XIV. DEPARTMENT: 



CHREO TECHNICS. 



IN the department of Chreotechnics, we include what are com- 

 monly termed the Useful Arts, exclusive of those comprehended in 

 the preceding department ; or, in popular language, the arts of Agri- 

 culture, Manufactures, and Commerce. The name is derived from 

 the Greek, ^paoj, necessity or utility, and n-zvy, an art ; correspond- 

 ing to the common appellation above mentioned. Strictly speaking, 

 these arts rank with the preceding in utility ; and all the arts are use- 

 ful in a greater or less degree : but as the present classification re- 

 quired the adoption of some distinctive appellation for this group of 

 arts, we have selected that above given, as the best which has come 

 to mind. We may add, that the arts here comprehended, are more 

 miscellaneous than those of any other department ; and the classifi- 

 cation, in this instance, may seem less natural than, perhaps, in any 

 other. Still, the common association of Agriculture, M an u factures, 

 and Commerce, in connection with the necessity of assigning to 

 them some definite place in the system, will, it is believed, be 

 found a sufficient reason for the arrangement here adopted ; especially 

 when compared with that of the other departments of this province, 

 and with the system at large. 



The connection between the arts above named, results rather from 

 the aid which they afford each other, than from any similarity in 

 their processes or operations. Agriculture, supplies some of the 

 requisite materials ; though many of them are obtained from the 

 mines, the forests, or the sea, and hence have been treated of, col- 

 lectively, under the branch of Hylurgy. By Manufactures, these ma- 

 terials are prepared for their immediate uses or objects ; and, by means 

 of Commerce, they are distributed in the various places where they 

 are wanted for consumption or exchange. Thus, these arts conspire 

 to promote the comfort, and thereby to advance the intellectual state 

 of society. Were we to adopt the classification of the arts as either 

 mechanical or chemical, those above named would be widely sepa- 

 rated ; and some of them would be entirely omitted in the province 

 of Technology. 



The antiquity of Agriculture, might seem to demand for it an 

 earlier place in the present province ; and would have obtained it, 

 had there been sufficient affinity between this art and those assigned 

 to the preceding department. But when it is considered that Agri- 

 culture, as an art, could have made but little progress before the con- 

 struction of dwellings for shelter, and roads for communication, this 



459 



