[M2.14backL]                                                          [M2.14back]									14
                                                                      
                                                                      (1)		inexpedient, except as they enable the architect more
                                                                      		conveniently to place the superincumbent weight;  Thus a
                                                                      		double or treble group of slender shafts may {sometimes}
                                                                      		more conveniently bear a longitudinal pressure than a
                                                                      		single massy one.
                                                                      (2)		With all this license of proportion, there is however a
                                                                      		limit to the employment of the detached shaft above a
                                                                      		certain scale:  The roof of a building is of course of the
                                                                      		same weight, placed high or low; but the shafts which
                                                                      		are strong enough to support it when it is at no very
                                                                      		great height from the ground, are not strong enough to
Yet consider the entire height of the piers of Milan:                 		bear their own added weight {as well} when they are indefinitely
Very noble  but they are clustered shafts:  and the niche             		prolonged upwards;  Here very tall detached shafts
capitals are a mere banding;  the mouldings merge the same            		must be of a thickness altogether disproportionate to the
above;  There is an ungraceful variety in these capitals              		weight they have to carry:  and are therefore always ungraceful:
some being surrounded by six flat foliated and gabled                 		Great elevation must therefore be attained
canopies, and very ugly;  and others composed of true                 		either by slender shafts, supported by walls;  or by walls
projecting niches.                                                    		of a thickness sufficient alone to sustain the weight of
                                                                      		the roof - or else by superimposition of successive ranks
                                                                      		of detached shafts.
                                                                      (3)		The question propriety of superimposition has {only} been much disputed
                                                                      		because it has not been fitly considered that it is
                                                                      		the only means of constructing elevated buildings of detached
                                                                      		shafts whose

[Version 0.05: May 2008]