e now no mere pledges of apparent
stability, but have very serious practical use in supporting the angle
of the abacus. If, even with the added spur, the support seems
insufficient, we may fill up the crannies between the spurs and the
bell, and we have the form _c_.

Thus _a_, though the germ and type of capitals, is itself (except under
some peculiar conditions) both ugly and insecure; _b_ is the first type
of capitals which carry light weight; _c_, of capitals which carry
excessive weight.

Sec. V. I fear, however, the reader may think he is going slightly too
fast, and may not like having the capital forced upon him out of the
cornice; but would prefer inventing a capital for the shaft itself,
without reference to the cornice at all. We will do so then; though we
shall come to the same result.

The shaft, it will be remembered, has to sustain the same weight as the
long piece of wall which was concentrated into the shaft; it is enabled
to do this both by its better form and better knit materials; and it can
carry a greater weight than the space at the top of it is adapted to
receive. The first point, therefore, is to expand this space as far as
possible, and that in a form more convenient than the circle for the
adjustment of the stones above. In general the square is a more
convenient form than any other; but the hexagon or octagon is sometimes
better fitted for masses of work which divide in six or eight
directions. Then our first impulse would be to put a square or hexagonal
stone on the top of the shaft, projecting as far beyond it as might be
safely ventured; as at _a_, Fig. XX. This is the abacus. Our next idea
would be to put a conical shaped stone beneath this abacus, to support
its outer edge, as at _b_. This is the bell.

[Illustration: Fig. XX.]

Sec. VI. Now the entire treatment of the capital depends simply on the
manner in which this bell-stone is prepared for fitting the shaft below
and the abacus above. Placed as at _a_, in Fig. XIX., it gives us the
simplest of possible forms; with the spurs added, as at _b_, it gives
the germ of the richest and most elaborate forms: but there are two
modes of treatment more dexterous than the one, and less elaborate than
the other, which are of the highest possible importance,--modes in which
the bell is brought to its proper form by truncation.

Sec. VII. Let _d_ and _f_, Fig. XIX., be two bell-stones; _d_ is part of
a cone (a sugar-loaf upside down, with i