72 WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 



there was a science of acoustics ; and painting while as yet there 

 was no theory of colors and perspective. 



Art, says Whewell, in its earlier stages, is anterior to science ; 

 it may afterwards borrow aid from it, and, undoubtedly does. 



Science inquires for the sake of knowledge, art for the sake of 

 production. Hence, science is concerned with the higher truths, 

 art with the lower ; science is never engaged in productive appli- 

 cation ; art always is. The most perfect state of science, therefore, 

 will be the highest and most accurate inquiry ; the perfection of art 

 is the most apt and eflScient system of rules. Hence, art consists 

 of a system of rules, directing what and how it shall be done. 



Science may be summed up as a collection of truths ; art, a body 

 of rules or directions. The language of science is. This is, or This 

 is not ; This does, or, This does not happen. The language of art 

 is. Do this, — Avoid that. Science takes cognizance of a phenome" 

 non, and endeavors to discover or evolve its law ; art proposes to 

 itself an end, and looks out for, or seeks the means to effect it. 



Art may be regarded as of three kinds — theoretic, practical, and 

 mixed. Many persons are loud in their denunciations of mere 

 theorizers, theories, and theoretic notions or methods of doing 

 things ; for, as maintained by siich, theoiy and theoretical are op" 

 posed to practice and practical. Theory may be knowledge, but 

 is, more frequently, as such maintain, nought but the speculation 

 or the hypothesis of some dreamer. Practice, say they, is the ap- 

 plication of knowledge gained by experience ; hence empirical 

 knowledge will only satisfy such inquirers. There is, however, no 

 opposition between theory in its highest sense and knowledge ; for 

 the former is the embodiment of the principles by which practice 

 reaches, or accomplishes its end. The error, of the objectors to 

 theory, is, in blending or using hypothetical and theoretical as 

 synonymous with conjectural. This is untrue and therefore unphi- 

 losophical in relation to what is theoretical. Theory always implies 

 knowledge, not conjecture, as some are disposed to maintain ; but 

 the knowledge of things in their principles or causes. In the words 

 of Parr, " Theory is a general collection of the inferences drawn 

 from facts and compressed into principles." 



Theory, Macintosh remarks, denotes the most general laws to 

 which certain facts can be reduced. 



Theory and hypothesis, according to Taj-lor, may thus be distin- 

 guished : an hypothesis is a guess or supposition, made concerning 

 the cause of some particular fact, with the view of trying experi- 



