device--those
immediately adjacent to each other frequently interlaced in the true
lover's knot, and all supporting round or trefoliate arches--run along,
in continuous galleries, under the eaves, as if for the purpose of
supporting the roof--run up the pediment in front, are continued along
the side-walls and round the eastern absis, and finally engirdle the
cupola. Sometimes the western front is absolutely covered with these
galleries, rising tier above tier. Though introduced merely for
ornament, and therefore on a vicious principle, these fairy-like
colonnades win very much on one's affections. I may add to these general
features the occasional and rare one, seen to peculiar advantage in the
cathedral of Cremona, of numerous slender towers, rising, like minarets,
in every direction, in front and behind, and giving the east end,
specially, a marked resemblance to the mosques of the Mahometans.

"The Baptistery and the Campanile, or bell-tower, are in theory
invariable adjuncts to the Lombard cathedral, although detached from it.
The Lombards seem to have built them with peculiar zest, and to have had
a keen eye for the picturesque in grouping them with the churches they
belong to.

"I need scarcely add that the round arch is exclusively employed in pure
Lombard architecture.

"To translate this new style into its symbolical language is a
pleasurable task. The three doors and three gable ends signify the
Trinity, the Catherine-wheel window (if I mistake not) the Unity, as
concentrated in Christ, the Light of the Church, from whose Greek
monogram its shape was probably adopted. The monsters that support the
pillars of the porch stand there as talismans to frighten away evil
spirits. The crypt (as in older buildings) signifies the moral death of
man, the cross, the atonement, the cupola heaven; and these three,
taken in conjunction with the lengthened nave, express, reconcile, and
give their due and balanced prominence to the leading ideas of the
Militant and Triumphant Church, respectively embodied in the
architecture of Rome and Byzantium. Add to this, the symbolism of the
Baptistery, and the Christian pilgrimage, from the Font to the Door of
Heaven, is complete,"--Vol. ii., p. 8-11.

* * *

35. We have by-and-bye an equally comprehensive sketch of the essential
characters of the Gothic cathedral; but this we need not quote, as it
probably contains little that would be new to the reader. It i