Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/331

 x] ARCHITECTURE 313 An art which has gone back to nature and drawn upon her unfailing newness is a new art. Gothic sculpture is not altogether ignorant of lessons which it might learn from Rome or Constantinople. It has had these lessons, but has gone forth from the school- room to the world without j where it has become it- self. And this art is Christian, not only in theme, but in its style and feeling. It has grown up among young peoples who received Christianity as little chil- dren. It can tell the Christian story, and can express Christian feeling as far as that may be carved in stone. Christianity is utter love, with its reasonable justi- fication. Christian love is absolute, and its reasons compass the verities of earth and heaven from the beginning to all eternity. A Gothic cathedral is a great piece of reasoning, analytically logical from its highest keystone to its foundations. Its ornaments, its wealth of love and beauty, spring from its struc- ture, adorn and emphasize that. And they tell the whole tale of Christianity and include the story of the world, sometimes directly and again in symbols. Christianity is infinite ; Gothic follows, as far as stone may follow. The cathedral building is unlim- ited, unmeasured, if not actually in size and intricacy, at least in its suggestions and intent. And over all of it is thrown the mystery of the beauty of great art — like the mystery of the living union between Chris- tian love and its reasons. Limit, the mean, nothing too much, these were prin- ciples which the Greeks followed in the contours and proportions, as well as in the dimensions, of theii