AND THE FINE ARTS: BEING THE ARTICLES UNDER THOSE HEADS CONTRIBUTED TO THE SEVENTH EDITION OF THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, BY B. R. HAYDON, Esq AND WILLIAM HAZLITT, Esq. EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE, BOOKSELLERS TO HER MAJESTY. MDCCCXXXVIII. FINE ARTS. ART is defined by Lord Bacon as a proper disposal of the things of nature by human thought and experience, so as to answer the several purposes of mankind; in which sense art stands opposed to nature. Art is principally used for a system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; in which sense it stands opposed to science, or a system of speculative principles. Arts are commonly divided into useful or mechanic, fine or liberal. The former are those wherein the hand and body are more concerned than the mind; of which kind are most of those which furnish us with the necessaries of life, and are popularly known by the name of trades. The latter are such as depend more on the labour of the mind than of the hand; they are the produce of imagination and taste, and their end is pleasure. Some useful arts must be nearly coeval with the human race; for food, clothing, and habitation, even in their original simplicity, require some art. Many other arts are of such antiquity as to place the inventors beyond the reach of tradition. Several have gradually crept into the world without an inventor. The busy mind, however, accustomed to a beginning in things, cannot rest till it finds B |