ART

ART, Ars, is defined by the Schoolmen, a habit of the mind operative or effective according to right reason; or, somewhat more intelligibly, a habit of the mind prescribing rules for the due production of certain effects; or the introducing of changes in bodies from some foreknowledge and design in a person endued with a principle or faculty of acting. See HABIT, ACTION, etc.

On this footing, Arts are divided into active and factive.



—Such as leave no external effect after their operation, as Dancing, Fiddling, etc. are called active or practical arts: Those which do leave an effect, as Painting, etc.
are called factive; or effective arts. Magn. Moral. lib. 1. cap. 35.

Art is better defined, after my Lord Bacon, as a proper Disposition of the Things of Nature by human Thought and Experience, so as to make them answer the Designs and Uses of Mankind. See EXPERIMENT, &c. Nature, according to that Philosopher, is sometimes free, and at her own Disposal; and then she manifests herself in a regular Order: as we see in the Heavens, Plants, Animals, etc.—Sometimes she is irregular, and disorderly, either through some uncommon Accident, or a Depravation in Matter, when the Resistance of some Impediment perverts her from her Course; as in the Production of Monsters. See Monster.—At other Times she is subdued and fashioned by human Industry, and made to serve the several Purposes of Mankind. This last is what we call Art; in which Sense, Art stands opposed to Nature. See NATURE, ARTIFICIAL, &c. Hence, the Knowledge of Nature may be divided into the History of Generations, of Pretergenerations, and of Arts.—The first considers Nature at Liberty; the second, her Errors; and the third, her Restraints. Art is also used for Science or Knowledge reduced into Practice. See KNOWLEDGE. Several of the Schoolmen hold Logic and Ethics to be Arts; inasmuch as they do not terminate in mere Theory, but tend to Practice. See Theory and Practice; see also Logic, Ethics, etc. In this Sense, some Branches of the Mathematics are Arts, others Matters of Doctrine, or Science. See MATHEMATICS. Statics is wholly scientifical, as it takes up with the mere Contemplation of Motion: Mechanics, on the contrary, is an Art, as it reduces the Doctrines of Statics into Practice. See MATHEMATICS. Art is principally used for a certain System or Collection of Rules, Precepts, and Inventions or Experiments, which being duly observed, make the Things a Man undertakes succeed, and render them advantageous and agreeable. See Rule, Precept, Experiment, etc. In this Sense, art is opposed to Science, which is a Collection of speculative Principles and Conclusions. See Science. The Nature and Origin of Art, and its Distinction from Science, will be further considered in the Preface to this Work. Arts, in this Sense, may be divided, with respect to their Scope and Object, into Human, as Medicine; and divine, as Theology. See MEDICINE and THEOLOGY. Human, again, may be subdivided into Civil; as Law, Politics, etc, Military, as Fortification, etc. Physical, as Agriculture, Chemistry, Anatomy, etc. Metaphysical, as Logics, pure Mathematics, etc. Philological, as Grammar, Criticism, etc. Mercantile, to which belong the Mechanical Arts and Manufactures. See each in its Place. Arts are more popularly divided into Liberal and Mechanical. The liberal arts are those that are noble, and ingenuous; of which are worthy of being cultivated without any regard to Lucre arising therefrom.—Such are Poetry, Music, Painting, Grammar, Rhetoric, the military Art, Architecture, and Navigation, See LIBERAL; see also POETRY, MUSIC, GRAMMAR, RHETORIC, etc. Mechanical Arts, are those wherein the Hand, and Body are more concerned than the Mind; and which are chiefly cultivated for the sake of the Profit they bring with them.— Of which kind are most of those which furnish us with the Necessaries of Life, and are popularly known by the Name of Trades—Such are Weaving, Turnery, Brewing, Masonry, Clock-making, Carpentry, Joinery, Foundery, Printing, etc. See TRADE, MANUFACTURE, etc. The mechanical Arts take their Denomination from μηχανή, Machine; as being all practiced by means of some Machine or Instrument. See MACHINE, etc. With the liberal arts it is otherwise; there being several of them which may be learnt and practiced without any Instrument at all: As Logic, Eloquence, Medicine properly so called, etc. The Arts which relate to the Sight and Hearing, My Lord Bacon observes, are reputed liberal beyond those which regard the other Senses, which are chiefly employed in Matters of Luxury. See SENSE. It has been well noted by some Philosophers, that during the Rise and Growth of States, the military Arts chiefly flourish; when arrived at their Height, the liberal Arts; and when on the declining hand, the voluptuary arts. There are also divers particular arts; as the Art of Memory, the Art of Deciphering, Art of Flying, of Swimming, Art of Diving, etc. See MEMORY, DECIPHERING, FLYING, SWIMMING, DIVING, etc. Democritus maintained, that Men learnt all their Arts from Brutes; the Spider taught them Weaving, the Swallow Building, the Nightingale Music and several Medicine.The Nature, Office, History, &c. of the several Arts; will be found under their respective Articles in this Dictionary. Artis derived from the Greek ἀρετή, Virtue, Industry— This is the Opinion of Donatus, on the first Scene of Terence’s Andria: Ars data viits ἀρετή, dicta est per Synecopen. Others derive it from χρεία, Utility, Profit; which is found in that sense in Aeschylus. Artis also applied to divers imaginary, and even superstitious Doctrines and Inventions.—Such are, Lully’s Art, or the Transcendental Art, by means whereof a Man may dispute whole Days on any Topic in Nature, without understanding the least tittle of the Thing in Dispute; thus called from its Inventor Raimond Lully, or Ramon Lull. It consists chiefly in disposing the several Sorts of Beings into divers Scales or Climaxes, to be run down in a descending Progression— Thus, whatever were proposed to be talked on, they would say, first, it is a Being, and consequently, one, true, good, perfect: then, it is either created, or increated. Again, every created Being is either Body or Spirit, &c. Angelical Art,or the Art of Spirits, is a Method of attaining to the Knowledge of any thing desired, by means of an Angel, or rather of a Demon. See DEMON. Under this come the Arts of Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft, &c. See MAGIC, SORCERY, WITCHCRAFT, &c. Term of Art,Master of many. see Term, Master, Direct, Faculty.

ART