e had grown
accustomed to give northward,--not to receive; and it was the reign of
Saint Louis before she began to assimilate the architectural ideas of
the Isle de France and to build in the Gothic style, it was admiration
for the newer ideals which led the builders of the South to change such
of their plans as were not already carried out, and to try with these
foreign and beautiful additions, to give to their churches the most
perfect form they could conceive.

And thus, from a web of Fate, in which, as in all destinies, is the
spinning of many threads, came the Cathedrals and Cloisters of the
South. Are they greater than those of the North? Are they inferior to
them? It is best said, "Comparison is idle." Who shall decide between
the fir-trees and the olives--between the beautiful order of a northern
forest and the strange, astounding luxuriance of the southern tangle?
Which is the better choice--the well-told tale of the Cathedrals of the
North, with their procession of kingly visitors, or the almost untold
story of the Cathedrals of the South, where history is still legend,
tradition, romance--the story of fanatic fervour and still more fanatic
hate?

[Illustration: A CLOISTER OF THE SOUTH.--ELNE.]

II.

ARCHITECTURE IN PROVENCE, LANGUEDOC, AND GASCONY.

No better place can be found than the Mediterranean provinces to
consider the origins of the earliest southern style. Here Romanesque
Cathedrals arose in the midst of the vast ruins of Imperial antiquity,
here they developed strange similarities to foreign styles, domes
suggesting the East, Greek motives recalling Byzantium, and details
reminiscent of Syria. And here is the battle-field for that great army
who decry or who defend Roman influences. Some would have us believe
that the Romanesque dome is expatriated from the East; others, that it
is naturalised; others, that it is native. The plan of the Romanesque
dome differs very much from that of the Byzantine, yet the general
conception seems Eastern. If conceivable in the Oriental mind, why not
in that of the West? And yet, in spite of some native peculiarities of
structure, why should not the general idea have been imported? Who shall
decide? In a book such as this, mooted questions which involve such
multitudinous detail and such unprovable argument cannot be discussed.

It is unreasonable to doubt, however, that Roman influences dominated
the South, herself a product of Roman civilisation; and