Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/130

ACROSTIC. which follow some predetermined order, usually forming a word — most commonly a name — or a phrase or sentence. Sometimes the final letters spell words as well as the initial, and the peculiarity will even run down the middle of the poem like a seam. Sir John Davies composed twenty-six Hymns to Astrea (Queen Elizabeth), in every one of which the initial letters of the lines form the words Elisabetha Regina.

In the acrostic poetry of the Hebrews the initial letters of the lines or of the stanzas were made to run over the letters of the alphabet in their order. Twelve of the psalms of the Old Testament are written on this plan. The 119th Psalm is the most remarkable. It is composed of twenty-two divisions or stanzas (corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each stanza consisting of eight couplets, and the first line of each couplet in the first stanza begins in the original Hebrew with the letter aleph, in the second stanza with beth, etc. The divisions of the psalm are named each after the letter that begins the couplets, and these names have been retained in the English translation. With a view to aid the memory it was customary at one time to compose verses on sacred subjects after the fashion of those Hebrew acrostics, the successive verses or lines beginning with the letters of the alphabet in their order. Such pieces were called Abecedarian Hymns.

AC'ROTE'RION (Gk. ἀκρωτήριον, akrōtērion, the summit or extremity). A term in architecture for a statue or other ornament, often a palmette, placed on the apex or at one of the lower angles of a pediment.

ACROTERION.

ACT (Lat. actus, the doing or performing of a thing; actum, a public transaction, record). A term of law applied to the written expression of the will of the legislature formally declared. As commonly employed, it is synonymous with statute (q.v.). The term is derived from the acta of Roman public life, which comprehended all public official procedure as well as the offi- cial record thereof. An act of one legislature cannot tie the hands of its successors, unless it amounts to a contract, so that its repeal would come within the constitutional inhibition upon legislative acts which impair the obligation of contracts. In England even this exception does not exist, each Parliament being an absolutely sovereign legislature. Still, certain acts of Par- liament have been passed in the hope, if not with the intention, of arresting ''the possible course of future legislation;" and some of them have commanded a respect almost equal to that accorded in this country to written constitutions. To this class belong the Bill of Rights (q.v.); the Act of Settlement (12 and 13 Will. III., c. 2) fixing the descent of the crown; the Acts of habeas corpus (q.v.); the Acts of Union with Scotland (1 James I., c. 1), and with Ire- land (39 and 40 Geo. III., c. 67): and the Sep- tennial Act of 1716 limiting the life of a Parlia- ment to seven years. "Act" is used in connection with other words in a number of familiar phrases. For example, act of honor, the acceptance by a stranger of protested paper for the honor of some party thereto; act of God, an inevitable accident resulting from superhuman causes, such as lightning, tempest, or floods; act of state, act done or commanded by the government of a foreign state, for which the person injured has no redress in the courts of his own country, but must seek redress through the diplomatic agencies of his government.

ACT. In the drama, the name for one of the principal parts of a play. In performance the acts are commonly separated by intervals, during which the dropped curtain conceals the stage. An act which may in turn be subdivided into scenes should be in a certain sense complete in itself, and at the same time should form an essential part of the whole drama. As every dramatic plot naturally divides itself into three parts — the exposition, the development, and the conclusion or catastrophe — a division into three acts seems most natural; but practically this would often require undue condensation, and the well-known classic custom defined by Horace in his Ars Poetica is that a play should be in five acts. Normally, the first act indicates the general nature of the drama, introduces the characters, and begins the action. The second act leads up to the third, which develops the crisis of the plot. In the fourth the conclusion or catastrophe is prepared, but should by no means be anticipated so as to weaken the effect of the denouement, which is reserved for the fifth act. The Greeks did not make the formal distinction of acts in their drama, though Greek tragedies are subjectively capable of division into parts or episodes, which are indeed practically separated by the lyrical parts of the performance. (See .) In modern drama the requirement for five acts began early to be neglected, especially in comedy. (See .) On the present stage plays are common in any number of acts below five. The four-act play is most common.

ACT, or The commencement or degree-taking formerly in use in English universities, but now discontinued (save as a form in Cambridge). The student or "respondent" who "keeps the act" reads a thesis in Latin which lie defends against three "opponents" named by the proctors. Some such practice survives in most German universities. In a quaint pamphlet on New England's First Fruits, published in 1643, there is an account of the late commencement at Harvard in which the word "acts" is familiarly employed, as one may see from this extract: "The Students of the first Classis that have beene these foure yeeres trained up in University-Learning, for their ripening in the knowledge of the Tongues and Arts, and are approved for their manners, as they have kept their publick Acts in former yeares, our selves being present at them, so have they lately kept two solemne Acts for their Commencement, when the Governour, Magis-