rmany; but all have now
disappeared with the exception, it is claimed, of one at Ottmarsheim, a
fragment at Essen, and the rebuilt St. Gereon's at Cologne.

These round churches--St. Gereon's at Cologne, the Mathias Kapelle at
Kobern, and, above all, Charlemagne's Muenster at Aix-la-Chapelle, and
others elsewhere, notably in Italy--are doubtless a survival of a pagan
influence; certainly the style of building was a favourite with the
Romans, and was common even among the Greeks, where the little circular
pagan temples were always a most fascinating part of the general
ensemble.

It would hardly be appropriate in a book such as this to attempt to
trace the origin of Gothic, as we have come to know that twelfth and
thirteenth century variety of pointed architecture, which, if anything,
is French pointed. It has been plausibly claimed that, after its
introduction into France and England, it developed into the full-blown
style of the fourteenth century, which so soon fell before the
Renaissance in the century following.

In Germany the process, with differences with regard to its chronology,
was much the same.

It has been the fashion among writers of all weights of opinion to break
into an apparently irresistible enthusiasm with regard to Gothic
architecture in general, and this, so far as it goes, is excusable. Most
of us will agree that "the folk of the middle ages had fallen in love
with church-building, and loved that their goldsmith's work, and
ivories, their seals, and even the pierced patterns of their shoes
should be like little buildings, little tabernacles, little 'Paul's
windows.' Some of their tombs and shrines must have been conceived as
little fairy buildings; and doubtless they would have liked little
angels to hop about them all alive and blow fairy trumpets."

In the building of the great cathedrals it must certainly be allowed
that there is an element that we do not understand. Those who fashioned
them worked wonder into them; they had the ability which children have
to call up enchantment. "In these high vaults, and glistening windows,
and peering figures, there was magic even to their makers."

Gothic art must ever, in a certain degree, be a mystery to us, because
we cannot entirely put ourselves in the place of the men of those times.
"We cannot by taking thought be Egyptian or Japanese, nor can we again
be Romanesque or Gothic," nor indeed can we explain entirely the _motif_
of Burmese architec