in a general sense, implies something that happens by accident, or that is not essential to its subject.

in Philosophy, is applied to that effect which flows from some cause intervening by accident, without being subject, or at least without any appearance of being subject, to general laws or regular returns. In this sense, accident is opposed to constant and principal. Thus the sun's place is, with respect to the earth, the constant and principal cause of the heat in summer, and the cold in winter; whereas, winds, snows, and rains, are the accidental causes which often alter and modify the action of their principal cause.

ACCIDENTAL Colours, are those which depend upon the affections of the eye, in contradistinction to those which belong to light itself. The impressions made upon the eye by looking steadfastly on objects of a particular colour are various, according to the single colour or combination of colours in the object; and they continue for some time after the eye is withdrawn, and give a false colouring to other objects. M. Buffon has endeavoured to trace the connections which these accidental colours have with such as are natural, in a variety of instances. The subject has also been considered. Accidental considered by De la Hire and M. Aepinus; and M. d'Arcy has contrived a machine for determining the duration of those impressions on the eye; and from the result of several experiments, he inferred, that the effect of the action of light on the eye continued about eight thirds of a minute.

Accidental Point, in Perspective, is that point in the horizontal line where the projections of two lines parallel to each other meet the perspective plane.

Accipenser. See Ichthyology Index.

Accipiter, among the Romans, signified a hawk, which, from its being very carnivorous, they considered as a bird of bad omen:

Odimus accipitrem, quia semper vivit in armis. Ovid.

Pliny, however tells us, that in some cases, particularly in marriage, it was esteemed a bird of good omen, because it never eats the hearts of other birds; intimating thereby, that no differences in a married state ought to reach the heart. The accipiter was worshipped as a divinity by the inhabitants of Tentyra, an island in the Nile, being considered by them as the image of the sun; and hence we find that luminary represented, in hieroglyphics, under the figure of a hawk.

Accipitres, the name of Linnaeus's first order of birds. See Ornithology.

Accismus denotes a feigned refusal of something which a person earnestly desires. The word is Latin; or rather Greek, ἀνικής; supposed to be formed from Acco, the name of a foolish old woman noted in antiquity for an affectation of this kind.

Accismus is sometimes considered as a virtue; sometimes as a vice, which Augustus and Tiberius practised with great success. Cromwell's refusal of the crown of England may be brought as an instance of an accismus.

Accismus is more particularly used in Rhetoric, as a species of irony.

Accitum, in Ancient Geography, a town of Hispania Baetica, now Finiana, as appears from an ancient inscription; situated on an eminence of the mountains Alpujaras, in the province of Granada in Spain.

Accius, Lucius, a Latin tragic poet, the son of a freedman, and, according to St Jerome, born in the consulship of Hostilius Mancinus and Attilius Serranus, in the year of Rome 583: but there appears somewhat of confusion and perplexity in this chronology. He made himself known before the death of Pacuvius, by a dramatic piece, which was exhibited the same year that Pacuvius brought one upon the stage, the latter being then eighty years of age, and Accius only thirty. We do not know the name of this piece of Accius's, but the titles of several of his tragedies are mentioned by various authors. He wrote on the most celebrated stories which had been represented on the Athenian stage; as Andromache, Andromed, Atreus, Clytemnestra, Medea, Meleager, Philoctetes, the civil wars of Thebes, Tereus, the Troades, &c. He did not always, however, take his subjects from the Grecian story: for he composed one dramatic piece wholly Roman: It was entitled Brutus, and related to the expulsion of the Tarquins. It is affirmed by some that he wrote also comedies; which is not unlikely, if he was the author of two pieces, the Wedding and the Merchant, which have been ascribed to him. He did not confine himself to dramatic writing; for he left other productions, particularly his annals, mentioned by Macrobius, Priscian, Festus, and Nonnus Marcellus. He has been censured for writing in too harsh a style, but in all other respects has been esteemed a very great poet. He was so much esteemed by the public, that a comedian was punished, for only mentioning his name on the stage. Cicero speaks with great derision of one Accius who had written a history; and, as our author had wrote annals, some insist that he is the person censured: but as Cicero himself, Horace, Quintilian, Ovid, and Paterculus, have spoken of our author with so much applause, we cannot think it is the same person whom the Roman orator censures with so much severity.

There was also in this age a pretty good orator of the same name, against whom Cicero defended Cluentius. He was born in Pisaurum, and perhaps was a relation of our poet.

Accius, a poet of the 16th century, to whom is attributed A Paraphrase of Aesop's Fables, on which Julius Scaliger bestows great encomiums.

Acclamation, a confused noise or shout of joy, by which the public express their applause, esteem, or approbation.

Acclamation, in a more proper sense, denotes a certain form of words, uttered with extraordinary vehemence, and in a peculiar tone somewhat resembling a song, frequent in the ancient assemblies. Acclamations were usually accompanied with applauses, with which they are sometimes confounded: though they ought to be distinguished; as acclamation was given by the voice, applause by the hands: add, that acclamation was also bestowed on persons absent, applause only on those present. Acclamation was also given by women, whereas applause seems to have been confined to men.

Acclamations are of various kinds; ecclesiastical, military, nuptial, senatorial, synodical, scholastical, theatrical, &c. We meet with loud acclamations, musical and rhythmical acclamations; acclamations of joy and respect, and even of reproach and contumely. The former, wherein words of happy omen were used, were also called Laudationes, et bona vota, or good wishes; the latter, Execrationes et convicia. Suetonius furnishes an instance of this last kind in the Roman senate, on occasion of the decree for demolishing the statues of Domitian, when the fathers, as the historian represents it, could not refrain from tumultuous acclamations of the deceased. The like were shown after the death of Commodus, where the acclamations run in the following strain: Hosti patria honores detrahantur, parricidae honores detrahantur; hostis status undique, parricidae status undique, gladiatoris status undique, &c.—The formula, in acclamations, was repeated sometimes a greater, sometimes a lesser, number of times. Hence we find in Roman writers, acclamation est quinquies, et vices; five times, and twenty times; sometimes also sexagies, and even octagies; sixty and eighty times.

Acclamations were not unknown on the theatres in the earliest ages of the Roman commonwealth; but they were artless then, and little other than confused shouts. Afterwards they became a sort of regular concerts. That mentioned by Phaedrus, lactare incolumis Roma salvo principe, which was made for Augustus, and proved the occasion of a pleasant mistake of a flute-player. player called Princeps, shows that musical acclamations were in use in that emperor's reign. Revertentem ex provincia modulatis carminibus prosequentur, says Suetonius, who gives another instance in the time of Tiberius: a false report of Germanicus's recovery being spread through Rome, the people ran in crowds to the capitols with torches and victims, singing, Salva Roma, Salva Patria, Salvus est Germanicus.—Nero, passionately fond of music, took special care to improve and perfect the music of acclamations. Charmed with the harmony with which the Alexandrians, who came to the games celebrated at Naples, had sung his praises, he brought several over to instruct a number of youth, chosen from among the knights and people, in the different kinds of acclamations practised at Alexandria. These continued in use as long as the reign of Theodoric. But the people did not always make a single chorus; sometimes there were two, who answered each other alternately: thus, when Nero played on the theatre, Burrhus and Seneca, who were on either hand, giving the signal by clapping, 5000 soldiers called Augustals, began to chant his praise, which the spectators were obliged to repeat. The whole was conducted by a music-master called mesochorus or paurarius.—The honour of acclamations was chiefly rendered to emperors, their children, and favourites; and to the magistrates who presided at the games. Persons of distinguished merit also sometimes received them, of which Quintilian gives us instances in Cato and Virgil. The most usual forms were, Feliciter, Longiorem vitam, Annos felices. The actors themselves, and they who gained the prizes in the games of the circus, were not excluded the honour of acclamations.

To theatrical acclamations may be added those of the soldiery and the people in time of triumph. The victorious army accompanied their general to the capitols; and, among the verses they sung in his praises, frequently repeated Io Triumphi, which the people answered in the same strain. It was also in the way of acclamation, that the soldiers gave their general the title of Imperator, after some notable victory: a title which he only kept till the time of his triumph.

The acclamations of the senate were somewhat more serious than the popular ones; but arose from the same principles, viz. a desire of pleasing the prince or his favourites; and aimed likewise at the same end, either to express the general approbation and zeal of the company, or to congratulate him on his victories, or to make him new protestations of fidelity. These acclamations were usually given after a report made by some senator, to which the rest all expressed their consent by crying Omnes, Omnes; or else, Aequum est, Justum est. Sometimes they began with acclamations, and sometimes ended with them without other debates. It was after this manner that all the elections and proclamations of emperors, made by the senate, were conducted; something of which practice is still retained at modern elections of kings and emperors, where Vivat Rex, and Long live the King, are customary forms of acclamation.

The Greeks borrowed the custom of receiving their emperors in the public places from the Romans. Loitprand relates, that at a procession where he was present, they sung to the emperor Nicephorus, πολλα χρις; that is, Many years; which Coddin expresses thus, by το χαλλιν το παλιγχων, or by το πολυχων; and the wish or salutation by παλιγχωνειαν. And at dinner, the Greeks then present wished with a loud voice to the emperor and Bardas, Ut Deus annos multiplicerit; as he translates the Greek. Plutarch mentions an acclamation so loud, upon occasion of Flamininus's restoring liberty to Greece, that the very birds fell from heaven with the shout. The Turks practise something like this on the sight of their emperors and grand viziers to this day.

For the acclamations with which authors, poets, &c. were received, who recited their works in public; it is to be observed, the assemblies for this purpose were held with great parade in the most solemn places, as the Capitol, temples, the Athenaeum, and the houses of great men. Invitations were sent everywhere, in order to get the greater appearance. The chief care was, that the acclamations might be given with all the order and pomp possible. Men of fortune who pretended to wit, kept able applauders in their service, and lent them to their friends. Others endeavoured to gain them by presents and treats. Philostratus mentions a young man named Vavus, who lent money to the men of letters, and forgave the interest to such as applauded his exercises. These acclamations were conducted much after the same manner as those in the theatre, both as to the music and the accompaniments: they were to be suited both to the subject and to the person. There were particular ones for the philosophers, for orators, for historians, and for poets. It would be difficult to rehearse all the forms of them; one of the most usual was Sophos, which was to be repeated three times. Martial comprehends several other usual forms in this verse;

Graviter, Citò, Neguiter, Euge, Beatè.

Neither the Greeks nor Romans were barren on this head. The names of gods and heroes were given those whom they would extol. It was not enough to do it after each head of discourse, chiefly after the exordium; but the acclamations were renewed at every fine passage, frequently at every period.

The acclamations with which the spectators honoured the victories of the athletes, were a natural consequence of the impetuous motions which attended the gymnastic games. The cries and acclamations of the people, sometimes expressing their compassion and joy, sometimes their horror and disgust, are strongly painted by different poets and orators.

Acclamations made also a part of the ceremony of marriage. They were used for the omen's sake; being the Laeta Omina, sometimes spoken of before marriage in Roman writers.

Acclamations, at first practised in the theatre, and passing thence to the senate, &c. were in process of time received into the acts of councils, and the ordinary assemblies of the church. The people expressed their approbation of the preacher variously; the more usual forms were, Orthodox! Third Apostle, &c. These acclamations being sometimes carried to excess, and often misplaced, were frequently prohibited by the ancient doctors, and at length abrogated; though they appear to have been in some use about the time of St Bernard.