is the ideal
English cathedral as to situation, surroundings, and general charm and
grace. This no one would attempt to deny; but, in another environment,
how different might it not appear,--as for instance placed beside
Amiens, where in one particular alone, the mere height of nave and
choir, it immediately dwindles into insignificance. Under
such conditions its graceful spire becomes dwarfed and attenuated. Need
more be said?--The writer thinks not, since the present work does not
deal with the comparative merits of any two cathedrals or of national
types; but the suggestion should serve to demonstrate how impossible it
is for any writer, however erudite he may be, to attempt to assign
precedence, or even rank, among the really great architectural works of
an era. This observation is true of many other examples of art
expression.

[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _d'AMIENS_ ...]

The cathedral at Amiens is dedicated to the Virgin, and is built in the
general form of a Latin cross. Over the principal doorway of the south
portal, on one of the upper plinths, may be seen the inscription which
places the date of the present edifice.

[+] En l'an`[=q]ue l'Incarnati[=o] valait mcc et xx. Ro....rs, ifu:
rimisit: le premiere piere: iasis,... le cors.... Robert...

The work was undertaken by one Robert de Luzarche, in the episcopate of
Evrard de Fouilloy, the forty-fifth Bishop of Amiens, whose tomb may be
seen just within the western doorway, and occupies the site of other
structures which had been variously devastated by fire or invasion in
850, 1019, 1137, and 1218. For fifty years the work went on
expeditiously under various bishops and their architects. "Saint" Louis,
Blanche of Castille, Philippe the Hardy, and the city fathers all aided
the work substantially, and the fabric speedily took on its finished
form. Through the later centuries it still preserved its entity, and
even during the Revolution its walls escaped destruction and defilement
through the devotion of its adherents.

In later days important work and restoration has been carried out under
the paternal care and at the expense of the state; and the city itself
only recently contributed 45,000 francs for the clearing away of
obstructing buildings.

A French writer has said, "It is only with the aid of a Bible and a
history of theology that it is possible to elucidate the vast
iconographic display of the marvellous west front of the cathedral at
Ami