OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 341 



It is remarkable that in all cases these pieces are much longer than 

 mere utility requires, and furthermore are decidedly longer below the 

 astragal than above it. Both these facts throw light on the aesthetic 

 operation of the Egyptian mind. The apparent utility of the pieces is 

 pushed somewhat into the background by so modifying them that they 

 shall assume the role of decorations. A mathematical beauty is at the 

 same time attained by making their length, measured both ways from 

 the joint between shaft and capital, approximately equal below to one 

 fourth of the shaft, and above to one third of the capital. 



Capital. — The capital of this order is not so important or complex 

 as in either of the other orders. The crowning member of the column 

 is as yet but slightly " specialized," as biologists would put it. This 

 particular kind of capital has ordinarily been called the " bud capital,"* 

 but this term is appropriate only when applied to the lotus columns, or 

 when loosely descriptive of the tout ensemble of the capital. It is 

 always misleading when applied to the papyrus columns, whose capi- 

 tals are never composed of buds ; and, since the latter group is much 

 more numerous than the former, the name must be considered ou the 

 whole quite objectionable. 



In the lotus group the capital consists of four buds, which terminate 

 the four stems of the shaft. Their swelling bases and tapering points 

 combine to give the capital its peculiar shape. That there may be no 

 ambiguity in the matter, each bud is painted to represent the white 

 of the flower just bursting through the green case of the sepals.f 

 (Fig. 5.) 



In the first sub-group of the papyrus columns the capital consists of 

 a simple continuation of the component stalks of the shaft, their trian- 

 gular shape and sharp edges being as carefully marked as before. X 

 The presence of these edges, and the repetition of the exact forms 

 found in the shaft, utterly exclude any bud theory here. The princi- 

 pal difficulty with this form is in justifying the swelling which produces 

 the capital. If the stalks of the shaft are conceived to continue above 

 the astragal, their combined diameter should gradually and uninter- 

 ruptedly diminish. This not being the case, we are driven to an 

 explanation which, though not generally received, seems worthy of 

 acceptance ; namely, that the protuberance of the capital is conceived to 



* Wilkinson, Anc. Egs., ii. 203 ; Kenrick, Anc. Eg., i. 254 ; Schnaase, Gesch. 

 d. bild. Kiinste, i. 331 ; Miiller, Anc. Art, p. 219. 

 t Lepsius, i. 60; Rosellini, ii. 2. 

 | Long, Eg. Antiqs. in the Brit. Mus., p. 113; Rouge, plate 62. 



