III. Popular Science and Art.
When we contemplate the arts and processes of civilized life, we cannot but be struck with the vast amount of invention and ingenuity required for their gradual development. Not an article of clothing or of furniture, not an instrument, implement, or machine, could have been brought to the state in which we find it, without many successive steps of invention, due to different minds, supplied at different times, and brought to light in different countries. But in devoting several of our volumes to the Useful Arts, we shall not be unmindful of the fact, that Art is the application of Science to a practical end. It is proposed, therefore, under the comprehensive title of Popular Science and Art, to include portions of our knowledge of animate and inanimate nature. The object will be to assist the general reader to regard with an intelligent eye the varied phenomena of nature, to gratify the laudable desire of understanding what he sees, and of preparing him in some measure to enter more fully upon the study of a given subject. In this way, it is hoped to effect a useful purpose, by connecting Science and the Useful Arts; for “it is not, surely, in the country of Arkwright, that the Philosophy of Commerce can be thought independent of Mechanics; and where Davy has delivered lectures on Agriculture, it would be folly to say that the most philosophic views of Chemistry were not conducive to the making our valleys laugh with corn.”
The works already prepared, or in course of preparation, for this division, comprise the following subjects:
The Useful Arts employed in the Production of Food.2s. 6d.
The Useful Arts employed in the Production of Clothing.2s. 6d.
The Useful Arts employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses.
The Writing-Desk and its Contents, taken as a Text for the Familiar Illustration of many important Facts in Experimental Science.2s.
Examples of Mechanical Ingenuity.
The Philosophy of the External Senses.
Ancient and Modern Modes of Measuring Time, with curious Illustrations of the application of Clockwork.
The Rise and Progress of Agriculture.
The Natural History of Birds and Insects injurious to Farming and Gardening.
The Wonders of the Microscope.
Mathematical Magic.
The Fine Arts will also form an interesting portion of this division. The object will be, in a few popular histories, to trace the origin, rise, and progress of Sculpture, Painting, Engraving, Music, &c., and their influence on mankind.