t to the quick; they have attacked the very bone and framework of
art; they have cut, slashed, disorganized, killed the edifice, in form
as in the symbol, in its consistency as well as in its beauty. And
then they have made it over; a presumption of which neither time nor
revolutions at least have been guilty. They have audaciously adjusted,
in the name of "good taste," upon the wounds of gothic architecture,
their miserable gewgaws of a day, their ribbons of marble, their pompons
of metal, a veritable leprosy of egg-shaped ornaments, volutes, whorls,
draperies, garlands, fringes, stone flames, bronze clouds, pudgy cupids,
chubby-cheeked cherubim, which begin to devour the face of art in the
oratory of Catherine de Medicis, and cause it to expire, two centuries
later, tortured and grimacing, in the boudoir of the Dubarry.

Thus, to sum up the points which we have just indicated, three sorts of
ravages to-day disfigure Gothic architecture. Wrinkles and warts on the
epidermis; this is the work of time. Deeds of violence, brutalities,
contusions, fractures; this is the work of the revolutions from Luther
to Mirabeau. Mutilations, amputations, dislocation of the joints,
"restorations"; this is the Greek, Roman, and barbarian work of
professors according to Vitruvius and Vignole. This magnificent art
produced by the Vandals has been slain by the academies. The centuries,
the revolutions, which at least devastate with impartiality and
grandeur, have been joined by a cloud of school architects, licensed,
sworn, and bound by oath; defacing with the discernment and choice of
bad taste, substituting the _chicorees_ of Louis XV. for the Gothic
lace, for the greater glory of the Parthenon. It is the kick of the ass
at the dying lion. It is the old oak crowning itself, and which, to heap
the measure full, is stung, bitten, and gnawed by caterpillars.

How far it is from the epoch when Robert Cenalis, comparing Notre-Dame
de Paris to the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, *so much lauded
by the ancient pagans*, which Erostatus *has* immortalized, found
the Gallic temple "more excellent in length, breadth, height, and
structure."*

* _Histoire Gallicane_, liv. II. Periode III. fo. 130, p. 1.

Notre-Dame is not, moreover, what can be called a complete, definite,
classified monument. It is no longer a Romanesque church; nor is it a
Gothic church. This edifice is not a type. Notre-Dame de Paris has not,
like the Abbey of Tou