By repeated observations, and by calculations based on such observations, we discover certain uniform modes in which the powers of nature act. Thus, it is a general law that all bodies attract each other in proportion to the quantity of matter which they contain. It is a particular law of electricity that similar kinds repel and dissimilar kinds attract each other. The collection, combination, and proper arrangement of such general and particular laws, constitute what is called Science. In general, an art is that which depends on practice or performance, while science is the examination of general laws, or of abstract and speculative principles.
Science differs from art in the same manner that knowledge differs from skill.
An artist may enchant us with his skill, although he is ignorant of all scientific principles. A man of science may excite our admiration by the extent of his knowledge, though he have not the least skill to perform any operation of art. When we speak of the mechanic arts, we mean the practice of those vocations in which tools, instruments and machinery, are employed. Rut the science of Mechanics explains the principles on which tools and machines are constructed, and the effects which they produce.