But these modes of thought, according to which, on the one hand, the
processes of Art are included among processes of Nature, or on the other
the processes of Nature among the processes of Art, are exceptional. In
ordinary use the two conceptions, each of them somewhat vague and
inexact, are antithetical. Their antithesis was what Dr Johnson had
chiefly in his mind when he defined Art as "the power of doing something
which is not taught by Nature or by instinct." But this definition is
insufficient, because the abstract word Art, whether used of all arts at
once or of one at a time, is a name not only for the power of doing
something, but for the exercise of the power; and not only for the
exercise of the power, but for the rules according to which it is
exercised; and not only for the rules, but for the result. Painting, for
instance, is an art, and the word connotes not only the power to paint,
but the act of painting; and not only the act, but the laws for
performing the act rightly; and not only all these, but the material
consequences of the act or the thing painted. So of agriculture,
navigation and the rest. Exception might also be taken to Dr Johnson's
definition on the ground that it excludes all actions of instinct from
the genus Art, whereas usage has in more languages than one given the
name of Art to several of those ingenuities in the lower animals which
popular theory at the same time declares to be instinctive. Dante, for
instance, speaks of boughs shaken by the wind, but not so violently as
to make the birds forgo their Art--
"Non pero dal lor esser dritto sparte
Tanto, che gl' augelletti per le cime
Lasciasser d' operar ogni lor _arte_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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