act

[Lat. actum =a thing done; neut. sing. of act us, pa. par. of ago to do, to drive, to put into motion; Gr. ἄγω ( agō ); Icel. aka; Ger. akte; Fr. acte; Ital. at to.] A. Subjectively : I. Gen.: The exertion of power, whether physical, mental, or moral; doing, acting, action. "It argues an act and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform."-Shakesp.: Hamlet, v. L. to demand from real life Words worth: Excursion, bk. iii. The test of act and suffering." of alienated feeling, if not of alienated act." -Froude: Hist. Eng., ch. vii. "By act of naked reason." In act : Words worth: Excursion, bk. v. (a) Just commencing action, on the eve of doing anything. "The rattlesnake 's in act to strike." Byron : Mazeppa , xiii. "Gloomy as night he stands in act to throw." Pope : Homer's Ody ey, bk. xi., 749. (b) In a state of real existence as opposed to mere po ibility. "The seeds of plants are not at first in act , but in po ibility what they afterwards grow to be."- Hooker . the Cyprus wars (Which even now stand in act )." Shakesp. Othello, i. 1. In the act signifies that action has commenced, but has not been completed. "In the leaves of plants the sunbeams also wrench these atoms asunder, and sacrifice themselves in the act."-Tyndall: Frag. of Science , 3rd ed., i. 21. "Taken in the very act."-John viii. 4 II. Technically : 1. Mental Phil. & Logic: An operation of the mind supposed to require the putting forth of energy as distinguished from a state of mind in which the faculties remain pa ive. the distinction which the German metaphysicians and their French and English followers so elaborately draw between the acts of the mind and all merely pa ive states; between what it receives from and what it gives to the crude materials of its experience."-J. S. Mill : Logic, 2nd ed., ch. iii., § 4. In this sense such expre ions as the following are used the act of thinking, the act of judging, the act of resolving, the act of reasoning or of reason; each of these being viewed as a single operation of the human mind. (See second example under ACT, v., B. I. 1.) "The act of volition."-Todd and Bowman: Physiol. Anat ., vol. 1, chap. vii., 200, 2. Theol. The carrying out of an operation in a moment, as contradistinguished from the performance of a work requiring a considerable time for its accomplishment. "Justification is an act of God's free grace Adoption is an act of God's free grace. Sancti fication is the work of God's free grace."- Shorter Catechism, Questions 33, 34, 35. B. Objectively: Anything done. (a) Generally : "But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did."- Deut. xi. 7. "And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo."-2 Chron . xiii. 22. (b) Technically: 1. Dramatic Language : A portion of a play performed continuously, after which the representation is suspended for a little, and the actors have the opportunity of taking a brief rest. As early as the time of Horace there were five acts in a drama, and this number still remains without modification. Acts are divided into smaller portions called scenes. (See Shakespeare throughout.) 2. Parliamentary Lang .: An ellipsis for an Act of Parliament, Congre , Legislature, . A statute, law, or edict which has been sиссевsively carried through any parliamentary body, such as the two Houses of the English Parliament or of the American Congre , and (in some countries) has received the a ent of the executive or ruling head of the government.. "For on that day (26th May, 1679) the Habeas Corpus Act received the royal a ent."-Macaulay: Hist . of Eng . , ch. ii. 70 In this country such a ent may be dispensed with. Thus the 1894 Tariff Act became law without the President's a ent, on the morning of August 24, because the ten days within which he might expre his a ent or his di ent had expired at midnight, without his doing so. 3. Law : (1) Gen.: Anything officially done by the Court, as the phrases Acts of Court , Acts of Sederunt , . (2) Spec.: An instrument in writing for declaring or proving the truth of anything. Such is a report, a certificate, a decree, a sentence, . Act of Bankruptcy : An act, the commi ion of which by a debtor renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt (Bankruptcy Act, 1869 ). Acts done: Distinguished into acts of God, of the law and of men. (3) Scotch Law : Act of Grace: An Act pa ed by the Scottish Parliament, in 1696, which provided maintenance for debtors whilst they were in prison at the suit of their creditors. Acts of Sederunt: Statutes for ordering the procedure and forms for administering justice, made by the Lords of Se ion, sitting in judgment, the power to do so having been conferred by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1540. *4. Universities: A thesis publicly maintained by a student to show his powers, and specially to prove his fitne for a degree. 5. Ch . Hist . Act of Faith : The English rendering of the Spanish AUTO DA FE (q.v.). Acts of the Apostles. The fifth book of the New Testament. It contains a narrative of the achievements of the leading apostles, and especially of St. Paul, the greatest and most succe ful of them all. Its author was St. Luke (compare Luke i. 1-4 with Acts i. 1), who was Paul's companion from the time of his visit to Troas (Acts xvi. 8-11) to the advanced period of his life when he penned the 2nd Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 11). Internal evidence would seem to show that it was written in all probability about A.D. 61, though external testimony from the Fathers to its existence is not obtainable till a considerably later date. The undesigned coincidences between the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Paul are numerous and important.