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Rh Bk. IV. Ch. V. COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. 59 the uniformity of style that reigns throughout, contrasting strongly, as it does, with the greatei- number of Northern cathedrals, whose erection spreads over centuries. In dimensions it is the largest cathe- dral of Northern Europe ; its extreme length being 468, its extreme breadth 275, and its superficies 91,464 ft., winch is 20,000 ft. more than are covered by Amiens, and one-fourth more than Amiens was origi- nally designed to cover. On comparing the eastern halves of these two from the centre of the intersection of the transept, it will be found that Cologne is an exact coj^y of the French catliedral, not only in general arrangement, but also in dimensions, the only difference being a few feet of extra length in the choir at Cologne, which is more than made up at Amiens by the projection of the Lady Chapel. The nave, too, at Colomie is one bay less in lenu'th. On the other hand, the German building exceeds the French by one additional bay in each transept, the two extra; aisles in the nave, and the enormous substructures of the western towers. All these are decided faults of design into which no French architect would have fallen. Looking at Cologne in any light, no one can fail to perceive that its principal defect is its relative shortness. If this was unavoidable, at least the transept should have been omitted altogether, as at Bourges, or kept within the line of the walls, as at Paris, Rheinis, and else- where. It is true, our long low English cathedrals require bold pro- jecting transepts to relieve their monotony ; but at Cologne their projection detracts both internally and externally from the requisite ap])earance of length. Indeed, this seems to have been suspected at the time, as the fayades of the transepts were the least finished parts of the building when it was left, and the modern restorers would have done well if they had profited by the hesitation of their predecessors, and omitted an expensive and detrimental addition. Another defect before alluded to is the double aisles of the nave. It is true these are found at Paris, but they wei-e an early experiment. At Bourges the fault is avoided by the aisles being of different heights ; but in none of the best examples, such as Rheims, Chartres, or Amiens, would the architects have been guilty of dispersing their effects or destroying their perspectives as is done at Cologne, and now that the whole of the interior is finished these defects of proportion are become more apparent than they were before. The clear width of tlie navels 41 ft. 6 inches between the piers, its height 155 ft., or nearly four times the width — a proportion altogether intolerable in architecture. And this defect is made even more apparent here by the aisles being together equal in width to the nave, while they are only 60 ft. in height. Besides the defect of artistic disproportion, this exaggerated height of the in- terior has the further disadvantage of dwarfing to a painful extent the human beings who frequent it. Even the gorgeous ceremonial of the Catholic Church and their most crowded processions lose all their effect