CONSTRUCTION IX. THE CAPITAL 147

building,-proportion utterly endless in its infinities of change, with unchanged beauty. And yet this connection of the frame of their building into one harmony has, I believe, never been so much as dreamed of by architects. It has been instinctively done in some degree by many, empirically in some degree by many more; thoughtfully, and thoroughly, I believe, by none.¹

§ 22. We have hitherto considered the abacus as necessarily a separate stone from the bell: evidently, however, the strength of the capital will be undiminished if both are cut out of one block. This is actually the case in many capitals, especially those on a small scale; and in others the detached upper stone is a mere representative of the abacus, and is much thinner than the form of the capital requires while the true abacus is united with the bell, and concealed by its decoration, or made part of it.

§ 23. Farther; we have hitherto considered bell and abacus as both derived from the concentration of the cornice. But it must at once occur to the reader, that the projection of the under stone and the thickness of the upper, which are quite enough for the work of the continuous cornice, may not be enough always, or rather are seldom likely to be so, for the harder work of the capital. Both may have to be deepened and expanded: but as this would cause a want of harmony in the parts when they occur on the same level, it is better in such case to let the entire cornice form the abacus of the capital, and to put a deep capital bell beneath it.

§ 24. The reader will understand both arrangements instantly by two examples. Fig. 27 represents two windows, more than usually beautiful examples of a very frequent Venetian form. Here the deep cornice or string course which

¹ [The MS. here adds:-

“Errors may be traced in the buildings even of the best times which look as if their architect had worked in great measure without principle; and the attempt of the Renaissance architects, with the help of Vitruvius, to assign to each of their so-called orders an invariable proportion of its own may be classed among the maxima stupidities ever displayed by the human race out of a savage state.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]