to be irresistible. And then what a marvel is the gigantic
Arachne, wrought like a jewel and heightened with gold, which might have
spun the web of those three flaming rose windows!"

"By the way," said the Abbe, when they had left the church and were
walking down the street, "I forgot to point out to you the Number which
is everywhere stamped on Chartres; it is identical with Paray-le-Monial.
Here, again, everything is in threes. Thus there are three aisles, and
three entrances each with three doors; if you count the pillars of the
nave, you will count twice three on each side. The transept aisles again
have each three bays and three pillars, the windows are in threes under
the three great roses. So, you see, Notre Dame is full of the Trinity."

"And it is also the great store-house of Mediaeval painting and
sculpture."

"Yes, and like other Gothic cathedrals, it is the completest and most
trustworthy collection of symbolism; for the allegories we fancy we can
interpret in Romanesque churches are on the whole but artificial and
doubtful--and that is quite conceivable. The Romanesque is a convert, a
pagan turned monk. It was not born Catholic as the pointed arch was; it
only became so by baptism conferred by the Church. Christianity
discovered it in the Roman _basilica_, and utilized while modifying it;
thus its origin is pagan, and it was only as it grew up that it could
learn the language and use the forms of our emblems."

"And yet, to me, as a whole, it seems to be a symbol, for it is the
image in stone of the Old Testament, a figure of contrition and fear."

"And yet more of the soul's peace," replied the Abbe. "Believe me,
really to understand that style we must go back to the fountain-head, to
the earliest times of Monasticism, of which it is a perfect expression;
back, in fact, to the Fathers of the Church, the monks of the Desert.

"Now, what is the very special character of the mysticism of the East?
It is the calmness of faith, love feeding on itself, ecstasy without
display, ardent but reserved, internal.

"In the books of the Egyptian Recluses you will never find the vehemence
of a Maddalena de' Pazzi or a Catherine of Siena, the passionate
ejaculations of a Saint Angela. Nothing of the kind, no amorous
addresses, no trepidations, no laments. They look upon the Redeemer less
as the Victim to be wept over than as the Mediator, the Friend, the
Elder Brother. To them He was, to quote Origen's words, 'Th