IX 
MERICANS are gradually learn- 
ing that fitness, appropriate- 
ness, is the foundation of all 
artistic excellence ; and though 
the lesson is not yet fully acquired, we are 
making visible progress toward the realiza- 
tion of this quality in our various classes of 
buildings. The improvement is perhaps 
most manifest in our country houses, which 
we design with a more intelligent regard 
for the requirements of site and environ- 
ment than we did even ten years ago, and a 
truer sense of the fact that in such houses 
simplicity is a cardinal virtue. There has 
been a reaction against conventionality on 
the one hand and against ostentation on the 
other, and it has been inspired by a new- 
born feeling for architectural fitness. 
But in a reaction men are almost certain 
to go too far, and so it is not surprising to 
find that in trying for simplicity we some- 
191 
