Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SCI'ENCE, n. [Fr. from L. scientia, from scio, to know; Sp. ciencia; It. scienza. Scio is probably a contracted word.]

1. In a general sense, knowledge, or certain knowledge; the comprehension or understanding of truth or facts by the mind. The science of God must be perfect.
2. In philosophy, a collection of the general principles or leading truths relating to any subject. Pure science as the mathematics, is built on self-evident truths; but the term science is also applied to other subjects founded on generally acknowledged truths, as metaphysics; or on experiment and observation, as chimistry and natural philosophy; or even to an assemblage of the general principles of an art, as the science of agriculture; the science of navigation. Arts relate to practice, as painting and sculpture. A principle in science is a rule in art. – Playfair.
3. Art derived from precepts or built on principles. Science perfects genius. – Dryden.
4. Any art or species of knowledge. No science doth make known the first principles on which it buildeth. – Hooker.
5. One of the seven liberal branches of knowledge, viz. grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. – Bailey. Johnson. Note. Authors have not always been careful to use the terms art and science with due discrimination and precision. Music is an art as well as a science. In general, an art is that which depends on practice or performance, and science that which depends on abstract or speculative principles. The theory of music is a science; the practice of a an art.