lots Senez from my sight as fate has
blotted out its record from history,--and I realise that our human
memory is in vain."

[Sidenote: Aix.]

The old Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur at Aix is not one of those rarely
beautiful churches where a complete and restful homogeneity delights the
eye, nor is it a church of crude and shocking transitions. It is rather
a well-arranged museum of ecclesiastical architecture, where, in
sufficient historical continuity and harmony, many Provencal conceptions
are found, and the evolution of Provencal architecture may be very
completely followed. As in all collections, the beauty of Saint-Sauveur
is not in a general view or in any glance into a long perspective, but
in a close and loving study of the details it encloses; and so charming,
so really beautiful are many of the diverse little treasures of Aix,
that such study is better repaid here than in any other Provencal
Cathedral. For this is one of the largest Cathedrals of the province,
and the buildings which form the ecclesiastical group are most
complete. With its baptistery, Cloister, church, and arch-episcopal
Palace, it is not only of many epochs and styles, but of many historical
uncertainties, and the hypotheses of its construction are enough to daze
the most hardened archaeologist.

[Illustration: "THE SOUTH AISLE."--AIX.]

The oldest part of the Cathedral is the baptistery, and the date of its
origin is unknown. Much of its character was lost in a restoration of
the XVII century, but its old round form, the magnificent Roman columns
of granite and green marble said to have been part of the Temple to
Apollo, give it an atmosphere of dignity and an ancient charm that even
the XVII century--so potent in architectural evil--was unable to
destroy.

[Illustration: THE ROMANESQUE PORTAL.]

In 1060, after the destructive vicissitudes of the early centuries,
Archbishop Rostaing d'Hyeres issued a pastoral letter appealing to
the Faithful to aid him in the re-building of a new Cathedral; and it
may be reasonably supposed that the nave which is at present the south
aisle, the baptistery, and the Cloisters were the buildings that were
dedicated less than fifty years later. They are the only portions of the
church which can be ascribed to so early a period, and with the low door
of entrance, the single nave and the adjoining cloister-walk, they
constitute the usual plan of XI century Romanesque. Considering this as
the early church,