CONGRUITY, (Lat. congruo to agree), a suitableness or relation of agreement between things.
It is a matter of experience that congruity, wherever perceived, is agreeable; and that incongruity is disagreeable. The only difficulty is to ascertain what are the particular objects which in conjunction suggest these relations; for there are many objects that do not. The sea, for example viewed in conjunction with a picture, or a man viewed in conjunction with a mountain, suggests neither congruity nor incongruity. It seems natural to infer, what indeed will be found true by induction, that we never perceive congruity or incongruity except among things which are connected together by some relation; such as a man and his actions, a principal and his accessories, a subject and its ornaments. Congruity is so nearly allied to beauty as commonly to be regarded as a species of it; and yet they differ so essentially as never to coincide. Beauty, like colour, is placed upon a single subject; congruity upon a plurality; and a thing beautiful in itself may, with relation to other things, produce the strongest sense of incongruity.
Congruity is also to be distinguished from propriety; congruity being the genus of which propriety is a species.
CONI or CUNEO, an administrative division of Piedmont, bounded north by that of Turin; east by Alessandria; south and west by the Apennines and Maritime Alps. It embraces an area of 2700 square miles, and is divided into the provinces of Cuneo, Alba, Mondovì, and Saluzzo. The surface of the division is intersected by numerous branches from the Alps and Apennines; but the inclosed valleys, which are well watered by the tributaries of the Po, yield abundance of corn, maize, and fruits, for the wants of the inhabitants, who are principally employed in agriculture and in the rearing of silk. Mulberries are extensively cultivated in the low grounds as food for the silkworm; while the higher slopes are covered with chestnut forests, and the elevated table-land affords a luxuriant summer pasturage. The principal streams are the Tanaro, the Stura, the Vraita, and the Maira. Of these the Tanaro is navigable, but only for a short distance. The mineral products of Coni include iron, lead, slate, and marble, &c. Pop. (1848) 600,872.
CONI or CUNEO, the capital of the cognominal province, situated on the right bank of the Stura, at its confluence with a mountain torrent called the Gesso, 46 miles S.W. from Turin. It was famous in Piedmontese warfare as a place of great strength; but in 1801, after the battle of Marengo, it was dismantled by the French, and its fortifications have been only replaced by a wall. It is the seat of a bishopric (founded in 1817), and the official residence of the intendant-general of the division. The principal public buildings are the cathedral and churches, the royal college, and town-hall. Coni possesses extensive manufactories of cloth and silk, and is the great mart for the agricultural produce of the district. Pop. 18,000, exclusive of the garrison.