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Art (Power of doing something not)

the power of doing something not taught by nature or instinct; as, to walk is natural, to dance is an art;power or skill in the use of knowledge; the practical application of the rules or principles of science. A system of rules to facilitate the performance of certain actions; contrivance; dexterity; address; adroitness.

In esthetics, art as distinguished from science consists of the truths disclosed by that species of knowledge disposed in the most convenient order for practice, instead of the best order for thought.

Art proposes to itself a given end, and, after defining it, hands it over to science.

Science, after investigating the causes and conditions of this end, returns it to art, with a theorem of the combination of circumstances under which the desired end may be effected. After receiving them, art requires whether any or all of those scientific combinations are within the compass of human power and human means, and pronounces the end inquired after obtainable or not. The grounds of every rule of art are to be found in the theorems of science. An art can then only consist of rules, together with as much of the speculative propositions (which lose all their speculative look as soon as they come into the artist's hands) as comprises the justification of those rules. Though art must 1 L A