ARSUF, Palestine, a town on the coast, 12 miles north of Jaffa, famous as the scene of a victory of the crusaders under Richard I of England over the army of Saladin.
ART, in its broadest sense, is the purpose ful exercise of human activities for the ac complishment of some predetermined end of use or pleasure. Art is thus set apart from Nature which exists and operates outside of man, and which can enter the domain of Art only when and in so far as man calls her into his service by employing her powers for his own purposed ends. The distinction between Art and Nature, and the relations between them, have been a fruitful subject of philosoph ical discussion, which cannot here be sum marized, as it nowhere contravenes the defini tion given above. Art is also distinguished from Science, which investigates phenomena, declares facts, and lays down rules, but does not, as Science, execute the operations dic tated by these rules. It is Art which, having conceived the end to be realized, learns from Science the laws and rules which must be observed in the exercise of the activities by which the preconceived end is to be attained, and then applies them to that end.
While in the above-defined broad sense the name of art may be applied to the com monest human activities controlled by the will for a definite end— so that one may speak of an art of eating or walking — in general usage it is confined to such activities as involve ingenuity, judgment and skill. In this sense one speaks of the art of fishing, of building, of dress-making, of piano-playing. And in nearly all uses of the term there is present the idea of producing or creating, which is warranted by the etymology of the word in nearly all languages. The Latin Ars, from which we derive the English Art, is traceable to an ancient root Ar which is believed to signify a creation or begetting. Hence the word is also applied to the generality or total ity of the products of the human creative activity in a given field, place or age, as when one speaks of medieval art, American art, the art of the Flemish looms, referring not to the activity which created, but to the products of that activity.
In ancient and medieval times, the whole field of liberal culture was embraced in the term °arts° or "liberal arts"; and this usage survives in the modern degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and the name "Faculty of Arts" or °College of Arts" tradi tionally applied to certain faculties and insti tutions engaged in liberal education as dis tinguished from professional education. Gener ally however, modern usage prefers the term °culture to "arts" to designate the whole body of non-professional or theoretical educa tion and activity, in which are included litera ture, philosophy, language, history and pure science.
From the foregoing observations it will be seen that in every occupation, trade or pur suit there are involved both an art and a sci ence. The carpenter who makes a box must first conceive mentally—that is imagine— the box he is to produce, and exercise his activities to bring this conception into being: this is Art. Science teaches him the nature of his materials, and the laws which must con trol the use of his tools and materials to realize his conception. Then Art again ap pears in his application of his mental powers of skill and judgment and of his bodily powers of muscular activity, in conformity with the rules and laws of Science, and the box which is the product of this application is a work of the carpenter's art.
The mental preconception of a work of art, whether recorded in visible form by a draw ing or specification or not, is a design. So in the art of war, the commander's predeter mined plan of campaign or system of strategy is a design, as truly as is the architect's draw ing of a projected building, or the weaver's pattern of the proposed rug or brocade. Thus in every art there are two distinct elements or stages — design and execution. Design springs from the imagination, and guides and directs the execution. Everything that per tains to the execution is a part of the technic of the art; the rules and laws of the technic are the contribution of Science.