he impression of architectural grandeur and
majesty largely depends. It was as though Spanish architects were
utterly foreign to the latter impression, or wilfully murdered it by
substituting another more to their taste, namely, that of magnificence
and sumptuousness. Nowhere--to the author's knowledge--is this
impression more acutely felt than in a Spanish cathedral, viewed from
beneath the _croisee_.

Glittering brilliancy, dazzling gold, silver, or gilt, polished marble,
agate, and jasper, and a luxuriance of vivid colours meet the visitor's
eyes when standing there. The effect is theatrical, doubtless, but it
impresses the humble true believer as Oriental splendour; and what, in
other countries, might be considered as grotesque and unhealthy art,
must in Spain be regarded as the very essence of the country's worship,
the very _raison d'etre_ of the cathedral. Neither can it be considered
as unhealthy: with us in the North, our _religious awe_ is produced by
the solemn majesty of rising shafts and long, high, and narrow aisles;
this fails to impress the Iberian of to-day; and yet, the same sentiment
of _religious awe_, of the terrible unknown, be it saint, Saviour,
Virgin, or God, is imparted to him by this brilliant display of
incalculable wealth.

To produce this magnificence in choir and high altar, decorative and
industrial art were given a free hand, and together wrought those
wonders of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries which
placed Spain in a prominent position in the history of art. Goldsmiths
and silversmiths, masters of ironcraft, sculptors in stone and wood,
painters and _estofadores_, together with a legion of other artists and
artisans of all classes and nationalities, worked together in unison to
create both choir and high altar.

Therefore, from an artistic point of view, the Spanish cathedral is for
the foreigner a museum, a collection of art objects, pertaining, most of
them, to the country's industrial arts, for which Iberia was first among
all nations.

* * * * *

CHOIR STALLS.--Space cannot allow us to classify this most important
accessory of Spanish cathedrals. Carved in walnut or oak, now simple and
severe, now rich and florid, this branch of graphic art in low relief
constitutes one of Spain's most legitimate glories. It is strange that
no illustrated work dedicated exclusively to choir stalls should have
been published in any language. Th