an the death and new birth of the circling years
afforded an image of the Resurrection at the end of the world. According
to others the Sun, surrounded by the twelve Signs, was emblematic of the
Sun of Justice surrounded by his twelve Apostles. The Abbe Bulteau sees
in these stony calendars a rendering of the passage in which St. Paul
declares to the Hebrews that "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever," while the Abbe Clerval gives this simple interpretation: that
all times belong to Christ, and are bound to glorify Him.

"But this is a mere detail," said Durtal to himself. "In the whole
structure of the cathedral itself we can trace two-fold purposes.

"The architectural mass of Notre Dame de Chartres as a whole may be
divided, externally, into three great parts, as indicated by the three
grand porches. The western or royal portal, which is the ceremonial
entrance to the sanctuary, between the two towers; the north porch on
the side next the bishop's palace, beyond the new spire; the south
porch, flanked by the old spire.

"Now, the subjects represented on the royal front and in the south porch
are identical. Each glorifies the Triumph of the Incarnate Word, with
this difference: that on the south porch Our Lord is not exalted alone
as He is on the west front, but in the person also of the Elect and of
His Saints. If to these two subjects, which may be considered as
one--the Saviour glorified in Himself and in His Saints--we add the
praises of the Virgin set forth in the north front we find this result:
a poem in praise of the Mother and the Son as declaring the final cause
of the Church itself.

"By studying the variations between the south and west fronts we
perceive that, though in both Jesus is shown in the same act of blessing
the earth, and though both are almost exclusively restricted to
illustrating the Gospel, leaving the scenes of the Old Testament to the
arches on the north, they differ greatly from each other, and are no
less unlike the portals of all other cathedrals.

"In total disagreement with the mystic rituals observed almost
everywhere else--at Notre Dame de Paris, at Bourges, at Amiens, to name
but three churches--the Last Judgment, which is seen on the main
entrance of those basilicas, is at Chartres relegated to the south
porch.

"And in the same way the Tree of Jesse, which at Amiens and Reims and
the cathedral at Rouen, is displayed on the royal porch, is at Chartres
on the no