possible to incline the head in any direction. Most fashions have been invented to hide an infirmity or a deformity: large cravats were probably first used to conceal some disagreeable scars, or some unlucky malformation. A singer or a public speaker cannot use his voice to advantage during the time when his cravat is tied too tight. The habit of wearing large cravats renders the neck very liable to be affected by exposure. By uncovering the neck imprudently when heated, severe and dangerous diseases have often been contracted. A young man or young lady, on leaving a party in a warin apartment, should be careful to protect the neck and breast from cold.

CRAVEN, Elizabeth, lady; margravine of Anspach, youngest daughter of the earl of Berkeley; born in 1750, and married in 1767, to William, last earl of Craven, by whom she had seven children. But, after a connexion of 14 years, in consequence of his ill-treatment, a separation was agreed upon in 1781. Lady Craven, after this, lived successively at the courts of Versailles, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, Berlin, Constantinople, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Rome, Florence and Naples; then in Anspach, where she became acquainted with the margrave Christian Frederic Charles Alexander, a nephew of Frederic the Great. On this tour, in 1787, she was persuaded by the count Choiseul-Gouffier, French ambassador to Constantinople, to descend into the grotto of Antiparos, which no woman had ever before visited. After the death of lord Craven, at Lisbon, in 1791, the margrave married her, surrendered his estates to the king of Prussia for a yearly pension, and went, with his consort, to England, where he purchased an estate (Brandenburg), not far from Hammersmith, and died in 1806. From that time, lady Craven has lived partly in England, partly in Naples. The account of her travels through the Crimea to Constantinople, in a series of letters, was first published in 1789. A new enlarged edition appeared in 1814. Besides these, she has written poems, plays and romances; also her own memoirs (Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, formerly Lady Craven, &c., London, 1825). These are interesting on account of her intercourse with Catharine II, Joseph II, and other princes.

CRAWFISH (astacus, Fab.); a crustaceous genus, belonging to the family decapoda macroura (ten legged, long tailed), characterized by having the anterior part of the elongated semi-cylindric superior shell

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produced to form a rostrum or beak; the abdomen large, slightly attenuated posteriorly, composed of six joints, forming a tail quite as long, when extended, as the body, and terminating in five broad-fringed, swimming appendages, which fold laterally upon each other. In both sexes, the under part of the abdomen is generally provided with five pairs of false claws, each terminated by two plates or plaments. The exterior jaw-feet are mostly narrow, elongated, and do not entirely cover the other parts of the mouth. The gills are pyrannidal, brush-shaped, or plume-like, separated from each other by tendinous slips, and situated beneath the sides of the great superior shell, over the external base of the feet. Of the latter, the second and third pairs are elongated, slender, and furnished at the last joint, which is movable, with small pincers; the fourth and fifth pairs have the last joints simply pointed or hooked. The sexual organs are placed, in both sexes, in the basal joint of the last pair of feet. The species belonging to this genus, as at present restricted, do not exceed six. Some of these kinds are peculiar to salt and others to fresh water. Of the former, the most celebrated is the lobster (astacus gammarus), so prominent among the luxuries of New York, and our other eastern maritime cities. In their modes of living, the crawfish generally resemble the aquatic crabs (see Crab), feeding on putrefying animal matter, spending their time on the sandy or rocky bottom of deep waters, and only approaching the shallows when impelled by the necessity of undergoing their change of shell, or when under the sexual influence. The common lobster is the largest species, and grows to a size which may well appear wonderful to persons accustomed to see none but small ones.

They are brought to the New York market more than two feet in length, and weighing 20 pounds and upwards. Such individuals, however, are not preferred for the table, as their size is a good indication of their age, and their period of life is stated to extend to 20 years and more. The smaller, or half-sized lobsters, are considered the best. The quite small, or young ones, which are commonly sold in New Haven (Connecticut), as too small for the New York market, are, in our opinion, far superior to either.-The fresh-water crawfish, of which one species (astacus bartnoii) is very common in most of the freshwater streams and brooks from Pennsylvania southward, affords us the best opportunity for observing their habits. We

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find them inhabiting excavations of considerable depth along the borders, or a short distance within the current of the stream, at the bottom of which they lie hid. In the spring of the year, by cautiously approaching, and remaining quietly on the margin of such a stream, we may see the crawfish industriously bringing from the lower part of their caves the dirt accumulated there; and this enables us to comprehend the manner in which they originally made their retreats. Upon the two great claws, folded towards each other, and thus forming, with the front of the body, a sort of shelf, the dirt is carefully brought to the surface, and thrown down just where the current will sweep it away. As the substances thus brought up are very light, it requires a very gentle movement of the animal to avoid spilling, or rather washing off his lading; and he therefore rises in the gentlest and most circumspect manner. We can testify to the patience with which this labor is continued, as, with the view of observing the operation, we have often quietly pushed in the earth from the edge of the water, which they as often have toiled on to remove. It is upon these fresh-water species that the observations have been made, relative to the re-production of limbs or claws violently broken off. But a short time elapses before a growth or vegetation occurs at the stump or broken part, and a new limb, similar to the original, though sometimes rather smaller, is soon formed. This facility of re-production is found to extend throughout the crustaceous class. Fresh-water crawfish are regarded by many as furnishing a delicate dish for the table, though their small size, and the trouble of collecting a sufficient number of them, are great obstacles to their being extensively employed in this way. They are preyed upon by various animals, especially by certain birds, whose long bills are adapted to picking them out from the bottom of their dens.

CRAYER, Gaspar, a Dutch painter, born in 1582, at Antwerp, was a pupil of Raphael Coxie, and became, by the study of nature, one of the greatest historical and portrait painters. At the Spanish court in Brussels, he painted the portrait of the cardinal Ferdinand, brother of the king, and received a pension. He established himself in Ghent, where he constantly executed works for the court. He lahored with industry and perseverance till his 86th year. When Rubens saw his finest painting in the refectory of the abbey of Affleghem, he cried out, "Crayer, Crayer,

nobody will ever surpass thee!" The city of Ghent alone had 21 altar-pieces by him. In Flanders and Brabant are many of his works, and some of his pictures are in the public collections at Vienna and Münich. His paintings are praised for fidelity to nature, excellent drawing, and a coloring approaching the manner of Vandyke. The latter was his friend, and took his likeness. Crayer died in 1669.

CRAYONS; a general name for all colored stones, earthis, or other minerals and substances used in designing or painting in pastel, whether they have been beaten, and reduced to a paste, or are used in their primitive consistence, after being sawn or cut into long, narrow slips. The sticks of dry colors which go under this name, and which are cemented into a friable mass, by means of gum or size, and sometimes of clay, afford a very simple means of applying colors, being merely rubbed upon paper, after which the shades are blended or softened by means of a stump or small roll of leather or paper. The drawings require to be protected by a glass covering, to save them from being defaced, unless some means have been adopted to fix them, so that they may not be liable to be rubbed off. This may be done by brushing the back of the paper with a strong solution of isinglass, or by passing the drawing through a powerful press, in contact with a moist paper.

It

CREAM OF TARTAR (potasse supertartras; cremor tartari). This salt exists in grapes and in tamarinds. The dregs of wine also contain a considerable quantity of it. Cream of tartar contains a very considerable proportion of super-tartrate of potussa, about seven or eight hundredths of tartrate of lime, and a small quantity of silica, albumen, iron, &c. It is insoluble in alcohol, but may be dissolved in 15 parts of boiling and 60 of cold water. may be rendered much more soluble by mixing with it a certain quantity of boracic acid or borate of soda, which renders the cream of tartar soluble in its own weight of cold water, and in the half only of this menstruum when boiling. This preparation is known by the name of soluble cream of tartar. Its aqueous solution is soon decomposed by the contact of the air. It is obtained by dissolving in boiling water the common tartar-a white or reddish crystalline matter, which forms on the internal sides of the vessels in which wine has been kept-mixing with it some clay, which precipitates the coloring matter, and then permitting the liquor to crystallize. The action of this substance

varies according to the dose in which it is administered. In small doses, it is absorbed, and acts as a temperant; and, in this quality, it is employed in jaundice, foulness of the stomach and intestines, &c. In larger doses, it principally spends its action on the mucous intestinal membrane, and induces alvine evacuations, especially when given in powder. Its taste being rather less unpleasant than that of some other neutral salts used in medicine, and its operation being of a very gentle nature, it is very frequently administered. In France, the soluble cream of tartar is generally preferred.

CREBILLON, Prosper Jolyot de, the elder, a writer of tragedy, who is compared, by his countrymen, even to ÆschyJus, born at Dijon, Feb. 15, 1674, early manifested talent at the school of the Jesuits in his native town, but, at the same time, a boisterous and heedless temper. Being designed for the profession of law, he was placed with an attorney named Prieur at Paris; but they were both lovers of the theatre, so that the youth made little progress in his studies. The attorney perceived, too, that his pupil was disqualified for the profession by his passionate temperament, but showed penetration and judgment in his criticisms on dramatic performances: he therefore advised him, though he had, as yet, written nothing but some trifling songs and scraps of verse, to apply himself to dramatic composition. Crebillon did so; but his first piece, La Mort des Enfans de Brutus, was rejected by the players. He burnt the manuscript, and resolved to have no more to do with the drama; but, subsequently, at the persuasion of Prieur, he wrote Idoménée, which, in 1705, was brought upon the stage. The faults of the play were overlooked in consideration of the youth of the author, and the promising talent which it displayed; and the promptness with which the author in five days wrote anew the last act, which had displeased at the first representation, drew the attention of the public to the young poet, whose talents, after the appearance of his Atrée, in 1707, were loudly applauded. Prieur, though sick, requested to be carried to the theatre, and said to the young tragedian, "I die content; I have made you a poet, and leave in you a man who belongs to the nation." A strange taste for unnatural declamation had been excited by the Rhodogune, and this manner was carried to excess by Crébillon, in the Atrée. In 1709 appeared his Electre, which is as declamatory and as intricate as his earlier plays;

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yet it suited the taste of the age. His chef d'œuvre, at least according to La Harpe, is his Rha lamiste (1711). But Boileau, on his death-bed, hearing the first scenes of this tragedy read to him by Leverrier, could not help exclaiming to his friends, "Heavens! do you wish to hasten my death? Why, the Boyers and Pradons were suns to this author! I shall be more willing to leave the world, since our age is becoming inundated with silly trash." Most persons of the present day would probably agree with Boileau. In eight days, the Rhalamiste passed through two editions, and Paris and Versailles vied with each other in admiring it. Crébillon had been told that his talent lay in the terrible, and thought, therefore, that he could not exert himself too much in scenes of horror, and hence was called the terrible. Xerxes (1714) exceeded, in this respect, all that he had before written, but soon disappeared from the stage. Semiramis (1717), the mother enamoured of her son, and not cured of her passion by the discovery of his relationship, was severely censured. It was not till nine years after this that his Pyrrhus appeared (1726), and met with a good reception, contrary to the expectation of the author, who, in this work, had abstained from the frightful and shocking. Domestic distress and poverty seem, from this time, to have crippled the powers of his genius. His small patrimony was absorbed by debts and law expenses. A father and a beloved wife were taken from him within a short time. Amidst the embarrassments in which he was involved, he refused, with characteristic inflexibility, all the offers of assistance which were made him. When madame de Pompadour wished to humble Voltaire, Crébillon was thought of as a fit instrument for her purpose. The king gave him the office of censor of the police, a yearly pension of 1000 francs, and an appointment in the library. Thus freed from anxiety, he finished his Catiline, which was represented, at the king's expense, in 1749, with all the pomp that the court theatre could display. This piece, overrated by the party opposed to Voltaire, is undervalued by La Harpe. To make some atonement to the character of Cicero, which was thought to have been wronged in his Catiline, he wrote, at 76, the Triumvirate, or the Death of Cicero, which was brought upon the stage in his 81st year. The defects of the piece were overlooked, from respect to the age of the author. Thus much for his dramatic compositions. In general, Crébillon shows

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no of the true elevation of the tragic ar, but only an imitation, sometimes a hap one, of the manner struck out by Corbeille. He was a man of a proud and independent character, disdained to flatter the great, and passed much of his life in a condition bordering on poverty. More fortunate circumstances might have given more amenity to his spirit; but, neglected, as he imagined, by mankind, he sought consolation in the company of dogs and cats, which he picked up in the streets (the poorest and most sickly were those which he preferred), and found a species of enjoyment in an irregular manner of living. In 1731, he became a member of the academy. Crébillon died June 17, 1762, at the age of 88. Louis XV erected a magnificent monument to him in the church of St. Gervais, which, however, was never entirely completed till it was removed to the museum of French monuments (aux petits Augustins). Besides the splendid edition of Crébillon's works published by the order of Louis XV, for the benefit of the author, after the successful performance of Catiline (Œuvres de Crébillon, imprimerie R. du Louvre, 1750, 2 vols. 4to.), there is another published by Didot the elder, 1812, 3 vols., in both of which, however, six verses are omitted in Catiline, which had been left out in the representation, as applicable to madame de Pompadour.

CRÉBILLON, Claude Prosper Jolyot de, the younger, son of the preceding, born at Paris in 1707, succeeded as an author in an age of licentiousness. By the exhibition of gross ideas, covered only with a thin veil, and by the subtleties with which he excuses licentious principles, Crébillon contributed to diffuse a general corruption of manners, before confined to the higher circles of Parisian society. In later times, the French taste has been so much changed, especially by the revolution, that such indelicacies as are found in his works would not be tolerated at the present day. His own morals, however, appear to have been the opposite of those which he portrayed. We are told of his cheerfulness, his rectitude of principle, and his blameless life. In the circle of the Dominicaux (a Sunday society), he was a favorite, and the caveau where Piron, Gallet, Collé, wrote their songs and uttered their jests, was made respectable by his company. Of his works, the best are- -Lettres de la Marquise *** au Comte de *** (1732, 2 vols., 12mo.); Tanzai et Néalarné (less licentious, but full of now unintelligible allusions); Les Égaremens du Cœur et de

l'Esprit (Hague, 1736, 3 vols.), perhaps the nost successful, but unfinished. One of his most voluptuous pieces is Le Sopha (1745, 2 vols.). In the same licentious strain are most of his other writings composed. It is still a disputed point whether he was the author of the Lettres de la Marquise de Pompadour. They are not included in the edition of 1779, 7 vols., 12mo. Crébillon held a small office in the censorship of the press. He died at Paris, April 12, 1777.

CRECY OF CRESSY EN PONTHIEU; a town in France, in Somme; 10 miles N. of Abbeville, and 1C0 N. of Paris; population, 1650. It is celebrated on account of a battle fought here Aug. 26, 1346, between the English and French. Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, were both engaged, and the French were defeated with great slaughter, 30,CCO foot and 1200 horse being left dead in the field; among whom were the king of Bohemia, the count of Alençon, Louis count of Flanders, with many others of the French nobility.

CREDIT, in economy, is the postponement agreed on by the parties of the payment of a debt to a future day. It inplies confidence of the creditor in the debtor; and a "credit system" is one of general confidence of people in each other's honesty, solvency and resources. Credit is not confined to civilized countries; Mr. Park mentions instances of it among the Africans; but it will not prevail extensively where the laws do not protect property, and enforce the fulfilment of promises. Public credit is founded upon a confidence in the resources, good faith and stability of the government; and it does not always flourish or decline at the same time and rate as private credit; for the people may have either greater or less confidence in the government than in each other: still there is some sympathy and correspondence between the two; for a general individual confidence can rarely, if ever, take place in the midst of distrust of the government; and, vice versa, a firm reliance upon the government promotes a corresponding individual confidence among the citizens. The history of every industrious and commercial community, under a stable government, will present successive alternate periods of credit and distrust, following each other with a good deal of regularity. A general feeling of prosperity produces extension and facilities of credit. The mere opinion or imagination of a prevailing success has, of its own force, a most powerful influence

n exciting the enterprise, and quickening he industry, of a community. The first equisite to industry is a stock of instruLents, and of materials on which to employ them: a very busy and productive Community requires a great stock of both. Now if this stock, being ever so great, were hoarded up; if the possessors would neither use, let, nor sell it, as long as it should be so withdrawn from circulation, it would have no effect upon the general activity and productiveness. This is partially the case when a general distrust and impression of decay and decline cause the possessors of the stock and materials to be scrupulous about putting them out of their hands, by sale or otherwise, to be used by others; and others, again, having no confidence in the markets, and seeing no prospect of profits, hesitate to purchase materials, or to buy or hire the implements, mills, ships, &c., of others, or to use their own in the processes of production and transportation. This state of surplusage and distrust is sure to be followed by a reduction of money prices; and every one who has a stock on hand, and whose possessions are estimated in money, is considered to be growing poorer and poorer every day. But when prices have reached their lowest point, and begin regularly to rise, every body begins to esteem himself and others as being prosperous, and the opinion contributes powerfully to verify itself. Credit begins to expand; all the stores of the community are unlocked, and the whole of its resources is thrown open to enterprise. Every one is able readily to command a sufficiency of means for the employment of his industry; capital is easily procured, and services are readily rendered, each one relying upon the success of the others, and their readiness to meet their engagements; and the acceleration of industry, and the extension of credit, go on until a surplus and stagnation are again produced. The affairs of every industrious and active community are always revolving in this circle, in traversing which, general credit passes through its periodical ebbs and flows. This facility and extension of credit constitutes what is commonly called fictitious capital. The fiction consists in many individua's being supposed to be possessed of a greater amount of clear capital than they are actually worth. The most striking instance of this fictitiousness of capital, or, in other words, excess of credit, appears in the immense amounts of negotiable paper, that some individuals and companies spread in the community,

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or of paper currency, where the issuing of notes for supplying currency by companies or individuals is permitted. Individuals or companies thus draw into their hands an immense capital, and it is by no means a fictitious capital when it comes into their possession, but actual money, goods, lands, &c.; but, if they are in a bad, losing business, the capital, as soon as they are intrusted with it, becomes fictitious in respect to those who trusted them with it, since they will not again realize it. Extensive credits, both in sales and the issuing of paper, in new and growing communities, which have a small stock and great industry, grow out of their necessities, and thus become habitual and customary, of which the U. States hitherto have given a striking example.

CREECH, Thomas, a scholar of some eminence for his classical translations, was born in 1659. He took the degree of M. A. at Oxford in 1683, having the preceding year established his reputation as a scholar, by printing his translation of Lucretius. He also translated several other of the ancient poets, wholly or in part, comprising selections from Homer and Virgil, nearly the whole of Horace, the thirteenth Satire of Juvenal, the Idyls of Theocritus, and several of Plutarch's Lives. He likewise published an edition of Lucretius in the original, with interpretations and annotations. He put an end to his life at Oxford, in 1700. Various causes are assigned for this rash act, but they are purely conjectural. He owes his fame almost exclusively to his translation of Lucretius, the poetical merit of which is very small, although, in the versification of the argumentative and mechanical parts, some skill is exhibited. As an editor of Lucretius, he is chiefly valuable for his explanation of the Epicurean philosophy, for which, however, he was largely indebted to Gassendi.

CREED; a summary of belief; from the Latin credo (I believe), with which the Apostles' Creed begins. In the Eastern church, a summary of this sort was called pápa (the lesson), because it was learned by the catechumens; yoán (the writing), or Kávov (the rule). But the most common name in the Greek church was color (the symbol, q. v.), which has also passed into the Western church. Numerous ancient formularies of faith are preserved in the writings of the early fathers, Irenæus, Origen, Tertullian, &c., which agree in substance, though with some diversity of expression. The history of creeds would be the history of the church,