[M2.4backL]                                                           [M2.4back]									4
                                                                      
                                                                      		1.   The Wall is either the Support of the Roof, or it is
Add here the wall for effect of Surface:  Aesthetic in                		the enclosure of privacy:  Or it excludes Hostility,
building where height does not properly admit of detached             		one of these Functions it must have:  It is either
shafts, conf p 14. (2)                                                		Support or shelter, or defence.
                                                                      		In relation to these three functions;  a wall is to be
                                                                      		considered either as - a. supporting vertical pressure,
Function a;  Bearing of Vertical Pressure   By general                		b.  supporting lateral pressure, whether from an oblique
principle:  that the best is that which is done with                  		roof - or external violence;  c as a veil, only;
least material, and it being evident, etc.                            		 Now if the function be to support Vertical pressure only;
                                                                      		the wall is {of course} best built where the given pressure is
                                                                      		supported with the smallest quantity of material.  All
                                                                      		redundant material is an offence to the eye:
                                                                      		Now it is {evident or if not evident,} mathematically demonstrable
                                                                      		that the more solidly the materials are arranged,
                                                                      		the more weight they will bear:  and also {that}
                                                                      		the most compact form in which they can be arranged is
                                                                      		that of a succession of cylindrical masses.  This there-
                                                                      		fore is the best possible form in which vertical support
                                                                      		can be attained;  and every truly noble building that
                                                                      		ever was built, or ever will be, consists {and must consist}
                                                                      		so far as {concerns} its vertical sup pressures, of some modification 		of it:
                                                                      		It is the Pillar support which has been
                                                                      		the source of grace and strength {in the buildings of all
                                                                      		great nations}, from the infancy of the world till now
                                                                      		and must be, so long as the laws of gravity remain unchanged.

[Version 0.05: May 2008]