Lactantius and Eusebius in the 4th century, and attributed to
the Erythraean sibyl, the initial letters of which form the
words 'Insous Arist.os Theou uios sozer: ``Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Saviour.'' The initials of the shorter
form of this again make up the word ichthbs (fish), to which
a mystical meaning has been attached (Augustine, De Civitale
Dei, 18, 23), thus constituting another kind of acrostic.
The monks of the middle ages, who wrote in Latin, were fond
of acrostics, as well as the poets of the Middle High German
period, notably Gottfried of Strassburg and Rudolph of
Ems. The great poets of the Italian renaissance, among them
Boccaccio, indulged in them, as did also the early Slavic
writers. Sir John Davies (1569-1626) wrote twenty-six
elegant Hymns to Astraea, each an acrostic on ``Elisabetha
Regina''; and Mistress Mary Fage, in Fame's Roule,
1637, commemorated 420 celebrities of her time in acrostic
verses. The same trick of composition is often to be met
with in the writings of more recent versifiers. Sometimes
the lines are so combined that the final letters as well as
the initials are significant. Edgar Allan Poe worked two
names---one of them that of Frances Sargent Osgood--into
verses in such a way that the letters of the names corresponded
to the first letter of the first line, the second letter
of the second, the third letter of the third, and so on.
Acrostic verse has always been held in slight estimation
from a literary standpoint. Dr Samuel Butler says, in his
``Character of a Small Poet,'' ``He uses to lay the outsides
of his verses even, like a bricklayer, by a line of rhyme
and acrostic, and fill the middle with rubbish.'' Addison
(Spectator, No. 60) found it impossible to decide whether
the inventor of the anagram or the acrostic were the greater
blockhead; and, in describing the latter, says, ``I have seen
some of them where the verses have not only been edged by a
name at each extremity, but have had the same name running
down like a seam through the middle of the poem.'' And Dryden,
in Mac Flecknoe, scornfully assigned Shadwell the rule
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
The name acrostic is also applied to alphabetical or ``abecedarian''
verses. Of these we have instances in the Hebrew psalms
(e.g. Ps. xxv. and xxxiv.), where successive verses begin
with the letters of the alphabet in their order. The structure
of Ps. cxix. is still more elaborate, each of the verses of
each of the twenty-two parts commencing with the letter which
stands at the head of the part in our English translation.
At one period much religious verse was written in a form
imitative of this alphabetical method, possibly as an aid to the
memory. The term acrostic is also applied to the formation
of words from the initial letters of other words. 'Ichthbs,
referred to above, is an illustration of this. So also is
the word ``Cabal,'' which, though it was in use before, with
a similar meaning, has, from the time of Charles II., been
associated with a particular ministry, from the accident of its
being composed of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and
Lauderdale. Akin to this are the names by which the Jews
designated their Rabbis; thus Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (better
known as Maimonides) was styled ``Rambam,'' from the initials
R.M.B.M.; Rabbi David Kimchi (R.D.K.), ``Radak,'' &c.
Double acrostics are such as are so constructed, that not
only initial letters of the lines, but also the middle or last
letters, form words. For example:---1. By Apollo was my
first made. 2. A shoemaker's tool. 3. An Italian patriot. 4. A
tropical fruit. The initials and finals, read downwards, give
the name of a writer and his nom de plume. Answer: Lamb,
1. L yr E
2. A w L
3. M azzin I
4. B anan A
ACROTERIUM (Gr. akroterion the summit or vertex), in
architecture, a statue or ornament of any kind placed on
the apex of a pediment. The term is often restricted to the
plinth, which forms the podium merely for the acroterium.
ACT (Lat. actus, actum), something done, primarily a voluntary
deed or performance, though any accomplished fact is often
included. The signification of the word varies according to
the sense in which it is employed. It is often synonymous with
``statute'' (see ACT OF PARLIAMENT). It may also refer to the
result of the vote or deliberation of any legislature, the decision
of a court of justice or magistrate, in which sense records,
decrees, sentences, reports, certificates, &c., are called acts.
In law it means any instrument in writing, for declaring or
justifying the truth of a bargain or transaction, as: ``I
deliver this as my act and deed.'' The origin of the legal use
of the word ``act'' is in the acta of the Roman magistrates
or people, of their courts of law, or of the senate, meaning
(1) what was done before the magistrates, the people or
the senate; (2) the records of such public proceedings.
In connexion with other words ``act'' is employed in many
phrases, e.g. act of God, any event, such as the sudden,
violent or overwhelming occurrence of natural forces, which
cannot be foreseen or provided against. This is a good
defence to a suit for non-performance of a contract. Act of
honour denotes the acceptance by a third party of a protested
bill of exchange for the honour of any party thereto. Act
of grace denotes the granting of some special privilege.
In universities, the presenting and publicly maintaining a
thesis by a candidate for a degree, to show his proficiency,
is an act. ``The Act'' at Oxford, up to 1856 when it was
abolished, was the ceremony held early in July for this purpose,
and the expressions ``Act Sunday,'' ``Act Term'' still survive.
In dramatic literature, act signifies one of those parts
into which a play is divided to mark the change of time
or place, and to give a respite to the actors and to the
audience. In Greek plays there are no separate acts, the
unities being strictly observed, and the action being continuous
from beginning to end. If the principal actors left the
stage the chorus took up the argument, and contributed an
integral part of the play, though chiefly in the form of
comment upon the action. When necessary, another droma,
which is etymologically the same as an act, carried on the
history to a later time or in a different place, and thus we
have the Greek trilogies or groups of three dramas, in which
the same characters reappear. The Roman poets first adopted
the division into acts, and suspended the stage business in
the intervals between them. Their number was usually five,
and the rule was at last laid down by Horace in the Ars
Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu
Fabula, quae posci vult, et spectata reponi.
``If you would have your play deserve success,
Give it five acts complete, nor more nor less.'' (Francis.)
On the revival of letters this rule was almost universally
observed by dramatists, and that there is an inherent convenience
and fitness in the number five is evident from the fact that
Shakespeare, who refused to be trammelled by merely arbitrary
rules, adopts it in all his plays. Some critics have laid down
rules as to the part each act should sustain in the development
of the plot, but these are not essential, and are by no means
universally recognized. In comedy the rule as to the number
of acts has not been so strictly adhered to as in tragedy, a
division into two acts or three acts being quite usual since
the time of Moliere, who first introduced it. It may be well
to mention here Milton's Samson Agonistes as a specimen in
English literature of a dramatic work founded on a purely Greek
model, in which, consequently, there is no division into acts.
For ``acting,'' as the art and theory of dramatic representation (or
histrionics, from Lat. histrio, an actor), see the article DRAMA.
ACTA DIURNA (Lat. acta, public acts or records; diurnius,
daily, from dies), called also Acta Fopuli, Acta Publica
and simply Acta or Diurna, in ancient Rome a sort of
daily gazette, containing an officially authorized narrative
of noteworthy eventsat Rome. Its contents were partly
official (court news, decrees of the emperor, senate and
magistrates), partly private (notices of births, marriages and
deaths). Thus to some extent it filled the place of the
modern newspaper (q.v.). The origin of the Acta is
attributed to Julius Caesar, who first ordered the keeping
and publishing of the acts of the people by public officers
(59 B.C.; Suetonius, Caesar, 20). The Acta were drawn up
from day to day, and exposed in a public place on a whitened
board (see ALBUM). After remaining there for a reasonable
time they were taken down and preserved with other public
documents, so that they might be available for purposes of
research. The Acta differed from the Annals (which were
discontinued in 133 B.C.) in that only the greater and
more important matters were given in the latter, while in the
former things of less note were recorded. Their publication
continued till the transference of the seat of the empire to
Constantinople. There are no genuine fragments extant.
Leclerc, Des Journaux chez les Romains (1838); Renssen, De
Diurnis aliisque Romanorum Actis (1857); Hubner, De Senatus
Populique Romani Actis (1860); Gaston Boissier, Tacitus and other
Roman Studies (Eng. trans., W. G. Hutchison, 1906), pp. 197-229.
ACTAEON, son of Aristaeus and Autonoe, a famous Theban hero
and hunter, trained by the centaur Cheiron. According to the
story told by Ovid (Metam. iii. 131; see also Apollod iii.
4), having accidentally seen Artemis (Diana) on Mount Cithaeron
while she was bathing, he was changed by her into a stag, and
pursued and killed by his fifty hounds. His statue was often
set up on rocks and mountains as a protection against excessive
heat. The myth itself probably represents the destruction
of vegetation during the fifty dog-days. Aeschylus and other
tragic poets made use of the story, which was a favourite
subject in ancient works of art. There is a well-known small
marble group in the British Museum illustrative of the story.
ACTA SENATUS, or COMMENTARII SENATUS, minutes of the
discussions and decisions of the Roman senate. Before the
first consulship of Julius Caesar (59 B.C.), minutes of
the proceedings of the senate were written and occasionally
published, but unofficially; Caesar, desiring to tear away the
veil of mystery which gave an unreal importance to the senate's
deliberations, first ordered them to be recorded and issued
authoritatively. The keeping of them was continued by
Augustus, but their publication was forbidden (Suetonius,
Augustus, 36). A young senator (ab actis senatus) was
chosen to draw up these Acta, which were kept in the imperial
archives and public libraries (Tacitus, Ann. v. 4).
Special permission from the city praefect was necessary in
order to examine them. For authorities see ACTA DIURNA.
ACTINOMETER (Gr. aktis, ray, metron, measure), an
instrument for measuring the heating and chemical effects of
light. The name was first given by Sir John Herschel to an
apparatus for measuring the heating effect of solar rays (Edin.
Journ. Science, 1825); Herschel's instrument has since been
discarded in favour of the pyrheliometer (Gr. tur, fire,
elios, sun). (See RADIATION.) The word actinometer is now
usually applied to instruments for measuring the actinic or
chemical effect of luminous rays; their action generally depends
upon photochemical changes (see PHOTO-CHEMISTRY). Certain
