it more convenient as taking up less room and obstructing less light.  But though the column is quite strong enough, the octagonal top does not make so good a seat or bearing for the ends of the lintels.  We will therefore put a flat square stone on the top of it (Fig. 6), which will serve as a bed for the lintels to rest on securely.  But the angles of this bed plate, where they project beyond the face of the column, appear rather weak, and are so actually to some extent—­a double defect, for it is not enough in architecture that a thing should be strong enough, it is necessary that it should appear so, architecture having to do with expression as well as with fact.  We will, therefore, strengthen this projecting angle, and correct the abruptness of transition between the column and the bed plate, by brackets (Fig. 7) projecting from the alternate faces of the column to the angles of the bed plates.  As this rather emphasizes four planes of the octagon column at the expense of the other four, we will bind the whole together just under the brackets by a thin band of ornament constituting a necking, and thus we have something like a capital developed, a definitely designed finish to our column, expressive of its purpose.  This treatment of the upper end, however, would make the lower end rising abruptly from the ground seem very bare.  We will accordingly emphasize the base of the column, just as we emphasized the base of the wall, by a projecting moulding, not only giving expression to this connection of the column with the ground, but also giving it the appearance, and to some extent the reality, of greater stability, by giving it a wider and more spreading base to rest on.  We have here still left the lines of one column vertically parallel, and there is no constructive reason why they should not remain so.  There is, however, a general impression to the eye both of greater stability and more grace arising from a slight diminution upward.  It is difficult to account for this on any metaphysical principle, but the fact has been felt by most nations which have used a columnar architecture, and we will accept it and diminute (so to speak) our column (Fig. 8).  We have here taken a further step by treating the shaft of the column in two heights, keeping the lower portion octagonal and reducing the upper portion to a circle, and we now find it easier to treat the capital so as to have a direct and complete connection with the column, the capital being here merely a spreading out of the column into a bracket form all round, running it into the square of the bed plate.[3] The spreading portion is emphasized by surface ornament, and the necking is again emphasized, this time more decisively, by a moulding, forming a series of parallel rings round the column.  If we wish to give our column an expression of more grace and elegance, we can further reduce the thickness of it (Fig. 9), and give more spread to the capital, always taking care to be sure that the strength of the column is not reduced below