Lehr} 
XVI. On the Fine Arts: an Essay founded on a Discourse 
delivered ly the Cavalivre Furro x Fixro, Pre-ident of 
the Accademia del Decernimento of Trapani*: By Mr. 
Joun Gatr. 
‘Tux fine arts are the study and delicht of all polished 
nations. They disarm the spirit of man of its natural fero- 
city, and they elevate the mind while they soften the heart. 
Ignorance is but another name for harbarity, and the want 
of knowledge sharpens the appetite of violence. It was 
indeed a strange paradox of Rousseau, to maintain that 
mankind were happier when they resembled wild beasts, 
than with all the enjoyments of civilized life, and that the 
cultivation of their intellectual faculties had tended to de- 
grade their virtues. There can be no virtue but what is 
founded on a comprehensive estimate of the effects of hu- 
man actions, and an animal under the guidance of instinct 
cannot form any such estimate. 
The chief object of science is the discovery of truth, and 
of art the development of beauty. In the former we trust 
to reason, and in the latter our reliance is on the suggestions 
of the imagination. But judgement and fancy are of mu- 
tual assistance in both studies. Science clears the obstruc- | 
tions which impede the progress of art, and art adorns and 
smooths the path of science. No discovery is made with- 
out some previous conjectural effort of the mind, some 
exertion of the imagination; nor is any beauty unfolded, 
where there has not been some preconsideration of probable 
effects, some exercise of the reasoning faculties. 
As the human mind is pleased with the contemplation 
of what is true, and delighted with the appearance of what 
is beautiful, it may be assumed that the cultivation of 
science, and the improvement of art, originate in our love 
of pleasure. We commonly divide the objects of the two 
pursuits into distinct classes, and we think, when we call 
scientific studies useful, and the productions of art only 
ornamental, that there is something intrinsically different in 
their nature. But if we examine our own feelings, and 
judge of science by its effects on ourselves, we shall be 
obliged to confess that, although less obviously, it is in fact 
as much recommended to us by the pleasures to which it 
* The original Italian work, consisting of two volumes quarto, contain- 
ing four discourses by Siq. Ferro, was not printed for sale, but was circulated 
gratuitously among the Author’s friends. 
Vol. 42. No. 184. August 1813. F ministers, 
