ACROTE'RIA, in architecture, small pedestals, upon which globes, vases, or statues stand at the ends or middle of pediments. It also denotes the figures themselves placed in such situations.
ACT, in a general sense, denotes the exertion, or effectual application, of sonic power or faculty. Act is distinguished from power, as the effect from the caft4e, or as a thing produCed, front that which produces among logicians, more particularly denotes an operation of the human mind ; in which sense, compre hending, judging, willing, &e. are called acts.—ACT, in law, is used for an instru ment or deed in writing, serving to prove the truth of some bargain or transaction. Thus, records, certificates, ke. are called acts.—AcT is also used for the final reso lution, or decree of an assembly, senate, council, kc.—AcTs of parliament are called statutes; acts of the royal society, transactions ; those of the French academy of sciences, memoirs; those of t he academy of sciences at Petersburg, commentaries; those of Leinsie, zeta eruditorum the decrees of the lords of session, at Edin burgh, acta sederunt, &e.—AcT, in the
universities, is the delivery of orations, or other exercises, in proof of the pro ficiency of a student who is to take a degree. At Oxford, the time when mas ters or doctors complete their degrees, is called the act. At Cambridge, the same period is called the commencement.— ACT, in a dramatic sense, is the name given to certain portions of a play, in tended to give respite both to the specta tors and the actors. In the ancient drama, five ;sets were required both in tragedy and comedy ; and in what is termed the regular drama that role is still observed, the acts being divided into smaller portions, called scenes.