fig. 3, _b_; the inner line in the figure being that
of the stone behind the lily, the outer that of the external network,
taken through the side of the capital; while fig. 3, _c_ is the outer
profile at its angle; and the reader will easily understand that the
passing of the one of these lines into the other is productive of the
most exquisite and wonderful series of curvatures possible within such
compass, no two views of the capital giving the same contour. Upon these
profoundly studied outlines, as remarkable for their grace and
complexity as the general mass of the capital is for solid strength and
proportion to its necessary service, the braided work is wrought with
more than usual care; perhaps, as suggested by the Marchese Selvatico,
with some idea of imitating those "nets of chequerwork and wreaths of
chainwork" on the chapiters of Solomon's temple, which are, I suppose,
the first instances on record of an ornamentation of this kind thus
applied. The braided work encloses on each of the four sides of the
capital a flower whose form, derived from that of the lily, though as
usual modified, in every instance of its occurrence, in some minor
particulars, is generally seen as represented in fig. 11 of Plate VIII.
It is never without the two square or oblong objects at the extremity of
the tendrils issuing from its root, set like vessels to catch the dew
from the points of its leaves; but I do not understand their meaning.
The abacus of the capital has already been given at _a_, Plate XVI.,
Vol. I.; but no amount of illustrations or eulogium would be enough to
make the reader understand the perfect beauty of the thing itself, as
the sun steals from interstice to interstice of its marble veil, and
touches with the white lustre of its rays at mid-day the pointed leaves
of its thirsty lilies.

In all the capitals hitherto spoken of, the form of the head of the bell
has been square, and its varieties of outline have been obtained in the
transition from the square of the abacus to the circular outline of the
shafts. A far more complex series of forms results from the division of
the bell by recesses into separate lobes or leaves, like those of a rose
or tulip, which are each in their turn covered with flower-work or
hollowed into reticulation. The example (fig. 10, Plate VII.) from St.
Mark's will give some idea of the simplest of these conditions: perhaps
the most exquisite in Venice, on the whole, is the central capita