in Italy. In the United States the home navy yards, are at Brooklyn, N. Y., Charlestown, Mass., Kittery, N. H., Washington, D. C., League Island, Pa., Portsmouth, Va., Mare Island, Cal. and Puget Sound, Wash. Besides these, there are naval stations at Charleston and Port Royal, S. C., Key West, Fla., Algiers, La., Pensacola, Fla. and at North Chicago, Ill., for the Great Lakes service; together with torpedo and training stations at Newport, R. I., and a training station at Yerba Buena Island, Cal. In foreign parts the United States have naval stations at Tutuila, Samoa; at the Island of Guam; San Juan, Porto Rico; Culebra, W. I.; Guantanamo, Cuba; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Cavite, Philippine Islands. At home, Springfield, Mass., has from the Revolutionary era been the seat of the small-arms manufacture; Harper's Ferry at an early era also became important as an arsenal, with others, later on selected, at Watertown, Mass., Watervliet, N. Y. and Rock Island, Ill., besides a powder depot at Dover, N. J. and a proving ground at Sandy Hook, N. J. During the Civil War, there were arsenals at Springfield, Boston, Washington and elsewhere, but then, as now, for powder, small-arms and war supplies, the United States chiefly depended and depends on private factories, and on the larger manufacturing firms; also for the heavy guns used by the army and navy.
Ar'senic. See Poisons.
Art. When we think of "all creation," we think of the sky and the earth and all things in and of and around the sky and earth, including, finally, people and the things they have created. To this whole concept we sometimes apply the name of Nature. When we wish to distinguish from the rest of nature the things that human beings have accomplished, we sometimes use the word Art. This word is used in other senses, too, but in its largest sense it includes all those things that have been added by man to nature as he found her. In this light art might be said to begin where nature leaves off—to be, in other words,"all but nature." As a matter of fact, however, we know that nature never does and never will "leave off" so long as man "keeps on," and the art is simply our name for Nature, when she works through man's intention.
The stem A R from which the word art is descended is probably the same stem from which we get such words as articulate, "to fashion," "to join," and arithmetic, fundamentally, "a putting together," as well as artificial and artisan. The word Art signifies a doing, a making, a fashioning or a putting together, and it usually implies that the thing is accomplished by human skill.
Dr. Johnson's definition for art is "The power of doing something which is not taught by nature or by instinct;" for example we say, "the art of making violins." But the word has other applications; we have already seen that it signifies not only the power of doing, but also the doing itself; as, when we speak of "devoting one's life to art," we mean, usually, the production of works of art. Besides this one word may mean the principles which govern the doing; as in the phrase, "a training in art." Lastly, the word is used with reference to the thing done–and we speak of "French art" when we mean the productions of the artists of France.
The various arts are, in our day broadly divided into two classes, ordinarily distinguished as the useful arts and the fine arts. The meaning of the former of these terms is self-evident and it, in turn covers such subdivisions as the liberal arts, industrial arts, manual arts, household arts and others. The second term, the fine arts (see Fine arts), designates those activities which have their root in man's impulsive nature, with beauty in some form as their result.
The word art is nowadays often applied to fine arts alone; thus we sometimes epak of "art-lovers," meaning persons who are interested in the fine arts; and sometimes the significance of the term is narrower still so that it refers simply to sculpture and painting or even the painting only.
When any other activity than the fine arts is specifically referred to as "an art," the idea of excellence is usually implied–either in the end to the attained or in the mode of attaining the end; as, "the art of flying;" "the conjuror's art;" "the art of boiling an egg"
At all times some art or arts have been held in higher esteem than others, this often being due to the fact that some arts demand a more complex use of the faculties than others and sometimes to the circumstances under which the various arts are practiced. Under the feudal system for instance, warfare was regarded as one of the highest and most important of arts. In communities like ancient Rome, where the land was tilled by free cultivators, agriculture was considered one of the highest arts. In Pompeii, where the art of painting was practiced by the slaves exclusively, this came to be regarded as one of the meaner arts. In medieval Italy, where commerce and manufacturing became highly organized, they were ranked among the "greater arts," and the word art (arte) was used to designate the guilds or companies by which these activities were carried on.
There is standing in Florence to this day a beautiful building, erected by the
