This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... the gable. We frequently hear the four cathedrals, Chartres, Amiens, Beauvais and Rheims, compared. The result of the comparison, however, is that each has its special beauty. The spires of Chartres, the nave of Amiens, the choir of Beauvais--for my own part I should adduce that of Le Mans--and the western ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... the gable. We frequently hear the four cathedrals, Chartres, Amiens, Beauvais and Rheims, compared. The result of the comparison, however, is that each has its special beauty. The spires of Chartres, the nave of Amiens, the choir of Beauvais--for my own part I should adduce that of Le Mans--and the western front of Rheims, rank the first of their kind in Europe; so that there is some truth in the popular notion that these four features combined in one vast building would make the most perfect cathedral in the world. Before entering into a description of the stupendous edifice which forms the subject of the present chapter, a word must be said about the difficulties which beset us in tracing the early history of cathedrals. In all cases, or nearly so, we are mainly dependent upon the records written by the pious monks, in whose eyes the building which they describe is the most beautiful and remarkable in the world. The church is to them their earthly Paradise, and that they sing its praises with heart and soul, and think little of the cold, rigid laws of date and structure, with which the less enthusiastic antiquary deals, is not to be wondered at. The difficulty then in this, to separate the legend from the fact. By the mediaeval writer, the most improbable story, if it only adds to the glory or to the antiquity of the subject on which he is writing, is accepted at once without further enquiry. He has no desire, or even intention, to deceive, yet he inserts the legend, which has been handed down from generation to generation in the monastery, and which has probably grown with each telling, amidst and with the same authority as the true historical fact of which he has himself been an eyewitness, or of which the truth is attested by some...
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