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ACTION, in ethics, something done by a free or moral agent, capable of distinguishing good from evil. The essence of a moral action consists in its being done knowingly and voluntarily that is, the agent must not only be able to distinguish whether it be good or bad in itself; but he must likewise be entirely free from compulsion of any kind, and at full liberty to follow the dictates of his own understanding.-ACTION, in rhetoric, may be defined, the accommoda、tion of the voice, but more especially the gesture of an orator, to the subject he is upon.-ACTION, in a theatrical sense, is nearly the same with action among orators; only the actor adapts his action to an assumed character, whereas the orator is supposed to be in reality what his action expresses.-ACTION, in painting and sculpture, denotes the posture of a statue or picture, serving to express some passion, &c.-ACTION, in the military art, is an engagement between two armies, or between different bodies of troops belonging thereto.

ACTIVE, in a general sense, denotes something that communicates motion or action to another, in which sense it stands opposed to passive.-ACTIVE, among grammarians, an appellation given to words expressing some action, as I write, I read, &c.-ACTIVE POWER, in metaphysics, the power of executing any work or labor; in contradistinction to speculative powers, as those of seeing, hearing, reasoning, &c.

ceedings of a court.-ACTUARII were also officers who kept the military accounts, and distributed the corn to the soldiers.

ACTUARY, the chief clerk, or person, who compiles minutes of the proceedings of a company in business.

ACU'MEN, mental sharpness, or quick discernment; great intellectual capacity. In ancient music, acumen denotes a sound produced by raising the voice to a high pitch.

ACUTE', an appellation given to such things as terminate in a sharp point, or edge: thus, we say, an acute angle, acuteangled triangle, &c.-ACUTE, in music, an epithet given to sharp or shrill sounds, in opposition to those called grave.

ACYROLO GIA, in grammar, denotes an improper word, phrase, or expression: it differs a little from the catachresis.

AD, a Latin preposition, expressing the relation of one thing to another. It is frequently prefixed to other words: thus, AD HOMINEM, among logicians, an argument drawn from the professed belief or principles of those with whom we argue.

AD LUDOS, in Roman antiquity, a kind of punishment, whereby the criminals entertained the people, either by fighting with wild beasts, or with each other.-AD VALOREM, in commerce, according to the value.-AD INFINITUM, indefinitely, or to infinity.

ADA'GIO, a degree quicker than grave time, in music, but with graceful and elegant execution.

losopher's stone.

ADHE'RENCE, the effect of those parts of a picture which, wanting relief, are not detached, and hence appear adhering to the canvas or surface.

A'DEPT, a distinctive term applied to ACTOR, in a dramatic sense, is a man those alchemists who were supposed to who enacts some part or character in a have attained the great object of their replay. It is remarkable with what differ-searches, or to have discovered the phience actors were treated among the ancients. At Athens they were held in such esteem, as to be sometimes sent on embassies to foreign powers; whereas, at Rome, if a citizen became an actor, he thereby forfeited his freedom. Actors in the present day have little to complain of, in regard to the treatment they receive: according as they contribute to the gratification of the public so are they rewarded; and if their moral conduct be irreproachable, no persons are more esteemed or lauded.

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ACTRESS, a female dramatic performer. They were unknown to the ancients, among whom men always took the parts of women. Nor were they introduced on the English stage till the days of the Stuarts.

ACTUA'RIUS, or ACTA'RIUS, in Roman antiquity, an officer, or rather notary, appointed to write down the pro

ADJECTIVE, in grammar, that part of speech which is annexed to substan tives, to define more accurately the conceptions intended to be denoted by them.

ADJOURNʼMENT, the putting off a court or other meeting till another day. In parliament, adjournment differs from prorogation, the former being not only for the shorter time, but also done by the house itself, whereas the latter is an act of royal authority.

AD'JUNCT, some quality belonging either to body or mind, either natural or acquired. Thus, thinking is an adjunct of the mind, and growth of the body. It also denotes something added to another, without being any necessary part of it

Thus water absorbed by a sponge is an adjunct, but no necessary part of that substânce.

ADJUST'MENT, in a picture, is the manner in which draperies are chosen, arranged, and disposed.

AD'JUTANT, a military officer, whose auty it is to carry orders from the major to the colonel and serjeants. When deWhen detachments are to be made, he gives the number to be furnished by each company or troop, and assigns the hour and place of rendezvous. He also places the guards, receives and distributes the ammunition to the companies, &c.

AD'JUTANT-GENERAL, an officer of distinction, who assists the general, by forming the several details of duty of the army with the brigade majors.

ADLOCUTION, or ADLOCU'TIO, in Roman antiquity, the address made by generals to their armies, in order to rouse their courage before a battle.

AD'MIRAL, the commander of a fleet of ships of war; having two subordinate commanders, as vice-admiral and rearadmiral; and distinguished into three classes, by the color of their flags, as white, blue, and red. The admiral carries his flag at the main-top-mast head; the vice-admiral, at the fore-top-mast head; and the rear-admiral, at the mizentop-mast head.

AD'MIRALTY, the Board of Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral, and having authority over naval affairs generally.-ADMIRALTY, COURT OF, in law, is a court of record, of which the proceedings are carried on, at least to a certain extent, according to the course of the civil law; although, as the judge may have in some cases the assistance of a jury, it has also a resemblance to the courts of common law. It has jurisdiction principally for the determination of private injuries to private rights arising at sea, or intimately connected with maritime subjects; and in most cases, to which its authority extends, it has concurrent jurisdiction, either with the common law courts, or those of equity. ADONA'I, one of the names of God used in the Scriptures, and properly signifying my lords, in the plural, as ADONI does my lord, in the singular number.

ADO'NIA, solemn feasts in honor of Venus, instituted in memory of her beloved Adonis, and observed with great solemnity by the Greeks, Phoenicians, Lycians, Syrians, Egyptians, &c. They lasted two days, during the first of which the women carried about images of

Venus and Adonis, weeping, tearing their hair, beating their breasts, and using every token of grief. On the second, they sung his praises, and made rejoicings, as if Adonis had been raised to life again.

ADO'NIC, a species of verse consisting of a dactyle and a spondee. It was invented by Sappho, and derived its name from being principally sung at the festivals in memory of Adonis.

ADO'NIS, in mythology, a beautiful youth, son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, beloved by Venus, and killed by a wild boar, to the great regret of the goddess. It is, also, the name of a river of Phoenicia, on the banks of which Adonis, or Thammuz, as he is called in the East, was supposed to have been killed. At certain seasons of the year this river acquires a high red color, by the rains washing up particles of red earth. The ancient poets ascribed this to a sympathy in the river for the death of Adonis. This season was observed as a festival in the adjacent country.

ADORA'TION, a mode of reverence or worship anciently shown to the gods, by raising the right hand to the mouth, and gently applying it to the lips; also, in general, any outward sign of worship, by kissing the hand or feet, walking barefoot, or the like. Among the Jews, adoration consisted in kissing the hands, bowing, kneeling, and even prostration. But the posture of adoration most common in all ages and countries, is kneeling.

ADO'REA, in Roman antiquity, grain, or a kind of cakes made of fine flour, and offered in sacrifice; a dole or distribution of corn, as a reward for some service; whence, by metonymy, it is put for praise or rewards in general.

A'DRIAN, ST., in Christian art is represented armed, with an anvil at his feet or in his arms, and occasionally with a sword or an axe lying beside it. The anvil is the appropriate attribute of St. Adrian, who suffered martyrdom, having his limbs cut off on a smith's anvil, and being afterwards beheaded. St. Adrian was the chief military saint of northern Europe for many ages, second only to St. George. He was regarded as the patron of soldiers, and the protector against the plague. He has not been a popular subject with artists. St. Adrian is the patron saint of the Flemish brewers.

ADULTERA'TION, in a general sense, denotes the act of debasing, by an im proper mixture, something that was pure and genuine. Thus, adulteration of coin,

is the casting or making it of a metal inferior in goodness to the standard, by using too great a portion of alloy.

ADULTERY, a violation of the nuptial bed; a crime which has been regarded by all civilized nations with abhorrence, and in ancient times was punished as a capital offence. By the Jewish law, the penalty was death.

AD'VENT, the coming of our Saviour; also the festival commemorative of the Advent, which falls about a month before Christmas.

AD'VERB, a word so called from its signification and connection with verbs; though they are also frequently joined with adjectives and other parts of speech to modify their meaning.

ADVERSA'RIA, a memorandum-book, journal, or common-place book.

ADVERTISEMENT, any printed publication of circumstances, either of public or private interest, particularly that inserted in the newspapers.

AD'VOCATE, the original pleaders of causes at Rome were the Patricians, who defended gratuitously their clients; but even before the downfall of the republic, the class had degenerated into a profession, its members receiving rewards for their services, although still among the most honorable of employments. In the later ages of the empire, the advocati appear to have formed a distinct class from the jurisconsulti, or chamber-counsel, and to have much declined in reputation. In France, the avocats, or counsel, form a separate order, of which each member is attached to a particular local court. The lord advocate, in Scotland, is a public officer, who prosecutes crimes before the court of justiciary.

ADVOW'SON, properly, the relation in which a patron stands towards the living to which he presents, i. e. the patronage of a church. The earliest proThe earliest provision for divine worship, in England and in other countries, was derived from the offerings of the laity, which were distributed by the bishop of each diocese among his clergy, whom he sent from place to place to preach and administer the sacraments. By degrees he was enabled, by the bequests of the faithful, and the customary offering of tithes, to subdivide his diocese, or parochia, as it was originally called, into various districts, and to build churches and establish permanent ministers in each. At the same time it became a common practice among the nobles to build and endow churches for the benefit of themselves

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and their own dependents; in which case they were allowed to present to the benefice, subject to the licensing power of the bishop and the canons of the church.

AD'YTUM, the most retired and secret place of the heathen temples, into which none but the priests were allowed to enter. The adytum of the Greeks and Romans answered to the sanctum sanctorum of the Jews, and was the place from whence oracles were delivered. The term is purely Greek, signifying inaccessible.

EACE'A, in Grecian antiquity, solemn festivals and games in honor of Æacus, who, on account of his justice upon earth, was thought to have been one of the judges in hell. At the end of the solemnity, the victors in the games used to present a garland of flowers.

Æ'DES, in Roman antiquity, besides its more ordinary signification of a house, or the internal part of a house, where the family used to eat, likewise signified an inferior kind of temple, consecrated indeed to some deity, but not by the augurs.

DIC'ULA, a small ædes or temple, which was erected in every village or parish.

ÆDI'LES, a Roman magistrate, whose chief business was to superintend buildings of all kinds, but more especially public ones, as temples, aqueducts, bridges, &c.; and to take care of the highways, weights, and measures, &c.

'GIS, a shield, particularly the shield of Jupiter.

ÆNE'ID, the title of Virgil's epic poem, in which he celebrates the adventures of Æneas, one of the bravest among the Trojan heroes. The author introduces him as sailing from Troy, after its destruction, in search of the shores of Italy, on which it had been promised by the gods that he should found an empire destined to be immortal; and the poem ends with the complete success of Æneas over Turnus, king of the Rutuli, whose dominions he had invaded, and who falls by his hand. The unrivalled force, elegance, and beauty of Virgil's style have been the theme of admiration in every succeeding age, and given him an indisputable right to a niche in the temple of Apollo, second only to that of Homer.

EO'LIAN HARP, an arrangement of strings placed in a window and played upon by the wind. It produces the effect of a distant choir of music in the air, sweetly mingling all the harmonic notes, and swelling or diminishing its sounds

according to the strength or weakness of or action. the blast.

Æ'RA, or E'RA, a fixed historical period whence years are reckoned: as the building of Rome, or the birth of Christ. Era and Epoch are not exactly synonymous. An era is a point fixed by a particular people or nation; an epoch, one determined by chronologists and historians. The idea of an era, also, comprehends a certain succession of years, proceeding from a fixed event; and an epoch is that event itself.

AE'RIAL, in painting, a term applied to the diminishing intensity of color on objects receding from the eye. Aerial perspective is the relative apparent recession of objects from the foreground, owing to the quantity of air interposed between them and the spectator, and must accompany the recession of the perspective lines.

AER'OMANCY, a kind of divination amongst the Greeks, and from them adopted by the Romans, whereby they pretended to foretell future events from certain spectral phenomena or noises in the air. By aeromancy, in the present day, is meant the art of foretelling the changes and variations of the air and weather, by means of meteorological observations.

A'ERONAUT, one who sails in the air in a balloon.

AERONAUTICS, or AEROSTA'TION, the art of navigating the air, by employing air-balloons, or silken globes, filled with gas lighter than atmospheric air.

ESTHETICS, a term derived from the Greek, denoting feeling, sentiment, imagination, originally adopted by the Germans, and now incorporated into the Vocabulary of Art. By it is generally understood "the science of the beautiful" and its various modes of representation; its purpose is to lead the criticism of the beautiful back to the principle of reason. In beauty lies the soul of Art. Schelling declares that the province of Esthetics is to develop systematically the manisystematically the manifold beautiful in every Art, as the one idea of the beautiful.

ESTIVA, summer encampments for the Roman soldiers, in distinction from the hibernia, or winter quarters.

ES'TIVAL, in a general sense, denotes something connected with, or belonging tb summer. Hence we say æstival point, æestival sign, æstival solstice, &c.

AFFECTATION, in the Fine Arts, an artificial show arising from the want of simplicity either in coloring, drawing,

Also, the overcharging any

part of a composition with an artificial or deceitful appearance.

AFFETUO'SO, affetto, Ital., in a tender and affecting style; a term employed in music-books, at the beginning of a movement.

AFFI'ANCE, in law, denotes the mutual plighting of truth, between a man and a woman; to bind one's self to the performance of a marriage contract.

AFFIDAVIT, an oath in writing, taken before some person who is legally authorized to administer the same.

AFFIN'ITY, in civil law, the relationship in which each of the parties married stands to the kindred of the other.

AFFIRMATIVE, an epithet used by logicians for a species of proposition wherein any predicate is affirmed of its subject; as, a dog is a quadruped;" here "quadruped" is affirmed of a dog.

AF'FIX, in grammar, a particle added at the close of a word, either to diversify its form, or alter its signification.

AFFLA'TUS, in a general sense, a divine influence communicating to the receiver supernatural powers, particularly the gift of prophecy. Among heathen mythologists and poets, it denotes the actual inspiration of of some divinity. Tully, however, extends the meaning of the word farther, by attributing all great actions to a divine afflatus.

A FORTIOʻRI, a term implying that what follows is a more powerful argument than what has been before adduced.

AFTER, modelled or drawn after the antique, after Raphael, or some other great master. It is to copy an antique statue, or some work of the great masters.

AG'APÆ, love-feasts kept by the ancient Christians, as a token of brotherly charity and mutual benevolence. In course of time abuses crept in, and rendered the abolition of them necessary.

AGAPE TÆ, a society of unmarried women among the primitive Christians, who attended on and served the clergy. At first there was nothing improper in these societies, though they were afterwards charged with gross immoralities, and were wholly abolished by the council of Lateran, in 1139.

AG'ATHA, ST., when represented as a martyr, is depicted crowned, with a long veil, and bearing the instruments of her cruel martyrdom, a pair of shears, with which her breasts were cut off. As patron saint, she bears in one hand a palm branch, and holding with the other

a plate or salver, upon which is a female breast. The subject of her martyrdom has been treated by Sebastian del Piombo, Van Dyck, Parmigiano, and others.

AGE, a certain period or limit of time, marked for the convenience of chronology and history by some remarkable events. Chronologers usually reckon seven such ages, namely, 1. From the creation to the deluge. 2. From the deluge to the birth of Abraham. 3. From the birth of Abraham to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt. 4. From the departure of the Israelites to the building of the temple by Solomon. 5. From the laying the foundation of the temple to the reign of Cyrus in Babylon. 6. From the reign of Cyrus to the coming of Christ. 7. Since the birth of our Saviour.-Among ancient historians, the duration of the world was also subdivided into three periods, or ages: the first, reaching from the creation to the deluge which happened in Greece during the reign of Ogyges, is called the obscure or uncertain age; the second, called the fabulous or heroic, terminates at the first olympiad; where the third, or historical age, commences. The poets also distinguished the period of the world into four ages: the golden age, or the age of simplicity and happiness; the silver age, which was less pure than the golden age, and in which men began to till the ground for their sustenance; the brazen age, when strife and contentions began; and the iron age, when justice and honor had left the earth. AGEN DA, small books are now published under this title, in which individuals may set down, under their proper heads, the things to be daily attended to.

AGNO'MEN, in Roman antiquity, was the fourth or honorary name bestowed on account of some extraordinary action, virtue, or accomplishment. Thus the agnomen Africanus was given to Publius Čornelius Scipio, on account of his exploits in Africa.

AG'NUS DEI, (LAMB OF GOD,) the oval medallions, which are made either from the wax of the consecrated Easter candles or of the wafer dough. They are also sometimes made of silver, and have on one side the Lamb, with the banner of Victory, or St. John, and on the other the picture of some saint. They were first made about the fourteenth century.

A'GON, in the public games of the ancients, a term used indifferently for any contest or dispute, whether respecting bodily exercises, or accomplishments of the mind. Thus poets, musicians, &c., had their agones, as well as the athletæ.

AGON was also used for one of the ministers employed in the heathen sacrifices, whose business it was to strike the victim.

AGONA'LIA, festivals in Rome, celebrated in honor of Janus, or Agonius, three times a year.

AGONOTHE'TÆ, officers appointed at the Grecian games to take care that all things were performed according to custom, to decide controversies amongst the antagonists, and adjudge the prizes.

AGRA'RIAN LAWS, statutes, which forbid the possession of more than a certain extent of land by any single individual. That law of the Romans, called, by way of eminence, the agrarian law, was published by Spurius Cassius, about the year of Rome, 268, enjoining a division of the conquered lands, in equal parts, among the citizens, and limiting the number of acres that each might enjoy.

A'GENT, in a general sense, denotes anything which acts, or produces an effect. Agents are either natural or moral. Natural agents are all such inanimate bodies as have a power to act upon other bodies, in a certain and determinate manner: such is fire, which has the invariable property or power to warm or heat. Moral agents, on the contrary, are rational creatures, capable of regu--AIR, in painting, the medium in nalating their actions by a certain rule.

A'GIO, in commerce, a term chiefly used in Holland and at Venice, to signify the difference between the value of bankstock and the current coin.

AG'NES, ST., this saint is represented as a martyr, holding the palm-branch in her hand, with a lamb at her feet or in her arms, sometimes crowned with olives, and holding an olive-branch as well as the palm-branch.

AIR, in music, signifies the melody, or treble part of a musical composition. The word is also used for a tune, or song itself, that is, for a series of sounds whose movement is regular and graceful.

ture through which every object is viewed, and hence to be transferred to the imitation on canvas. The effects which it produces are an indispensable part of the knowledge of every artist. It affects the sizes and color of objects according to their distance.

AL, an Arabian particle, answering to the English the, and employed in the same manner to mark anything indefinitely.

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