Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/571

 Bk. II. Cn. IX. FRENCH GOTHIC CATHEDRALS. 539 tracery tlion introduced, they were able to dispose the glass in the most beautiful forms, and framed in stone, so as to render it, notwith- standing its extent, still an integral ])art of the whole building. In this respect the great height of the clerestory at Amiens, and its exceeding lightness, give it an immense advantage over the preceding 390. Northwest View of the Cathedral at Chartres. (From Chapuy.) churches, although this is gained at the sacrifice, to a certain extent, of the sober and simple majesty of the earlier examples. There is, nevertheless, so much beauty and so much poetry in the whole effect, that it is scarcely fair to apply the cold rules of criticism to so fanciful and fascinating a creation. Externally the same progress is observable in these four cathedrals as in their interior arrangements. The fa9ade of the cathedral at