sm c r i 
CRI’TIIOMANCY, / An ancient mode of divina- 
timi, performed by infpecling the dough or cakes offered 
in facriftce, and the -meal (hewed over the victims to be 
killed. Hence, becaufe they ufed barley-meal in thcfe 
ceremonies, this kind of divination was called crithomancy, 
from j;pbarley, and f/.avreia., divination. 
CRl'TIAS, an Athenian, fon of Calrefcrus', nobly de- 
fccnded, and poffcffed of many advantages from nature 
and education. He was eloquent, and inftrudled in piti- 
lofopliy, having been a difciple of Socrates ; whom, how¬ 
ever, he leems to have followed rather for the purpofe of 
learning the art of reafoning, than for moral improve¬ 
ment. Mis charaCter, both public and private, was vi¬ 
cious. Having been obliged by bis political intrigues to 
retreat into Theffaly, he became the enemy and llanderer 
of his country ; and, upon his return, when the Lace¬ 
demonians had gained poffeflion of Athens, he urged Ly- 
fandCr to the demolition of the walls, and the depopula¬ 
tion of the country. He became one of that unjuft arif- 
tocracy called the thirty tyrants, and is faid to have fur- 
paired all his affociates in avarice and cruelty. He pro¬ 
hibited his old mailer, Socrates, from teaching. He was 
one of the chief promoters of the deaths of Alcibiades 
and Theramenes; and he difplayed his hatred to the 
banilbed by expelling them, through his menaces, from 
the Grecian towns in which they had taken refuge. Re¬ 
duced to defpair, they at length affembled in arms under 
the conduct of Thrafybulus, and made an attack upon 
the Piraeus, in the defence of which Critias was llain, 
400 years before Chrift. He is enumerated among thofe 
who dogmatifed againft a divine Providence. Some ele¬ 
gies of his compofttion are cited by Plutarch and Athe- 
naetis. 
CRI'TIC,/ Gr.] A man Ikilled in the art 
of judging of literature ; a man able to diftinguilh faults 
and beauties of writing : 
Now learn what morals critics ought to (how, 
For ’tis but half a judge’s talk to know. Pope. 
An examiner; a judge : 
But you with pleafure own your errors palt, 
And make each day a critic on the laft. Pope. 
A fnarler; a carper; a caviller.—.Where an author has 
many beauties conliitent with virtue, piety, and truth, 
let not little critics exalt themfelves, and lhower down 
their ill-nature. Watts. 
Critics I law, that others names deface, 
And fix their own with labour in their place. Pope. 
A cenfurer ; a man apt to find fault.—My chief defign, 
next to feeing you, is to be a fevere critic on you and 
your neighbour. Swift. 
CRI'TIC, adj. Critical; relating to criticifm ; relat¬ 
ing to the art of judging of literary performances : 
Thence arts o’er all the northern world advance. 
But critic learning fiourilh’d moll in France. Pope. 
CRI'TIC, f. A critical examination ; critical remarks; 
animadverlions.—I lliould be glad if I could perfuade 
him to continue his good offices, and write fuch another 
critic on any thing of mine. Dryd.cn. —I lliould as loon 
expedt to fee a critique on the poefy of a ring, as on the 
infeription of a medal. Addifon. —Science of criticifm.— 
What is every year of a wife man’s life, but a cenfure and 
critique on the paft f Pope. 
Not that my quill to critics was confin’d ; 
My verfe gave ampler leflbns to mankind. Pope. 
To CRI'TIC, v. n. To play the critic; to criticife.— 
They do but trace over the paths that have been beaten 
by the ancients; or comment, critic, and flourilh upon 
them. Temple. 
CRI'TICAL, adj. Exact; nicely judicious ; accu¬ 
rate ; diligent.—It is fubmitted to the judgment of more 
critical ears, to diredt and determine what is graceful and 
C It t 
what is not. Holder .—Relating to criticifm t as, he wrote 
a critical dijfcrtation on the lajl play. Captious ; inclined 
to find fault: 
What wouldft thou write of me, if thou fiiouldft praife 
me ?— 
—O, gentle lady, do not put me to’t; 
For I am nothing, if not critical. Shakcfpeare. 
[ From crifis .] Compriling the time at which a great event 
is determined.—The moon is fuppofed to be meafured 
by levcns, and the critical or decretory days to be de¬ 
pendent on that number. Brown. —Decifive ; nice._Op¬ 
portunity is in refpedt to time, in fome fenfe, as time is 
in refpedt to eternity : it is the fmall moment, the exadt 
point, the critical minute, on which every good work fo 
much depends. Spratt. —Producing a crifis or change of 
the dileafe : as, a critical fweat. 
CRI'TICAL DAYS,/, with phyficians, are thofe days 
whereon there happens a fudden change of the difeafe, 
or on which it comes to its crifis. The dies indices, or 
indicating days, are thofe days in which fome fign or 
fymptom appears, by which to form a judgment of the 
future crifis. 
CRI'TICAL SIGNS, / with phyficians, are fign* 
taken from a crifis, either towards a recovery or death. 
But Boerhaave more correctly fays, Sign a crifeosjam natag 
aut mox futurce, i. e. ligns of a crifis already begun, or which 
is Jhortly to come on. 
CRI'TICALLY, adv. In a critical manner; exadtly; 
curioufly. ■—Difficult it is to underftand the purity of 
. Englilh, and critically to difeern good writers from bad, 
and a proper ftile from a corrupt one. Dryden. —At the 
exadt point of time. 
CRI'TICALNESS,/ Exadtnefs; accuracy; nicety; 
incidence at a particular point of time. 
To CRI'TICISE, v. n. To play the critic ; to judge; 
to write remarks upon any performance of literature ; t® 
point out faults and beauties.—They who can criticife fo 
weakly, as to imagine I have done my worft, may be con¬ 
vinced, at their own coft, that I can write leverely with 
more eafe than I can gently. Dryden. 
Know well each ancient’s proper character: 
Without all this at once before your eyes, 
Cavil you may, but never criticife. Pope. 
To animadvert upon as faulty.— Nor would I have his 
father look fo narrowly into thefe accounts, as to take 
occafion from thence to criticife on his expences. Locke. 
To CRI'TICISE, v. a. To cenfure ; to pafs judgment 
upon.—Nor ihall I look upon it as any breach of charity, 
to criticife the author, fo long as I keep clear of the per- 
fon. Addifon. 
CRI'TICISM, / Remark; animadverfion ; critical 
oblervation.—There is not a Greek or a Latin critic, 
who has not (hewn, even in the ftile of his criticfms, that 
he was a mafter of all the eloquence and delicacy of his 
native tongue. Addifon. 
Criticifm is the application of tafte and of good fenfe 
to the feveral fine arts. The obiedt which it propofes 
is, to diftinguilh what is beautiful and what is faulty in 
every performance; from particular inftances to afeend 
to general principles; and fo to form rules or conclu- 
iions concerning the feveral kinds of beauty in works of 
genius. The rules of criticifm are not formed by any 
indudlion, a priori, as it is called ; that is, they are not 
formed by a train of abftradt reafoning, independent of 
fadts and oblbrvations. Criticifm is an art founded 
wholly on experience ; on the oblervation of fuch beau¬ 
ties as have come neareft to the ftindard of perfedtion ; 
that is, of fuch beauties as have been found to pleafe 
mankind mod generally . For example ; Ariftotle’s rules 
concerning the unity oriadtion in dramatic and epic com- 
polition, were not rules firft difeovered by logical rea¬ 
soning, and then applied to poetry ; but they were drawn 
from the pradtice of Homer aud of Sophocles ; they .were 
founded 
