The sciences, although they are undoubtedly the off spring of the arts, yet are most congenial to a people who possess case and leisure. It is to leisure that they owe their origin, as Aristotle long ago observed ; who accounts, upon this principle, for the great progress which the Egyptians had made in mathematieT, (Metal:h.
I. i. c. 1.) The Chaldmans and Babylonians, like the Egyptians, possessed ease and leisure ; and among • them also the sciences flourished, although they were averse to the pursuits of commerce and navigation. In Egi•pt, we know that commerce was in such disrepute, that the men disdained to meddle with it, and left it entirely to the women, (Herod. 1. 2. n. 35.) It was a maxim with this people, as it is with the Chinese and Japanese at present, never to leave their own country ; and, like them too, they excluded all strangers from their harbours. As Canton, in China, is the only har bour where strangers arc admitted, so Naucratis, in Egypt, was the only harbour where Way were received ; unless they made oath of being forced in elsewhere by stress of weather, (Herod. 1. 2.) Yet the scientific at tainments of the Egyptians were the admiration of all antiquity, and have been the object of much research even in modern times. Psammetichus, who was king of Egypt about the year 570 before Christ, first altered the policy of his nation respecting foreigners, to whom he opened his ports. This policy was continued by his successors ; and it was said to be, by the command of his son Nechos that the Phoenicians undertook the celebra ted voyage, in which it is supposed they circumnaviga ted Africa.
II. The fine arts come next to be considered, whiit are of later birth than the useful arts, as men must first pro vide for the necessities, before they can think of the em bellishments of life. The taste for these embellishments, however, is so inherent in man, that even in the most remote periods of the history of any tribe or nation, some rude traces of such arts as painting, poetry, music, and sculpture, may be detected. " In the course of my re searches," says M. de Goguet, " I have all along ob served, with astonishment, that the merely pleasing arts have been as ancient in their origin as those of the most indispensible necessity Tuba!, the inventor of musical instruments, was brother to Tubal-Cain, the inventor of metallurgy." Origin of Laws, tic. b. 2. c. 4.
Under the denomination of fine arts are commonly comprehended, not only painting, poetry, music, and sculpture, but architecture, engraving, gardening, elo quence, and dancing. Our observations, however, shall be chiefly confined to the first four of these, as present ing characteristics the most worthy of notice in a gene ral detail like this ; or, rather, we shall speak only of the first three, since painting and sculpture are so close Iv related, as not to require a separate discussion in the observations which are to follow.
The Greeks, who were fond of claiming to themselves the invention of every art and science, have not scru pled to assign the precise origin of painting, poetry, and music, and to name their fortunate inventor. To Apollo they ascribe the honour of inventing poetry ; to Mercury that of inventing the lyre, the first of musical instruments. The shell of a tortoise, they say, having been exposed on the shore, till the flesh was entirely dried up, and nothing but the sinews remained, stretch ed over its concavity, was observed by Mercury, when breathed upon by the wind, to emit musical sounds ; and it was this that suggested to him the construction of the lyre, which was first formed of tortoise shell, with chords stretched across it. An equally ingenious fable was invented by the Greeks, to account for the origin of the art of designing. A fond female, watching by her sleeping lover, observed that his shadow, projected on the wall, exhibited the exact lineaments of his coun tcnancc. Desirous of retaining the resemblance, when the original was gone,' she instantly traced upon the wail the faithlul outline ; and thus gave rise to an art, which is still more dearly prized by lovers than the rest of mankind.
Such fictions delight us in the.poets, but cannot sa tisfy the inquisitive research of the philosopher. The. arts just mentioned are not the invention of any ages or of any country They spring from the natural propensi ties of mankind, and fill up the idle hour of the savage. as well aS the more luxurious leisure of the fastidiow member of polished society. The origin of these arts. which, with others of the same class, are commonly called imitative, seems to have been well assigned by Aristotle : " Man," says he " is the most imitative o: . animals," /.4.11.4trroarremiv aa;WV. " Imitation is natural tc the human race, even from childhood; and it is in this way that we acquire our first knowledge, in which re spect we differ remarkably from other animals. All men delight in imitation, and can find pleSNre in contempla ting the resemblances of things, of which they could not behold the reality without pain ; such, for example, as the figures of wild beasts, and of dead bodies. The cause of this is, that to exercise the understanding is not only delightful to philosophers, but to all the rest of mankind. On this account men are pleased to be hold resemblances, because this furnishes them with an opportunity of reasoning, and exercising the understand ing." Poet. c. 4.