ARTS. 



1793. The bread-fruit, when perfectly 

 ripe, is pulpy, sweetish, putrescent, and 

 in this state is thought to be too laxative ; 

 but when green it is farinaceous, and es- 

 teemed a very wholesome food, either 

 baked under the coals, or roasted over 

 them. The taste is not unlike that of 

 wheaten bread, but with some resem- 

 blance to that of Jerusalem artichokes, or 

 potatoes. It was mentioned before, that a 

 sort of cloth was made of the inner bark: 

 to this we may add, that the wood is used 

 in building boats and houses; the aiale 

 catkins serve for tinder; the leaves for 

 wrapping their food in, and for wiping 

 their hands instead of towels; and the 

 juice for making bird-lime, and as a ce- 

 rnent for filling up the cracks of their ves- 

 sels for holding water. Three trees are 

 supposed to yield suflicient nourishment 

 for one person. 2. A. integrifolia, Indian 

 jacca tree. The East Indian jacca, or 

 jack tree, is about the same size as the 

 foregoing, or perhaps larger. The foot- 

 stalk is somewhat triangular, smooth, and 

 an inch in length. The fruit weighs 30 

 pounds and upwards ; it has within it 

 frequently from two to three hundred 

 seeds, three or four times as big as al- 

 monds ; they are ovate-oblong, blunt at 

 one end, sharp at the other, and a little 

 flatted on the sides. 



These two species of Artocarpus can- 

 not be distinguished with certainty, either 

 by the form of the leaves, or the situa- 

 tion of the fruit ; for the leaves in this 

 are sometimes lobed as on that ; and the 

 situation of the fruit varies with the age of 

 this tree, being first borne on the branch- 

 es, and then on the trunk, and finally on 

 the roots. The jacca tree is a native of 

 Malabar, and the other parts of the East 

 Indies. The fruit is ripe; in December, 

 and is then eaten, but is esteemed difficult 

 of digestion ; the unripe fruit is also used 

 pickled, or cut into slices and boiled, or 

 fried in palm oil The nuts are eaten 

 roasted, and the skin which immediately 

 covers them is used instead of the areca 

 nut in chewing betel. The wood of the 

 tree serves for building. No less than 30 

 varieties of the fruit are enumerated in 

 Malabar, ft was introduced into the royal 

 botanic garden at Kew, in 1778, by Sir 

 Edward Hughes, Knight of the Bath. 



ARTS,/we. The Fine Arts may be pro- 

 perly defined those, which, blending ele- 

 gant ornament with utility, convey in- 

 tellectual pleasure to the mind, through 

 the medium of the fancy or imagination. 

 They are termed elegant or fine arts, not 

 in opposition to those which are necessary 



or useful, but to distinguish them from 

 such as are necessary or useful only. 



The arts general!} distinguished by the 

 appellation fine are, Poetry, Music, Paint- 

 ing, Sculpture, and Engraving, with their 

 several brandies. To these we may not 

 improperly add Dancing, and aiso Archi- 

 tecture; for the latter, although in its 

 origin it was merely appropriated to pur- 

 poses of utility, has certainly, by its va- 

 rious proportions, modes, and embellish- 

 ments, become highly ornamental, and 

 impressive to the imagination. 



It is perhaps scarcely within the scope 

 of a work of this kind, intended for the 

 promulgation of the best established doc- 

 trines on the various branches of human 

 knowledge, rather than as a receptacle 

 for novel and dubious conjecture, to dis- 

 cuss how far the general sense, in which 

 a term is understood, includes its full and 

 entire meaning; otherwise it might not 

 be impossible to shew that many branch- 

 es of art or science, besides the above 

 mentioned, have an inseparable connec- 

 tion with the fine arts; and that, of con- 

 sequence, their influence at least, if not 

 their dominion, is much more widely ex- 

 tended than is commonly supposed. 



It between poetry and painting there 

 really subsist that close afiinity which has 

 been so generally allowed, if they are 

 daughters of the same parent, if their ob- 

 ject be the same, the mode by which they 

 accomplish that object alone different, if 

 painting is mute poesy, and the poem a 

 speaking picture, may we not reasonably 

 conclude that there exists some great 

 rule, some primary principle, common to 

 both ; and hope, by tracing the conduct 

 of the one art, to throw some additional 

 light on the other ? Perhaps the result of 

 an investigation upon the nature and 

 boundaries' of the art of poetry would, by 

 analogy, at once bring us to this conclu- 

 sion, that it is impossible to define the 

 precise limits of the fine arts in general, 

 or what is alone their object. 



Although metre or versification be ne- 

 cessary to constitute what is strictly call- 

 ed poesy, still it is by all admitted and 

 felt, that it is the last qualification of a 

 great poet ; and hence a noble author, 

 (Lord Lansdown) observes, that " Versi- 

 fication is in poetry what colouring is in 

 painting, a beautiful ornament." " But," 

 he adds, "if the proportions are just, the 

 posture true, the figure bold, and the 

 resemblance according to nature, though 

 the colours happen to be rough, or care- 

 lessly laid on, yet the picture shall lose 

 nothing of its esteem. But if skill in 



