4 50 
C R l 
C R O 
C R I 
under It, gains two or one. Here loo, in play- 
ing the cards, you may make pairs, pairs-royal, 
flushes, & c. which are all counted as above. 
As to the crib, it is the dealer’s ; who may 
make as many as. he can out of it, together 
with the card turned up, counted as above ; 
it he can make none, he is said to be bilked. 
Thus they play and deal by turns, till the 
game of sixty-one is up ; and if either of the 
gamesters reach this before the other is forty- 
five, this last is said to be lurched, and the 
other gains a double game. 
CRIME, crimen, the transgression of a 
law, either natural or divine, civil or ecclesi- 
astic. Civilians distinguish between crimen 
and delictum. By the first, they mean capi- 
tal offences, injurious to the whole commu- 
nity, as murder, perjury, &c. the prosecu- 
tion of which was permitted to all persons, 
though no ways immediately interested. By 
the latter, they understand private offences 
committed against individuals, as theft, &c. 
By the laws, nobody was allowed to prose- 
cute in these, except those interested. 
With us, crimes are distinguished into ca- 
pital, as treason, murder, robbery, &c. and 
common, as perjuries, & c. Again, some 
crimes are cognizable by the king’s judges, 
as the above-mentioned ; and others are only 
cognizable in the spiritual courts, as simple 
fornication. 
CRIMSON, one of the seven red colours 
of the dyers. See Dyeing. 
C RlNGLF, a small hole made in the bolt- 
rope of a sail, by intertwisting one of the di- 
visions of a rope, called a strand, alternately 
round itself and through the strands of the 
bolt-rope, till it becomes threefold, and as- 
sumes the shape of a wreath, or ring. The 
use of the cringle is generally to contain the 
end of some rope, which is fastened thereto 
for the purpose of drawing up the sail to its 
yard, or of extending the skirts by the means 
of bridles, to' stand upon a side-wind. The 
word seems to be derived from krinckelen 
(Belg.), “ to run into twists.” 
CRINODENDRUM, a genus of the class 
and order monadelphia decandria. There 
is no calyx ; the corolla is bell-shaped, six- 
petalled ; capsule one-celled, gaping elastic- 
ally at top. There is one species, a native 
of Chili. 
CRINUM, a genus of the monogvnia 
order, in the hexandria class of plants; and 
in the natural method ranking under the 
ninth order, spathaceax The corolla is fun- 
nel-shaped, monopetalous, and sexpartite, 
with three alternate segments having hooked 
appendages; the germen is covered in the 
bottom of the corolla, the stamina standing 
asunder. They are very beautiful green- 
house plants, rising two or three feet high ; 
each of them crowned by a large umbellate 
cluster of spathaceous, monopetalous, long, 
funnel-shaped flowers, blue, white, or striped, 
having a very fragrant smell. They are pro- 
pagated by offsets. There are six species. 
CR1THMUM, samphire ; a genus of the 
digynia order, in the pentandria class of 
plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 45th order, umbellatax The fruit 
is oval and compressed : the florets equal. 
There are three species, the principal of 
which is the maritimum, or common mari- 
time samphire. It has a fibrous penetrating 
root ; thick, succulent, branchy stalks, rising 
two feet high; winged fleshy leaves, consist- 
ing of many small spear-shaped lobes ; with 
round yellow flowers growing in umbels. It 
is produced naturally on the sea-coasts, among 
the gravel and rocks, its leaves are an ex- 
cellent pickle used for sauces, and are by 
many eaten raw in salads. It is of a saltish 
relish, palatable, and comfortable to the 
stomach. It is not very easily preserved in 
gardens. It must be sown on gravelly or 
rocky ground, half an inch deep ; in which 
situation the plants will come up, and last 
gome, years. The leaves, of tlus plant are 
said also to be aperient and diuretic. 
CRISP-LEAF, among botanists, is one 
folded over and over, at the edges, which 
are always serrated, dentated, or lacerated. 
It is otherwise called curled. 
CRITICISM may be regarded as em- 
bracing three separate branches: 1st. The 
establishing rules and principles for correct 
composition ; such are the incomparable trea- 
tises of Cicero and Quinctilian upon oratory, 
and of Longinus on the sublime. In Eng- 
lish we have many valuable essays and trea- 
tises of this class. The prefaces of Mr. Dry- 
den are a rich mine of critical principles 
finely illustrated. Some of Mr. Addison’s 
papers in the Spectator, and Mr. Pope’s 
and Dr. Johnson’s prefaces to Shakspeare, 
are excellent specimens of rational criticism. 
In more modern times we have had some ex- 
cellent compendiums of criticism : among 
which lord Kaimes’s Elements of Criticism, 
Dr. Blair’s Lectures, Dr. Priestley’s Lectures 
on Oratory and Criticism, and particularly 
bishop Lowth’s Lectures on the Sacred Poet- 
ry of the Hebrews, deservedly hold a very 
high rank. See the articles Rhetoric and 
Poetry. 
The second branch of critical science re- 
lates to, the commenting upon antient au- 
thors, explaining difficult passages, and elu- 
cidating their beauties. Eustathius and the 
scholiasts, Vida, Scaliger, the Stephenses, and, 
above all, the gentlemen of Port Royal, have 
been great benefactors to the public in this 
way. The delphin and variorum editions of 
the classics do great credit to the learned 
persons by whom they were edited. Many 
editions of Shakspeare have been published 
with critical notes in this country. Mr. 
Theobald’s was better than Mr. Pope’s, ex- 
cept for the preface. Dr. Warburton en- 
tirely failed, for the same reason as Dr. 
Bentley in his edition of Milton, viz. in- 
dulging too freely in conjectural criticism. 
Dr. Johnson’s explanatory notes on Shak- 
speare are excellent ; and the profound read- 
ing of Malone, Steevens, and Farmer, in Bri- 
tish and Saxon literature, have been excel- 
lently applied to the Illustration of the first of 
dramatic poets. 
The third branch of criticism regards the 
forming a correct judgment of the merits and 
demerits of contemporary writers. In this 
every man of education ought to qualify him- 
self to see with his own eyes, and determine 
with his own understanding ; and this is to be 
effected by the attentive study of the best 
works, antient and modern, on the general 
principles of criticism (see above). For to form 
our judgment on that of any other men is a 
species of literary slavery. The various par- 
tialities and conflicting interests by which 
mankind are governed, render it also very 
unsafe to rest our opinion upon that of others ; 
and it is peculiarly unfortunate that this de- 
partment of literature is seldom exercised by 
persons adequate, from education and expe- 
rience, to the task. Where it is, there is no 
reason why the name of the critic should not 
be as public as that of the author ; when that 
is not the case, his motive will be suspected ; 
nor can die reader assent to observations 
from an authority, of the competency of 
which he is not assured. For these reasons 
but little credit is attached, except in remote 
country places, to anonymous criticism. 
T he great vices of modern criticism are 
pertnessand flippancy. W riters of this class 
seem to consider the study of Joe Miller as 
of more importance to their craft than that of 
Quinctilian ; and a readiness in the art of 
punning, as the highest praise -and principal 
qualification of a critic. 
CROCODILE. See Lacerta. 
Crocodile, fossil, one of the greatest 
curiosities in the fossil world which late 
ages have produced.^ It is the skeleton of a 
large crocodile,almost entire, found at a great 
depth under ground, bedded in stone. This 
was in the possession of Linkius, who wrote 
many pieces of natural history, and particu- 
larly an accurate description of this curious 
fossil. It was found in (he side of a large 
mountain in the midland part of Germany, 
and in a stratum of black fossile stone, some- 
what like our common slate, but of a coarser 
texture, the same with that in which the fos- 
sil fish in many parts of the world are found. 
This skeleton had the back and ribs very 
plain, and was of a much deeper black than 
the rest of the stone ; as is also the case in 
the fossile fishes which are preserved in this 
manner. The part of the stone where the 
head lay was not found, this being broken off 
just at the shoulder, but that irregularly ; 
so that in one place a part of the back of the 
head was visible in its natural form. The 
two shoulder-bones were very fair, and three \ 
of the feet were well preserved ; the legs were i 
of their natural shape and size, and the feet 
preserved even to the extremities of the five 
toes of each. 
Crocodile, crocodilus, in rhetoric, a 
captious and sophistical kind of argumenta- 
tion, contrived to seduce the unwary, and 
draw them speciously into a snare. It has its 
name crocodile from the following occasion, ; 
invented by the poets : A poor woman beg- 
ging a crocodile, that had caught her son : 
walking by the river-side, to spare and restore i 
him, was answered, that he would restore ; 
him, provided that she should give a true an- 
swer to a question he should propose. The 
question was. Will I restore thy son or not ? j 
To this the poor woman, suspecting a de- j 
ceit, sorrowfully answered, Thou wilt not ; I 
and demanded then to have him restored, 
because she had answered truly. Thou best, i 
says the crocodile; for if I restore him thou : 
hast not answered truly : I cannot therefore 
restore him without making thy answer false. 1 
Under this head may be reduced the propo- : 
sitions called “ mentientes,” or “ insolubiles,’* I 
which destroy themselves. Such is that of 
the Cretan poet: “ Omnes ad unum Cre- 
tenses semper mentiuntur:” “ All the Cre- ] 
tans, to a man, always lie.” Either, then, 
the poet lies when he asserts that the- Cretans 
all lie, or the Cretans do not all lie. 
CROCUS, saffron, a genus of the mono- 
gynia order, in the triandria class of plants, 
and in the natural method tanking under the 
