Such is the charming semi-Gothic chapter-house of Boucherville,
where the Roman layer reaches midway. Such is the cathedral of Rouen,
which would be wholly Gothic if the tip of its central spire did not dip
into the zone of the Renaissance. [Footnote: This part of the spire, which
was of timber, happens to be the very part which was burned by lightning
in 1823.]
However, all these gradations and differences affect the surface only of
an edifice. Art has but changed its skin. The construction itself of the
Christian church is not affected by them. The interior arrangement, the
logical order of the parts, is still the same. Whatever may be the carved
and nicely-wrought exterior of a cathedral, we always find beneath it, if
only in a rudimentary and dormant state, the Roman basilica. It rises
forever from the ground in harmony with the same law.
There are invariably two naves intersecting each other in the form of a
cross, the upper end being rounded into a chancel or choir; there are
always side aisles, for the processions and for chapels, a sort of lateral
galleries or walks, into which the principal nave opens by means of the
spaces between the columns.
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