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which belong the mechanical arts and manufaBures. But 
arts are more properly divided into liberal and mechanical ; 
liberal arts are tliofe that are noble and ingenious; or which 
are worthy of being cultivated without any immediate re¬ 
gard to the lucre arifing from them. Such are poetry, mu- 
fie, painting, grammar, rhetoric, the military art, architeElure, 
and navigation. Mechanical arts, are thole, wherein the 
hand and body are more concerned than the mind ; and 
which are chiefly cultivated for the fake of the profit at¬ 
tending them. Of this kind are molt of tliofe that furnifh 
us with the neceffaries of life, and are popularly known 
by the name of trades. 
The mechanical arts take their denomination from ir-nya-vo, 
tc machine as being all praitifed by means of fome ma¬ 
chine or inftrument. With the liberal arts it is otherwife; 
there being feveral of them which may be learnt and prac- 
tifed without any infivument at all; as logic, eloquence, me¬ 
dicine, properly fo called, &e. The arts which relate to 
the fight and hearing, lord Bacon obferves, are reputed 
'liberal, beyond thole which regard the other fenfes, and 
are chiefly employed in matters of luxury : thefeare ufu- 
ally called the fine arts-, fuch are poetry, painting,fculpture, 
mufic, gardening, and architeElure. Ufeful arts will never be 
neglected in a country where there is any police ; for every 
man finds his account in them. Fin? arts are more preca¬ 
rious. They are not relilhed but by perfons of tafie, who 
are rare ; and fuch as can (pare great fums for fupporting 
them are Hill more rare. For that reafon, they will never 
flourilh in any country, unlefs patronifed by the fovereign, 
or by men of power and opulence. They merit fuch pa¬ 
tronage, as one of the fprings of government; and a ca¬ 
pital fpring they make, by multiplying amufements, and 
humanizing manners; upon which account they have al¬ 
ways been encouraged by good princes. It has been well 
remarked by philolophers, that, during the rife and growth 
of Hates, the military aits chiefly flourilh; when arrived 
at their height the liberal arts-, and, when in a declining 
Hate, the voluptuary arts. There are alfo divers particular 
arts; the art of memory, the art of deciphering, the art of 
fwimming, the art of diving, &c. Democritus maintained, 
that men learnt all their arts from brutes; that the fpider 
taught them weaving; the fwallow, building; the frog, 
fwimming; the nightingale, mufic, &c. 
The progrefs of the arts feldom fails to be rapid, when 
a people happen to be roufed out of a torpid Hate by fome 
fortunate change of circumftances. Profperity, contrafied 
with former abatement, gives to the mind a fpring, which 
is vigoroully exerted in every new purfuit. The Athe¬ 
nians made but a mean figure under the tyranny of Pifif- 
tratus; but, upon regaining freedom and independence, 
they were converted into heroes. Miletus, a Greek city 
of Ionia, being defiroyed by the king of Periia, and the 
inhabitants made Haves, the Athenians, deeply affefled 
with the mifery of their brethren, boldly attacked the 
kin" in his own dominions, and burnt the city of Sardis. 
In lefs than ten years after, they gained a fignal victory at 
Marathon ; and, under Themifiocles, made head againH 
that prodigious army with which Xerxes threatened utter 
ruin to Greece. Such profperity produced its ufual effeft; 
arts ftourifhed with arms, and Athens became the chief 
theatre for fciences, as well as for fine arts. The reign 
of AuguHus Caefar, which put an end to the rancour of 
civil w-ar, and refiored peace to Rome, with the comforts 
of fociety, proved an aufpicious aera for literature; and 
produced a cloud of Latin hiflorians, poets, and philofo- 
phers, to whom the moderns are indebted for their tafie 
and talents. One who makes a figure roufes emulation in 
all: one catches fire from another, and the national fpirit 
is every where triumphant: claflical works are compofed, 
and ufeful difcoveries made in every art and fcience. 
Fie who is emulous to excel in any or either of the fine 
arts, ought inceffantly to labour in the improvement of his 
tafie ; in acquiring that fenfible, refined, and clear, difcern- 
ment, by which he will be enabled to difiinguifli the real 
beauties in each object, the ornaments that are agreeable 
T. zuy 
to it, and the proportions and relations that fubfift among 
the feveral parts. Every objedt in the univerfe has its pe¬ 
culiar nature, of which the artill fiiould never lofe light. 
In vain will he otherwife ornament his work with the mofi 
refined and brilliant firokes; for, if nature be not juflly 
imitated, it will for ever remain imperfe-dt. In all the po¬ 
lite arts, and in all the fubjedts they embrace, there muft 
neceffarily reign an elevation of fentiment, that exprelfes 
each objedt in the greatefi perfedlion of which it is lufcep- 
tible, that imitates nature in her mofi exalted beauty. 
The defign of the fine arts being to excite pleafure by the 
expreflion of that which is beautiful, every artill fliould 
raife himfelf above his fubiedt ; and, chooling the moll 
favourable light wherein to place it, fhould there embel- 
lifii it with the mofi beautiful ornaments his genius can 
fuggefi, Hill obferving a firidb imitation of nature. 
From the obfervation ofthefe, refults the fublime, which 
is the union of the greatefi perfpicuity, with the Hridteft 
truth, and mofi exalted expreflion. It is neceffary to re¬ 
mark, that the mofi Ample and common fubjecfs are fuf- 
ceptible of a fublime expreflion. An idyl or landfcape 
may be as fublime in their kinds as an heroic poem. Every 
artifi (hould therefore endeavour to attain the fublime and 
beautiful, in whatever he undertakes; foaring infinitely 
above fervile imitation, and carefully avoiding all mean 
and vulgar ideas. Every thing that is low, indecent, or 
difagreeable, ought to be for ever baniflied from the no¬ 
ble and liberal arts. We may here remark, that the fine 
arts can no where flourilh, without an adequate and libe¬ 
ral patronage. Mr. Bromley, in his Hillory of the Fine 
Arts, has judicioufly obferved, that there is certainly a 
great difference between the Hate of patronage in the mo¬ 
dern world, and that which carried the arts to their high 
celebrity in ancient Greece. That difference is juft as great 
as the political fituation of different countries, or of the 
fame countries in pafi and prefent ages. The profeffor of 
fine art, in common with all who move in other profef- 
fions, looks naturally and properly for patronage to his 
abilities: but the door which opens to it is much wider 
to all others than to him. The man of letters repofes 
himfelf on that good fenfe, or that refined intelligence, 
which is diffufed through the world : nor does he ever 
quarrel with another, merely becaufe that other Hands as 
high as himfelf in the efiimation of the learned, even in 
lus own path of excellence: perhaps thofe parities of me¬ 
rit, where no fpecial differences of principles arife, are 
more generally feen to be the bond and cement of amiable 
and literary fociety. 
The profeffor of law rifes on that univerfal call for his 
abilities, which is minifiered by the never-cealing gene¬ 
ration and intercourfe of human tranfadlions, and which 
he knows will evermore fuflain and elevate infinite num¬ 
bers befides himfelf, in fpite of all that he can do or fay; 
his jealoulles therefore of others, or his oppolition to thofe 
who move in his own immediate line, would probably ne¬ 
ver throw the (malleft (hade on their fituation, nor anfwer 
any end but the vexation of his own heart. The phylical 
and tire ecclefiafiical man, although both of them perhaps 
come nearer than many others to that peeviflmefs of fpirit* 
which counts every thing gained by others as fo much lofi 
to itlelf, yet move on fo broad a ground, tiiat if one man 
does in faff Hand in the way of another, the (hade is too 
indifiindt to irritate the temper, and the origin of it is too 
remote or too diffufed to be controuled by any fchemes of 
envy or ill nature. The profelfor of fine art labours un¬ 
der different circumfiances, and experiences patronage in 
a different meafure. It riles to him more limited in its 
compafs. It is capable of feeding infinitely fewer numbers-: 
and, if the number of artifis be every where fmaller, in 
fadt, than of other profeffors, yet among the former every 
individual is a candidate for the fame reward. They all 
leek to gather the fame rays of light and warmth : they 
mull all balk in the fame local funlhine, or be left in the 
lhade. If to thofe circumfiances nature Arnold add in the 
individual the fpirit of a Diogenes, will he not be as feveae 
