figuring the souls that are most advanced in the way of
perfection and hinder the weaker brethren, represented by the smaller
stones, from slipping and falling. However, to Hugues de Saint Victor, a
monk of the abbey of that name in the twelfth century, this collection
of stones is merely the mingled assembly of the clerks and the laity.

"Again, these blocks of stone of various shapes are bound and held
together by mortar, of which Durand of Mende will tell you the meaning.
'Mortar,' saith he, 'is compounded of lime and sand and water; lime is
the burning quality of charity, and it combines by the aid of water,
which is the Spirit, with the sand, of the earth earthy.'

"Thus these united stones form the four walls of the church, which
Prudentius of Troyes tells us are the four evangelists; or, according
to other interpreters, they represent in stone the cardinal virtues of
religion: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance, already
prefigured by the walls of the City of God in the Apocalypse.

"Thus you see each part may be regarded as having more than one meaning,
but all included in one general idea common to all."

"And the windows?" asked Durtal.

"I am coming to them; they are emblematic of our senses, which are to be
closed to the vanities of the world and open to the gifts of Heaven;
they are also provided with glass, giving passage to the beams of the
true Sun, which is God. But Dom Villette has most clearly set forth
their symbolical meaning: 'They are,' says he, 'the Scriptures, which
receive the glory of the sun and keep out the wind, the hail and the
snow, the images of false doctrine and heresies.'

"As to the buttresses, they symbolize the moral force that sustains us
against temptation; they are likewise the hope which upholds the soul
and strengthens it; others see in them the image of the temporal powers
who are called upon to defend the power of the Church; and others again,
regarding more especially the flying buttresses which resist the thrust
of the span, say that they are imploring arms clinging to the
safe-keeping of the Ark in time of danger.

"The principal entrance, the great portal of so many churches, such as
those of Vezelay, Paray-le-Monial and Saint German l'Auxerrois, in
Paris, was approached through a covered vestibule, often very deep and
intentionally dark, called the Narthex. The baptismal pool was in this
porch. It was a place for probation and forgiveness, emblematical of