1469. Fitness, or the proper adaptation of means to an end, is the second source of the relative beauty of forms. Considered in relation to the parts of a building, it is generally denominated proportion, and refers to the adequate strength of certain props to bear certain superincumbent parts, &c. In the detail of the ancient, and in scenes of relative beauty in the modern, style of gardening, it relates to the magnitude and situation of buildings, and other artificial objects, relative to natural ones; to the extent of the different scenes or constituent parts of a residence, compared with the whole; to the propriety and congruity of certain objects as ornaments; and, in general, to the adequacy of the means to the end, whatever these means or that end may be.
