t of
wood, even in places where these materials are readily obtained. But if
they are properly constructed, such buildings will need very few repairs
for many years. It is often objected, on the other hand, that such
buildings are damp and unwholesome. This is, undoubtedly, true of many
of the old stone houses which we find scattered about the country. And
it is true, because they were not properly built. When properly built,
they preserve the most equal temperature at all seasons. They are warm
in winter and cool in summer, and the sudden changes which affect the
weather without, need scarcely be felt by the delicate invalid within
the walls of the stone mansion, if suitable attention is given to the
simple matter of ventilation.

But let us return to the subject of adaptation. The illustrations which
occur to us may serve to furnish a somewhat clear idea of what we mean
by the prime conditions necessary to be observed in building.

By the term adaptation, we mean such choice of style, material, size
and arrangement as shall fit the structure: 1st, to the site; 2d, to the
climate; and 3d, to the uses for which it is built.

And, first, as to the site: It would be obviously incongruous to erect
the same house on these two different sites, with their different
characteristic features and surroundings; for example, _the one_ a
nearly level plane gently rising, perhaps, as you approach from the road
the position where the house shall stand, and sloping away again towards
other broad green fields and the fertile meadows beyond--with no
background of hills or mountains, no irregularly formed lake, but with a
placid, lazy stream, half-sleeping, half-gliding by the weeping elms,
and among the scattered groups of stately, old trees:--_the other_, a
romantic hillside in the native forest, with its neighboring mountain
range, where in the bright summer-time, the noisy, laughing brook keeps
time to your thoughts and fancies as you wander among the hills, and in
the bleak winter the winds sigh mournfully through the pines or utter
their clarion calls to the spirit of the storm.

The one situation would be appropriate to the Italian villa, with its
flat roof, and overhanging cornices, its spacious verandahs and
balconies, all having that depth and boldness and variety of outline
necessary to secure the proper effects of light and shadow which, the
absence of all variety of form in the landscape, would render
indispensable. But n