ABSTRACT
The issue of beauty and taste was one of the major debating points around design during the nineteenth century. Every work of Design may be considered in one or other of the following lights: Either in relation to the Art or Design which produced it,—to the nature of its Construction for the purpose or end intended to the nature of the End which it is thus destined to serve; and its Beauty accordingly depends, either upon the excellence or wisdom of this Design, upon the Fitness or propriety of this construction, or upon the Utility of this end. The considerations of Design, of Fitness, and of Utility, therefore, may be considered as the three great sources of the Relative Beauty of Forms. In many cases, this Beauty arises from all these Expressions together; but it be useful to consider them separately, and to remark the influence of each, upon the Beauty of Forms.
