Excerpt from The History of Civilization, Vol. 7 of 7<br><br>Thus bringing these various things together we would say that art is an habitual power in man, of becoming the cause of some effect, according to a system of various and well approved precepts; that it acts only on the con tingent, which is within the reach of the human powers to influence; that its final cause or motive is the absence or want of something appearing good, relative to human life, and attainable by man, but superior to his natural and uninstructed faculties; and that it will be accomplished and ended in an energy or a work.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.