ARTIFICIAL

ARTIFICIAL,Artificalis, something made by Art; not produced naturally, or in the common Course of Things. See ART. © Art is usually considered as a Thing very different from Nature; and artificial Things, from natural ones: Whence arises another more grievous Error, viz. that Art is a different Principle built upon Nature, and of such Power, as to be able, either to perfect what Nature had begun, to rectify and amend her when disordered, or to free her when confined; though not utterly to divert or transmute her.—But the Truth is, artificial Things do not differ from natural ones in Nature or Form, but only in the Efficient: Man has no Power over Nature, beside what he has by Motion; in virtue whereof, he can apply natural Bodies to, or remove them from, one another. Where such Application, or joining of active Things to passive ones, is practicable, there may Man do anything; where it is not, nothing. Gold we sometimes see purified by the Chemist’s Fire; and sometimes find it perfectly pure in the Sands, Nature herself having done the Business: So the Rainbow is sometimes formed on high in the Water of a Cloud; and sometimes here below by a sprinkling of Water. Nature, therefore, governs all Things; under this Subordination, of the Course of Nature, the Latitude or Evagation of Nature, and art, or Man super-added to her other Works. Bacon de Augmen. Scient. lib. II. See NATURE. Artificialfrequently coincides with factitious. See Factitious. Thus we have artificial Sal-Ammoniac, artificial &c. See AMMONIAC and BORAX. Artificial Day.



See DAY. Artificial Globe, Sphere, &c.

See GLOBE, SPHERE, &c. Artificial Horizon.

See HORIZON. Artificial Eye.

See EYE. Artificial Numbers,are Secants, Sines, and Tangents—See SECANT, SINE, and Tangent; see also LOGARITHMICAL. Artificial Lines,on a Sector or Scale, are certain Lines so contrived, as to represent the Logarithmic Sines, and Tangents; which, by the help of the Line of Numbers, will solve all Questions in Trigonometry, Navigation, &c. pretty exactly. See LINE, SCALE, SECTOR, &c. Artificial Fire-works,are Compositions of inflammable Materials; chiefly used on solemn Occasions, by Way of Rejoicing. See FIRE-WORKS. Artificial Arguments,in Rhetoric, are all such Proofs or Considerations as arise from the Genius, Industry, or Invention of the Orator. See ARGUMENT and INVENTION. Such are Definitions, Causes, Effects, &c. which are thus called to distinguish them from Laws, Authorities, Citations, and other Arguments of that Nature, which are said to be inartificial Arguments. See DEFINITION, AUTHORITY, &c.

ARTIFICIAL