OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 315 



maybe replaced by planes, — making it polygonal; yet, though it 

 may thus acquire features like those of a column, its essential char- 

 acter remains entirely different. Even if, by continuing tin- process 

 of replacement, a pier were produced with an infinite number of sides, 

 and with a transverse section sensibly coinciding with a circle, and so, 

 to mere scientific scrutiny, it were transformed into a cylindrical 

 column, it would fail of being a column in any true, philosophical 

 sense. Conversely, a column may lose its distinguishing character- 

 istic, may be planed down to prismatic angularity, and yet continue 

 to demand of the critic the same treatment as before. In short, the 

 lines of development which start from the primitive pier and the 

 primitive column may approach indefinitely, but, strictly speaking, can 

 never meet. 



§ 3. First Steps in the Development of the Column and Pier. 



The only indispensable member of either column or pier, as well as 

 the one that especially proclaims the type of each, is the shaft, — an 

 upright beam or pillar to convey the roof-weight to the floor. Since, 

 however, in simple huts, a wooden prop resting on a damp floor is 

 likely to decay, or, if small, to be crowded into the ground, a very 

 natural and early improvement is the insertion of a fiat stone beneath 

 it, to prevent one or the other, or both, of these mishaps. This flat 

 stone is the primitive plinth. Again, in order that the roof-beams may 

 rest more firmly on the head of the prop, a flat, plinth-like slab is per- 

 haps placed on its top. In case the potential column be composed of 

 bamboos or reeds tied together in a bundle, — as often in alluvial 

 countries, — such a cap is almost necessary. This tile or block, for 

 whatever purpose designed, is the primitive abacus. Now, when the 

 growing desire for neat and tasteful construction demands the exchange 

 of the scraggy prop for a straight, carefully chosen log, and when this 

 log is trimmed and smoothed, these supplementary members are squared 

 to correspond with the increased elegance of the shaft. Furthermore, 

 when in process of time the wooden support is copied in more or less 

 durable materials, as sandstone or marble, the plinth and abacus, 

 though no longer of such obvious necessity, are often retained for 

 reasons of taste. The plinth is kept not so much because the architect 

 fancies that the marble shaft is in any sense subject to decay, or even 

 because a suitable platform is lacking to sustain it, as because, when 

 lifted and planted on a sort of pedestal, it looks more stable, seems to 

 spring more satisfactorily from the undefined level of the floor. Simi- 



