a general sense, a person skilled in some art; or, to give Mr Harris's definition, an artist is "A person possessing an habitual power of becoming the cause of some effect, according to a system of various and well-approved precepts." See Art.

We are told of a privilege granted at Vicenza to artists, like that of clergy in England: in virtue thereof, criminals adjudged to death save their lives if they can prove themselves the most excellent and consummate workmen in any useful art. This benefit is allowed them in favorem artis, for the first offence, except in some particular crimes, of which coining is one; for here the greater the artit, the more dangerous the person.

Artist, (Artista), in an academical sense, denotes a philosopher or proficient in the faculty of arts.

In the early ages of universities, the seven liberal arts completed the whole course of study, or philosophy, as it was called: whence the masters of this faculty were denominated Artists. What they undertook by the liberal arts used to be summed up in the following Latin verse:

Lingua, Tragia, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Augurium, Affinis.

Artist is more peculiarly used, by Paracelsus and other adepts, for a chemist or alchemist.—We find frequent mention, in authors of this class, of Elias Artist, or Elias the artist, who is to come some time before the dissolution of the world, and restore and make perfect all arts and sciences, but especially the gold-making art; and usher in a truly golden age, or millennium. The lower and meaner things in this sublime art, Paracelsus observes, God has permitted to be already discovered; but for the greater and more important matters, as the transmutation of other metals into gold, they are referred to the coming of Elias the artist.