I N V 



invalids are anncd like other regiments of infantry ; their 

 uniform red, faced with blue, and plain button holes. 



At Paris is a collejfe of the fame kind, called les inva- 

 Rdet, which is accounted one of tlie fincft buildings in that 

 city. 



INVASION, in War, the entrance or attack of an 

 esomv ill the dominions of another fovcitign. 



INVECTED, in Heraldry, denotes a thing fluted, or 

 furrowed. 



I:ivc(£lcd is jud the reverfe of c-H-r.z .•;'•./, in which the 

 points are turned outward to the field : whereas in inveficd 

 they are turned inward to the ordinary. 



INVECTIVE, in Rh.lork, differs from reproof, as the 

 latter proceeds from a friend, and is intended for the good 

 of the perfon reproved.; \vhereas invedtive is the work of an 

 enemy, and entirely defigned to vex and give uneafmefs to 

 the perfons agai' ft whom it is directed. 



INVENTION denotes the aft of finding any thing 

 new ; or even the thing thu.^ found. 



Thus we fav, the invention of gunpowder, of print- 

 ing, &c. The alcove is a modern invention owing to 

 the Moors. 



The Doric, Ir.nic, and Corinthian orders are of Greek 

 invention ; the Tufcan and Compofite of Latin invention. 



Janfon ab Alme'oveen has written an Onomafticon of in- 

 ventions, wherein are (hewn, in an alphabetical order, the 

 names of the inventors, and the time, place, Stc. where they 

 are made. Pancirollus lias a treatife of old inventions that 

 are loft, and new ones that have been made ; Poly dore Virgil 

 has alfo publifhed eight books of the inventors of things. 

 (De Inventoribus Rerum.) Beckman has alfo pubhfhed a 

 •♦ Hiftoryof Inventions and Difcoveries." 



I.s'VENTioy is alfo ufed for the difcovcry of anv thing 

 hidden. 



The Romilh church celebrates a feaft on the fourth of 

 May, under the title of " Invention of the Holy Crofs." 



Invention' is alfo ufed for fubtilty of mind, or fomewhat 

 peculiar to a man's genius, which leads him to a difcovery of 

 things new. 



In which fenfe we fay a man of invention : Wolfius has 

 made fom.e eftays towards an art of invention. 



Invention, in the Jrts of Def^r.,\i thdX peculiar quality, 

 which, being of all others the moit rare, is alfo the niotl 

 •ertimable in an artift Withor.t it the painter or fculptor 

 rifes not abave t!ie ordinary hbonring mechanic, nor are his 

 produftions fo ufefu! to mankind. 



Whether the power of invention be an immediate gift 

 of God, or the cfvspfSng of cultivation, has been queih'oned 

 by philofophers ; and while fome have traced its origin, or 

 fancied they could, to a continued feries of acquirements, 

 begun at an early age, and carefully ftored in the m.ind, 

 others have regarded it as not attainable by any e.^ertions 

 of man, and no other than a direcl impulfe imparted by 

 the omnipotent Creator to his more favoured children. 



Whichfoever of thefe abftrufe opinions be correfl, one 

 thing none will be inclined to difpute, viz.. that, be the 

 power of imagination, which is the bafis of invention, as 

 vivid as poflible in the mird of an artift, it muft have ma- 

 terials to work upon ; and if the power of combining ideas 

 be originally givei:, ihey muft firft be collefted : that power 

 can never operate if the poffefTor does not lay by a ftore 

 of obfervations upon the nature of things as they pafs be- 

 fore his eyes. Invention is not creation, except as far as 

 relates to the fenfes and perceptions of man. To him 

 new combinations effeftively create new objcfts ; but in 

 fart, it is only the power of combining, in new and pre- 

 vioufly unknown forir.s, things known individually before. 



I N V 



It grafps within its range whatever is poflible, probable, 

 or aheady certain ; and the artift is ar libeity to apply and 

 combine whatever appertains- to either of thefe qualities 

 in any manner, which, producing novelty, ftill bears the 

 appearance of truth, and docs not wound the common per- 

 ception of propriety j that is, the propriety which belongs 

 to the nature of the fubjett treated of. 



The excrcife of invention will be more or lefs produftive 

 accordingly as the native vigour of fancy or imagination 

 be accompanied by a conihmt and lively obfervation ot 

 nature, and a ftrong remembrance of her various produc- 

 tions under all the difterent circumftances in which they are 

 found. A vivid imagination, being tlius ftored with images, 

 rcquii-es but the llighteft hint to call forth the moft bril- 

 liant effefts, and by contraft or combination produce new 

 images. Sir Joftiua Reynolds, in his 6th difcourfe, lir.s 

 obfcrved, that " there can be no doubt, but that he wiio 

 has the moft materials has the grcateft means of invention ; 

 and if he has not the power of ufing them, it mvft proceed 

 from a feeblenefs of intelleft, or from the confufed manner 

 in vvhich they have been laid up in his mind ;" and again, 

 " it is vain for painters or poets to endeavour to invent 

 without materials on which the mind may work, and from 

 which inventions muft originate. Nothing can come of 

 nothing." 



In the fame lefture he remarks, that " the mind or genius 

 has been compared to a fpark of fire, which is fmothered 

 by a heap of fuel, and prevented from blazing into a flame. 

 This fimile, which is made ufe of by the younger Pliny, 

 may be eafily miftaken for argument or proof ; but there 

 is no danger of the mind"s being over-bunhened with know- 

 ledge, or the genius extinguidved, by any addition of images. 

 On the contrary, thefe acquiutions may as well, perhaps 

 better, be compared, if comparifons fignitied any thing in 

 reafoning, to the fupply of living embers, which will con- 

 tribute to ftrengtlicn the fpark, that, without the aflbciation 

 of more fuel, "would have died. The truth is, he whofe 

 feeblenefs is fuch as to make other men's thoughts an in- 

 cumbrance to him, can have no very great ftrength of mind 

 cu- genius of his own to be deilroycd." 



Thefe excellent remarks are made by fir Jofliua when 

 treating of imitation ; of the afiiftance an artift may acquire 

 in his progrefs by ftudying the produtlions of other men ; 

 and to prove, that no fource of information, either in nature 

 or art, ihould be neglected by him who covets the title of 

 a great inventor, or, as it is ufually called, an original 

 genius. He will find it requifite to be a conftant obferver 

 of nature in all her Heps, whether of the grand, the beauti- 

 ful, the dreadful, cxpreflive and interelting, or common- 

 place ; the varieties of charadler among men, their modes 

 of action, the powers of their paftions, and the various ways 

 in which they exhibit the impulfe derived from them. In 

 flnrt, no objeft whatever ftiould efcape his eye without 

 notice ; no moral fentiment or feeling, his mind ; and he 

 v.\\\ thus be beft qualified to embody and illuftrate what- 

 ever fubjeft he m.ay be called upon to reprefent. 



This doctrine holds equally true of poetry, and indeed of 

 all purfuits by which men are led, in which their neeeffities or 

 their pleafures call for the exertion of their talents. But each 

 art or fcience, having its peculiar end to anfvvcr, requires the 

 obfervance of peculiar objefts.. Iti painting, invention requires 

 the mind of the aniit to be occupied in calling forth recollec- 

 tions of thofe circumftances he may have fcen in nature, or 

 in works of art, of a character confonant with that of the 

 fubjeft undertaken to be reprefentcd, and endeavouring to 

 infpire every part of the compofition with an unifon ot ef- 

 feft. If, for inftance, the fubjeft be pathetic, the paintt-r 



will 



