uildings, they are either the experiments of barbarism, or the
commencements of decline.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] Appendix 19, "Early English Capitals."

[48] In this case the weight borne is supposed to increase as the
abacus widens; the illustration would have been clearer if I had
assumed the breadth of abacus to be constant, and that of the shaft
to vary.

CHAPTER X.

THE ARCH LINE.

Sec. I. We have seen in the last section how our means of vertical support
may, for the sake of economy both of space and material, be gathered
into piers or shafts, and directed to the sustaining of particular
points. The next question is how to connect these points or tops of
shafts with each other, so as to be able to lay on them a continuous
roof. This the reader, as before, is to favor me by finding out for
himself, under these following conditions.

Let _s_, _s_, Fig. XXIX. opposite, be two shafts, with their capitals
ready prepared for their work; and _a_, _b_, _b_, and _c_, _c_, _c_, be
six stones of different sizes, one very long and large, and two smaller,
and three smaller still, of which the reader is to choose which he likes
best, in order to connect the tops of the shafts.

I suppose he will first try if he can lift the great stone _a_, and if he
can, he will put it very simply on the tops of the two pillars, as at A.

Very well indeed: he has done already what a number of Greek architects
have been thought very clever for having done. But suppose he _cannot_
lift the great stone _a_, or suppose I will not give it to him, but only
the two smaller stones at _b_, _b_; he will doubtless try to put them
up, tilted against each other, as at _d_. Very awkward this; worse than
card-house building. But if he cuts off the corners of the stones, so as
to make each of them of the form _e_, they will stand up very securely,
as at B.

But suppose he cannot lift even these less stones, but can raise those
at _c_, _c_, _c_. Then, cutting each of them into the form at _e_, he
will doubtless set them up as at _f_.

[Illustration: Fig. XXIX.]

Sec. II. This last arrangement looks a little dangerous. Is there not
a chance of the stone in the middle pushing the others out, or tilting
them up and aside, and slipping down itself between them? There is such
a chance: and if by somewhat altering the form of the stones, we can
diminish this chance, all the better. I must say "we" now, for perhaps I
may have to