt to what was alleged to be the “Serpent in the Wilderness,” which had become an object of worship among the Jews, and was destroyed by King Hezekiah among other idolatrous relics (2 Kings xviii. 4).