Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/234

Rh mental than structural features, and were often placed, not under the angles of the polygonal abacus, but under its alternate sides, as in Fig. 119, a capital from one of the chapels of the choir of Amiens. It is true that the crocket had always been largely ornamental in its purpose, and that associated with those under the corners of the abacus which were functional there had usually been others that had not any functional office, as in Fig. 113; but the general expression of the leading lines was always in sympathy with the form of the capital regarded as a working member. This expression was largely retained in the earliest and best capitals of the polygonal form, but in later examples the crocket became an extravagant and unmeaning excrescence.

The forms of bases are hardly less interesting than those of capitals. The Gothic base, as we have before seen, is always some modification of the Attic base of antiquity; but the Gothic shaft having to carry more weight, in proportion to its size, than the classic column, and being more subject to chances of lateral displacement, required a firmer and a stronger base. The round ancient base resting on its without the interposition of a plinth, or with a plinth of shallow proportions, suited perfectly well the simple conditions of classic construction; but the Gothic base had to be both deeper and more spreading. For if a heavily charged slender column, under conditions which expose it to the chance of more or less disturbance of its equilibrium, be placed upon a thin plinth, some rupture of the plinth may follow. But by the interposition of a second stone of