cture by
the placing of two or more separate shafts side by side, each having its
own work to do; then three or four, still with separate work; then, by
such steps as those above theoretically pursued, the number of the
members increases, while they coagulate into a single mass; and we have
finally a shaft apparently composed of thirty, forty, fifty, or more
distinct members; a shaft which, in the reality of its service, is as
much a single shaft as the old Egyptian one; but which differs from the
Egyptian in that all its members, how many soever, have each individual
work to do, and a separate rib of arch or roof to carry: and thus the
great Christian truth of distinct services of the individual soul is
typified in the Christian shaft; and the old Egyptian servitude of the
multitudes, the servitude inseparable from the children of Ham, is
typified also in that ancient shaft of the Egyptians, which in its
gathered strength of the river reeds, seems, as the sands of the desert
drift over its ruin, to be intended to remind us for ever of the end of
the association of the wicked. "Can the rush grow up without mire, or
the flag grow without water?--So are the paths of all that forget God;
and the hypocrite's hope shall perish."

Sec. XXVI. Let the reader then keep this distinction of the three systems
clearly in his mind: Egyptian system, an apparent cluster supporting a
simple capital and single weight; Greek and Roman system, single shaft,
single weight; Gothic system, divided shafts, divided weight: at first
actually and simply divided, at last apparently and infinitely divided;
so that the fully formed Gothic shaft is a return to the Egyptian, but
the weight is divided in the one and undivided in the other.

Sec. XXVII. The transition from the actual to the apparent cluster, in
the Gothic, is a question of the most curious interest; I have thrown
together the shaft sections in Plate II. to illustrate it, and exemplify
what has been generally stated above.[43]

[Illustration: Plate II.
PLANS OF PIERS.]

1. The earliest, the most frequent, perhaps the most beautiful of all
the groups, is also the simplest; the two shafts arranged as at _b_ or
_c_, (Fig. XIV.) above, bearing an oblong mass, and substituted for the
still earlier structure _a_, Fig. XIV. In Plate XVII. (Chap. XXVII.) are
three examples of the transition: the one on the left, at the top, is
the earliest single-shafted arrangement, constant