to the nave.

This exclamation roused Durtal from his reflections, and he listened as
the priest went on,--

"Though this cathedral is unique as regards its width, in spite of its
enormous height it cannot compare with the extravagant elevation of
Bourges, Amiens, and more especially of Beauvais, where the vault of the
roof rises to forty-eight metres from the ground. That cathedral, it is
true, was bent on outstripping its sisters.

"Springing into the air at one flight, when it reached the upper spaces
it tottered and fell. You know the portions which survived the wreck of
that mad attempt?"

"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbe; and that sanctuary and that apse, so narrow and
restricted, with columns so close together, and the iridescent light,
like filmy soap bubbles, from walls which seem made of glass, disturb
and bewilder you; on first entering it gives the impression of
indescribable uneasiness, a sort of anxious and distressed anticipation.
And in truth it is neither quite healthy nor sound; it seems only to
live by dint of aids and expedients; it struggles to be free and is not;
it is long drawn and not ethereal; it has--how shall I express
it?--large bones. You remember the pillars? They are like the smooth
muscular trunks of beech trees, which have also the angular edges of
reeds. How different from the harp-strings which form the aerial
skeleton of Chartres! No, in spite of all, Beauvais, like Reims, and
like Paris, is a fleshy cathedral; it has not the elegant leanness, the
perennial youthfulness of form, the Patrician stamp of Amiens, and more
especially of Chartres!

"And have you not been struck, Monsieur l'Abbe, by the way in which the
genius of man has constantly borrowed from Nature in the construction of
his basilicas? It is almost certain that the arcades of the forest were
the starting-point for the mystic avenues of our aisles. And again, look
at the pillars. I was speaking of those at Beauvais as suggesting the
beech and the reed; if you think of the columns at Laon, they have nodes
all up their stems, resembling the regular swelling of bamboos, to the
point of imitation. Note also the stone flora of the capitals and the
pendants of the vault, terminating the long ribs of the arches. Here the
animal kingdom seems to have inspired the architect. Might we not
conceive of a fabulous spider, of which the key-stone is the body and
the ribs stretching under the vaults are the legs? The image is so
accurate as