Israelites, but it appears that they were permitted to erect cairns or piles of stone to preserve the recollection of -reat events, as Joshua did at Gilgal (q.v.), that it. might be a memorial of his miraculous passage over the .Ionian. See < Ibohi i I ii.
■I. Lastly, the fgurativi use of the term •■pillar," in reference to the cloud and lire accompanying 1 1 ites on their march (Exod. xxxiii, 9, 10 ; Neh. ix, 12; l'sa. xci.x. 7), or as in Cant. iii. 6 and Rev. x. 1. is plainly derived from the notion of an isolated column not sup- porting a roof. See Pillar oi Cloud and Fire. \ pillar is also an emblem of firmness and steadfastness (Jer.i,18; Rev. iii, 12), and of that which sustains or supports (GaL ii, 9 ; 1 Tim. iii, 15). In the Apocrypha we find a similar metaphor (Ecclus. xxxvi. 24): "He that getteth a wifo beginneth a possession, a help like unto himself, and a pillar of rest" See A» m 1 1 • n be.
PILLAR is in architectural language the column supporting the arch. In the Norman style the pillars are generally massive, and are frequently circular, with
m
Northamp- . L160.
Sections of Pillars.
capitals either of the same form or square; they are sometimes ornamented with channels, or flutes, in vari-
Duiidical Pillars.
PILLAR
211
PILLAR
ous forms, spiral, zigzag, reticulated, etc. In plain buildings a square or rectangular pillar, or pier, is occa- sionally found ; a polygonal, usually octagonal, pillar is also used, especially towards the end of the style, and is generally of lighter proportions than most of the other lands. But, besides these, clustered or compound pil- lars are extremely numerous and much varied ; the simplest of them consists of a square with one or more rectangular recesses at each corner, but a more common form is one resembling these, with a small circular shaft in each of the recesses, and a larger one, semicircular, on two (or on each) of the faces : most of the compound pillars partake of this arrangement, though other va- rieties are by no means rare.
In the Early English style plain circular or octagonal shafts are frequently used, especially in plain buildings, but many other and more complicated kinds of pillars are employed ; the commonest of these consists of a large central shaft, which is generally circular, with smaller shafts (usually four) round it; these are frequently made of a finer material than the rest, and polished, but they are often worked in courses with the central part of the pillar, and are sometimes filleted; in this style the pil- lars are very constantly banded.
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Welford, c. 12'.'0.
In the Decorated style the general form of clustered pillars changes from a circular to a lozenge-shaped ar- rangement, or to a square placed diagonally, but many other vari- eties are also to be met with. They sometimes consist of small shafts surrounding a larger one, and are sometimes moulded ; the small shafts and some of the mouldings are often filleted ; plain octagonal pillars are also very fre- quently employed in village churches: towards the end of this style a pillar consisting of four small shafts sep- arated by a deep hollow and two fillets is common, as it is also in the Perpendicular style, but the hollows are usually shallower, and the disposition of the fillets is different.
A plain octagonal pillar continues in use throughout the Perpendicular style, though it is not so frequent as at earlier periods, and its sides are occasional!}' slightly
hollowed. In Decorated work a few of the mouldings of the piers occasionally run up into the arches and form part of the archivolt, as at Bristol Cathedral, but in Per- pendicular buildings this arrangement is much more common, and in some cases the whole of the mouldings of the pillars are continued in the arches without any capital or impost between them: the forms are various, but in general arrangement they usually partake of a square placed diagonally; sometimes, however, they are contracted in breadth so as to become narrower between the archways (from east to west) than in the opposite direction : the small shafts attached to the pillars in this style are usually plain circles, but are occasionally fillet- ed, and in some instances are hollow-sided polygons.— Parker, Glossury of Architecture, s. v.
Orton-on-the-Hill, c. 1300. Stogumber, c. 1450.
Pillar of Cloud and Fike. According to Exod. xiii, 21 sq. (comp. xiv, 2-1; Numb, xiv, 14; Neh. ix, 12, 19), the Israelites during their journey from Egypt through the desert were accompanied in the day by a pillar of cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire*(Heb. "IV I^S", TL'X 1133J\ Sept. cstvXoq VE(pi\i]q, 7ri»|Ooc),as a guide (comp. esp. Exod. xl, 36 sq.) and protection (comp. Psa. cv, 89 ; Wisd. x, 17), and this waited over the tabernacle while the people rested (Exod. xl, 34 sq.; Numb, ix, 15 sq.). The narrative represents Jehovah himself as in this cloud (comp. also Numb. xiv, 14), and as speaking from it to Moses (Exod. xxxiii, 9 sq. ; Numb, xii, 5; Deut. xxxi, 15). Later writers explain this of the li wisdom"' of God (aocpia, Wisd. x, 17), or the divine Logos (q. v.; comp. Philo, Opera, i, 501). Poland, again, and after him many others, explained this appearance naturally, and re- ferred it to the fire carried in a vessel before the host, which in the day served as a guide and signal by its smoke, and at night by its brightness. Yon der Hart carried this opinion so far as to hold that this fire car- ried before the Israelites was the sacred fire preserved upon the altar from the time of Abraham (Ephemerid. Philol. Discurs.xi, 109 sq.; and Philol. Vindic. Helmst. 1G96. For the controversy on this view, see Rosen- muller on Exod. xiii, 21 ; comp. Fbrster, in Eichhorn's Repert. x, 132 sq.). This custom is actually observed by caravans in the East at the present day (Harmer, Observ. i, 438 sq. ; Descript. de VEgypte, viii, 128), and it became at an early day customary with armies