The second style is called Ionic.
The capital of the Ionic column has a base, and the capital has ornaments like curls underneath the square top, and the column has a base.
As this column is more slender and more ornamental than the Doric, it is called the woman’s style.
The third style is called Corinthian.
1. Doric.
2. Ionic.
3. Corinthian.
The capital of the Corinthian column is higher than either of the other two and still more ornamental. It is said that the architect who first made this column got his idea for its capital from seeing a basketful of toys that had been placed on a child’s grave as was the custom instead of flowers. The basket had been covered with a slab, and leaves of the thistle called the acanthus had grown up around the basket. It looked so pretty that the architect thought it would make a beautiful capital for a column, and so he copied it.
I asked some boys which one could find the most columns. The next day one boy said he had seen two Ionic columns, one on each side of the door of his house. The second had seen ten Doric columns on the savings-bank. But the third said he had seen 138 Corinthian columns.
“Where on earth did you see so many?” I asked.
“I counted the lamp-posts from my house to the school,” he said. “They were kind of Corinthian columns.”